Festividades andinas y religiosidad en el Norte Chileno

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of our research on important religious festivities celebrated by the population ethnically ascribed as Aymara in the far North of Chile, an area bordering Bolivia and Peru. This is a descriptive study aiming to interpret these celebrations in the context of the representation of time-space, in order to provide empirical data that contributes to a better understanding of Aymara culture and identity. This material indicates that although the forms of these rituals are changing and subject to shifting meanings, they have not been sufficiently studied. We propose that these changes in the systems of religious beliefs and practices relate to the processes of modernization occurring during the twentieth century, which affected the communities studied here in more recent times. Religious institutions have also prompted changes; it is possible to observe that their increasing presence has resulted in greater continuity with the dominant Christian culture, together with the always extant processes of local appropriation.