Machi Marta
By Semele Huq
Machi are the indigenous Mapuche
shamans of Southern Chile. While male
machis (machi weye) are present in Mapuche
culture today, female machi predominate over
men; furthermore, machi constructs of gender
roles and gender identities are complex and
heterogeneous
in
nature
(Mapuche
Man/Woman Shaman 441-445). The story of
machi Marta is especially unique and complex
in that Marta was born Bernardo, a boy
riddled with dizzy spells, fevers, and bodily
sores, along with shamanic visions- all of
which are characteristic of machi callings.
When Marta was twenty-one, she dreamt of
the Virgin Mary and was possessed in this
dream by her great- grandmother Flora’s
machi spirit. It was at this point that Marta no
longer identified as Bernardo, and in fact,
denied that Bernardo ever existed. From then
on, Marta knew that she was a woman
shaman whose identity was legitimated as a
“divine gender transformation effected by
Flora’s spirit and the Virgin Mary” (Mapuche
Man/Woman Shaman 441).
Marta’s permanent womanhood has
been controversial in the eyes of Chileans, as
well as amongst many Mapuche, due to the
unique circumstances of her machi identity
(Mapuche Man/Woman Shaman 441). Machi
are largely women who contact the spirits for
the purposes of healing and mediating
between the Mapuche people and the spirit
world by entering into altered states of
consciousness (Rethinking Identity 32).
Machi women, while standing as feminine
images in their everyday lives, are considered
“masculine transgressors who never conform
completely to the role of women” because of
their spiritual powers (Mapuche Man/
Woman Shaman 445). Similarly, male machi,
while carrying on the role of Mapuche males
in their day to day lives, oscillate between
feminine and masculine dress and behaviors
for ritual and spiritual purposes. Mapuche
spiritual power is considered feminine and it is
because of this that machi weye are considered
“co-gendered” (Struggle for Masculinity 496).
Machis’ ritual work is centered around distinct
and clear notions of male and female, and
machi influence these notions in order to heal.
Marta is exceptional and an anomaly
among machi for many reasons. Unlike other
biological male machi who assume traditional
male gender roles outside of ritual, she
identifies permanently as a heterosexual
woman machi. In the dream Marta had that
initiated her role as a machi, she was ascended
into heaven were she entered the house of
God and was taught everything she needed to
know. She then met the Virgin Mary who
gave Marta her shamanic gifts (Mapuche
Man/Woman Shaman 442). Then, on
December 7, two nights after her dream,
Marta’s (then Bernardo’s) bodily sores burst
leaving blood on the sheets. Marta saw this as
her first menstruation. While all new machis
undergo a transformation of their identity
when
they
are
initiated,
Marta’s
transformation was particularly dramatic in
that it involved a full change in name and
gender identity as well as integration of the
identities of the Virgin Mary and her greatgrandmother Flora’s machi spirit. Such a
distinct and dramatic gender transformation is
controversial and rare among the Mapuche.
(Mapuche Man/Woman Shaman 443).
Furthermore, while most other machi “enter
and exit male, female, and ‘co-gendered’
identities…in the context of ritual”, Marta
imbues only the feminine aspects of machi
identity (Mapuche Man/Woman Shaman
443).
By wearing women’s clothing, and
carrying out feminine gender roles and
conventions, Marta enacts her gender and
identity as a heterosexual woman. While she
has no interest in in a sex-change operation,
she hides her male anatomy under women’s
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