Sangre y lógica del don entre los indígenas pumé de Venezuela. Un modelo femenino del cosmos

This paper examines the dominant modes of relatedness among Pume Indians through the circulation of female blood. The logic of Gift intervenes in the relations between Pume beings —humans, animals, and spirits sharing soul and blood–, while predation dominates their relations with other beings that are alien to Pume society, namely the “spirits of the savanna landscape”, the “spirits of the depths of the earth”, and Whites. Mythology supports the structuring place of the feminine in the constitution of the order of cosmos and thus bleeding works as an operator of social relations.