Araucanian Society
The Araucanians, a fragmented society of hunters, gatherers, and farmers, constituted the largest native American group in Chile. A mobile people who engaged in trade and warfare with other indigenous groups, they lived in scattered family clusters and small villages. Although the Araucanians had no written language, they did use a common language. Those in what became central Chile were more settled and more likely to use irrigation. Those in the south combined slash-and-burn agriculture with hunting.
The Araucanians, especially those in the south, became famous for their staunch resistance to the seizure of their territory. Scholars speculate that their total population may have numbered 1 million at most when the Spaniards arrived in the 1530s; a century of European conquest and disease reduced that number by at least half. During the conquest, the Araucanians quickly added horses and European weaponry to their arsenal of clubs and bows and arrows. They became adept at raiding Spanish settlements and, albeit in declining numbers, managed to hold off the Spaniards and their descendants until the late nineteenth century.
The Araucanians inhabited that delightful country situate between the rivers Biobio and Valdivia, and between the Andes and the sea, extending from 36° 44' to 39° 50' of South latitude. They derived their appellation of Araucanians from the province of Arauco, which, though the smallest in their territory, had, like Holland, given its name to the whole nation, either from its having been the first to unite with the neighboring provinces, or from having at some remote period reduced them under its dominion. This people, ever enthusiastically attached to their independence, prided themselves in being called auca, which signifies frank or free; and those Spaniards who had left the army in the Netherlands to serve in Chile, gave to this country the nameof Araucanian Flanders, or the Invincible State; and some of them have even had the magnanimity to celebrate in epic poetry the exploits of a people, who, to preserve their independence, shed such torrents of Spanish blood.
The Araucanians were in general muscular, robust, well proportioned, and of a martial appearance. It was very unusual to find among them any person who was crooked or deformed, not from their pursuing, as some have supposed, the cruel custom of the ancient Spartans, of suffocating such unfortunate children, but because they left to nature the care of forming them, without obstructing her operations by the improper application of bandages and stays. Their complexion, with the exception of the Boroanes, who were fair and ruddy, was of reddish brown, but yet clearer than that of the other Americans; they had round faces, small animated eyes full of expression, a nose rather flat, a handsome mouth, even and white teeth, muscular and well shaped legs, and small flat feet; like the Tartars, they had scarce any beard, and the smallest hair was never to be discerned on their faces, from the care they take to pluck out the little that appears; they esteemed it very impolite to have a beard, calling the Europeans, by way of reproach, the long beards.
The same attention was paid to removing the hair from their bodies, where its growth was more abundant; that of their heads is thick and black, but rather coarse; they permit it to grow to a great length, and wind it in tresses around their heads; of this they are as proud and careful as they are averse to beards, nor could a greater affront be offered them than to cut it off. Their women are delicately formed, and many of them, especially among the Boroanes, are very handsome. Possessed of great strength of constitution, and unencumbered with the cares that disturb civilized society, they were not subject, except at a very advanced period of life, to the infirmities attendant upon old age; they rarely began to be grey before they are 60 or 70, and were not bald or wrinkled until 80; they are generally longer lived than the Spaniards, and many are to be met with whose age exceeds 100; and to the latest period of their lives, they retain their sight, teeth, and memory unimpaired.
Their moral qualities were proportionate to their personal endowments; they were intrepid, animated, ardent, patient in enduring fatigue, ever ready to sacrifice their lives in the service of their country, enthusiastic lovers of liberty, which they consider as an essential constituent of their existence, jealous of their honour, courteous, hospitable, faithful to their engagements, grateful for services rendered them, and generous and humane towards the vanquished. But these noble qualities are obscured by the vices inseparable from the half savage state of life which they lead, unrefined by literature or cultivation; these are drunkenness, debauchery, presumption, and a haughty contempt for all other nations.
All those nations, whom either the nature of the climate or a sense of decency had induced to clothe themselves, have made use at first of loose garments, as being the most easily made. But the Araucanians, from their great attachment to war, which they considered as the only true source of glory, adopted the short garment, as best suited to martial conflicts; this dress was made of wool, as was that of the Greeks and Romans, and consisted of a shirt, a vest, a pair of short close breeches, and a cloak in form of a scapulary, with an opening in the middle for the head, made full and long so as to cover the hands and descend to the knees; this cloak is called poncho, and is much more commodious than our mantles, as it leaves the arms at liberty, and may be thrown over the shoulder at pleasure; it is also a better protection from the wind and the rain, and more convenient for riding on horseback, for which reason it is commonly worn, not only by the Spaniards in Chile, but by those of Peru and Paraguay.
The shirt, vest, and breeches were always of a greenish blue, or turquoise, which was the favorite color of the nation, as red is that of the Tartars. The poncho was also, among persons of inferior condition, of a greenish blue; but those of the higher classes wear it of different colors, either white, red, or blue, with stripes a span broad, on which were wrought, with much skill, figures of flowers and animals in various colours, and the border is ornamented with a handsome fringe. The Araucanians made use of neither turbans nor hats, but wore upon their heads a bandage of embroidered wool, in the form of the ancient diadem; this, whenever they salute, they raise a little, as a mark of courtesy, and on going to war ornamented it with a number of beautiful plumes; they also wear around the body a long woollen girdle or sash handsomely wrought, persons of rank wear woollen boots of various colors, and leather sandals, called chelle, but the common people always go barefooted.
The Araucanians, tenacious of the customs of their country, as are all nations not corrupted by luxury, made no change in their mode of building. But as they were almost all polygamists, the size of their houses is proportioned to the number of women they can maintain; the interior of these houses is very simple; the luxury of convenience, splendor, and show, is altogether unknown in them, and necessity alone is consulted in the selection of their furniture. They never formed towns, but lived in scattered villages or hamlets on the banks of rivers, or in plains that were easily irrigated. Their local attachments are strong, each family preferring to live ifpon the land inherited from its ancestors, which they cultivate sufficiently for their subsistence. The genius of this haughty people, in which the savage still predominates, will not permit them to live in walled cities, which they consider as a mark of servitude.
Although in their settlements the Araucanians were wanting in regularity, that was by no means the case in the political division of their state, which is regulated with much nicety and intelligence. They have divided it from n. to s. into four uthal-mapus, or parallel telrarchates, that are nearly equal, to which they give the names of Lauquen-mapu, the maritime country; Lelbun-mapu, the plain country; Inapire-mapu, the country at the foot of the Andes; and Pire-mapu^ o that of the Andes. Each uthal-mapu was divided into five aillaregues or provinces; and each aillaregue, into nine regues or counties.
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