This article is about the pilgrims from Cusco city who participate in the miniature game in the sanctuary of Qoyllurit’i. Starting with a description of the urban socioeconomic context and the Andean ontology, this text intends to explore how we may understand the game, the meaning of the miniatures, and the importance of the pilgrimage in the contemporary urban context. A strong motivation for going to Qoyllurit’i is to empower the desires of life and ensure economic prosperity for the future through reciprocal relations with places and objects. In these relations, values like respect and faith are important. Using the analytical concepts «virtuality» and «mimesis», the article analyzes the game as a form of communication based in an ontology in which there are no distinctions between nature-culture, signifier-signified, and...

This article is about the pilgrims from Cusco city who participate in the miniature game in the sanctuary of Qoyllurit’i. Starting with a description of the urban socioeconomic context and the Andean ontology, this text intends to explore how we may understand the game, the meaning of the miniatures, and the importance of the pilgrimage in the contemporary urban context. A strong motivation for going to Qoyllurit’i is to empower the desires of life and ensure economic prosperity for the future through reciprocal relations with places and objects. In these relations, values like respect and faith are important. Using the analytical concepts «virtuality» and «mimesis», the article analyzes the game as a form of communication based in an ontology in which there are no distinctions between nature-culture, signifier-signified, and matter-spirit. Furthermore, it shows that indigenous r...

This article discusses the production and negotiation of water ownership among peasant farmers in the Majes-Colca watershed in southern Peru, where the public water administration initiated a process of formalising user rights for potable water in 2011. While a large-scale irrigation project channels water from the headwaters to export-oriented agriculture in the desert, the supply of water is getting scarcer because of climate change. The Peruvian water resources law from 2009 acknowledges water as public property, yet emphasizes its economic value and encourages private investment. The farmers in the highlands see water not only as a resource but also as a life- giving force provided by the mountain-beings to the humans living in their domains. Seeing ownership as an on- going and dynamic process, and «commoning» as made by practices of nurture, the article argues that conditional fo...

This article is about the pilgrims from Cusco city who participate in the miniature game in the sanctuary of Qoyllurit’i. Starting with a description of the urban socioeconomic context and the Andean ontology, this text intends to explore how we may understand the game, the meaning of the miniatures, and the importance of the pilgrimage in the contemporary urban context. A strong motivation for going to Qoyllurit’i is to empower the desires of life and ensure economic prosperity for the future through reciprocal relations with places and objects. In these relations, values like respect and faith are important. Using the analytical concepts «virtuality» and «mimesis», the article analyzes the game as a form of communication based in an ontology in which there are no distinctions between nature-culture, signifier-signified, and...