Rehue
A rehue (Mapudungun spelling rewe) or kemukemu is a type of pillar-like sacred altar used by the Mapuche of Chile and Argentina in many of their ceremonies. • Illustration — A rewe and canelo tree in the Austral University of Chile.
Rehue
Lin linao · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Field
- altar.
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Rehue. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q7309856 · wikipedia · Rehue
In this article
Altar/Axis mundi
Altar/Axis mundi
The rehue is a carved tree trunk set in the ground, surrounded by a hedge of colihue (a Chilean native bamboo) and adorned with white, blue or yellow flags and branches of coihue, maitén, lengas and other trees native to the Mapuche homeland. In form it recalls both a ladder and the human spine, having a series of steps (sometimes a mystical seven in number) cut into it, rising up from the earth toward a summit sometimes bearing a carving of a human face. It is a Mapuche representation of the axis mundi or shamanic world tree symbolising connection with the various levels of the cosmos and utilised as such by the machi (Mapuche shamans). The rehue is a symbol of great importance that is used in important celebrations or ceremonies like the Machitún, Guillatún, We Tripantu (Mapuche New Year) and others.
Shamanic ritual tool
Shamanic ritual tool
Each machi has a rehue outside her/his house which she/he climbs in the course of certain ceremonies. This is believed to contain power transmitted to it by Ngenechen, (the supreme being in Mapuche religion) and the machi's attendant pillan (supernatural beings bearing some similarity to the familiar spirits of Early Modern European witchcraft).
Social and Political Unit
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Rehue, revision 1294475028 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.EL REHUE, AXIS MUNDI DE LA COSMOVISIÓN MAPUCHE, (Sergio Fritz Roa)
- 2.Faron, L.C.,1964 'Shamanism and Sorcery among the Mapuche of Chile' in R.A. Manners ed. Process and Pattern in Culture pub. Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago.
- 3.Juan Ignatius Molina, The Geographical, Natural, and Civil History of Chili, Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, London, 1809
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witness
Connections
Knowledge graph
Connections
Each connection was recorded deliberately, with the basis for it kept on the internal record.
Broader subject
1- altarTerminology
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
Tótem ceremonial mapuche (Rehue) (2022) — DataCite (Zenodo)
Figura Ceremonial mapuche (Rehue) (2022) — DataCite (Zenodo)
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Furniture
924 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Red and Blue ChairTerminology
- Red Jaguar ThroneTerminology
- refectory tableTerminology
- Reformation altarpieceTerminology
- reliquary chestTerminology
- Reliquary Shrine of Saint EleutheriusTerminology
- Relógio de São PedroTerminology
- reredosTerminology
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own an object connected with Rehue?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.
Social and Political Unit
Called "rehue" or "regua" in colonial chronicles, the word referred to the grouping of various Mapuche families (lof or lov) who occupied the same locality and shared the same rehue altar. Nine of these rehue would form an Aillarehue (nine altars), a small confederation that would gather for war or other common purposes and formed a region or province.