Myths and Legends
– Myths are “narrations that describe and recount the origin of the basic elements and suppositions of a culture by using symbolic language”.
– Legends respond to “the stimuli of nature around us, which may have a reason, hide a truth or have some kind of relation to geography, a historical event or something that has happened that is part of folkloric heritage”.
Northern Zone
– The Alicanto is a mythological bird capable of leading miners to the exact spot where there are gold and silver deposits.
– The Yastay is a guanaco that protects the herds and therefore one must ask for its permission to hunt an animal. If it accepts, one must also leave an offering between the stones of the hill.
– Añañuca died of sorrow because she never heard from he husband again. The day after she was buried, the valley was covered in red flowers, which they named after her.
Rapa Nui and the Central Zone
– Make-Make fertilized a stone with red dirt on it and Man was born from this stone.
– When the Chonchon lets out constant screams that go tue tue, it means, according to the peasants, that it is out announcing that someone will die.
– It is said that a goat lived in the cave of the Chivato and at night it would catch people and turn them into imbunches.
