Our little world

It was in the end of March I'm still half sleeping in my room, yet I can hear a huge bustle outside. In that moment I preferred to stay in my bed, firstly because it's around 5 a.m. and secondly because the members of the community are killing a horse to feed themselves during the following days.

I'm in Chile in the 'Araucanian' region. I’m there to make my thesis in anthropology about the local family farmers. I have the chance to be one of the hosts, because some community opened their “Guillatun” to the tourists. The ceremony takes place in the end of the 'Cordillera', in a village on the border with Argentina. It's now around 6.am, all the participants are gathering for an introduction speech in 'Mapudungun', the local language. The ceremony starts by an impressive stampede of about thirty horseman going around the sheds. I did not expect it, but the people are inviting me for the main event. It's still dark, the temperature is around 10°C, and they ask me to dress as a rhea. Then I'm in underwear, with a thick colourful blanket around my waist until my knees, I have another blanket fixed to my back waist, representing the tail of the animal, I have blue mark on my legs, representing the legs of the animal, I have on my chest the symbol of the Mapuche people. In my head I have a hat with feathers and to represent the wings with the animal I have a large colorful duvet on my shoulders and arms. we start to make circle around the 'Rehue'. We are accompanied in our dance by two kind of instruments, first the ‘Trutruka’ and secondly the 'Cultrún', the 'Cultrún' is in its shape a simple drum, but has for the Mapuche a strong spiritual power. For the all the dishes during these days we are getting some rips of the horse. To get along with that meat we receive some “Cazuela” soup of vegetables. The ceremony will last like this 3 days, 3 days during which I will live inside this community.