Spatiality, materiality, and the construction of sacred topographies in the context of colonial domination. Sajama and Sabaya, 16th-19th centuries (DFG)
Based on two micro historical case studies, the project investigates the dynamics of local knowledge production in the context of Christianization and colonial domination in the Andean highland province of Caranga between the 16th and 19th centuries. It focuses on transcultural forms of religious and cosmological knowledge that are always spatially and geographically situated throughout the Andean region and inseparable from the local construction of sacred spaces and topographies. The meaning-making interaction between local actors, the surrounding sacralized topography, the artifacts and architectures (e.g., burial towers/chullpas, places of worship/wak'a, churches, chapels, etc.) that are part of social and religious space will be examined. As "epistemic objects," they were involved in the production, preservation, and (re)configuration of religious and cosmological knowledge. The sources (written sources, objects, ethnographic interviews) will be recorded with the help of a geographic information system (GIS), brought together, and related to the geographic space in which they were found or articulated (georeferencing). The aim of the project is to visualize the "topographies" of religious and cosmological knowledge in Sabaya and Sajama in their historical dimensions.