Welcome to the Selk'nam Region. Here you will find interesting information about this Chilean Indigenous People.
The region contains four main subjects: People (History, Social Organization, environment), Language (Gramma, Vocabulary), Customs (Spiritual World, Rituals, Mythology) and Art. Use the Interactive Map to take an animated tour of this people´s region. The teachers and students will find contents (texts and images) that be able for Printing.
There is also a Resources section in which you will find a virtual Library with Dictionaries, Texts, Books and a complete Links Directory. In addition you could listen to music or watch documentaries in our Videos, Music and Storytelling sections. Finally if you have a question relating to something other than one of these topics, you can use our Search Engine or the Site Map or write to us through the Contact form. You are cordially invited invited to Subscribe our monthly Newsletter to be informed about the site and our Chilean Indigenous Cultures news.
Two anthropologists have recorded the Selk´nam spiritual world of the : Martín Guisinde and Anne Chapman.
They have rescued texts that speak of their worldview.
The gods and fuegian spirits are not represented nor honored. They are no more than names and words to designate what is beyond society.
Their narratives show us the existence of innumerable beings, of diverse characteristics, each one with its own story and place.
They inhabit the sky and earth and even the underground, emerging only for celebrations.
The secret transmitted to the initiates in the Kloketen ceremony was the following one: "in the beginnings men were subordinated women. The important decisions was made by Women for the best for the group. The men was entirely subject to her will dedicated to the domestic workings: they maintained the fire, they roasted the meat, they took care of the children and they worked the leather.
They could not demand because of the ritual of the Hain that was made by women, produced great fear to them.
Thus they remained long time, without discovering that the spirits who frightened them during this ritual, were only the disguised women to maintain their dominion on them.
They painted themselves and a crust masks were placed on their heads... Between all them, the moon woman , Kra, was most powerful. It was married with Kran, the sun man hunting of guanacos. Kran and Kra lived with howenh, but Kran was an astute shaman and discovered that underneath the great hut there were only women presuming to be spirits... Then the men undertook against them. There was a terrible fight. Only some women could escape. The men, after killing almost all of them , restored a new social order: now they are who disguise themselves to frighten the women, those that pretend to terrify themselves and to accept the dominion of the men who claim to be the spirits of the universe."
The Hain, the main ceremony of the Selk'nam, was celebrated for last time in XX century.
It was a rite of initiation for boys and an educative experience based on the belief that in the old days there was a predominance of women.
The ceremony of the Klóketen or Hain is the widespread aspect of the cultural life, corresponding to the ritual of initiation of the young men in the tribes from a common territory. The boys of between fourteen and sixteen years were separated of their home to become Klóketen in the maturity through the ceremony. The most important and interesting aspect of the Hain ceremony was the harassment. It became on the boy by terrorific representations of spirits and the boy would have to remain full of value. Spirits were performed by actors dressed in disguise to hide their identity and create a permanent atmosphere. Somehow they felt possessed by the spirits they believed to be supernatural.
The candidates to be recognized like adults and hunters had to support hard requeriments of dominion on themselves. Solitary huntings, limitations of movement, expression, dreaming and feeding. It was exhorted to them to correct its character.
The social structure Selknam was based in the submission of the women, for that reason the most important was the initiation and entrance of the men to a masculine brotherhood.
The original myth was narrated to them: formerly the social superiority was into the women hands, directed by the Moon. They disguised themselves of spirits for making believe the men that these were endorsing them. The ceremony finished when young men receive the guanaco leather belt, the Koschel.
The strength of the Selknam culture was the body painting. Reddening the body with attractive designs was an institution in the life of this people, as much in its routine existence as in its magical and ritual aspect.
The ceremony of the Klóketen or Hain is the widespread aspect of the cultural life, corresponding to the ritual of initiation of the young men in the tribes from a common territory. The boys of between fourteen and sixteen years were separated of their home to become Klóketen in the maturity through the ceremony. The most important and interesting aspect of the Hain ceremony was the harassment. It became on the boy by terrorific representations of spirits and the boy would have to remain full of value. The most known was the Kótaich, or the Short spirit. Xalpen was another one, but of feminine nature. Also was Ulen, Tanu and Matán.