The work addressed the extent to which the strongly vertically segmented high-mountain landscape influences the perception and representation of space in religious rituals. In addition, analysis was conducted into how the diverse Fiestas de Santiago are combined into an entire festival season and integrated into a complex ritual landscape. In this context, for example, the intensive reciprocal relations existing between ceremonies in rural and urban space were worked out.

Research

At the center of the research were the processions and rituals of Fiestas de Santiago in Cotabambas, a province in the southern highlands of Peru. The rituals that are observed during these religious festivities permit a comprehensive view of the spatial conceptions of the indigenous peasant population of this region. For example, seasonal vertical movements are taken up in the symbolism of the festival, various parts of the landscape or the social, natural and economic concepts associated with them, figure as important themes. Against this background the work addressed the extent to which the strongly vertically segmented high-mountain landscape influences the perception and representation of space in religious rituals. In addition, analysis was conducted into how the diverse Fiestas de Santiago are combined into an entire festival season and integrated into a complex ritual landscape. In this context, for example, the intensive reciprocal relations existing between ceremonies in rural and urban space were worked out. In the face of the standard characterization of rituals as, for example, local and regional, kin-based and collective, Catholic and ´Andean´cult, the relations between these aspects, which are often seen as opposed, will be emphasized.

The dissertation was successfully completed in 2013.

Publication

Axel Schäfer, Die Spur des Heiligen. Raum, Ritual und die Feier des Santiago in den südlichen zentralen Anden, Berlin: Edition Topoi, 2016