Shifting Ontologies in H uichol Ritual and Art

Summary In regard to anthropology's contemporary ontological turn, it seems to be necessary to raise the question of polyontologies. Using D escola's terminology, the H uichols ( W ixarika) of W estern M exico seem to be a case combining animistic and analogist tendencies. I avoid declaring analogism to be the dominant ontology of the H uichol, and animism to being a secondary tendency. Rather, my project is to elucidate the ontological implications of ritual complexity. H uichol ontology and cosmology appear to be unstable and based on contradictory schemes of practice. During the Peyote dance people deny the free gifts of the feathered serpent and oblige it to accept “payment.” The cloud serpent's ethos of free gift clashes with the villagers' insistence on reciprocal exchange. The transition from reciprocity to free gift and back to exchange is always a problematic process. There is no easy complementarity between the two. These same tensions are also expressed in the H uichol's peculiar style of art. Contemplating a yarn painting like The Vision of T atutsi X uweri T imaiweme by J osé B enítez S ánchez, the viewer can go back and forth between incompatible forms of knowledge and ways of viewing.