October 9, 2024 | 4 PM
Helen C. White 6191
Ch’ixi Dynamics in a Fiesta in the Southern Peruvian Andes
Annually, around the end of May and beginning of June, an exceptional event occurs in the Southern Peruvian Andes: the Quyllurit’i pilgrimage. Regarded by numerous scholars as the most significant celebration in the Cusco region, the Quyllurit’i attracts an estimated one hundred thousand participants to an altitude of 16,400 feet, with a growing number of female dancers participating. In this essay, I argue that these dancers adhere to a conceptual framework known as ch’ixi epistemology, an Aymara concept that denotes articulating seemingly contradictory elements to exert a disruptive force. This study follows an all-female group of young dancers, the Chunchachas of the Paruro Nation, in their pilgrimages of 2023 and 2024, demonstrating how, by engaging with a ch’ixi framework, they reproduce their traditions and repertoires while carving out a space for themselves in a highly masculinized fiesta.