Resumen

AVILA, Carolina Álvarez. To Raise Wind in the rogativa. Signs, Equivocations and Communication between Humans and the Forces of Nature. Antipod. Rev. Antropol. Arqueol. [online]. 2017, n.29, pp.149-173. ISSN 1900-5407.  https://doi.org/10.7440/antipoda29.2017.07.

In this study, I reflect on two similar experiences I had during the nguillatum, the Mapuche rogativa. At the beginning and the end of my fieldwork in a rural Mapuche community in the Argentine Patagonia, I was held to be responsible for having "raised wind" in the ceremony and then expelled from the ceremonial site. To reflect on these experiences, I link two analytical axes. The first has to do with the category of signs which permanently circulate during the rogativa and how the communication between all of the participants (humans, forces of Nature and deities) takes place. This communication sometimes emerges in an opaque way and, at other times, in a transparent one. The second axis consists of reversing the first statement: is it possible that the wind threw me out of the ceremony? To understand this process -however partial- of disconnection and connection between wind and curruf (wind in mapuzungun), I recur to Viveiros de Castro´s concept of the "controlled equivocation". I also try to connect the wind agency to the reproduction of similarities and alterities in the ceremony. My ultimate aim is to contribute to the analysis of and debates about ethnography when our own experiences intervene in our field work and trap us in unexpected situations which become 'ontological disorders' which are worth reflecting on.

Palabras clave : Ethnography; sign; ontology; mapuche rogativa; Forces of Nature; Ontological disorders; Patagonia.

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