A small conical Kettledrum, 35 to 45 cm in diameter, used by the Mapuche (Araucanian) people of southern Chile and parts of Argentina. The shell, made of laurel or a large calabash, is covered with a hide from a goat, calf, sheep or horse. The hollow basin contains several small stones, seeds or coins that rattle when the instrument is struck with a drumstick or shaken. Wooden mallets covered in wool are used as drumsticks. In Argentina the kultrún is played by a female shaman who stands holding the drum on her left arm and strikes it with a drumstick, or sits with the drum on the ground before her, in which case she uses two drumsticks. Less commonly the instrument is shaken as an idiophone. In Chile the distribution of the kultrún encompasses four southern provinces: Bío-Bío, Malleco, Valdivia and especially Cautín. Among the Chilean Mapuche the kultrún is a principal instrument of the machi (shamans), frequently but not always female. It is used primarily in connection with healing rituals and for other shamanic ceremonies. The head of the instrument is painted in various forms and colours. See M.E. Grebe: ‘El kultrún mapuche: un microcosmo simbólico’, RMC, nos.123–4 (1973), 3–42.
For illustration see Argentina, fig.6
JOHN M. SCHECHTER