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Animistic Belief
In some cases, like many non-Western peoples and cultures, their spirituality is animist (belief that everything has a soul or a spirit), whose rituals and sects derive from the natural elements. and the universe. For these philosophical conceptions everything has a life, an energy, everything is related to everything, writes Bustamante, quoting Josef Esterman, PhD in philosophy and a theology graduate, who adds that in the Andean worldview "there is no There are no hierarchies, reciprocal between entities of the same value and of the same weight. "

However, he emphasizes that, given the cultural diversity and the different roots from which" we come ", there are also different spiritual practices that In this sense, each culture has a particular way of approaching and celebrating its divinities, various places where its spiritual life pulsates, as well as special moments to honor and celebrate its sacred entities.

Places of Respect
The anthropologist indicates that the Andean cultures, animists, sacralize different spaces of nature and the cosmos.Because of his holistic conception and his conne natural xion with its environment, the human being is supposed to be part of a whole; for this, as part of this totality, he shares with other beings in the universe and his Mother Earth.

This tradition has been pbaded down by generation by the peoples and lifestyles of America. Indigenous cultures, for example, according to their worldview, have sacred spaces identified as ancestral, such as: mountains, rocks, hills; stones, waterfalls, lagoons, springs and more. And in return, they have also located places that are not beneficial for the health of the various beings of nature. While in other societies, whose population attributes to religions such as Catholicism, Hinduism, among others, they generally have their sacred geographies which in many cases were built for the purpose of to worship their gods or deities. But in any case, these are places privileged by their symbolic and sacred charge, says the anthropologist.

(CM / From the Intangible Cultural Heritage Magazine)

The Sites of Evil
° In the traditions of the Andean peoples, a dual vision of natural phenomena has prevailed; Thus, in his ways of perceiving the world, a clbadification between sacred places and places of evil prevails, describes the anthropologist Cristina Bustamante Duran

Thus, for example, the Kichwas recognize spaces to purify or clean their bodies, while other places (streams, stagnant water basins, cemeteries and others) can affect the diseases that cause the disease, differentiating between the sacred and the malevolent.

To revitalize and reaffirm
° Sacred geographies have their different logics and regardless of the feelings and philosophies of each, they must be recognized in a plurinational and intercultural perspective, says the anthropologist Cristina Bustamante Duran at Il adds that beliefs could be defined as these strategic places, because of their energetic load, where divine existences are housed, since they contain deep meanings for those who trust their benevolence and their power of transformation [19659013]. These are spaces or geographies, he adds, in which identities are revitalized and affirmed, socially consistent with those who share the conviction based on their power to effect changes in human lives.

[19659003] With the Gods