Spatial Meaning in Andean Festivals: Corpus Christi and Octavo

Abstract

Spatial divisions are also social ones in the Andes. The village, houses, paramo (moor), and jungle are all places that have social meaning. Physical movement during festivals distinguishes social and physical zones within and outside the village. As people and events move from one area to another, the social and symbolic importance of their activities change. This article describes sociospatial divisions and the significance of movement between them during festivals in Sucre, an Indian community in the central Ecuadorian Andes, where fieldwork was carried out from 1989 to 1990. The analysis focuses on two important annual festivals: Corpus Christi and Octavo. Corpus Christi officially celebrates the Eucharist, while Octavo occurs the week after Corpus Christi. During these festivals, there are various costumed participants who are associated with different spatial zones and social qualities. Their movements demonstrate the symbolic manipulation of sociospatial zones and the values attributed to them. This, in turn, indicates how they perceive themselves and the people and places around them. FESTIVAL MOVEMENT AND SOCIOSPATIAL DIVISIONS Attending Mass in the church, going to the prioste's (festival sponsor's) house to eat, dancing in the village plaza, and parading through the village, are all movements that occur during festivals throughout the year. The church and the main plaza are found in the middle of the village sector called El Centro (the Center). In some regions in the Andes, the plaza is seen as a mestizo area while the periphery is Indian (Isbell 1978:4, 61). In Sucre this is not the case--Indians and mestizos both live around the plaza and meet there. The social importance of the center in Sucre lies not in differentating ethnic groups, but in distinguishing between public and private aspects of life. The church is a public place where Masses and village meetings are held. The church plaza is also a public area. Each village sector also has a plaza which serves as a public gathering place. These public areas are associated with the village as a whole. During festivals, villagers display religious unity as they attend Mass. They also indicate secular unity when they drink and dance together in the plaza. Around the central plaza are the houses of individual families. In comparison to the church and plaza, the houses are private areas, where only relatives and friends are normally invited. They are associated with distinct household groups. This degree of privacy is demonstrated when workers who are not members of the household are fed on the porch. During festivals, the boundaries of the household expand--all who attend are invited inside to eat. For small, household-centered, life-cycle celebrations, the participants are kin. For large, community-centered celebrations like Corpus Christi, the entire community is invited. The area beyond the houses is also significant. Moving uphill, one encounters fields, pastures, and the moor. Moving downhill, one finds the valley haciendas, the road to the Pan American Highway, and the Rio Patate which follows a pass to the Amazonian lowlands. Moor and lowlands are conceived as uncivilized areas. The moor is a place of wild animals while the lowlands are associated with naked, amoral, un-Christian savages (aucas). Moor and jungle are on the periphery of Sucre both in terms of physical and cultural distance. They are, however, areas that some members of the community have visited. People go to the moor to herd cattle and young, unmarried men go to the jungle plantations to work. Knowledge of the outside world extends beyond the jungle and the moor. People also work in Quito and the coastal lowlands. Some individuals make pilgrimages as far north as Las Lajas in Colombia. Beyond this range lies an outer realm of areas that people have heard of, such as the United States and China, but have never visited. Helms (1988:4) notes that space is marked out on the vertical as well as the horizontal plane. …