Abstract

HERNANDEZ, Graciela. En tiempos del malón: Testimonios indígenas sobre la "conquista del desierto". Mem. am. [online]. 2006, n.14, pp.139-166. ISSN 1851-3751.

We will analyze oral testimonies about the Conquest of the Desert given by Indian narrators. A research team in La Pampa Province compiled most of them and the rest was compiled during fieldwork in Bahía Blanca. The sources tell about different material and symbolic aspects generated by war. In them memory mixes up with identity issues, in other words the present and the past are linked. We have selected two narrative themes, "the lion's help" and the tale of cherufe in order to analyze symbolic aspects of this war. The first is about the alliance made by the lion and the ranqueles when the latter were expelled from their land and resettled to the south; the second, the tale of cherufe, refers to a talisman stone that enabled some ranquel warriors to resist longer the attacks of the army.

Keywords : Original people; Memory; Oral testimonies; Narrative.

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