Ngenechen (also known as Ngunechen, Nguenechen, Guenechen, Guinechen) is one of the most important Ngen spirits within traditional

Mapuche religion Mapuche religion is the traditional Native American religion of the Mapuche people. It is practiced primarily in south-central Chile and southwest Argentina. The tradition has no formal leadership or organizational structure and displays much i ...

; and is the most important

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

in the present beliefs of the Mapuche people. Ngenechen originally was only the Ngen spirit "governor of the Mapuche people" and not their creator god; but as a product of

syncretism Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various school of thought, schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or religious assimilation, assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the ...

with

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, Ngenechen is now also the "Supreme Being" in Mapuche religion, and is

synonymous A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

with the term God as used in Abrahamic religions.

References

* Leslie Ray. Language of the land: the Mapuche in Argentina and Chile. Volumen 119 de IWGIA document. International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. IWGIA, 2007. , * Oscar Paillacan Ramirez, (Junio, 1999), Religión y Mitología Mapuche Ngenechen, centro de documentación mapuche. (Spanish) Ngen Mapuche gods Creator gods {{Chile-myth-stub

See also

References