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In this article the author maintains that the differentiation and individualisation of modern society has made the concept of culture as an indication of the unity and coherence of symbolic groupings more and more devoid of efficient analysis. Cultures are increasingly capable of repeating themselves, being penetrated from within and inconsistent. In his judgement, the data obtained from the CEP’s Mapuche investigation in 2006 shows aspects of this symbolic repetition in what is commonly known as Mapuche culture. It also shows, from the descriptions of the participants themselves, that the concept of culture fulfils a political function: it constructs a fiction of unity in a fragmented world that, like manna from heaven, can be attached to any political claim.