Social Compass, XIX, 1972/4, 613-616
J o s 6 M. T O R T O S A
Ritual and Cultural Lag :
The Feast of San Isidro in Tiraque (Bolivia)
Le phenomena
du « cultural lag» apparait
sous un jour
different
d'apres le palier oil se situe la recherche : au niveau
institutionnel.
a celui de la pensee, ou encore au niveau
populaire. L'article decrit line fete populaire a Tiraque (Bolivie),
et
essaie d'intevpreter
le phenomene
a travers les solutions
fournies par f« Eglise des laics » face au probleme
que son
histoire
lui pose. Tout en soulignant
le caractere
experimental
de la
religiosite
populaire,
lauteur
se pose la question de la possibilite de genetaliser
ses conclusions
a des societes autres
que
celles qui sont a lorigine
de
iarticle.
T h e problems of " aggiornamento " in the Catholic Church, as a
necessity arranged beforehand, may seem to apply only on the level
of institutional religion and religion " as thought ".
T h e phenomenon, however appears to be quite distinct when we study
folk religion. T h e present article offers an example of the way members
of what we might term " the church of the people " have responded to
" aggiornamento " on their own level. T h i s article is based on a study
I made in 1969 in the territory of Tiraque, located in the valley of
Cochabamba, in Bolivia.
1. T h e first element to take into account, as I have demonstrated
elsewhere \ is the difference between what I have labeled the " institutional (or clerical) c h u r c h " and the " c h u r c h of the l a i t y " , and the
manner in which each conceives the M a s s and the use of power.
W h i l e the institutional church speaks of « t h e » Mass, the church
of the laity distinguishes five types. T h e s e types differ in ritual as well
as in the verbal expressions that indicate their finality.
It is hardly necessary to point out that our two definitions of church
do not at an clearly coincide.
T h e following pages will treat of the feast of San Isidro (Saint Isidore), a celebration popularly classified as a " M a s s of a feast " and distinct, therefore, from the " Mass of a s a i n t " .
T h e use of power by either church on this occasion is worth noting.
T h e parish priest rarely interferes with such " extra-liturgical " rituals,
1
TORTOSA, J.M., Iglesias, poder y ritual: Las misas en Tiraque (Bolivia), Unpublished
doctoral thesis, Rome, Gregorian University, 1971, especially chapter III.
613
while the people exert enough power to force the unwilling parish priest
to accept them.
T h i s immediately makes it clear that the present study of the feast
of Saint Isidore treats of a matter that pertains exclusively to the
" church of the laity ".
2. Another factor which must be considered is the equivocal meaning
of the term " aggiornamento " which I have used only as a means of
introducing the problem. T h e basic problem is, in reality, one of a
" cultural lag " which, if it is perceived, can lead to the attitude of
" aggiornamento " or to an authoritarian reaffirmation of the superseded
condition.
1 shall refrain from using the term " aggiornamento " even as a point
of reference. T o do otherwise would be to forget what has been said above
about the difference between the two churches. Let us consider now the
feast of Saint Isidore.
3. This feast is not celebrated on a fixed day common to the diverse
" communities " of peasants which form Tiraque. Each community celebrates the feast on a different day.
Saint Isidore, patron of farmers, is presented dressed in what appears
to be the suit of a landowner (patron)
of the beginning of the century 2 .
W h e n the day of the feast has arrived, it is already known who will
be the pasante
(the one who finances the celebration). It will be either
a volunteer or one customarily named by the people. In case there is no
pasante, the prcosta
(owner of the saint's statue) will sponsor the feast.
It is supposed that the pasante farms or raises cattle " in the name of
the saint and therefore out of devotion to him ", as it is said.
On the day of the Mass (which has been preceded by a hymn to the
V i r g i n ) , the people of the community take their saints to the chapel or
other place wher the feast is to be celebrated. T h e y bring various statues
of San Isidro, Santa V e r a Cruz, Santiago, and the Virgin Mother. Then
they light candels or incense. But the place of honor is occupied by the
Saint Isidore to whom the Mass will be offered.
During the M a s s there is a woman holding a small standard called
the guion : she is the wife of the
pasante.
After the M a s s there is a procession which stops four times, usually
before other altars especially prepared for the occasion and which are
so located as to permit the procession's termination at the point of
departure, the door of the chapel. T h e same is done in the village
utilizing the four corners of the plaza or square in which the temple
is located. A meal in common follows.
T h e following day a group of volunteers go out to plough the land
with adorned and painted oxen, and the group is also formed by the
kuraka, who watches and guides the oxen, and the mayordomo
on horseback who makes sure the oxen do not swerve.
2 It is said that the image has " a l w a y s " been dressed in suits no longer in use.
On the other hand, the feast of St. Isidore is not celebrated in the village.
614
T h e preosta
takes his place near the Saint and receives the small
baskets of coca leaves which cultivators bring in honor of the Saint, and
offer, as first fruits of the harvest, to the image.
T h e kuraka is charged with the task of asking the Saint for coca in
the following words : " Saint Isidore, I need coca for the peones ". T h e n
he receives the coca from the preosta. T h e kuraka must see that there is
enough for all the peones.
Cliicha (fermented corn) is also petitioned,
and the preosta must distribute it in small containers called tutumas.
T h a t same day, if the pasantes are of the named, sort, the guion is passed on to the next year's pasante.
4. Prescinding from other factors which could he studied, it must be
noted that participation has fallen off and seems to continue that trend :
there are women, some men followed by boys, and a group of spectators
and vendors. T h i s is the participation of the procession.
In like manner, the participants in the ploughing with oxen have
decreased in number : in the farming community of Chapapani (near
Tiraque) there were 154 ploughing groups in 1968, while only 59 groups
volunteered in 1969. In another similar sommunity ( C h ' a q o ) a former
landowner told me that the number of groups had risen, to 400 before
the Land Reform of 1953. In 1969, however, there were less than 50.
5. An indispensable clarification must be made here if we are to understand the celebration of the feast of Saint Isidore and, perhaps also,
for an accurate interpretation of the feast's decrease in importance, in
favor of the M a s s of a saint. T h e clarification involves the aforementioned personages : maqordomo,
kuraka, and peon. T h e peon was the
common laborer of the haciendas.
T h e kuraka was the political authority
(Indian in a social, not biological sense) 3 . T h e maijordomo
was the
authority (mestizo, in the sense mentioned above) of the hacienda, who
worked for the landowner. If we add the fact that until 1953 (and
occasionally even today) the owner of the saint's image was the landowner (that is, the landowner was the preosta),
a white man (also in
the social sense) 4 . there develops an interesting hypothesis : that there
was, in the case of the volunteer groups of ploughers, a transposition of
the life situation of the hacienda, not without certain ironical points ; and,
once the hacienda ceased (with the Land Reform), it was " natural " that
the ritual should diminish in importance or be absorbed by the M a s s of
a saint.
6. Therefore, without the need of any planning or renewal, the church
of the laity found a solution to the problem posed by the " cultural lag " :
gradual and progressive abandonment.
T h e fact is that, on the level of folk religion, religiosity has an
3 At this moment it is not my purpose to explain the racial-social stratification before
the Land Reform. The classic tripartite division into white, mestizo, and Indian is
clearly insufficient, especially when applied to the village.
4 V/as there a possible identification of preosta
with the saint ? The dress of the saint
was, after all, that of the white landowner.
615
experimental character which, in the area here studied, also manifests
itself in many other ways
Having arrived at this point, it is worthwhile asking ourselves if this
interpretation of a relatively distant phenomenon can not be applied to
phenomena nearer home. T h e question is ventured because, in fact, once
the object of study is defined according to univocal criteria (having
distinguished within " religion " among " thought ", institutional-legal,
and lived religion), and once the phenomenon is studied in relation to
its social environment, structural phenomena can be discovered that are
shared in common by societies with diverse levels of technologicy. If, on
the other hand, folk religiosity (lived religion) is seen as forming part
of a culture, the above generalization is even more probable.
5 For example, the decrease in the number of pasantes due to a revaluation of economic
factors, the apparition of new feasts, etc. T h e fact that the people accept these " innovations " and not others (such as a burial without a wake), demonstrates just how
much the " experiment" corresponds fg p need. £allectively felt by the people.
616