PREFACE 



The purpose of this study is to record the ethnography and, to a 

 certain extent, the present-day ethnology of the Araucanians of Chile 

 and Argentina, particularly their customs, beliefs, and traditions in 

 relation to the development and training of the child. Information 

 regarding the child's familial and communal environment is also in- 

 cluded, for it seemed important not to ignore the milieu in which the 

 child grew up. 



No monograph of Araucanian child life is now available. The 

 literature, according to the late Father John M. Cooper's word to the 

 writer, contains little related to the child. This statement was cor- 

 roborated by Carlos O. Henckel, of the Universidad de Concepcion in 

 Chile, who also knows the Araucanian literature. 



Of published materials Tomas Guevara's work in seven volumes, 

 entitled "Historia de la Civilizacion de Araucania" (1898-1913), is the 

 most complete study. Father Cooper's "The Araucanians" in the 

 Handbook of South American Indians (1946, pp. 687-760) is a com- 

 prehensive summary, mostly of first-hand material, of all important 

 sources from the sixteenth century to 1946. Mischa Titiev's recent 

 study, "Araucanian Culture in Transition" (1951), is an excellent 

 account of an area which shows the impact of Chilean culture. Studies 

 in progress in 1952, dealing with the Argentine Araucanians, included 

 one on medicinal plants by Nikolau Kolokolof, Ministeria de Agri- 

 cultura, Buenos Aires ; a dictionary by Felix San Martin, and one by 

 Juan Benigar, both Argentines ; a comparative study of Araucanian 

 words by Horacio Molinari of Buenos Aires; a recording of music, 

 songs, and conversation by Christian Leden of Norway ; and a collec- 

 tion of folklore by Bertha Ilg-Koessler. 



In this work, the psychoanalytical approach was not used as the 

 study was an ethnographic one rather than a psychological one. How- 

 ever, certain psychological aspects that did emerge are recorded, and, 

 since ethnography and psychology are interdependent, many more can 

 undoubtedly be deduced by psychologists. 



This study was made during the summer months in the Southern 

 Hemisphere. When it is important, because of seasonal events, the 

 date on which information was collected is recorded. 



The method used was that generally employed in ethnographic 

 studies, namely, observation and interviewing informants in their 



