El nixtamal preparado con ceniza: Una receta en el rarámuri de Norogachi

Abstract

Documented oral texts in Uto-Aztecan languages of northern Mexico are scarce in comparison with oral texts in languages from central and southern Mexico. This unavailability of oral texts indicates that documenting these languages is a high priority. This is the case for the Tarahumara/Rarámuri language. The oral text presented here is not the first text in Tarahumara or Rarámuri published in Tlalocan. However, it does represent the first instance in a series of oral texts collected recently, and more importantly, documented by using current methodologies implemented in a documentation project. This contribution to Tlalocan serves as a different written register from narratives in Rarámuri. The text ‘Échi napíwili napisó kítila newáami’ is a sample of a procedural discourse as shown when telling a recipe. This procedure tells us about a cultural practice that used to be more common among Rarámuri people: how to prepare hominy (nixtamal) by using pine ashes. Rarámuri people consider this practice as common among the ki’yawáli ‘the ancestors’ and the ochélame ‘the elders’.