Practices and categories of kinship in Jasimaná, north western andean Argentina

Abstract

During the Spanish colonization, the genealogical ideology and the Catholic model
of legitimate marriage and descent have spread in America. Nonetheless, indigenous
“cultures” of family and kinship have lasted and they still exist in Andean Argentina.
The text aims to analyse emic categories and practices of kinship people performe
in the highland of Jasimaná (province of Salta, NWA-North Western Argentina),
from the perspective of cultural anthropology. Ethnographic method, case study
and graphic reconstruccions of family networks allow us to focus on the dynamics
of the local domestic groups to point out their cultures of kinship, taking under
consideration that the highland is part of a wider historical and cultural context, such
as the North Western of Argentina and the Andean macro area.