Life and Death in the Mazahua Worldview in the Context of Covid-19

Abstract In response to the confinement measures enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic, a series of narratives emerged in the Mazahua ethnic region of central Mexico that were deeply connected to the Mesoamerican worldview of this people. This research aims to analyse the reasons why such narratives gained greater prominence in this context and to examine how these narratives manifest in situations of heightened morbidity and mortality. Through ethnographic fieldwork, including testimonial and in-depth interviews conducted immediately after the pandemic, narratives about the experience of confinement in several Mazahua communities were produced and uncovered. These narratives reveal that the Mesoamerican beliefs of the Mazahua people are often collectively kept in the background during times of harmony but resurface with intensity during periods of morbidity and mortality. The study particularly found that Mazahua beliefs are not centred on an affirmative search for truth but rather on a thought process oriented toward existential being.