Corpachadas y chaku. Ritualidad medioambiental y cosmopolítica en Laguna Blanca, Argentina andina

Abstract

The study presents ethnographic accounts of corpachadas (buried offerings to Pachamama) in Laguna Blanca, Catamarca, Andean Argentine. It analyses the offerings made during the chaku (the capture and shearing of vicuñas) and the different corpachadas carried out at both family and public levels on 1 August. Focusing on environmental and cosmopolitical relationality, we discuss the role of these rituals in situations of “friction” between different practices and perceptions of the mountain environment by Indigenous Communities and other social actors.