The word sacred comes from an ancient Roman inscription “sacer” which according to Agarnben (1995) was a boundary concept of social order, that means a transition between the religious and the political.
Going further back, Ries (2012) argues that this word has an Indo-European and archaic origin, where the term “sak” is present in the Italic, Germanic and Scandinavian dialects.
In a comparative linguistic study, it carries a meaning: a reality full of unconditioned potency, separate from the common, admirable and at the same time forbidden and dangerous for the human (Paden, 1999 cited in Bazán).
Sacred Concepts in the Andes
The Andes offers two significant words for “sacred“:
- Willka: If you look in the dictionary refers sacred and the divine. In the Huarochiri manuscript, Willka refers to what is above, and also to the sun which is its manifestation.
- Waka: (this theme is inexhaustible), whose primary meaning would come to be the sacred, understanding this as a power that produces awe and tenderness (Zenon,2015).
Common Threads in Sacred Definitions
Among all these definitions both Indo-European and Quechua highlights something they have in common, what R. Otto (1968) has marked for the study of religions:
- The human soul as central to sacred phenomena.
- The sacred as numinous, rooted in mystery (something that is hidden or that muses), that evokes awe and admiration.
Rituals and Community Life
In this way, for the Andean world the sacred is expressed in the body and the territory. In the case of the body and its times of transformation such as birth, puberty, marriage, old age and death are accompanied by the starts, the moon and the sun, thus creating a sacred communion (Bazán, 2002).
These communions can be realized through ritual, materializing community life and its full conversation with the territory and the cosmos. Thus manifesting our relationship with the sacred.
Author: Joan De la colina Roman
References:
- Agarnben Giorgio, (1995). Homo sacer: el poder soberano y la nuda vida
- Otto, R. (1968). Lo santo, lo racional y lo irracional en la idea de Dios [1917]. Madrid: Alianza.
- Depaz Toledo,Zenon (2015). La cosmo-vision andina en el manuscrito de Huarochiri.
- Francisco García Bazán (2002). La religión y lo sagrado en El estudio de la religión.
- Ries julian(2012). El simbolo sagarado. Kairos.
