Historia oral, vida y muerte en la región rural andina. :El caso del llashaco, en la comunidad de Bacpancel, provincia del Azuay, en el austro ecuatoriano

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to understand the role of an Andean narrative regarding a character called llashaco in the community of Bacpancel (province of Azuay, Ecuador). The story refers to facts and characters from the past that, however, continue to have an impact on the daily life of the community in the present. An anthropological analysis that involves this oral history allows us to approach the ways in which some historical facts are symbolized and transformed into narratives that have the purpose, in this case, to announce the death and insecurity experienced in the Andean rural communities, in general, and in Bacpancel, in particular. The importance of the narrative lies in the fact that it is a story with the ability to transform both temporality and spatiality and the meaning that are granted to living spaces, such as hills in rural Andean regions, symbolizing the transit between life and death. It is also important because it is an example of the syncretism generated between the traditional pre-Hispanic culture and the realities brought during the colony, as is the case of leprosy disease, which gave rise to the history of Llashaco. The research is the result of a long period of linking the researcher with the community. For the specific moment of the investigation, a series of interviews were also carried out in order to obtain different versions of the aforementioned story. The document is in four chapters. In the first we present the story about the llashaco and its variations; In the second chapter we analyze the perception, conception and management of space by the residents of the community. In the third chapter we approach an interpretation referring to the way death is understood from the perspective of tanatological anthropology. Finally, in the fourth chapter we present what we consider central in terms of the results of the investigation: to understand the role of the story about llashaco in terms of denunciation and social construction about (in)security.