La apropiación simbólica como forma de poder: la necesaria y temida alteridad entre los wichí del Chaco argentino

Abstract

In Wichí societies the maximum otherness is established by a radical opposition between the world of the living and the world of the dead. In these societies cosmological otherness is characterized by a great power with evil intentions towards Wichí society. These characteristics make otherness creates danger and fear in Wichí communities. It is because the Wichí develop behaviours that could be called «preventive» in the sense that they are trying to avoid contact with otherness. However, in certain contexts as in shamanism or in the past wars otherness was intentionally sought precisely because of its great deployment of power and destructive capacity. This article analyses the mechanisms of symbolic appropriation in the past (deepening the link «otherness» / power in the shamanic and warfare institutions) and in the present (considering otherness in the system of political and economic relations).