Yúmari and Covid-19. : Ethnographic reflections on urban Rarámuri rituality

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has had effects in almost all countries and contexts around the world; indigenous peoples have not been the exception. The case of the Rarámuri population in Chihuahua provides a series of aspects that allow an anthropological analysis to understand how the current health emergency is experienced and faced in this community, including both the actions carried out by the state government, alongside the economic and employment issues, as well as the gender violence that has increased due to the resulting confinement, and the rituality put into practice to prevent infections. It is precisely this last axis to which the article is dedicated, the objective of which is to understand why the members of the Rarámuri community, residing in settlements congregated in the city of Chihuahua, have resorted to their tradition and rituality, and more specifically to the yúmari rite, to avoid being infected with coronavirus.