Practices, narratives and temporality in Cusi Cusi (Rinconada, Jujuy):

a hermeneutic perspective

Abstract

In this paper we present the results of interpreting a series of ethnographic interviews conducted to people from Cusi Cusi (Rinconada, Jujuy, Argentina) on the occasion of laying out a communitarian museum. The interviews were about the relationships between past and present, therefore, they were useful as material to interpret notions of temporality among people from Cusi Cusi and the relationship between practice and narrative. To this end, we applied the interpretative tools from the Anthropology of Experience along with philosophical phenomenology and hermeneutics. We propose that temporality in Cusi Cusi synthesizes two logics: a circular one, related to the traditional Andean system of thought, and a lineal one, related to the work of Western institutions. However, they both operate in daily practice in a coherent way. On the other hand, we detected some contradictions between the practical experiences of the inhabitants and their subsequent narrative, what could relate, among other reasons, to their age and gender. Finally, we think that the logics of temporality in Cusi Cusi are not so different from our own, so caution must be taken when “exoticizing” other people’s narratives.