The Ngillatun ritual as a system of Mapuche symbolic concepts

Abstract

This essay intends to describe the Mapuche ethnoliguistic behavior in the native ritual called Ngillatun. I have used participant observation as a data collection procedure, as well as the componential analysis of the genus term Ngillatun, including the linguistic and semantic features of cryptic terms involving events such as summons, participants, guests, plea, dances, food, common consent and closing prayer. This work displays a taxonomy representing the symbolic concepts that design the belief system involved in this Mapuche ritual. On the whole, it concludes that this is a communicative situation in which a group of Mapuche speakers makes use of the native communicative competence in a special linguistic and cultural context.