Abstract

In the Mapuche-Williche culture there are a set of variants in ancestralization processes, through which people become spirits emplaced in nature, and whose features are common to the Andean world. The capture by interstitial spaces, the falling in love with numinous entities that inhabit these places, or the punishment inflicted by these supernatural entities, are some of the alternative ways that can lead to topographically situated ancestor transformation. These mythical motifs, which are recurring events in the central and southern Andean areas, show the community of worldview patterns around pneumatological representations, conceptions of landscape and forms of worship of spirits, along this space.