The Healing Machi
Adelaida Barros
October 1, 2026 DOI: 10.3167/9781807580223 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Ethnography |
|---|---|
| Population | Mapuche people and Machi (shamans) in ritual healing contexts |
| Key findings | Argues that Mapuche divinatory techniques identify a "real Machi" by producing changes in bodily and affective experience rather than through reconfigurations of symbolic meaning. Through küymin, or ritual trance, the Machi embodies ancestors and provides explanations of illness and misfortune along with moral guidance for future action. |
Abstract
This book is an ethnography on Mapuche ritual healing transformations from the perspective of the phenomenology of the body. It explores how people identify a Mapuche shaman, or a “real Machi”, a person who can see illness and misfortune through divinatory techniques. These techniques produce changes in bodily and affective experience, which are not mediated by reconfigurations of symbolic meaning. Machi also experience küymin, or ritual trance, through which a group of people can receive a direct message from ‘spirits from the past’. Thus, embodying the ancestors, Machi can provide both explanations of illness and misfortune and moral guidance for future action.