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c h a p t e r 7 Shamanism In 1885 Salasaca was an annex of the parish of Pelileo. The archbishop ’s delegation would periodically make inspections, called visitas, of parishes throughout Ecuador and record the state of affairs of each parish, and the archbishop’s recommendations for it, in the “Autos de visitas pastorales.” During the inspection of the parish of Pelileo in 1885, the archbishop of Quito, José Ignacio Ordoñez, noted a problem with “sorcerers” in the area: “The beliefs and superstitions of the brujos [witch doctors] are a great obstacle to the faith; and as we have known that in this parish there are some who claim themselves as such, they will be persecuted without rest, until this town and its annexes are purged of such a plague” (Autos de visitas pastorales, Pelileo, Nov. 6, 1885). Since the early colonial days of evangelization, the existence of shamans (Sp. brujos; Qu. jambij), native priests, and diviners in Ecuador was considered one of the major obstacles to Christianizing the indigenous people. Priests publicly punished shamans and publicly burned their ceremonial objects. Nevertheless, shamans continue to practice healing rituals and divination to this day, and they are sought out by blancomestizo as well as indigenous clients. Shamanism has remained one of the most steadfast indigenous religious practices, and a study of shamanism is necessary to any understanding of indigenous religion. This is not to say that it has remained unchanged; rather, shamanism is a form of native South American religious practice that people have adapted to historical transformations. For example, political turmoil, interethnic conflict, power struggles for positions in the colonial system, and land disputes in the eighteenth-century Audiencia de Quito led to increased power for some shamans and persecution for others. Shamans also increased their prominence by convincing others of their access to various sources of power, including knowledge of Hispanic and Afro-Ecuadorian cultural systems (Salomon 1983). Salasacan shamans draw on the powers of the famous “Colorado” shamans of Santo Domingo to the northwest, Amazonian shamans of 118   c h a p t e r 7 the oriente, and mountain spirits. This moral topography of Ecuador probably has roots in pre-Columbian trans-regional trade networks. Frank Salomon (1986:109) cites a 1610 report of Tsátchela (known as “Colorado Indian”) traders traveling from the western lowlands, up through Ambato (near Salasaca), to the Amazonian region. The report indicates that they were exchanging ceremonial objects for certain herbs, suggesting that the pre-Columbian exchanges east and west of the Andes involved objects of ceremonial as well as utilitarian importance and may have involved the exchange of shamanic knowledge. Recall from chapter 6 that Rosa included the yumbo shaman’s healing powers in a list of lowland products that could be obtained from yumbos passing through the highlands. This trans-regional network of shamanic knowledge continues today and figures prominently in indigenous artistic depictions of shamanism from Tigua (D. S. Whitten 2003). Salasacan shamans serve as mediators between cultural knowledge and individual experiences of illness and healing. Socially and ritually, they fulfill a role as mediators between the human body, the soul, and the landscape. This chapter, and the next, show Andean practices of mountain veneration and healing during the time of my fieldwork (1990–2008), and the relationship in Salasacan cosmology among the landscape, illness, and healing. The common local topographic features that shamans use (shown in fig. 1.3) include the two connected mountains Quinchi Urcu and Palama, which stand above the Cruz Pamba crossroads to form a complex of sacred sites. Some also use the mountain Teligote and local sacred springs. Shamans serve as mediators between the sacred landscape and individual bodies in several ways. First, Shamans gain the power to heal from a sacred place, sometimes by sleeping in that place. Second, shamans interpret physical ailments as caused by a connection between the human body and a place, and healing often involves recovering part of a person’s soul from a mountain or other topographic feature. Third, shamans call upon the spirits of Ecuadorian mountains to “collaborate” with them during the healing rituals. Finally, as I explained in chapter 6, the human geography of Ecuador, as constructed by Salasacans and others, plays a significant role in healing rituals. Shamans in Salasaca call on the spirits of healers from lowland ecological zones to help them heal their patients. Shamanism    119 Illness and Mountain Offerings Unborn children, like sleeping people, are in a state...

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