The So-Called "Sacred Places": Territoriality, Identity and Alterity Among the Tepehuans of the South

"A common topic of discussion between Southern Tepehuan people (O’dam/Audam) of Durango and diverse agencies of the Mexican State is territory and its political control. In recent years the identification and protection of the so-called “sacred places” of Mexican indigenous communities has taken center stage in this debate, making a difficult relation- ship even more complex. The aim of this paper is to explain how best to comprehend the notion of “sacred places” from a Tepehuan perspective. This understanding is strongly- rooted in the Southern Tepehuan socio-cultural construction of territory, whose principle characteristics include its “ancestral” and “transformative” nature, and the fact that it is conceived from various levels of social organization. Consequently, it is possible to speak of various “Tepehuan territorialities” that together constitute a fundamental feature of their identity/alterity processes."

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