Las meigas: la transformación de un estigma en recurso patrimonial

Abstract

RESUMENEste artículo plantea una reflexión en torno a los procesos de patrimonialización de las meigas gallegas teniendo en cuenta su marginalización y exclusión en el pasado y su actual transformación y reinterpretación como recurso social. Para abordar este proceso de cambio han de tenerse en cuenta diversos factores contextuales tanto globales como locales que tienen que ver con cambios socioeconómicos y la explosión del mercado turístico. Pero, más allá de una lógica económica, el patrimonio es recurso que puede servir al cambio social a través de la recuperación de la historia de estas mujeres que fueron estigmatizadas desde una mirada misógina y excluyente.Palabras clave: Brujas, Patrimonio, Recurso social, Estigma, Género, Galicia. SUMMARYThis article reflects on the heritage formation processes of Galician witches considering their marginalization and exclusion in the past and its current transformation and reinterpretation as a social resource. To address this process of change it must be taken into account different contextual factors related to socioeconomic changes and the tourism market. But, beyond its economic purpose, heritage is a resource that can produce social changes through the recovery of witches' history; the history of women who were stigmatized from a misogynist and exclusive point of view.Key words: Witches, Heritage, Social Resource, Stigma, Gender, Galicia.La mujer, hija del pecado, madre de pecadores, tiene en su ser pecado y penitencia. Si además tiene poder, la expiación ha de ser suma. [...] Y pese a los exorcismos, la mujer los comete porque existe, porque, dado que existe, hace que otros los cometan (Valcárcel 1991: 85).

Subverting superhero and meiga imaginaries in street art narrative Fenómenas do rural

“…Both connected to the land and shaped by migration, the post-rural region of Galicia in the North West of Spain, has historically been positioned in the periphery of the Spanish nation and subject to stereotypes (see Colmeiro, 2009; Jiménez-Esquinas, 2013; Rasch, 2014). Given Galicia’s hybrid culture grounded in agriculture and migration influences, it is worth examining the narrative repair processes being undertaken by local artists, and which individuals and collectives are being portrayed as regional heroes.…”

“…Although meiga is often used as an umbrella term that encompasses Galician witches, in his study of witchcraft, social structure and symbolism in the region, Lisón Tolosana (1979) differentiates between the sabia (wise woman), bruja benéfica (benevolent witch) and meiga (evil witch). The concept has since evolved from the persecution and stigmatization around the meiga ’s social image (from the Middle Ages to the 18th century) to the positive values it has acquired more recently as a patrimonial product, creating complexities around its significance in its more recent recreations (Jiménez-Esquinas, 2013). In this process of valorization, meiga representations have been idealized by some forms of feminism as icons of rupture with the social norm and a symbol of the values of ecology and sorority.…”

“…However, Muruzábal deliberately distances his work from the obsolete concept of the broomstick-riding meiga associated with Galician women and reinterprets it through contemporary science fiction. Jiménez-Esquinas (2013) argues that, given their history of stigmatization, any contemporary meiga representations should facilitate a reflection around their historical meaning in the collective memory marked by a past of misogynistic exclusion. Considering a vision of meigas as women who subverted the mandates of society, the protagonists in FdR share this subversive function of the prevailing representations in the urban genres of street art and superhero stories.…”

“…Both global and local iconography of women in the science fiction and mythology genres have traditionally followed an objectifying canon, as seen in representations of superheroines, princesses and meigas (Coogan, 2018a; Jiménez-Esquinas, 2013; Palacios and Lojo, 2009). Meiga representations have followed the religious archetype of women as vicious sinners in an androcentric system as dictated by Kramer and Sprenger’s (2005) 1486 publication Maellus Maleficarum (aka The Witch Hammer ), a handbook for prosecuting and punishing witches during the Inquisition.…”

Arqueología de la ruptura colonial: mouros, chullpas, gentiles y abuelos en España, Bolivia y Chile en perspectiva comparada

“…Esto es así debido probablemente a su falta de 'diferencia' étnico-racial, a la desaparición del sector agrícola y a la creciente preponderancia de formas de raciocinio, individualización e instrumentalismo propias de la modernidad occidental entre las gentes del noroeste ibérico. En paralelo, cabe mencionar que sí se ha producido a nivel social un movimiento posmoderno New Age que convierte a estos seres mitológicos (como las meigas) en recursos patrimoniales, pero preservando solo el contenido simbólico aislado como patrimonio, sin la cosmovisión mítica donde cobraba sentido (Jiménez-Esquinas, 2013).…”