Current boundaries, in most cases, do not allow us to establish direct relationships between geopolitically established territories. However, this does not mean that such a relationship has never existed, especially in the Andean world. In an attempt to get out of these conventional frontiers, in this work, we propose a reflection on the socio-spatial conception of the surrounding environment in the municipalities of Tiahuanaco and Jesús de Machaca. Based on historiographic, ethnographic, and geographical data, we propose a relationship between origin myths, tales, stories and the perception of space by local people. This perception establishes that each geographic region (Tiahuanaco, Jesús de Machaca and the mountains) is identified with a guardian animal (condor, puma/titi, snake) and generates a sense of identity in its inhabitants.
Keywords:
Tiahuanaco, Jesus de Machaca, Andean world, sacred space, identity
Arano Romero, S. (2021). Socio-spatial conception in the Bolivian highlands: the cases of Tiahuanaco and Jesus de Machaca (La Paz, Bolivia). Revista Chilena De Antropología, (44), 247–268. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-1472.2021.61329
