A Dog’s Life Among the Teenek Indians (Mexico): Animals’ Participation in the Classification of Self and Other

Abstract

The Teenek (or Huastec) Indians in Mexico’s Northeast maintain an ambivalent relationship with their dogs. On the one hand, these dogs, famished and mangy, are constantly targeted for blows and other forms of torment. On the other hand, according to indigenous cosmology, a person should treat his or her dog well, since after death it is the dog that will guide the dead to the afterworld. A contradiction seems to exist between these two opposite positions. However, an examination of the names given by the Teenek to their dogs and the language used to address them could provide a solution to this apparent riddle. Furthermore, the analysis may well reveal a classification system of Self and Other, uncovering a subtle indigenous process for the preservation of the memory of an autochthonous tradition.