The aim of this paper is to show the distinctive features and the socio-cultural implications of the eastern highland Otomí cult of the dead. Specifically, it analyzes the veneration of the so-called animitas, prototypical dead worshipped throughout the year in a complex system of mayordomías or ritual obligations. In this study, the dead are a constant presence in everyday life and the pronounced repercussions of this cult shape the construction and consolidation of social relations among the living. Finally, the article explores how this ritual practice rests on a process of abstraction from the particular to the general, shown through the “deification,” or rather the “hypostatization,” of the dead, in which the deceased lose their individual identity to merge with the collective of ancestors, not only as progenitors of the lineage, but also of the entire ethnic group, and as such, it is responsible for the group’s sustenance.