Machi (shaman)

The Mapuche live in southern South America, mostly in central Chile (Araucanía and Los Lagos) and the adjacent areas of Argentina.

As a religious authority within Mapuche culture, a machi leads healing ceremonies called Machitun.

To become a machi, a Mapuche person has to demonstrate character, willpower, and courage, because initiation is long and painful.

The machi is a person of great wisdom and healing power, and is the main character of Mapuche medicine.

[citation needed] Becoming a machi is a spiritual transformation that also fosters a place where people can flow between spectrums of gender.

Most of this research has focused on males and femininity versus females and masculinity, but all forms of gender fluidity are present within machi culture.

As examples, Laurel is a feminine plant because it is regarded as soothing and soft, whereas Triwe is masculine because it has protective powers.

Machi are perceived to fluidly move between genders throughout different ceremonies, but then face discrimination from Chilean society and fellow Mapuche themselves.

"[1] Although machi women are sometimes cast-out from traditional Mapuche gender roles, they are also simultaneously feared and revered.

Machismo in Chilean society plays a large role in such discrimination, as men are ostracized from groups because they are seen as “too feminine."

Since they do not fit conventional gender stereotypes, these feminine male machis are made outcasts and called derogatory names.

As a result, many male machi have reinvented themselves as “celibate priests” or “spiritual warriors” in order to avoid further criticism and protect their masculinity.

"[7] Another Mapuche states, “They [male machi] may be stronger, but they wear women’s clothes...He must like pigs legs.

A judge ruled that those involved in these events had "acted without free will, driven by an irresistible natural force of ancestral tradition."