No. 67 (2024): Muerte, enfermedades y pandemia en pueblos indígenas
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Death and ritual in the Sierra Mazateca during the COVID-19 pandemic

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  • Raitamaria Mäki,
  • Fabiola Minero Ortega
Raitamaria Mäki
CIESAS, Ciudad de México
Fabiola Minero Ortega
CIESAS, Ciudad de México
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24275/TQRV5195

Published 2024-05-27 — Updated on 2024-08-07

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Keywords

  • mazatecos,
  • SARS-COV2,
  • resistencia,
  • ritos mortuorios

How to Cite

Mäki, R., & Minero Ortega, F. (2024). Death and ritual in the Sierra Mazateca during the COVID-19 pandemic. Alteridades, 34(67), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.24275/TQRV5195 (Original work published May 27, 2024)

Copyright (c) 2024 Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Abstract

The aim of this article is to describe and analyze perceptions of COVID-19, its influence on ritual practices, and the restrictions on accompanying the deceased in Huautla de Jiménez, Sierra Mazateca, Oaxaca. The ethnographic research methodology included participant observation, informal conversations, semi-structured interviews with Mazatec people, as well as the personal experience of living in Huautla. During fieldwork, there were some restrictions during intimate or public rituals, as respect was given to the grief of loss and some collaborators did not wish to discuss it. The originality of this text lies in uncovering the close relationship between death-illness-virus, as well as the mortuary treatment of the body during a pandemic, due to resistance to abandoning customs. Among the findings are beliefs in the afterlife and the rites performed by relatives for the deceased. We conclude that while this ritual practice was limited by COVID-19, it was not eliminated to avoid disrupting the journey of the deceased. 

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