Métaphores temporelles et offrandes alimentaires : pratiques d’élaboration du sens rituel
Decoding the nonverbal aspects of semantics of rituals is unusual in the studies of the Indian societies of Mexico. In the continuation of new anthropological research about the figurative language of rituals, this paper deals with the study of two food offerings’s figurative metaphors deposited dur...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Spanish |
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Groupe de Recherche Amérique Latine Histoire et Mémoire
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| Series: | Les Cahiers ALHIM |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/alhim/4547 |
| Summary: | Decoding the nonverbal aspects of semantics of rituals is unusual in the studies of the Indian societies of Mexico. In the continuation of new anthropological research about the figurative language of rituals, this paper deals with the study of two food offerings’s figurative metaphors deposited during the ceremonies of rainy petition celebrated around a natural abyss in the central part of the State of Guerrero (Mexico). The paper focus on the analysis of the nonverbal semantic and figurative meanings that can establish a persuasive communication with the entities holders of the subsistence. Two offerings are compared : the xochimesa and the chitatli. The first one consists in displaying on the ground all of the food items which constitute the ritual deposit and the second is conformed by a ritual container made of a agave filled with food which is thrown in the abyss and has to reach the bottom without overturning. The third « culinary transfer » is made between the participants of the ritual commensality. The analysis underlines the existence of temporal metaphors expressed with the food ritual deposit and representing the agricultural cycle to come. The conclusion introduces an additional idea, the syncretism. The author distinguishes the xochimesa which can be integrated into a Catholic idea of the exchanges between God and men by the allowed commensality between the ritual actors and air nature of entities, and the chitatli based on the sacrifice, lack of human commensality and chthonian powers which refuse assimilation. |
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| ISSN: | 1628-6731 1777-5175 |