Geopolítica del inframundo. Determinismo y causalidad síquica entre los ancestros otomíes

This article will examine the geopolitics of the Otomi ancestors in the south of the Huasteca region of Mexico, more precisely, how they manage simultaneously the collective endemic violence that prevails in the underworld and that also constitutes part of their relationship with the living. Based on shamanic doxa supported by abundant iconographic material (the “idols”), it is possible to decrypt the native conception of cognitive mechanisms responsible for the production of local worldviews, by examining how links are established between neurophysiological processes and mental images. Or, put more succinctly, how the destiny of cultural representations (i.e. those collected by the anthropologist through an extensive process of transference and counter transference) is being negotiated through the modus operandi of psychic causality which, in Otomi terms, refers to the omnipresence of nzahki, the universal force. This force acts as a dynamic process that makes possible the distribution of mental images and is responsible, in final analysis, for the complex articulation between percepts, affects and concepts. At the same time, it sheds light upon how the Otomi people conceptualise determinism and the limits of freedom experienced by humans.