Dioses propios y ajenos: deidades patronas y realeza sagrada entre los purépechas del siglo XVI

Abstract

In this work we explain how a particular Mesoamerican people may imagine its relations with the deities. Some of the Purépecha’s gods are imagined as extensions of collective identities and others as strangers. The first ones are metaphorically viewed as parents, the second ones may be imagined as spouses or family in law; so, we’ll conclude that relations with the supernature are constructed by the same model of human rapports. In this image, the purépecha ruler appears at the same time as a representation of his people and as a representation of tutelary deities. Because of this role, it’s him who concretizes the alliance with stranger divinities by his marriages with women representing otherness.