Rehue

A rehue in Valdivia, Chile.

The rehue (in mapudungün rewe) is a sacred altar used by the Mapuches in many ceremonies. characteristics It is a staggered trunk nailed to the earth, which may be surrounded by cinnamon branches-sacred tree Mapuche-located in a row and adorned with white, celestial, yellow, black flags. Sometimes the top has a representation of a human face. It symbolizes the connection with the cosmos. The rehue is a symbol of great importance that is used in important celebrations as in Machitún, Guillatún, We Tripantu (New Year Mapuche), among others. Rehue: social unit

By extension, it is sometimes called "rehue" (or "regua" in the colonial chronicles) to a small group of families that occupy the same territory and share the same rehue, located in the vicinity of the residence of its lonco (boss). In this use the word rehue would be equivalent to lof or levo that corresponds to a basic form of social organization of the mapuches.

Nine of these units form the aillarehue (ayllarewe, nine rehues), a small confederation of lineages that dominates a region or province.

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