Sociocultural Anthropology Colloquium | “Rejoicing at the Inka’s Death: The Reenactment of the Spanish Conquest in Patronal Feasts of the Central Peruvian Andes”

“Every year for centuries, hundreds of rural communities in the Central Andes of Peru have reenacted an episode that changed world history. During their patronal feasts, they perform the capture of the last Inka ruler by Francisco Pizarro’s men (1532). This tragic event brought an end to the largest empire of the pre-Hispanic Americas and initiated a new colonial order. In today’s communities, the episode may be danced and chanted, sometimes performed in faction fighting, and more rarely acted out in Quechua and Spanish in the form of an outdoor stage drama. These commemorations include masses, processions, banquets, and a variety of entertainments sponsored by lay volunteers, who also embody the historical figures. But whatever their configuration, the conquest reenactments differ from their historical reference: if some may stage the escape of the Inka leader, most of them end with a fraternal agreement between joyful opponents. In fact, the general atmosphere is one of rejoicing and lavish spending. While these performances strike the imagination, this paper shows that they are nothing exceptional in the Iberian world and are rooted in colonial times. They thus offer ample materials for reflecting on the continuity over time of ritual institutions in a globalized world. They also lay a discussion on the local constructions of historical memory and their articulation with counterfactual histories. I will examine these two questions through an analysis combining materials from my own ethnographic fieldworks carried out in a small town in the Peruvian highlands, and a critical epistemological approach.”

Isabel Yaya McKenzie is associate professor of historical anthropology at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris) and former editor-in-chief of L’Homme. Revue française d’anthropologie. Her research in the highlands of Peru and Bolivia focuses on historical memory and the long-term reconfigurations of ritual institutions. Her first publications addressed how historical discourses and concepts of social reproduction among the Inkas intersected with political legitimacy. She also worked on contemporary utopias and systems of knowledge in the Andes. She is currently investigating the impact of migrations and the monetization of ceremonial services on the “cargo” ritual economy of rural communities.