Abstract

SARRA, Sonia Elizabeth. “We were here before”: Pluralizing history from the myth of origin of the Guarani in Jujuy (Argentina). Etnográfica [online]. 2020, vol.24, n.2, pp.465-484. ISSN 0873-6561.  https://doi.org/10/4000/etnográfica/9047.

Taking as a starting point versions of the widely renowned myth of the twins registered among Guarani people of Calilegua (Jujuy, Argentina), I intend to analyze its historical and political implications in the light of some of the contributions of the ontological turn. The tale of the twins allows the Guarani with whom I work to reflect about their origin and think themselves in the history as an ancestral nation which expanded across the American continent in mythical time. Far from an abstraction, this myth of origin involves a historical and political position against those discourses that stigmatize Guarani of Jujuy as “foreigners” and bring their ancestrality in the territory into question. Instead of questioning the truth about these other histories or claiming historiographical coincidence, taking native indigenous myths seriously leads to the political project of pluralizing history.

Keywords : myth; history; Guaraníes; Jujuy; ontological turn.

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