La comida ritual de los nahuas de San Pedro Petlacala por la petición de lluvia

The ritual food of the Nahuas of San Pedro Petlacala’s petition for rain Ritual foods must be analyzed in the context of ritual practices realized by their actors. This is the case for the petition for rain ritual among the Nahuas of the La Montaña region in the state of Guerrero, Mexico, where food is used to compose offerings and also plays a central role in the dances. From an indigenous perspective, the divinities of the ritual are hungry just like human beings and must be fed through ritual food. The preparation of food (tamales, tortillas, goat or chicken broth) is significant and full of symbolic references that we will analyze in two ways: 1) the relationship with the ontological otherness through possible symbolic links in the offerings; 2) the political change caused by the sacred food with an inversion of categories expressed by the dance. Through the theoretical framework and the verification derived from the ritual practices, both perspectives suggest the idea that the ritual food composes multiple allegoric meanings with a specific purpose that, for its interpretation, conjointly need the analysis of social, political and religious elements.