Michelle Bigenho: Abstract
1999 "Sensing Locality in Yura: Rituals of Carnival and of the Bolivian State," American Ethnologist 26 (4): 957-980
In this article, I discuss how an indigenous population in highland Bolivia established a sense of locality through participation in two different rituals: the musically based rituals of carnival and the bureaucratic practices or rituals of state that resulted from the initial implementation of a decentralizing law (Law of Popular Participation). Through a privileging of visually perceived representations, the logic behind the new law assumed populations were attached to contiguous territories within a national grid. In contrast, carnival rituals--through a focus on centerpoints, musical sonorities, and perceiving subjects--emphasized a relationship to locality through a sounding-off through space.