DOI: https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.n36.09
Gemma Orobitg
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8747-5820
Universitat de Barcelona, España
orobitg@ub.edu
Abstract:
This paper examines the dominant modes of relatedness among Pumé Indians through the circulation of female blood. The logic of Gift intervenes in the relations between Pumé beings —humans, animals, and spirits sharing soul and blood–, while predation dominates their relations with other beings that are alien to Pumé society, namely the “spirits of the savanna landscape”, the “spirits of the depths of the earth”, and Whites. Mythology supports the structuring place of the feminine in the constitution of the order of cosmos and thus bleeding works as an operator of social relations.
Keywords: blood, menstruation, childbirth, mythology, Gift, predation.
