Pastoral Coreographies

Intercorporeality, Landscape and Movement in the Quebrada de Humahuaca

Abstract

 This paper explores the relationship between the inhabitants of rural areas of the Quebrada de Humahuaca and animals (whether domestic or not), based on the inherent mobility in the practice of herding. Analysis focuses on the correlation of movements between people and animals, either when the shepherd walks with his sheep or in the bodily ways of relating to the cougar, one of the area’s usual predators. From a phenomenological perspective based on the concept of intercorporeality, it can be concluded that the movements and body gestures of shepherds and animals can be considered as a way of interspecific communication, through which intentions and moods become readable to one another while sharing the same physical and experiential context.