Theoretical review of the funerary rituals of Painé Güor and Calfucurá: Theoretical review of the funerary rituals of Painé Güor and Calfucurá

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to analyze the interpretations of the funerary rituals of Painé Güor and Calfucurá initiated by the archeologist Alberto Rex González, continued by the historian Raúl Mandrini and reviewed in part by the anthropologist Marta Bechis. In this context, both the evidence and the documentary absence of the murder of widows, which they call suttee or sati, is an indicator that accounts for the political organization of the indigenous peoples of the Pampas region. From qualitative and interpretive feminist epistemological and methodological perspectives we question the use of the suttee label because it has its origin in India and its knowledge cannot be separated from the English colonial interpretations, because there is no data that the widows wanted to die -it could justify it its use - and because it does not take into account the characteristics of the struggles for political power in these border areas.