Eating (with) the Dead: Food Offerings of Todos los Santos and the Logic of Commensality Between the Living and the Dead in the Sierra of Puebla
On the basis of ethnographic data collected among the Nahua of the Northern Sierra of Puebla, I try to understand the logic that inspires the composition, form, and quantity of the offerings as well as the content of the ritual words addressed to the deceased in Todos los Santos. The mortuary symbol...
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2019 |
| País: | México |
| Institución: | UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO |
| Repositorio: | Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl |
| Idioma: | español |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/77889 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://nahuatl.historicas.unam.mx/index.php/ecn/article/view/77889 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Todos los Santos ofrendas rituales comensalía antropofagia simbólica Nahuas Sierra de Puebla ritual offerings commensality symbolic anthropophagy Nahua Sierra of Puebla |
| Sumario: | On the basis of ethnographic data collected among the Nahua of the Northern Sierra of Puebla, I try to understand the logic that inspires the composition, form, and quantity of the offerings as well as the content of the ritual words addressed to the deceased in Todos los Santos. The mortuary symbolism of the types of food arranged on the altars reveals its latent anthropophagical meaning and demonstrates that the entire celebration is essentially structured according to the principle of reciprocity, and aims to satisfying the appetites of the deceased, in order to prevent them from diverting their hunger towards the living. The temporal sequence according to which the various ritual agents eat the food offerings brings to light the various ways in which the living and the dead eat each other’s representations. |
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