Dancing with the Mountain in the Altiplano
The Festival of the Ispallas
Chapter 7 is in a narrative voice, in order to capture how humans, non-humans, and other-than-humans all ritually dance their world into continued existence. At the festival of the Ispallas, people make offerings to Pachamama (earth deity) who is pregnant with the new potatoes. The whole community dances up their mountain Apu (deity), around the potato fields, and down the mountain. Offerings are given to the fields and to the fire. A young pregnant woman of the Altiplano accompanied the author. The chapter relates her experiences working for the State's program of family planning, a theme taken up in chapter 8.
Keywords: Ispallas, Pachamama, pregnancy, mountain Apu, Altiplano, new potatoes, offerings
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