https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.n37.08
David Figueroa Serrano
Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México
davdatura@hotmail.com
Abstract:
In this article, interspecies relations are explored among Mexico Mazahua communities’ oral traditions. The link between coyotes, dogs, and human beings as entities sharing both a human historicity and a supernatural condition, according to origin myths, is also examined. The way how “animal” and “human” identities are built is drawn from narratives that, while displaying an ontological status, mark transitional identity conditions, different for each setting, praxis, and discursive reference points, which bestow significance on them. Based on ethnographic work in Mazahua communities in the states of Mexico and Michoacan, several stories approaching diverse species’ perceptions and the origin of the world are gathered here, which altogether show assessments of their surroundings and interspecies daily practices.
Keywords: interspecies relations, dogs, narrative, oral tradition, Mazahua.
