Spirituality and the Pachamama in the Andean Aymara Worldview - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 68

Box 6.1. (continued)
men of the family plows a few furrows and then all gather around the seed for
the rite of k'inthu aysuña chuqi achuyañataki to assure an early potato har-
vest. Immediately everyone removes their hats and sandals and pick up a few
perfect coca leaves, prayfully invoking the seed, the pachamama , and the
nearby achachilas to provide abundant fruit and not to let natural disasters
such as frost, sleet, or fl ooding, befall the harvest. Absolutely everyone, even
the children, must fulfi ll the k'inthu of coca leaves to assure qhuya q'ara or
that everything is complete.
Simultaneously the mother of the family takes three large, good potatoes,
and cuts them half. She stuffs them with coca leaves fi xed in llama grease
along with a little sugar or sweets, and aleluya and sank'ayu fl owers. Then she
wraps them with brightly colored or white llama wool, and kisses them rever-
ently. These decorated and garlanded potatoes are called qhuya achuyata,
panqarayata, anakiri (symbols of future fl ourishing and potato production)
and will be planted either at the beginning or the end of planting, depending
on the family custom. The ritual is concluded with the sharing of coca leaves
and the acullico , the chewing of coca.
Then the women and girls purify themselves by anointing their hands with
llamp'u or llama grease, so that they can touch the pregnant potato seed. They
have to do this because they handle salt, pepper, and onions when they work
in the kitchen. On this day you have to be careful not to make the girls weep
because it is the same as making espalla —the potato's vital spirit—weep.
Men do not handle the seed because, it is said, chachax thä amparawa —the
hand of a male is cold and symbolizes ice and sleet. However women sym-
bolically are considered junt'u ampara —warm handed, and so women must
handle the seed. You must not peal the potato either because that would cause
it go away.
In some villages at planting time the women build a fi re of wood or cow
dung and put coca leaves, candies and sweets and other things on it in order to
scare away evil spirits and thus assure a good harvest. On one occasion in
Copacabana I saw men and women, even their oxen, adorned with white roses
as symbols of the fl owering potato. It was heartwarming to see this.
Finally, after the sowing has been done, each person takes a coca leaf and
gives it to the fi eld's owner, or sometimes she alone takes the coca leaves and
buries them in the ground. Following this brief rite, they all share the sata
manq'a or common meal and then the helpers are paid with some potato or
other product. To sum up, these rites serve as offerings to protect the fi elds in
order to assure a good and abundant harvest (Fig. 6.1 ).
(continued)