Trips to Bolivia

TRIPS TO BOLIVIA: TOWN AYMARA

By “town it will aymará” we understand to the set of individuals that they have as maternal language to aymará and they are identified like such, since an ethnic sub-group of aymara does not exist exclusive.

Aymara is a millenarian town dedicated to the pasturing and the agriculture that uses ancestral techniques of culture. They live, transferring the borders imposed by the nations, in the borders of the Titicaca lake, in the Bolivian plateau, and some zones of the mountain range of the $andes, in Chile and Argentina.

They have a complementary economy, since those that live in the plateau own abundant flocks and little cultures, whereas those does that it in the premountain range produce enough vegetables, fruits and seeds, thanks to the effective use of the ground by means of the traditional terraces. These conditions generate the product interchange between shepherds and agriculturists.

This form of subsistence is based on the principle of ayne, that talks about to the reciprocity between aymarás: the request of aid in the present, will be corresponded in the future.

For aymara a single reality conformed by two scopes exists: the natural means and the supernatural world. It is a religious vision that consecrates the nature and legitimate the position of the man exceeds she.

This cosmovisión formed at different past times and reflects the great changes of its history. Thus it is as today they denominate “Custom” to the religious rites based on his ancestors and “Religion” to the rituals and symbols of Christian origin.

The main forms and expressions in which the indigenous art is pronounced at present are textilería, the ceramics, basketwork and jewelry.

The ancestral knowledge on their accomplishment are transferred of generation in generation, being in addition directly associate to economic activities carried out by each one of the members of the familiar group. For example, she is the woman who makes weaves and the ceramics.

On the other hand the harvesting of the materials is characterized to go accompanied of rites and ceremonies in gratefulness to the mother earth by the natural matters and the given gifts.

Music and the dances are manifestations that arise from the necessity of the man to express itself through movement. For aymaras, the dance implies a message, is significant and has a spiritual content besides esthetic.