Runa archivos para las ciencias del hombre

5-21

Authors: Gustavo F. Scarpa y Paola Pacor

The article analyzes cultural change related to the consumption of wild edible plants among Chorote Indians from Argentine Chaco, especially the process of construction of prejudices regarding such practices, expressed in the form of symbols of social or religious discredit which has led to their concomitant stigmatization and contempt. The influence of hegemonic agents in the conceptualization of wild edible plants and their utilization practices is here identified and analyzed from observational, exegetical and interpretative points of view. The article specifically discusses if the abandonment of wild edible plant consumption is due to reasons linked to environmental determinism, to the mere acquisition of new cultural practices, or to socio-religious stigmatization of old food rules among Chorote Indians from Argentine Chaco.

41-55

Authors: Marta Rodríguez Cruz

This paper is part of a doctoral research project that analyzes whether the public management of intercultural bilingual education responds to the definition of Ecuador as an intercultural and plurinational state. The article analyzes the educational policy developed through Millennium units, promoted by the Ministry of Education and directed especially to indigenous population, in a situation of social vulnerability due to poverty. Our analysis follows a double itinerary: first, the paper analyzes the current legislation on bilingual intercultural education, the Millennium units and the universalization of access to education; secondly, bilingual intercultural education practices and the generalization of access to the educational system are studied and described, based on an ethnography developed in two Millennium units located in the Ecuadorian Andes.

75-91

Authors: Dolores Estruch

This work proposes to analyze the relationship between ritual and social change delving in transformations in burial rituals and religious celebrations of the secular cabildo at colonial jurisdiction of Jujuy at the end of the XVIII century. The scope of the ecclesiastical policies implemented by the Bourbons is studied, considering how they affected the dynamics of these ritual practices. In this sense, the so-called process of "Bourbon secularization" is explored from documentary sources in order to ask about the role of ritual in the processes of reformulation of "the religious" in different fields of social life.

111-129

Authors: Eva Lamborghini

In the past two decades, Buenos Aires has witnessed a surprising growth and popularity of Afro-Latin American cultural practices. Foremost among them, and most visible in the city's public space, is Afro-Uruguayan candombe. Having spread beyond the Uruguayan immigrant community that contributed to its re-localization in the 1970s, it is nowadays widely part of the youth urban culture along the country. The paper discusses the re-significations following this vigorous development and how it intersects with other social processes of contemporary Argentine society. Focusing on the re-signification of candombe as "resistance", as performed by a collective of drummers and dancers known as "Los Tambores No Callan" (Drums cannot be silenced), it highlights the connections they establish between this cultural practice and politics as social struggle. It suggests that this cultural practice is part of -and helps shape- new activist ethos in the public space of Buenos Aires, a historically alleged "White" and "European" city.