La manda religiosa en santuarios de baile

Abstract

This study reflects on the nature and changes of the religious conscience of dancers and devotees on pilgrimage to the festivals of La Tirana and Andacollo, the two most important dance-sanctuaries in Chile. Based on comparative survey data, a decline of offering as the main reason for dancing or visiting the Virgin is shown. Dancers tend to substitute offerings for free devotion, which implies less strict committed obligations and less external punishment. The offering tends propitiously to clerical teaching, although the devotion remains in many respects independent from a significant clerical and sacramental mediation. The main results issue forth from a replica of Juan van Kessel's survey dated about fifty years ago La Tirana, which was this time also applied to the Andacollo sanctuary.