La historificación del mito y la mitificación de la historia. Análisis de la mitología etiológica de la religión umbanda en Argentina

ANATILDE IDOYAGA, NICOLÁS VIOTTI

The Journal of Intercultural Studies

Gaidai University

Lugar: Kansai; Año: 2004 p. 66 - 75

0388-0508

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relationship between myth and history in the context of Afro-American (Umbanda) narrative, which foucs on the origin of umbanda religion. The material was gathered during fieldwork, carried out in some Afro American temples settled in peri-urban Buenos Aires (Argentina). TAking into account indigenous examples of historificated myth and mythification history processes (Turner, 1988), in which myth focus on historical events, the authors highlight the etiological myth of umbanda religion in Argentina, its link with social actors' versions of history, and its reference to a specific definition of otherness. Insofar, configures a particular perspective of the other religious groups that share the sacred sphere. At the same time, the myth denotes a political and social consciousness, showed in the different races, religions and social origins of the actors involved. The authors analyze the myth as a new version of the past that let us catch a glipse of the present time in the Argentine context, as a different version from the Brazilian one. Myth is considered an actoin guide, and an expression of social, religous and political identity. In other words they remark that the drama could not be inderstood out of the social context where it emerges, as a process of mythification of history and a historification of myth.