Hawks of the sun

One of the few books which discuss religion from a structural-functional point of view – and the first of its kind in South American studies - HAWKS OF THE SUN shows how, even in changing social and cultural conditions, traditional notions of religious morality are integral parts of social structure. The Mapuche Indians of Chile have maintained an undeniable cultural consciousness over long years of contact with European Chileans. In interpreting this consciousness, L. C. Faron outlines Mapuche social structure and relates to it the most dramatic aspects of ritual and religious belief involved in the central concept of Mapuche religious morality : ancestors are sacred and influential spirits whose existence regulates and depends upon human moral conduct. HAWKS OF THE SUN are beneficent ancestral spirits. They intervene in the affairs of the living, and at the same time, they govern human conduct. Those Mapuche who follow the rules of their society die and become hawks of the sun. in this belief is expressed the notion of continuity between the living and the dead on which hinges concepts and practices of a ritual nature that order and sanction human relationships. For the Mapuche these relationships are based on a patrilineage organization and a special system of matrilateral preferred marriage – patterns which involve sets of patrilineal descent groups in the most important institutionalized activities. Of these activities, HAWKS OF THE SUN concentrates on death and fertility rites and relates them to Mapuche social structure. Dr. Faron’s work on the Mapuche Indians is based on an extensive survey of the literature and fourteen months of field work…” BOOK JACKET (Abridged)