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The prison of the words mapuche photography of the Nineteenth Century and texts that have accompanied it.

Abstract in spanish

How often we have not seen in souvenir shops in Chile, "Chilean" postcards whose central object is a machi with its kultrun, in front of a rewe and background, hopefully, its ruka. If what defines a photograph, according to common sense, is its perfect analogy to reality, the collective reading of the postcards described above, I would not hesitate to point out the women portrayed as faithful representatives of the Mapuche people. If we extend this panorama to posters, propaganda leaflets, study texts and other visual supports where we find images of the Mapuche world, we are facing an icononographic corpus that gives account of a certain modeled and self-styled ethnicity.

Keywords: Mapuche people,machi,photography,chilean postcards.
Author: Christian Báez. Licenciado en Historia y Licenciado en Estética. Instituto de Estética Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
Received: January 05th, 2001, Accepted: July 01th, 2001
Revista Chilena de Antropología Visual - número 1 - Santiago, julio 2001 - 47/58 pp. - ISSN 0718-876x. Rev. chil. antropol. vis.