CONTENIDO

CONTENTS

SPIS TREŚCI

Prefacio

Foreword

Przedmowa

The footprints of the road. Cult and devotion to our Lady of Rocio in American Lands, immaterial culture of Andalusia

One of the most important Marian cults in Spain is that of El Rocío, in whose hermitage thousands of faithful congregate every year from many diff erent places. Its devotional roots in other countries are fundamentally linked to groups of Andalusian immigrants, although this is not the only way of penetrating them. In their celebration, they generally reproduce on a small scale and overcoming geographical distances, the basic elements of the Almonte pilgrimage, deepening in cultural and social aspects, beyond the religious ones, which sink their roots in the rich Andalusian immaterial heritage. In this article we will analyze the traces of their devotion in countries such as Argentina, the United States, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico and Peru, among others.

Devotional representations in mission churches of the Mojos region (Bolivia) in the light of inventories of the epoch of expulsion

The article presents three types of representations that may be found at the time of the Jesuits’ exile in mission churches of the order in the Mojos region of Bolivia. The fi rst group comprises devotional images typical of the Catholic Church, created in the post-Tridentine period; these are representations of Our Lady, Christ, Saints and biblical scenes. The second group consists of representations of fi gures associated with the Jesuit Order. While the third group includes representations and titles typical of the Viceroyalty of Peru, such as Señor de los Temblores, Virgen de Cocharcas and Nuestra Señora de Belén (from Cusco). All the titles have been determined on the basis of the inventories of 1767, stored in Sucre in Archivo y Biblioteca Nacional de Bolivia (ABNB, signature: M y Ch, GRM, vol. 1, I and My Ch, GRM, vol. 1, III) and accounts from that period, which contain both information about the representations themselves and their frames associated with worship of the effi gies. In the summary part, the objects concerned are presented in a broader context, both Peruvian, American and European one.

Piety and sumptuousness: the liturgical ornaments of three Lima collections

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the knowledge of liturgical ornaments in general, as well as to bring readers closer to understanding of the importance of the collections of the Cathedral Basilica of Lima, the San Francisco Convent and the Nazarenas Carmelitas Descalzas Monastery. These works not only present contents and particularities based on their symbolic character promoted by the Church, but also integrate plastic values of local origin.

The paths of good and evil in the 18th-century painting of the New Spain

The Catholic Church propagated the idea of the existence of two paths, that of good and that of evil, through images, so that the faithful would regulate their conduct based on the teaching they contained. The path of good, which was ethically recommended, led to heaven. It was called “the path of thorns” because it was of renouncing earthly goods and satisfactions in favour of suff ering. The path of evil, presided by the demon, led to hell. It was called “the path of roses” because it was pleasant. In him amusements prevailed, the good life and the enjoyment of sensory pleasures.

The jícaras in a sacred path experience of the young Huichol initiates.

Among the Huichol Indians, an initiatory tradition has been preserved that consists of a series of fi ve cycles of pilgrimages to the sacred desert. During their lives, each member of the commu – nity travels at least once to the desert, but young people who aspire to important positions within their group, dedicate ten to fi fteen years to this task, during which they carry out countless reli – gious activities. Within the dual indigenous conception of life, one of these activities consists of seeking and achieving an internal balance between the opposites. Through a symbolic element, a natural container for water, a jícara, the young apprentices are weaving a network of sacred paths towards achieving an organic equanimity between the two primordial forces that make up the universe: the masculine and the feminine. The article presents and accompanies the young jicareros in the fi ve main stopping places carried out during a pilgrimage cycle. From a cave, an underground jícara in the interior of the earth, to the sea, a huge jícara in constant contact with the sky, pilgrims deposit prayers and off erings in the vicinity of the bodies of water. In this way, through sensual contact with the vital liquid, water collecting in the jícaras, purifi cation baths, and symbolic exchanges, acts of gratitude are carried out and permits are obtained to open access portals to major divinities, and fi nally, to the main altar of Cerro Quemado in the Wirikuta desert.

Rites, healers and the law

The ontological difference on which positive law and indigenous customary law in Latin America are based is one of the most important problems in the field of legal conflict between both systems. The ontological difference of the indigenous world is visible, among others, in the ways of passing and executing sentences. Punishment is often ritualistic and reintegrates the punished person into the community. In many cultures where witchcraft is a common phenomenon, sentences are given by shamans and healers. Illustrating the above statements with examples from various Latin American indigenous cultures, the article shows that law based on the vision of the Western world often cannot be an adequate response to some events taking place in indigenous worlds. This is not least because in the world of positivist rationality these events or phenomena simply do not exist.

Importance of initiation rituals and tattoos in Central American “maras” and “pandillas”

The main purpose of the paper is to analyse the phenomenon of the identity of some criminal gangs in Central America (maras y pandillas). It shows mechanisms and symbolic aspects of their activities in this region, especially in Guatemala, Salvador and Honduras, exemplified by a group called la Mara Salvatrucha. The article presents the cultural and social background of these criminal communities involved in many illegal activities and the multidimensional problem of violence. The paper is focussed on the identity of the members of the criminal gangs analysed as the subcultures of violence and as a kind of contemporary urban tribes. It shows the most important symbolic aspects of their identity: rites of passage, the tattoo meanings, the importance of the image etc. The article refers to the factors of popularity of these criminal groups among many young, poor and marginalised people in Central America.

From the ancestral rite to the modern rite. Around Leopardo al Sol by Laura Restrepo

This article proposes an analysis of Laura Restrepo’s Leopardo al sol (1993), a novel that proposes a sociocultural interpretation of the impact of the illegal economies of drug trafficking on traditional society. By analyzing the ingredients of the convention and poetics narco in the text, we observe how the violence represented in Leopardo al sol takes the form of a particular syncretism of modern elements of a civilization of spectacle and archaic elements intrinsic to mentalities anchored in mythical and magical thinking.