Revenge and closure as functions restoring social order: A symbolic approach ritual of crime in the Wayuu culture

Abstract

From the perspective of semiotics, we show the rituals and myths of crime in society Wayuu that, as an indigenous, has no prisons for offenders of the law, even when they have an established code of oral justice. There are signs that lead to revenge practiced by the family of the victim, as the use of red elements, but there is another ritual action, known as the "closure" for the purification of the soul and social redemption, which restores the essential social balance between the Wayuu, based on native mythology.