Shamanic Rebirth and the Paradox of Disremembering the Dead among Mapuche in Chile

In this chapter I examine how the transformations of personhood, the processes of disremembering and re-remembering, and the rebirth of Mapuche shamans, and the creating of indigenous bibles, relate to issues of history, memory, persistence, and cohesion in a community. My analysis is grounded in the broader culture of death rituals but I also advance a reading of these rituals as expressions of an essentially historical consciousness: Mapuche shamans like Francisca Kolipi mediate indigenous engagements with history and historicity. After her controversial life and multiple deaths, Francisca's personhood was reshaped through contested processes of disremembering and re-remembering. Community members eventually erased the negative aspects of Francisca's spirit and merged it with the spirit of her machi predecessor, and Francisca was rehistoricized in a new context in anticipation of the rebirth of her spirit in a new shaman.