Abstract

MILLAN, Saúl. Sintaxis y semántica en los rituales indígenas contemporáneos. Cuicuilco [online]. 2008, vol.15, n.42, pp.63-75. ISSN 0185-1659.

The trend to consider Indian rituals as isolated practices, devoid of any systematic relation with other events on the yearly ceremonial cycle, has lead researchers to establish schematic correspondences among cultures and symbolic systems that keep a considerable historical distance between each other. In fact the main topic on numerous monographs is to find the origin of certain specific ceremonial practices, classifying it generally as prehispanic or colonial. This exhibits not only an excessive lack of interest on the contemporary ritual system as such, but also shows a classification system based on distant experience, alien to the distinctions and contrasts that the actors consider important. In the present article I'll try to demonstrate that Indian rituals are organized through a precise syntaxes and semantics that are usually shared both in the festive cycle rituals and the lifecycle ones.

Keywords : ritual; syntaxes; semantics; indians.

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