François Correa
fcorrear@unal.edu.co
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Abstract:
Through the analysis of the mythology of the muiscas I will illustrate how it is a discoursethat can guide the social behavior because it is build up by a set of abstractions that, in thesymbolic language, it can express the knowledge of the society on the basis of their ownrelationships and of these with nature. My lecture evidences how the sun and the moonwere not only the dominant symbols because of its importance in the classification of thetime and space of the universe and, in consequence, in the daily tasks of the society, but howits behavior pretended to be explained to likeness of the stability and variability of the socialrelationships. I will argue that this analogy between the behavior of the celestial bodies andthe people constitutes a logical operator in which the simbology rests. There by, myths arenot fantasy nor «can everything happen in them». The myths are cultural constructions thatexpress in a coded speech knowledge based on the experience that the society should followto guarantee its own social reproduction.
Keywords: Muiscas, mythology, simbology.
