Ritual Encounters: Otavalan Modern and Mythic Community
Michelle Wibbelsman
This book examines ritual practices and public festivals in the Otavalo and Cotacachi areas of northern Andean Ecuador's Imbabura province. Otavaleños are a unique group in that they maintain their traditional identity but also cultivate a cosmopolitanism through frequent international travel. Ritual Encountersexplores the moral, mythic, and modern crossroads at which Otavaleños stand, and how, at this junction, they come to define themselves as millennial people.
Michelle Wibbelsman shows that Otavaleños are deeply engaged in transnational mobility and in the cultural transformations that have resulted from Otavalan participation in global markets, international consumer trends, and technological developments. Rituals have persisted among this ... Read more
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About Michelle Wibbelsman
Reviews for Ritual Encounters: Otavalan Modern and Mythic Community
Anthropology Review Database "An important addition to the literature on Andean ethnography and the anthropology of ritual."
Latin American Music Review "Ritual Encounters offers a richly textured reading of core Otavalan ritual performances and the cosmological discourse that sustains them."
Journal of Folklore Research "When I first witnessed the powerful images, music, and hypnotic rhythms of the Otavalos' Inti ... Read more