Polygamy in Mapuche culture

rdf:langString Polygamy in Mapuche culture

rdf:langString Among the indigenous Mapuche people of Chile, there is those that practise traditional polygamy. In modern Chile polygamy has no legal recognition. This puts women whose marriages to their husbands are not legally recognized at a disadvantage to the legal wife who is in terms of securing inheritance. Polygamy is much less common today, particularly in comparison with the time preceding the Occupation of Araucanía (1861–1883), when the traditional Mapuche homeland was finally brought under control of the Chilean government. It survives as a chiefly rural practice, but has also been reported in the low-income peripheral communities of Santiago. Wives who share the same husband are often relatives, such as sisters, who live in the same community. According to folklore, polyandry among the Mapuche is reputed to exist at least historically, in which case the husbands may have been brothers, but no documentation exists attesting to this phenomenon. It is also in contradiction to the renewal of the warrior ethos (weichan) promoted by militant organizations such as Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco.