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 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.