Die Heilung des Territoriums. Das Saakhelu-Ritual der Nasa (Páez) von Tierradentro (Cauca, Kolumbien).

Abstract

In traditional indigenous cosmovisions, "nature" is not only essential to food production, exploitation of soil and other natural resources; on the contrary it constitutes a permanent field of medical-religious practice. The mudslide catastrophe, which occurred on 6 June, 1994, was interpreted by the Indians in terms of their traditional mythical categories and led, among the Nasa (Páez) of Tierradentro (Cauca, Colombia), to an intensified process of reflection and to an intensification of their ritual life. The shamans postulated as absolutely necessary a revival of the ancestors’ rituals, aiming at human action to "cool down" the "heated" earth, to avert the cosmic disaster brought by the condor kduul, as well as to feed the "Older Brothers" of the cosmos and to heal them. The following article tries to interpret the saakhelu ritual which is celebrated by the Nasa in the Tierradentro area to "heal" the territory periodically.