The Water Festival (Layimama) and Collective Identity in the Inter-Andean Valley of Ticsani, Southern Peru
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19492001 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eliseo Zeballos Zeballos (0000-0002-8003-9348, Universidad Nacional de San Agustin de Arequipa), Jesús Eduardo Carpio Obando (0000-0003-4514-7885, Universidad Nacional de San Agustin de Arequipa), Katherine del Rosario López Vásquez (0009-0009-6172-0259, Universidad Nacional de San Agustin de Arequipa), Pablo A Garcia-Chevesich (0000-0002-9668-4560, UNESCO), John E McCray (0000-0001-7481-9965, Colorado School of Mines) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 18 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-13 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Humans (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2673-9461 • E-ISSN: 2673-9461 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/humans6020018 |
| OpenAlex | W7160986508 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 7 |
Water-related ritual practices constitute a central axis through which many Andean communities articulate cosmology, social organization, and collective identity. This study examines the Fiesta del Agua (Layimama), an ancestral ritual cycle celebrated in the inter-Andean valley of Ticsani (Moquegua, southern Peru), focusing on its symbolic structure, social roles, and implications for water governance and cultural continuity. Using a qualitative, interpretive research design based on documentary analysis of ethnographic, historical, and anthropological sources, the study analyzes how ritual practices surrounding water function as mechanisms of social cohesion, moral regulation, and symbolic management of a shared natural resource. The findings show that the Fiesta del Agua operates as a cyclical system composed of four interrelated stages (preparation, ritual performance, festive redistribution, and communal closure) through which water is sacralized as an axis mundi linking cosmology, agricultural production, and social prestige. Far from being a residual tradition, the festival actively reproduces collective identity, regulates communal access to water, and integrates Andean cosmology with Catholic symbolism through dynamic forms of religious syncretism. The article argues that the ritual management of water in Ticsani represents a culturally embedded governance system whose documentation and protection are essential in contexts of increasing hydrosocial stress and cultural erosion, indicating social, ecological, and political relevance of the findings and contributing to broader debates on human–environment relations, intangible cultural heritage, and the role of ritual in sustaining communal resource management
Collective identity · Collective memory · Corporate governance · Cultural identity · Cultural system · Ethnography · Identity (music) · Politics · The Symbolic · Environmental and Cultural Studies in Latin America and Beyond · Mexican Socioeconomic and Environmental Dynamics · Water Governance and Infrastructure
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |