Nuevo mundo - Mundos Nuevos (Apr 2014)
Amasar, hervir, hornear y comer: el tamal-venado de los wixaritari
Abstract
In ethnography, what you see is not always what it is. This is the case of a tamale that is prepared for the summer solstice celebration called hikuli neixa (peyote dance). At one point during the ritual, in a very sui generis way, women prepare a big tamale that represents, at the same time, the fetus of a deer. In this paper I propose an ethnographic description of the manufacturing of this tamale that operates according to an inversion of significance. Through the way of preparing the tamale, the way of eating it, the people who eat it, and the place where it is eaten, the Huichol Indians propose a theory of food that is related to other human processes. I start from the following hypothesis: through the changing roles of certain ritual foods, the Huichol propose not only a theory of food, but also a theory of sexuality, procreation, and fertility.
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