The lobisón as an excuse. Animality and humanity among indigenous and criollos of the Argentine Gran Chaco

MEDRANO, CELESTE

Florianopolis

Congreso; 18th IUAES (Internacional Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences) World Congress; 2018

Internacional Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences

The Qom peoples?s sociocosmology ?an indigenous group of the Chaco?, supposes a body-person that in its becoming is permeated by multiple transformations. They involve other humans (affine and consanguineous) but also non-humans, among which animals have a significant role. In the process of analyzing these transformations, we find the lobisón. Although the transformation?s origin could be located in the Scandinavian-Teutonic area, it is also found in the Anglo-Saxon?s area and passed in Portuguese ships to the New World to spread widely to the Río de La Plata?s area. In the area of land known as chaqueño occupied by farmers and ?criollos?, the metamorphosis lobisón affects the seventh son of an exclusively male offspring and occurs during the nights of full moon. However, from our ethnographic field work in indigenous communities, we learned that the lobisón of the Qom peoples is not the same as that of the ?criollos?. The difference between both has its root in ontological aspects. So, we are inspired by Lévi-Strauss who mentions that the pure and simple loan hypothesis is unsustainable, our proposal will be to engage in dialogue lobisones ?with the indigenous people, the ?criollos?, the Portuguese, the Europeans?, in order to, in a comparative way, outline the ideas of humanity and animality that each of these worlds condense.