Spirituality and the Pachamama in the Andean Aymara Worldview - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 65

produce well and provide good food. “Through rituals and religious acts,” the
yatiri (traditional priest) communicates and converses with the Pachamama,
“seeking the welfare of community, economic, social and political life and that of
the families as a single unity” (Huanca 1989 , p. 12).
Land and territory are the principal sources for food. This has always been so,
and nothing can replace them. For this reason the Aymara constantly are in contact
with the Pachamama , dialoging with her as a mother that dialogues with her chil-
dren. In so doing the Aymara people affi rm that they are brothers and sisters of
nature who care for her. As Lapiedra ( 1996 , p. 50) explains: “coca and maize are
alive, the hills and the valleys, the snow and the water, the thunder and lightning are
also alive. As the source of life is the land and her spirit, the Pachamama, is called
'Mother Earth'. All this is honored in cultic adoration.” Until the land reform of
1952, the land was left fallow every 5-7 years so that it could recover its vital
energy. Since the mid-twentieth century, pressure due to increased population has
made this practice diffi cult to continue.
This chapter is based on my life in the village of Ticohaya, which is located near
Lake Titicaca on the Andean high plateau or altiplano of Bolivia. In west-central
South America the Andes are at their widest and represent the most extensive area
of high plateau on Earth, outside of Tibet. Fifty-fi ve Aymara families live there in
adobe and stone houses roofed with tin sheeting or totora reed combined with native
grass. The community obtained electricity in 1995 and the following year houses
were connected to potable water. The area is arid with little evident vegetation.
Water often is scarce, and it is always cold at 3,800 m above sea level. The local
economy is based on agriculture (potatoes, broad beans, barley) and animal hus-
bandry (llamas, guinea pigs, sheep, chickens). Severe weather conditions such as
drought, frost, and fl ooding, affect agricultural production often causing local hard-
ship and forcing villagers, especially youth, to immigrate to La Paz.
The little town is governed by villagers who rotate administrative roles among
themselves. The elderly are trusted advisors and are involved in all aspects of com-
munity decision-making. No one receives fi nancial remuneration. Rather the vari-
ous responsibilities are assigned by sayañas (families and their croplands). However,
due to migration to the cities and the ever increasing infl uence of neoliberalism, this
practice is being debilitated.
Women contribute the greater part to the family economy. They work the fi elds
and manage the livestock. In the trade fairs they exchange through barter family-
produced products with those produced in other villages. They participate in com-
munity collective labor activities, such as ayni, waki , and mink'a , that are organized
to meet agricultural and social needs such as celebrations of marriage, baptism of a
child, rutuche or fi rst haircut, and construction and roofi ng of a new home. In spite
of increasing individualism and neoliberal capitalism, these systems of solidarity
and reciprocity continue to be practiced. Women have a key role in all of these
activities and rituals (Lapiedra 1996 , pp. 53-54).