Sociologie - La Cosmogonie Des Aymaras

The extract of the text I analyzed basically focuses on two main ideas. The first one concerns the catechists as syncretic subject of a very complex cultural construction and the second one links the Aymaran “Chuyma” to a very specific conception of personhood and social identity.

First, what is very interesting in this study is to see how the author focuses on one very specific character, the catechist, to then analyze the global context of inculturation of Aymarans and their perceptions of personhood, social life and so forth. If catechists present such an interest, it is because of the role they play in the whole situation. They are locals, born and breed in the Aymaran culture, language and traditions, so they are very strategic brokers of missionaries to initiate the contact with local populations. They are intermediaries between catholic priests and Aymarans, therefore they are also very impregnated by Christians values and paradigms. This duality between those two very different ways of conceiving life, personhood, social identity, rituals implies a strong doubleness of catechist’s personhood. As a matter of fact they face the opposition of two dualized discourses: one issued from very conjectural settings and the other based on really pervasive conceptions of the body. Pastoral workers know that this duality is directly link to the wrong path that took Evangelization centuries ago here, and they also know they have to change their approach if they want to hand out Christian values to the population. Aymarans are not receptive to Christian text-based liturgical celebrations and the only way to communicate truly with them is to address signs to their Chuyma as the indigenous ritual specialists (Yatiris) do. This aymaran Chuyma is now the target of Evengelisation because they know it is the only way to promote Christian values to the population.

This Chuyma is the second point analysed by the author and it is very interesting to link it with the Biopower ideas of Foucault. “Chuyma” is an Aymaran term which stands for Lungs although it also defines the complex of vital organs: lungs, heart, and liver. From this sight, it seems like a very physiologic concept but actually it goes much further. It is assumed to be the somatic center of the social being but also the interior site of selfhood or “seat of the soul and source of will” as they say in the text. Moreover it has a real psychical vertu as it is supposed to be the remembering and thinking complex, which according to them also recover from an innate knowledge linked to ancestors. Another point which is very interesting is that qualities of personhood (ajayu, animu, kuraji and alwa) are in many ways mutable and they affect and reflect human actions in the world through many indices such as blood, breath, talking, dreaming, the ability to make strong speech, body fat, clothing or even food. For example courage and soul (kuraji and animu) are associated with blood but also with body fat which transform into sweat when an individual is hard working or which freeze when he is afraid or cold. This is very interesting if you relate it with Foucault ideas on Biopower, because here the importance of body language, body appearance and discipline is capital. Those aspect are not superficial at all, they reflect who you are inside, the qualities of your personhood. The difference we could nevertheless make between this Biopower and the one which is set in our

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