{{short description|none}} [[File:Martires de elicura.jpg|thumb|right|200 px|Depiction of the ambush of the Martyrs of Elicura, who were slain in an incident triggered by the conflict between the Mapuche and Spanish settlers on the matter of polygamy.]] Among Chile's indigenous Mapuche people, there are those that practice traditional polygamy. In modern Chile polygamy has no legal recognition.<ref name=lainfo2013>{{Cite news|title=La poligamia pervive en las comunidades indígenas del sur de Chile|url=https://www.lainformacion.com/asuntos-sociales/la-poligamia-pervive-en-las-comunidades-indigenas-del-sur-de-chile_iIqbAIrxZAT9vQNPaqApd1/|last=Rausell|first=Fuencis|date=June 1, 2013|access-date=January 20, 2021|work=La Información|language=Spanish}}</ref> This puts women whose marriages to their husbands are not legally recognized at a disadvantage in relation to the legal wife who is, in terms of securing inheritance.<ref name=lainfo2013/> Polygamy is much less common today in comparison with the time preceding the Occupation of Araucanía (1861–1883), when the traditional Mapuche homeland was brought under control of the Chilean government.<ref name=lainfo2013/> It survives as a chiefly rural practice, but has also been reported in the low-income peripheral communities of Santiago.<ref name=Millaleo2018-78>Millaleo 2018, p. 78</ref><ref name=Millaleo2018-133>Millaleo 2018, p. 133</ref> Wives who share the same husband are often relatives, such as sisters, who live in the same community.<ref name=lainfo2013/> According to hearsay, polyandry among the Mapuche is reputed to exist at least historically,<ref name=Millaleo2018-296>Millaleo 2018, p. 296</ref> in which case the husbands may have been brothers,<ref name=Millaleo2018-297/><ref name=Millaleo2018-298>Millaleo 2018, p. 298</ref> but no documentation exists attesting to this phenomenon. It is also in contradiction to the renewal of the warrior ethos (''weichan'') promoted by militant Mapuche organizations such as Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco.<ref name=Millaleo2018-297>Millaleo 2018, p. 297</ref><ref name=Millaleo2018-298/>

==History== Prior to the arrival of the Spanish in the early 16th century, the practice of polygamy by the Mapuche people of South America’s Southern Cone region was a firmly rooted tradition.<ref name=JRP1993>{{cite journal |title=Jesuitas, Franciscanos y Capuchinos italianos en la Araucanía (1600–1900) |journal=Revista Complutense de Historia de América |year=1993 | pages = 109–147 |volume=19 |last1=Pinto Rodríguez |first1=Jorge |author-link=Jorge Pinto Rodríguez |language=es}}</ref><ref name=MCLmisioneros>{{Cite journal| url = http://www.memoriachilena.cl/602/w3-article-3615.html | title = Misioneros y mapuche (1600-1818) | journal = Memoria Chilena | publisher = Biblioteca Nacional de Chile | access-date = January 30, 2014 | language = es }}</ref> This brought about increasing tensions in Colonial Chile as polygamy was considered a sin according to the Catholic doctrine of the settlers. Father Luis de Valdivia believed that peace and understanding between the Mapuche and Spanish was possible and sought to accomplish this through his policy of Defensive War, which after lobbying superiors in Spain and Rome, he was permitted to implement in 1612.<ref name=JRP1993/> Nevertheless, at the Parliament of Paicaví, held between representatives of Spanish settlers and Mapuche tribes that same year, Valdivia ordered the detainment of the two wives and daughters of a ''toqui'', Anganamón, on the basis of protecting them from polygamy. Historian Jorge Pinto Rodríguez described this act as "suicidal";<ref name=JRP1993/> according to José Bengoa, the Mapuche were willing to negotiate with the Spanish on Christian proselytization and baptism, but that debate on polygamy was out of the question.<ref name=lainfo2013/><ref>{{Cite thesis|title=Los Tratados celebrados por los Mapuche con la Corona Española, la República de Chile y la República de Argentina|last=Contreras Painemal|first=Carlos|date=2010-12-10|degree=PhD|publisher=Freien Universität Berlin|url=https://www.archivochile.com/carril_c/cc2013/cc_2013_00009.pdf|language=Spanish|page=210}}</ref> Later in 1612, on December 9, Valdivia dispatched a party led by Father Horacio Vechi, one of the first Italian proselytizers of Christianity in Chile, on a missionary journey inland, to be escorted along the way by local chieftains. On the morning of December 14, Anganamón accompanied by Ynavilu, a Mapuche chieftain, ambushed and killed the traveling Jesuits and their five Mapuche escorts<ref name="Castro">{{cite journal |last1=Castro |first1=Pablo |title=Los Mártires de Elicura: Testigos de la Fe. Promotores de la Justicia. Luchadores de la Paz; a 400 años de su martirio |journal=Jesuitas Chile: 400 años de los mártires de Elicura |date=November 2012 |issue=20 |pages=10–11 |url=https://www.jesuitas.cl/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/revista_jesuitas_20.pdf |access-date=17 March 2021 |language=Spanish}}</ref> in retaliation for Valdivia taking his wives and daughters.<ref name=JRP1993/> The slain party came to be known as the "Martyrs of Elicura."<ref name="Castro"/>

Polygamy occupied an important role in Mapuche society during their armed rebellion against the Spanish colonial government, then later during independent Chile's military pacification of Araucanía, where rules of marriage were influenced by these conflicts.<ref name=lainfo2013/>{{efn-ua|Chronicler Alonso González de Nájera wrote that during the Destruction of the Seven Cities, Mapuches killed more than 3,000 Spaniards, and took over 500 women as captives.<ref name=Luz2013>{{Cite journal|title=Las cautivas de las Siete Ciudades: El cautiverio de mujeres hispanocriollas durante la Guerra de Arauco, en la perspectiva de cuatro cronistas (s. XVII)|journal=Intus-Legere Historia|last=Guzmán|first=Carmen Luz|volume=7|pages=77–97|issue=1|doi=10.15691/07176864.2014.094|url=https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=4999862|year=2013|doi-broken-date=12 July 2025|language=es|trans-title=The captives of the Seven Cities: The captivity of creole women during the Arauco's War, from the insight of four chroniclers (17th century)}}</ref> While some of these women were later rescued, others were set free only through agreements established by the Parliament of Quillín in 1641.<ref name=Luz2013/> Some Spanish women became accustomed to life among the Mapuche and stayed voluntarily.<ref name=Luz2013/> The Spanish understood this phenomenon as a result either of women's weak character or their genuine shame over having been abused.<ref name=Luz2013/> Women in captivity gave birth to a large number of mestizos, who were rejected by the Spanish but accepted among the Mapuches.<ref name=Luz2013/> These women's children may have had a significant demographic impact in the Mapuche society, which was long ravaged by war and epidemics.<ref name=Luz2013/>}} According to Guillaume Boccara, a Mapuche man that was monogamous or had few wives was perceived as being a poor warrior on account of their tradition of raptio.<ref name=Millaleo2018-41>Millaleo 2018, p. 41</ref> During the Arauco War and afterwards, polygamy enabled Mapuche chiefs to establish alliances through marriage, with the acquisition of more wives widening the possibilities for alliances.<ref name=lainfo2013/> In general terms polygamy enables individual Mapuche men to increase their number of reciprocal relationships.<ref name=Millaleo2018-39>Millaleo 2018, p. 39</ref> In late colonial times and in the early Republic some officials, known as capitanes de amigos, who were allowed to live among friendly Mapuche tribes south of the frontier often married Mapuche women, with some of them going as far as engaging in polygamy.<ref name=MemChiTiposFro>{{Cite journal| url = http://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/w3-article-97969.html | title = Tipos fronterizos | journal = Memoria Chilena | publisher = Biblioteca Nacional de Chile | access-date = January 12, 2021 | language = es }}</ref>

==Footnotes== {{notelist-ua}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==Bibliography== *{{Cite thesis|title=Poligamia mapuche / Pu domo ñi Duam (un asunto de mujeres): Politización y despolitización de una práctica en relación a la posición de las mujeres al interior de la sociedad mapuche|last=Millaleo Hernández|first=Ana Gabriel|degree=PhD|year=2018|publisher=University of Chile|url=http://repositorio.conicyt.cl/bitstream/handle/10533/220808/TesisDocAnaMillaleoCONICYT.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y|place=Santiago de Chile|language=Spanish}}

{{Mapuche}}

Polygamy Mapuche culture