Fronteras del corazón shamánico: Azares y dilemas Qom

in this paper i analyze certain dilemmas and paradoxes of modernity in the case of the takshek qom or eastern toba (formosa province, argentina). to do so i focus on the experience of the heart or lkillakte, defined as the person's key vital and existential center. within it thoughts and emotions occur, and it also houses different kinds of shamanic power. from a symbolic approach, i explore what happens with the shamanic heart under the influence of catholicism and evangelism, stressing their definitions of the sacred and numinous power, illness and therapy. in this sense, i suggest to regard the heart as a place-process that has widened its boundaries, redefining its anatomy and ontological physiology. thus, as a sensible, metonymic operator, i argue that the contingencias of shamanic hearts condense events, symbols and meaningful metaphors of qom history.