About the author:

DR. RACHEL CORR

• Professor of Anthropology

• Professor at the Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University. She has conducted
ethnographic fieldwork in Ecuador since 1990.
• A cultural anthropologist with extensive fieldwork experience in Ecuador.

• Her research has focused on ritual, shamanism, ethno history, sacred geography, and ethno
genesis.

• Thought an interdisciplinary setting and introducing students from a variety of backgrounds to

the approaches of anthropology.

 She wrote 2 books entitled: Interwoven: Andean Lives in Colonial Ecuador’s Textile Economy and
Ritual and Remembrance in the Ecuadorian Andes
 Has 9 Journal Article which are Trasplantes incaicos o etnogénesis poscolonial? El origen de los
salasacas de la Sierra ecuatoriana, Ritual, rumores y rebelión en Pelileo en el siglo XVIII,
Ethnogenesis, Ethnicity, and "Cultural Refusal" : The Case of the Salasacas in Highland Ecuador,
Death, Dice, and Divination: Rethinking Religion and Play in South America, To Throw the
Blessing: Poetics, Prayer, and Performance in the Andes, " We make them give more " :
Women's roles in the exchange and redistribution of food across ethnic boundaries, Reciprocity,
Communion, and Sacrifice: Food in Andean Ritual and Social Life, A Tribute to Sibby Whitten and
Ritual, Knowledge, and the Politics of Identity in Andean Festivities.

I am a cultural anthropologist with extensive fieldwork experience in Ecuador. My research has focused
on ritual, shamanism, ethnohistory, sacred geography, and ethnogenesis.

I enjoy teaching in an interdisciplinary setting and introducing students from a variety of backgrounds to
the approaches of anthropology. I find it especially rewarding to see students carry out their thesis
research, and present the culmination of that research at the annual research symposium.

CONCLUSION:

Both tourism and indigenous politics promote a commodity of an objectified indigenous culture that can
be neatly packaged. In Salasaca, this is happening as some indigenous people turn to books to learn
about what they consider to be their culture (see also Orta 1998 for a case in Bolivia). For some political
leaders, the meaning of culture is very different from the view of it being fluid, emergent, and
multivocal. These leaders portray culture as an essential thing that belonged to their ancestors, was
almost destroyed by colonialism and missionary efforts, and must be salvaged, rescued, repackaged, and
taught to indigenous people who have "lost" it.
Abstract
As anthropologists criticize the essentialist descriptions of South American indigenous peoples as
anachronistic guardians of ancient traditions, some indigenous peoples are promoting just such an
image of themselves. In 1996, political authorities in Salasaca, Ecuador, changed the process for
selecting festival sponsors from appointment by nuns to a competition in which festival sponsors were
tested on their knowledge of local culture and history, particularly knowledge of sacred geography.

This article traces the rise and fall of the competitions and the changing role of the alcalde. The
competition was a ritual display of culture, but one that emphasized "traditional" knowledge from local
elders. Several of the questions for the competition were about sacred geography: places such as
mountains and crossroads that have long been a part of collective and individual religious experiences.
This knowledge of sacred places has now become a symbol of cultural heritage and local identity, and
the landscape has become a part of the identity politics of the competition for sponsorship.

Discussion:

8. Answer to the best of your knowledge:

-In which year was the school Fray Bartolome de las Casas founded?

-In what year did Salasaca become a parish?

A visiting nonindigenous priest and the Salasacan priest, Father Ignacio, presided over the New
Year's Mass together in 1998. Both spoke of the important responsibilities of holding the position of
alcalde. The visiting priest spoke Spanish, and Father Ignacio, who was the first Salasacan to become a
priest, spoke in Quichua. An ideal alcalde should serve the church and the community and encourage
people to attend mass, they said. After Father Ignacio spoke, he gave the varas, the staffs of office, to
each alcalde, starting with the alcalde mayor. Each alcalde kissed the vara as he received it and pledged
to serve the church and the people. Father Ignacio spoke to each one, telling the alcaldes to be alli
michiq (good shepherds), and he told the people to respect the authority of the vara.

-In what year did it become an Ecclesiastical Parish known as "The Immaculate
Salasaca"?

48 ETHNOLOGY
-In what year was UNIS (Union of Indigenous Directors of Salasaca) founded?
In 1996, the priest and nuns each had more than one name recorded for the position.
This led to a dispute among those competing for the position, so the young Salasacan leaders
formed a committee to revise the requirements. Members of the committee included the
president of UNIS (the Union of Indigenous Salasacans), the teniente politico (political
lieutenant), the Salasacan church secretary, Salasacan knowledgeable elders, and the nuns
(Madres Lauritas), who supported this effort. In order to select an alcalde mayor, the
committee decided to evaluate each candidate based on his standing in the community, his
relationship with his family, and his cultural knowledge. The candidates would prepare for an
evaluation by learning as much as they could about the Catholic prayers and Salasacan customs.
Some candidates prepared for the competition by holding sessions with rezachicuna (prayer
makers), men who know the traditional Catholic prayers.2
-Why do we say Cruz Pamba?
Cruz Pamba, the merging of roads at the border of the parish,
has been sacred for generations, and continues to be the locus of religious experience
for many people. People leave offerings at Cruz Pamba for witchcraft, healing, and
other petitions. In 1994, the alcaldes made a gesture of their dedication to the
community by donating a large cross for this site.

-Why do we say Quinchi Urcu?

It is clear from the list of questions that the leaders viewed local sacred places as a
significant part of their culture, as something worth preserving in this new tradition. For
example,

Quinchi Urcu is a mountain that people use for various petitions. These include the acquisition
of writing skills, healing, safe pregnancy and childbirth, getting the urge to spin wool (for
women), and the ability to weave quickly (for men). Shamans leave offerings on this mountain
for their clients. On any given day, one can go to the natural shrines on the mountain and find
the remains of offerings. Healing offerings include dolls made from an animal bone, or colored
ribbons tied around a live guinea pig. Other offerings include of tiny musical instruments to
improve musical talent, and model looms or spindles in order to improve textile production.

On one occasion I saw a letter written to "Mama Quinchi," the mountain mother. Some
people speak of acquiring a vision of Tayta Quinchi Urcu, the mountain master, after having
slept on the mountain all night in order to acquire shamanic or musical powers. Older people
held rain-making rituals on the mountain during a severe drought, and narratives of that ritual
are part of the collective memory of younger generations. The mountain has been sacred for
generations.

Although competition questions about the mountain are part of an official discourse about an
objectified culture, there is no doubt that people use knowledge of the sacred mountain in
everyday practice (Corr 2000). Thus, question 8 on the list put into the discourse of "cultural
rescue" knowledge that really is part of lived experience. Mountain offerings are part of the
private, personal aspect of religious practice.

Usually one or two people go to the mountain with an offering and prayers, or sometimes a
small group of friends go together. Those men who wanted to be the alcalde mayor learned
even more about the history and names of places from the elders. Religious practices at sacred
places became part of the public realm of identity politics.

-Why was it previously known as Danzana Calzana?

-How many songs were written by the unforgettable "animador" (a church youth musician
tragically killed by a car) Roberto Masaquiza?

-Why do we say Soltera Nan?

-How many people founded Salasaca, between men and women?

-Who were the first Salasacan craftsmen?

-Why do we say Ashcu Pantion?

-What relation will you have with your fellow alcaldes when you become alcalde mayor?

-Who was the first Salasacan teacher?

Questions for the Women (Mamas Alcaldas):

-What is cochineal used for?

-Who was the first Nusta (Quichua for "princess") of Salasaca?

-How many fiestas exist in Salasaca?

The festival sponsors in Salasaca include the Capitan, who sponsors the festival
of Capitan, the Caporales (there may be more than one) who sponsor the festival of
Caporales, and the Alcaldes, who sponsor Carnaval, Palm Sunday, Quasimodo,
Corpus Christi, the Octava de Corpus Christi, and the Chishi Octava.
https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=rurihFfw9KUC&pg=PA157&lpg=PA157&dq=Cruz+Pamb
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EwBnoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=Cruz%20Pamba&f=false