Odysseus and the Inca: Culture, Society and Death

Abstract

This articleseeks to think about someimportant aspects ofWestern Culturepresent in"The Odyssey": the force of cultural tradition; life in societyandman's relationshipwith death.From thereit examines how theInca, in themythologyof the tribesPano, see thesesame threepoints. Thelatindemiurgealso appearsas a referenceto the lives ofmentoday.Heproducesother responses, however, forthe same issues.We seek tounderstand the relationshipof Odysseuswith deathandbecause hedid not accept theproposalof immortality, made byCalipso. This can onlybe analyzedfrom the perspectiveof social andfamily relationshipsin the context ofClassical Greece, seen asstronglydistinct from thoseof the contextof Amazonian Panotribes.