Abstract:
This paper presents an ethnographic analysis of the relationships established during the killing and slaughter of farm animals in an Aboriginal community in the northwest of Argentina, in the region of the Southern Andes. It is argued that the topology that expresses these processes exposes the ways in which the espíritu (or ánimu) of animals and the relationship of luck they share with pastors should be drawn out of the body, to turn it into edible meat. Thus, operations of separating, folding and wrapping, together with the dehydration process become relevant in order to understand the relationships between different bodies and potential connections between different sides of the world.
Keywords:
animals; body; meridional Andes; viscera