TITLE: Mapuche Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Argentina or Chile
SUBREGION: Araucanía
ETHNICITY: Mapuche (Araucanian)
DESCRIPTION: Unknown Mask
CATALOG ID: N/A
MAKER: N/A
CEREMONY: Unknown
FUNCTION: Funerary; Healing
AGE: N/A
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: N/A
The Mapuche people make up the majority of indigenous peoples in Chile, and many have migrated to southwestern Argentina, including Patagonia. Mapuche society is primarily agrarian and organized into tribal groups under the leadership of a lonko (chief). The Mapuche people traditionally made burial masks of stone, as well as masks of wood, leather, copper, and possibly silver, in funerary and healing rituals.
The Museum’s collection currently includes no representative example of a Mapuche mask.
