DE PREEMINENCIAS, ESTILOS Y COSTUMBRES: RITUALES Y PODER EN LOS CABILDOS COLONIALES. UNA APROXIMACIóN ETNOGRáFICA AL ANáLISIS DE MATERIALES DE ARCHIVO

this work is part of a larger research focused on analyzing the ritual dimension of power in colonial tucumán government (xvii and xviii centuries). ritual is understood as a constitutive element of power representation, construction and dispute in colonial order and this article examines the cabildos in order to study the ritual dimension of power in the local and ordinary government administration. guided by an ethnographic perspective and upon the exam of cabildo's official acts and a set of judicial disputes motivated by ritual issues, we intend to study how local functionaries practiced and understood the relation between power and ritual. based on this analysis we are also interested in reflecting about the specificity and potentialities that implies an anthropological approach in the study of written documents and past events.