TURNING INMÕXÃ: AN INTEGRATED ANALYSIS OF MAXAKALI COSMOLOGY AND KINSHIP FROM THE PROCESSES OF BODY TRANSFORMATION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18542/amazonica.v1i2.300Abstract
Cosmology and kinship are two important felds of anthropology, which have commonly been treated as separate domains. The objective of this ethnographic essay is the realization of an integrated analysis of the cosmology and kinship of the Maxakali Indians, through the description of processes of corporal transformation. All the inhabitants of the Maxakali cosmos have a soul. Thus, the difference between the species and the ethnic groups is constructed in the body. The process of construction of the human condition and the kinship is one and the same, evolving through the co-inhabitation, the corporal sameness, the observation of prescriptions related to the body, and the ritual relation with the yãmiy, the spirits. The non-observation of the prescriptions related to the body, the consumption of sugarcane rum or of the bamboo worm and the practice of incest are acts that cause the corporal transformations, implying in the loss of the human condition, when a Maxakali loses the knowledge of his or her kin and starts to act as inmõxã, the bad spirit.Key words: Maxakali, cosmology, kinship.Downloads
Published
2009-11-19
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Original Articles