Abstract

GOMEZ, Jose Arenas. LA GENTE I´KU Flowing Vitalities: Paying, Offering, and Feeding Original Beings Among I´ku People. Tabula Rasa [online]. 2020, n.36, pp.73-99.  Epub Feb 26, 2021. ISSN 1794-2489.  https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.n36.03.

This paper weaves together several thoughts on a well-known practice among indigenous people at Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Colombia) -Offerings for Earthly mothers and fathers, which are known as «pagamentos» in local Spanish. Drawing on theI´ku´scase, my central argument outlines the notion that these offerings respond to relatedness schemes, at the bottom of theI´ku´s sociality. To understand the place of thoseofferingsis necessary to explore the role of theI´ku´s shamans(themamu), since they are in charge of putting social relations in motion, both in the group and between the group and the other beings inhabiting the world. Finally, I emphasize the fact that even when the idea of «paying a debt» is present in the offerings, that idea is transcended in pursuit of higher purposes.

Keywords : Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta; I´ku (Arhuacos); Shamanism; Sociality; Indigenous Ethnology; Reciprocity; Gift; Chibchan.

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