It is week two of my academic explorations in Peru. Having now moved from Lima to Cusco, there was much to adjust to besides the altitude. I had anticipated the move away from Lima to Cusco would provide some space from the city, however- I was surrounded by a different type of bustle here.
We arrived in Cusco the day before Corpus Christi, yet the festivities had already begun. Staying in Hotel Plaza de Armas provided a view like no other. The center of the festival in the center of the universe. I was surprised by the exuberance of it all. Waking up most mornings to either marching bands or grandiose gunshots that rang within my hotel room. Streets flooded with hundreds of people all trying to catch a glimpse of the saints, marching in.
We talked a lot in class this week about affect and bodies. I kept this in mind while I watched from the balcony of my room. For multiple days, men passed who swayed and sweat- carrying the weight of the saints through the crowds to the cathedral. Quite literally their weights in gold on their backs. Surely this spectacle had to be symbolic. Perhaps a representation of the Catholic needs for piety to be witnessed. Perhaps a show of penance. I stayed watching the festivities from my window, as I found the noise of it all a little overwhelming. Although through the speakers the bishops announced how Indigenous communities welcomed Corpus Christi to Peru, I couldn’t help but wonder where their voices were amongst all the noise.
Our trip to Sacsayhuamán provided quieter times of reflection to process this all. I found the physical evidence of the Inca’s architecture to be incredibly moving. Standing on the tallest point of the mountain really made me understand how the Inca’s believed Cusco to be the centre of the universe. Our tour guide explained the manpower it took to create such grand structures- the bricks carved and moved by collective bodies. People working as old as 90 years old. I felt his reflection of bodies to be different from their presence in Cusco during Corpus Christi. The stone structures were a sense of purpose that people were building up for the community. Not weighing people down in symbolic representations of subordination. Something so symbolic that the Spanish put so much effort into destroying it.
2 replies on “Experience Blog #2: Observations on Bodies and Affect”
Hi grace 🙂 Cusco is quite the bustle indeed. In a different way than lima. In Lima it seemed people were bustling about in service to the self whereas here the bustle is directed outward (celebrations, loud public music, street vendors, free walking tours etc …). It is interesting to contrast the two. I think there was an element of subordination to a higher power in Sacsayhuaman though. The building of such a monument for purely ceremonial purposes (and astrological) feels performative albeit more permanent than the carrying of the saints. The incas (from what we’ve learned so far) we a “penitent” culture, believing the gods must be satisfied with sacrifices, offerings, and the construction of large temples … couldn’t I have switched in Catholics and the sentence holds?
“The stone structures were a sense of purpose that people were building up for the community. Not weighing people down in symbolic representations of subordination.” It is also true that other less permanent objects than rocks also create meaning for the community. For example, the clothes that cover the Corpus Christi statues, the instruments that the musicians play, the same petals that are thrown as the caravan passes by. There is something more than mere subordination in the creative explosion of the Corpus Christi festivities.