MEMELITAS FOR THE AFTERLIFE: PJIEKAKJO RITUAL FOOD

Abstract

It is the objective of this work to enunciate the memelitas as a funeral ritual meal among the Pjiekakjo
indigenous population, in Mexico. These memelitas are made and placed inside the coffin of the
women and men “deceased” (adults); to be taken to "the afterlife", they have just passed away.
In theoretical and methodological terms, the research was approached particularly from the
anthropology of food subject. The results highlight the centrality of the food made for the deceased
in funeral rites or rituals. Likewise, some cultural, affective, emotional, cosmogonic and ontological
links between living people, recently deceased people, corn and dogs in this earthly life are notable;
which does not end, but continues precisely thanks to death; for this reason, the existence of "another
life" is proposed for the Pjiekakjo people.