WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 79 



else to slap him. In another case, however, a father spanked his son 

 and then asked the boy's teacher to spank him again if he needed it. 

 The man's father hearing of this came to the teacher and voiced his 

 disapproval : "That man has not even the right to ask me, the boy's 

 grandfather, to whip that boy." In another instance a teacher re- 

 ported a lo-year-old boy to his father for lying and suggested that 

 the boy be punished. To this the father replied, "Maybe the time has 

 come to whip him; I have not done so up to now." Whipping was 

 done with a leather strap. It was administered for a serious offense 

 only, such as lying, stealing, or disobedience. 



Some informants did not approve of the mother ever whipping an 

 adolescent or older son ; they were whipped by the father with a raw- 

 hide for offenses such as disrespect or disobedience. "A young 

 man sometimes ran away from home when he knew there was a 

 whipping in the offing, although he knew that he would surely be 

 whipped on his return home. A son obeyed, even when married and 

 when he had grown older, as long as his father lived. And he never 

 answered his father back. Formerly a child accepted a whipping from 

 parents even at 20, and said not a word ; today small ones rise up and 

 say that they will not be punished." 



Boys of school age had been whipped at home for playing on the 

 way home from school after having been told to come directly home ; 

 for not doing assigned work ; for chasing cows to a run ; for playing 

 instead of weeding the garden ; for eating green apples after being 

 told not to. Girls of school age had been spanked or slapped on the 

 hands by the mother for coming home late from school, for hitting a 

 brother, for breaking a father's yerba mate cup and a mother's plate, 

 for inadvertently slapping a brother's nose and making it bleed. 



Compulsions, such as frightening, ridiculing, ignoring, mocking, 

 nagging, coaxing, bribing, or comparing with other children in order 

 to bring about conformity in conduct, were rarely used. Nor does it 

 appear that, in general, children were threatened with punishment to 

 be administered by supernatural powers. One man, however, told that 

 his grandfather, "who knew no Spanish or anything about the Chris- 

 tian religion," said to him when he did not obey, "God will punish you 

 for that." "But," the informant added, "it was the same God that 

 punishes now, for the Mapuche always prayed to the same God as 

 we pray to now. We never addressed prayers to idols or trees or 

 such things." 



PRESENT-DAY FORMAL EDUCATION 



Araucanian children today have opportunities of attending either 

 private or public schools directed by the Chilean department of edu- 



