Impreso.

Contenido: CHAPTER 1: Introduction -- CHAPTER 2: Methodology -- Anthropological approaches to the study of religion -- Research paradigm -- Research design -- Triangulation -- Data analysis -- CHAPTER 3: Spanish and andean historical contexts -- Introduction -- Pre-history -- Social Units of andean development -- Church institutions in the Americas -- Cofradias -- CHAPTER 4: Ethnography of religious practice in Larecaja -- Political and geographical aspects -- Comunidad vs. pueblo -- Cofradia, fraternidades or comparsas -- Collective belonging -- El señor de la columna -- Advocations -- The fiesta of El señor de Pascua -- The mass for El Señor de Pascua -- Huacas, jurisdictions and water -- A magical stone -- Social constructions of reality -- The disciple Simon-Peter -- The feast of the cross -- Creolizing the center -- Politics or faith -- CHAPTER 5: Conclusions -- Glosary -- Bibliography -- Appendices -- Appendix.

Religious histories have always appropriated pre-existing symbol systems of religion into newer forms, often with the goal in mind to acculturate a population into a new cultural setting to reach a desired status quo of society. The problem with acculturation theory is that it is filled with teleological and quantitative assumptions of purity or authenticity which often fail to explain that the process of adapting to a dominant culture is seldom done in a consistent logical progression. While many people undergoing culture change are faced with problems of communication that force them to make sense out of new discursive formations that exhibit new systems of cultural management, deviations from the invariant aspects of traditions are dependent upon how subjects have interpreted and given meaning to changes which have occurred in their environment rather than upon a mechanical assignation of cultural traits. This thesis seeks to better understand the nature and universal characteristics that embody ritual and religion through an ethnographic and historical investigation to two religious festivals that annually accur in a remote province located in the eastern valleys of Bolivia.

Ingles.