Ritual Paraphernalia and the Foundation of Religious Temples: The Case of the Tairona-Kágaba/Kogi, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Ritual as Inter-Action with Non-Humans: Pre-Hispanic Mountain Pass Shrines in the Southern Andes
A key theoretical debate in archaeology and other social sciences today concerns the notion that, in practice, agency is a faculty that can be displayed by non-human beings which, depending on worldview and context, may include anything from ghosts to places or artifacts (Gell 1998; Knappett and Malafouris 2008; Latour 2005; Walker 2009). Since agency --or the various capacities encompassed by this concept-- is a fundamental quality on which taxonomies of being are based, knowing how it is attributed to various entities in different cultures is central to understanding the cosmologies involved and, more specifically, their underlying ontologies. The far-reaching implications of this debate has led some scholars to speak of an "ontological turn" in social theory (Alberti and Marshall 2011; Henare et al. 2007; Olsen 2010). The current interest in non-human agencies has a lot in common with what is usually encompassed under the category of religion, particularly if we embrace Robin Horton´s (1960:212) definition of this concept as “an extension of social relationships beyond the confines of purely human society”, to include “personified” non-humans that have an influence on people´s lives and fate. Building on this idea, and on the tradition that conceives of ritual as the behavioral aspect of religion, we can tentatively define ritual as social action that addresses (significant) non-human agents. Thus conceived, rites and the archaeological contexts created by them afford an important opportunity for learning about the non-humans that inhabited the world of past peoples. After all, pragmatism and relationality indicate that spirits --like any other social entity, i.e., kin, enemies, pets, or gods-- become what they are in their interactions, in this case with people. Furthermore, by construing the subject matter of religion and ritual as one among other forms of social interaction and relationship--instead of a metaphysical construct such as "the sacred" (Eliade 1958) or reified "society" (Durkheim 1912 [2001])--this view makes it possible to take advantage of valuable ideas originally developed to account for non-religious phenomena, such as communication or exchange. Focusing on the archaeology of mountain passes of the Southern Andes as an example, this paper discusses the potential of these ideas for exploring the kinds of beings that inhabited the world of past peoples. The first part characterizes the rituals presently conducted on mountain passes of the southern Andes, highlighting the religious importance of these places for travelers. The second part presents other archaeological evidences documented on mountain passes across the area, putting emphasis on offering pits, “sepulchers” (Nielsen 1997), or “artificial hollows” (Pimentel 2009). Interpreting these sites as shrines --places where non-humans are addressed—the third section discusses their possible meanings and the agencies they may have engaged.
Coins, Beads, and Necklaces: On Light, Brilliance, and Sacredness in the Northern Andes
Material Religion, 2019
This paper explores the profoundly material dimensions of Andean Catholicism, an aspect that has been under-examined by anthropological inquiries of the Catholic expansion in the "New World", and its role in developing a unique Andean "material" ontology. Recent discussions on the inseparability of mind and matter in Andean worldviews manifest their embodiment of mind and matter by a shared matrix of animated substance, with all materials being attributed some kind of potency and agency. My paper presents the analysis of a specific form of jewelry, namely necklaces that combine colored beads, coins, and Catholic items, showing that in the area of fieldwork sacredness and its multiple manifestations are located in the world of Christianity, and manifested through specific materials associated with "light". Here-as elsewhere in the Andes-"enlightened" materials, imbued with the quality of radiance and brilliance, are material manifestations and sources of "the divine".
Toward an Archaeology of Ritual Practice in southern Central America (2018, Paris)
Archaeology studies past practices through fields of action. In Mesoamerica, such fields exist across different scales of analysis, and for example lead research to identify individual or family routines in domestic and workshop settings. At the opposite end of this are large-scale periodic communal practices, often referred to as political or ritual. In these latter fields, insights into longue durée transformation are prone to be foregrounded at the expense of insights into human actions and its transmission within a group. The settings for such rituals are invariably referred to as 'public', 'ceremonial' or 'communal', depending on the archaeological region of period in question. Ritual practices in indigenous societies in Central America are mostly explained by viewing ritual in systematic terms, echoing Sahlins and Geertz. Chiefly authority is seen to be combined with that of ritual practitioner, rendering ritual itself seemingly a-historical and closely linking it to questions of political power. Ritual activity, and its pertaining material culture, is thus proposed as an irreducible functionalist fact, typically regarded for divination, communication with supernatural realms, and symbolic violence. Here, I will argue for a historical view on ritual in the prehistories we assemble and study, focusing attention on the question of ritual landscapes in southern Central America-a region with ample indicators for ritualized activity, but archaeologically challenged by a material culture with an abstract visual language, and a historical record lacking in individual events, except perhaps for volcanic eruptions. Spanish: La arqueología estudia prácticas pasadas a través de campos de acción. En Mesoamérica, tales campos existen en diferentes escalas de análisis, y por ejemplo apoyan a identificar rutinas individuales o familiares en entornos domésticos y en talleres. En el extremo opuesto, se encuentran las prácticas comunitarias periódicas a gran escala, a menudo denominadas 'políticas' o 'rituales'. En los últimos campos, los conocimientos sobre la transformación longue durée son propensos a ser enfocados a expensas de la comprensión de las acciones humanas y su transmisión dentro de un grupo. Los espacios para tales rituales se denominan invariablemente como 'públicos', 'ceremoniales' o 'comunales', dependiendo de la región o período arqueológico en cuestión. Las prácticas rituales en las sociedades indígenas en el sur de Centroamérica se explican mayormente viendo a rituales en términos sistémicos, haciéndose eco de Sahlins y Geertz. La autoridad principal se considera combinado con la del especialista ritual, convirtiendo el ritual en algo aparentemente a-histórico y vinculándolo estrechamente a cuestiones de poder político. La actividad ritual, y su cultura material pertinente, se propone, así como un hecho funcionalista irreductible, típicamente destinado a la adivinación, la comunicación con los ámbitos sobrenaturales y la violencia simbólica. Aquí, propondré una visión histórica en las prehistorias que reunimos y estudiamos, enfocado en los paisajes rituales del sur de Centroamérica-una región rica en referencias a actividad ritual, pero desafiada arqueológicamente por cultura material con lenguaje visual abstracto, y un registro histórico que carece de eventos individuales, a excepción quizás de las erupciones volcánicas. 2
‘Dancing the image’: materiality and spirituality in Andean religious ‘images’
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2012
In the Christian tradition, representing the divine has often been considered both an impossible and yet necessary endeavour rooted in the human need in certain moments of weakness to visualize God. In this article, based on research findings from fieldwork carried out with urban indigenous groups in La Paz, Bolivia, I suggest that the articulation of local and Catholic representational traditions and practices has produced an understanding of the religious image not so much as an object of detached contemplation or a reference to a religious symbol but rather as an energized element which physically shapes the relationship and exchange between the material and the spiritual world. I suggest that through a study of Andean religious images we may be able to produce an alternative ontological perspective on the relationship between the spiritual, material, and living worlds. La Paz stands on the vertiginous slopes that lead from the Andean plateau at an altitude of 12,000 feet to the bottom of a mountain canyon, and the view from both the top and the bottom is equally breathtaking. With a mixture of fear and affection, its inhabitants call La Paz la hoyada-the pit. At the bottom of the canyon, the Choqueyapu River divides the city into two halves-a geographical division that the Spanish colony embraced and used for administrative purposes. The Choqueyapu and the Mejawira rivers became the boundaries separating the social and political centre of the colonial city, in the eastern part, from the three main indigenous barrios or 'parishes'-San Sebastián, San Pedro, and Santa Bárbara-to which access was prohibited at night for non-indigenous settlers. The contemporary social and ethnic divisions in the urban structure of La Paz reflect that colonial partition (cf. Gill 2000). The western slope of La Paz-known in Spanish as la ladera-maintains a strong association with the urbanized indigenous world and practices and it is clearly marked by their flair, markets, and religious celebrations. In a context where racial demarcations remain palpable and the indigenous world is still stigmatized by its association with poverty, backwardness, and tradition, urbanized indigenous people (cholo-mestizos 1) have established themselves as successful traders of bs_bs_banner
Ritual and Performance in Andean Plazas
The study of human interactions and ways of communication that occurred in the public centers of ancient Peru have not traditionally captured the attention of researchers. However, in recent years much of the rapid growth of communication theory in archaeological settings has been dedicated to the relationships between ritual performances and theater-space (Moore 1996; Inomata and Coben 2006). It is known from archaeological investigations and ethnohistoric accounts that Peru's pre-hispanic ceremonial plazas involved the congregation of vast numbers of pilgrims who participated actively in rituals related to celestial cycles and calendrical events in a cyclical pattern. Given the large size of the Andean plazas, verbal communication alone could not have reached the totality of the spectators. Therefore, in these plazas, much of the ritual performances probably necessitated the support of nonverbal communication: physical movements, theatrical expressions and allegorical costumes. These public events were colorful spectacles of music and religious fervor. However, we know few details about how this ritual was developed. Archaeology by itself cannot answer detailed ritual narratives. Most of what we know about Andean religion comes from the Spanish writers who witnessed the process of invasion and incorporation of the Andes under the Spanish rule. In the implacable task of converting the native population to Catholicism, 1 Victor M Ponte Final Anthro 804 missionaries learned the Quechua language and recorded ancient "paganism" or demonic practices of local and extended cults. Although these accounts are far from accurate due to the restrictions of the language, biases of the interpreter, misspellings of the writer and the incomprehension of the event or the rite described, they still contain invaluable details capable of analysis in the most fructiferous ways (MacCormack 1991). Durkheim's (1965) definition of religion as motor of social cohesion and solidarity can be applied to the ancient societies of the Andes, who forged an immense civilization (i.e. the Inkas) based on a ceremonial way of life, symmetry with the sacred landscape, and cult to a pantheon of local deities. The mighty capaccuna Inkas built public spaces, which served to congregate people and where linguistic acts, non-linguistic performances, ritualized actions and leader commands could occur. In this essay, I want to explore the theatrical elements involved in the performances, the number of participants in relation to the size of the plazas, the nature of the message (ritual), and how the message was delivered. The ceremonial architecture and the display of artifacts associated with these actions had an important communicative meaning; both which are key to interpreting the performance. In this sense, the focus on proxemics in archaeological settings, such as the large sociopolitical Inka centers, can provide insight into "the modes of ritual communication in those spaces" (Moore 1996:789). The Inka plazas constituted the central point for massive public gatherings consisting of mostly lavish festivals in which the discourse was directed by religious authorities related to the Inka power.
In this chapter, imagery on Ulúa marble vases from the lower Ulúa Valley of Honduras is explored from the perspective of conceptual landscapes and place-making at Travesía. I argue that the color of the stone-white marble-and the associated iconography are related to localized understandings of paradisical ancestral spheres. The portable nature of Ulúa marble vases enabled this spiritual realm to be presented during social and political events in the region and abroad in both lower Central America and the central Maya lowlands. [architecture, Honduras, landscape, marble, Ulúa]