De la rama de canelo al bastón: apropiación, desvío y manipulación política de un símbolo en la diplomacia hispano-mapuche.

In the Hispanic-American colonial frontiers with indigenous peoples of Mapuche culture, elaborate diplomatic traditions anchored in prehispanic protocols and ceremonies took form between the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries. During the parlamentos (diplomatic encounters) that took place in the Araucanian frontier (Chile today), Spaniards progressively substituted the traditional Winter’s bark or Canelo tree branches -considered by the Mapuche as symbols of peace-for batons of command, meant to define those who received and used them as friendly caciques, holders of a pacifying and receptive power. In the frontiers of Mendoza and Buenos Aires (Argentina today), on the contrary, command batons appear as a purely colonial innovation that the Cacique considered a source of prestige. Spaniards used these objects as a means to increase internal hierarchies as well as to promote dissension among different groups. I intend to retrace the overall lines of the process through which the Canelo tree branch -a sign of high symbolic value in Mapuche diplomacy-was appropriated and gradually replaced by the hispanic baton of command, thus distorting its initial meaning as a peace sign to turn it into the materialisation of a delegated power, dignity and rank flowing from the Spanish king. I will also illustrate how this sign was manipulated to raise rivalries and conflicts among indigenous groups [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]