"There is a Culture Here": Spectacle and the Inculcation of Folklore in Highland Bolivia

Abstract

Every year, the Catholic Church of San Lucas organizes a festival of regional folklore. This festival is unusual in one respect: not only the performances, but also many of the audience are Quechua speaking campesinos, whose music and dance for religious fiestas constitute the “culture” which the folkloric performances are said to display. A folklore festival in which performers and audiences are nearly interchangeable calls for a reconsideration of theories which treat folkloric performances as a display of difference. By considering the relationship between the festival “texts” (music and dance) and their shifting “contexts” (fiesta vs. folklore festival), this article shows that the festivals do not simply represent local lifeways, but teach campesinos that they are the bearers of a “culture” whose value lies in being displayed. In this way, they are being prepared to take part in the new, pluri‐ethnic pageant of Bolivian nationhood.

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