The rhythm of enchantment among the indigenous people of the Alto Sertão of Alagoas according to Marcel Jousse anthropology of gesture

Abstract

In this paper I seek to present some points of Marcel Jousse's theory, in dialogue with what I understand about the process of enchantment among the indigenous people of Alto Sertão Alagoas, Jiripankó, Kalankó, Katokinn, Karuazú and Koiupanká, not only dealing with cosmological aspects, but their implications in materiality. With this we observe cosmology in a ritual sense and the interaction and collective organisation through what I understand as gesture and rhythm in Marcel Jousse's theory. To arrive at this understanding I sought to use the conception of ritual as a form of facilitating and making life possible, starting from a triad that comprises Praiá, the enchanted beings of the Pankararu (trunk) and their descendants/s (branch/s). In this way, in agreement with Jousse, I see in the gesture the motivation for the production and continuity of the existence of these peoples, an indigenous and countryside gesture. This is an ethnographic study, of my stay among these peoples where transcriptions of Jousse's oral expositions are also used, as well as reflections about this author made in the seminars "La vida de los Gestos" at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México-UNAM.