Remodeling the Liturgical "Backstage" of the Parish of Santa Cruz de Tuti, Colca Valley (Arequipa, Peru)

Summary

The Toledan resettlement during late decades of the 16th century in the viceroyalty of Peru involved a series of changes in the territory for Andean people at different levels, from household to the public and religious spheres. In the case of the reducción (planned colonial town) of Santa Cruz de Tute, the religious sphere was transformed and materialized into a new core of buildings and spaces: the church, its parish, and plazas. The parish and casa cural (rectory) was a liminal space in terms of a very particular form of combined domestic/private/public/sacred functions for clergy and laity. In these terms, its internal organization depended on the set of ideas (a discourse) which to orchestrate people’s daily and liturgical praxis. This paper explores the changes around the parish as a backstage area in this orchestration, and what was involved its spatial remodeling over nearly three centuries of occupation. To approach this context we use three sources: ecclesiastical text documents, the preliminary results of excavations, and architectural analysis to better understand the physical links between elements and spaces and the modification of movement into and through the parish complex.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Archaeological Microhistory at a Planned Colonial Town in Highland Peru

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16461