Deployments Of An Anthropologist: A Yogini Among Priests, Nuns And Rarámuri

Abstract

I was born in a Catholic family, I´m an anthropologist and a yoga practitioner. These are three of my facets, I am the same in one and only one in different. I will show how all my possible selves unfold and influence my field work. My current research is on the changes in the Catholic mission in the Sierra Tarahumara from 1958 to 2020. During the fieldwork I got involved with the priests, religious of various congregations and with the Rarámuri of various communities. I visited the communities with the priests and the nuns, accompanied them during Masses, celebrations of the word and went with them to rarámuri de yúmari celebrations; I helped them to baptize, as well as with the Infant Nutrition Program to weigh and measure children from 0 to 5 years to identify malnutrition, to distribute food pantries to families. I lived with them to such a degree that the Rarámuri repeatedly identified me as a “little nun”, a missionary or a volunteer. The nuns invited me to be part of their congregations. Otherwise, I do consider myself religious and with an active spiritual life from the practice of yoga and meditation. Those who knew this facet of me and connected with it, asked me for yoga classes, especially Jesuits.