The day of the dead and the care of the spirit in the argentine northwest

Abstract

The practices of care before death and its narrative expression are described and analyzed in the ritual context of Perico, a locality of the Province of Jujuy, Argentina. We approach a relationship underexplored between care
and death, from original materials collected through observation and open, extensive and recurrent interviews, within the framework of extensive field work between 2009 and 2014. From a qualitative approach, we developed an interpretive strategy based on the deconstruction of meanings around the beliefs held by our informants. We pay special attention to the mortuary rituals in the
context of the Day of the Dead, which highlight the combination of ancestral conceptions and religious experiences, such as cognitive strategies related to
the meaning of life and death.