Abstract

PALACIOS RAMIREZ, José. El proceso ritual de las comunidades de alcohólicos anónimos del norte de México. Nueva antropol [online]. 2009, vol.22, n.70, pp.143-169. ISSN 0185-0636.

The object of this work is to establish some lines of reflection on the symbolic aspects and ritual character of therapeutic communities of rehabilitation such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). This work is based on the ethnographic fieldwork done in AA groups of Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, in the north of Mexico. These support communities of alcoholics offer, from a position of subordination and marginality, an spiritual way out for their members, dealing with a problem mostly forgotten by both Mexican society and government. These communities present many of the key aspects that grounded the comparative analysis of the rituals of other cultures by the ethnographers: liminarity or separation of the social body, discourse and symbolic practice that signal the search for a transcendental solution to conflicts.

Keywords : classic theories of ritual; ritual performance; alcoholism; therapeutic programs; Alcoholics Anonymous.

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