Abstract

REYES VALDEZ, Jorge Antonio  and  GARCIA SALIDO, Gabriela. From Heaven to Earth: Cosmological Deixis in the Xiotalh Prayer and Ritual among the Tepehuan People from South East Durango, Mexico. Rev. pueblos front. digit. [online]. 2021, vol.16, e494.  Epub Apr 28, 2023. ISSN 1870-4115.  https://doi.org/10.22201/cimsur.18704115e.2021.v16.494.

This paper analyzes a spoken statement delivered during a ceremony known as xiotalh among the Tepehuans (O’dams) in the south of Durango, Mexico. From a linguistic anthropological perspective, it is worth noting indexical aspects regarding the deixis of person and space. This paper aims to demonstrate that in order to fully understand this ritual text, it is necessary to know both the context within which it is performed and the Tepehuan cosmovision. Methodologically, the study sets up a relationship between a formal analysis of the text and the ritual action. In this way, through the use of demonstrative pronouns regarding the proximal, medial or distal distance, the speaker determines the participants’ spatial, social, and cosmological position. In this regard, ritual participants can be human and non-human (deities), visible and invisible, set in current or ancestral times.

Keywords : deixis; O’dam; performance; pragmatics.

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