Corporalidades indígenas en movimiento. Empoderamientos y disputas en las danzas de las jóvenes tobas

Abstract

In many indigenous groups, appropriations, new meanings and tensions among elements from different cultural currents, are often embodied and gain greater visibility in younger generations, bringing new images and uses of bodies. Thus, new forms of treatment and "beautification" of bodies are spread, gestures and body techniques are reconfigured, and new dances and music are created, promoting the circulation of renovated meanings, affectivities and cultural values on bodies. I will focus on the case of the young Toba women of Formosa, Argentina, showing how some of these changes have impacted on their subjectivation processes, promoting new forms of empowerment rooted in their bodies. My hypothesis is that through the recent organization of Christian dance groups, these young women try to transcend its historic delimitation to the domestic space, disputing the male hegemony in a central public space to the life of these villages, such as rituals of indigenous churches of Evangelio.

In many indigenous groups, appropriations, new meanings and tensions among elements from different cultural currents, are often embodied and gain greater visibility in the youth. In these processes, new forms of treatment of bodies are spread, gestures and body techniques are reconfigured, and new dances and music are created, promoting the circulation of renovated meanings, affectivities and values. I will focus on the young Toba women of Formosa, Argentina, especially in the recent organization of their Christian dance groups in the churches of Evangelio. I examine how these practices have impacted on their subjectivation processes, encouraging new forms of empowerment rooted in their bodies. My hypothesis is that through these dance groups, the young Toba women transcend its historic delimitation to the domestic space, and in this way, they dispute the male hegemony in a key public space such as the rituals of the Evangelio.