Encuentros: Dances of the Inti Raymi in Cotacachi, Ecuador

A human wall, fifteen men across in dozens of rows deep, advances in a slow trot toward the main square of Cotacachi, La Plaza de la Matriz. They are the San Juan dancers of the upper- and lower-moiety coalitions of local indigenous communities who have come to compete with one another in the toma de la plaza (the taking of the square) during the summer Inti Raymi festivities. The thundering of the synchronized dance step as boots pound against the pavement and the collective whistling announce the strength and aggression of the sanjuanes, as the dancers are known in honor of Saint John the Baptist, whose feast day is celebrated on this occasion, 24 June.¹ They seek to test their vigor and their endurance in a ritual battle for the ultimate prize of symbolically winning the square. The dancers wear goatskin chaps (zamarros); tall, broad-rimmed, black, stiff cardboard hats; boots or shoes (instead of alpargatas² ); and sunglasses. Many of them are completely outfitted in camouflage. As they trot to the music of the twin flutes, they wave leather whips (aciales) and chant in unison, "jari, jari, jarikuna . . . churay, churay, carajo"³ (men, men, [we are] men, put it there, put it there, carajo⁴ ).

These precise, albeit imaginary, lines establish boundaries among groups, imposing a temporary festival order in the space of the plaza. An inclusive view of the square reveals a spatial arrangement wherein the sanjuanes dominate the street around the central park as they move in a counter-clockwise direction around the plaza. Food vendors and game operators set up their stands in the central park. An indigenous public crowds the steps of the church. Local mestizo onlookers view the dancing from the safe distance of second floor windows and balconies. Mestizo men make toasts over rounds of trago (cane alcohol) on the sidewalks that line the plaza, but they stay near a tavern or house for a quick getaway should there be trouble. Military and police stand at every corner. Indigenous women, mostly spouses of the men dancing, carry bundles (kepis) and children on their backs, and walk between the San Juan groups on the street as a buffer for the fights.⁵ A few foreign tourists weave cumbersomely around the perimeter of the event, maneuvering their cameras above the crowds. Children scurry near their mothers.

Figure 1.

Sanjuanes entering the Plaza de la Matriz.

In this article I argue that the dramatic rituals of the Inti Raymi constitute spaces of encounter within which Otavaleños (indigenous people of the Imbabura area, who also self-identify as Runakuna) reflexively evaluate, perform, and continuously redefine their sense of identity in ethnic relation to urban white-mestizos (non-indigenous Ecuadorians), vis-à-vis one another and as sacred beings within the Andean universe. Rather than assuming a connection between ritual, identity, and social formations, I take as my point of departure the premise that communities perform themselves into being on a regular basis (Barz 2003, 6). Consequently, I focus on the practices and processes that sustain an interrelational production and transformation of communities. My anthropological investigation reveals concurrent processes of identity formation in festival performances in the town of Cotacachi⁶ and explores the semiotic complexity and multivocality of the rituals through an analysis of festival dances and costumes. In this article I limit my interpretation to three levels of identity-making through performance: 1) At the intersection of the plaza during the symbolic "taking of the square," the "transgression" into urban social spaces constitutes a performed affront to and appropriation of white-mestizo authority. As indigenous and mestizo identities are defined in juxtaposition to one another, the clash of cultures in this encounter is expressed in the aesthetics of the dance as a sort of counter-conquest and in the bellicose themes of festival costumes. 2) The taking of the main square begins with a dancing descent of participants from each community to the city of Cotacachi. The pattern of this dance emphasizes the mutual dependence between individuals and...