(VEE) MEXICO CITY HOSTS CONFERENCE ON OTOMI' PEOPLE

(VELINO) Roma, 25 May - The Italian Cultural Institute will host a lecture by Federica Rainelli entitled "Gente de costumbre. Life and ritual practices of the Otomi' tribes in the Sierra Madre Oriental", on May 31 at 7:00 p.m.. A small strip of land, nestled between the Sierra Norte de Puebla and Huasteca Sud in the mountains of the Sierra Madre Oriental, is known as the Otomi'-Tepehua region, after the ethnic groups that live there. This is the backdrop against which Ms Rainelli will discuss some of the most important elements of the culture and lifestyle of the Otomi' tribes. Emphasis will be placed on their ideas and practical and theoretical knowledge that define their cosmovision, or view of the world, and the richly faceted ritual life it generates. The lecture will portray the daily life of the Otomi' people, a reality which is geographically close but very removed from us from different standpoints. It is a daily life imbued in age-old beliefs, knowledge and practices that are interwoven with the elements of modern life. Ms Rainelli is a post-graduate student at the University of Padua and at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Social in Paris and a member of the Italian Ethnological Mission in Mexico. vel
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