WHOLE VOL. 



ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 53 



PRIDE, JEALOUSY, BOASTING, TALE BEARING, AMBITION 



Pride in being an Araucanian is characteristic of the milieu in which 

 a child grows up, and is, therefore, inherent in every child. A child 

 at school that merely suspects, from anything being discussed, that its 

 people are placed on a lower level than Chileans, is deeply hurt, and 

 will become quiet and seem almost stubborn, teachers noted. When I 

 asked two 8-year-old girls to make some drawings, an ii -year-old 

 girl said to a 15-year-old one, "What can those two little things pro- 

 duce that is worthy of the Mapuche?" "Yes," remarked the other, 

 "let us hope that the Sister will not take their drawings to her home 

 in North America as representative of Mapuche drawings." 



Jealousy among children is rare, and a child who occasionally mani- 

 fests this trait stands out prominently, according to teachers. A 13- 

 year-old girl was jealous of another girl who was often able to give 

 information before she herself was. "A year ago," remarked the 

 teacher, "I gave help after school hours to a student who was prepar- 

 ing to enter a school of advanced studies. Immediately this girl [the 

 jealously inclined one] wanted help, too. She must be in the lead or 

 on a par with everything in order to be happy." The girl's mother, too, 

 observed that the girl was quite different from other children. "She 

 is afraid of the dark," she noted ; "maybe it is because I threw her 

 navel out. She is forgetful, too. If she is not reminded of things, 

 she does not get them done ; she has no luck with her animals either." 

 An instance of jealousy on the part of a clique of girls that planned 

 to poison a classmate who persisted in doing better work than they 

 (p. Ill), was related by a teacher. 



Boasting and tale bearing are not characteristics of children ; they 

 are practically nonexistent. Said an old man : "Children on the land 

 are quiet children; they do not boast; really they have nothing to 

 boast about." A tale bearer is not punished but is ignored, unless the 

 matter told about is of importance, in which case the one told on 



is punished. 



Alepue schoolchildren between 11 and 15 years of age, when asked 

 to write what they aspired to be when they grew up, smiled and sat 

 thinking. The majority of the boys wished to be fishermen (living 

 near the Pacific, some fathers were commercial fishermen) ; others 

 wanted to work in town (Valdivia, San Jose de Mariquina), or to be a 

 soldier, a farmer, or an office employee. All girls but one planned to 

 work in town ; one hoped to continue her schooling. Several wrote, 

 "I never thought about it." 



