Wekufe

The Wekufe also known as huecufe, wekufü, watuku, huecufu, huecubo, huecubu, huecuvu, huecuve, huecovoe, giiecubu, güecubo, güecugu, uecuvu, güecufu; is an important type of harmful spirit or demon in Mapuche mythology. The word wekufe comes from the Mapudungun word wekufü meaning "demon, outside being".

In the Mapuche language, Mapudungun, the word wekufe can be attributed to any person that tells lies or is deceptive. It was only after the arrival of Catholicism when the Mapuche people had gained the concept of evil that the word becoming associated with demons.

Since that time the idea behind wekufe has broadened to include multiple meanings, either as a subject, quality or agent depending on the speaker’s reference point or the situation that it is used in. The word is generally used as a generic name in order to describe creatures from Mapuche mythology that usually have harmful intentions towards human beings.

These beings can have solid, material bodies, evanescent ghost-like bodies or be extracorporeal spirit-like entities. They project from or originate in the wekufe's energy, which is characterized by its propensity to disturb and/or destroy the balance of the world's natural order. In this way they cause illness, destruction, death, and other calamities amongst the Mapuche. Wekufes are often incorrectly likened to beings with similar characteristics such as the gualichos or the demons of Greek or other mythologies.

The missionaries who followed the Spanish conquistadors to America incorrectly interpreted the Mapuche beliefs regarding both wekufes and gualichos. They used the word wekufe as a synonym for ideas of the devil, demons, and other evil or diabolical forces. This has caused misunderstanding of the original symbolism and has changed the idea of wekufe right up to the present day, even amongst the Mapuche people.

Mapuche legends say that wekufes come from Minchenmapu, which is located to the west beyond Mapu (the Mapuche word for land, although in this instance it refers to the land described by the traditional Mapuche worldview. These beings originated from the forces or energies that disturb and/or destroy the world’s natural order. Unlike other living beings or spirits that possess their own soul, wekufes are soulless.

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