Paper short abstract:

This communication proposes an analysis of Andean ritual practices extension towards urban and international contexts. The analysis intend characterizing the type of experiences and relationships established, as well as the relevance and effectiveness of these ritual acts.

Paper long abstract:

This communication proposes an analysis of Andean ritual practices extension towards urban and international contexts. It seeks to characterize the type of experiences and relationships observed under the influence of migration and the demand of the societies that adopt them.

An ethnographic work on religious acts, festive and ritual events in northern Ecuador Quechua communities revealed the cohabitation of important Andean mythical figures with those of the Catholic religion. Analyzing this relation within new contexts, led us to discover the magnitude of ceremonial practices (shamanic) in a society such as the French one.

Celebrations such as the cult of the Moon or the Sun, healing therapies, shamanic journeys are one of the many ceremonies that periodically gather groups whose diversity creates a multiplicity of forms, merging the background with new concepts to give them a cultural coherence.

The analysis intend characterizing the type of experiences and relationships that are established, as well as the relevance and effectiveness of these ritual acts.

In these forms of religious expression observed in Western societies, the figure of the shaman is a fundamental element of analysis. Neo-shamanism is the bearer of specificities and the creator of universal values. It proclaims a harmonious communion between divinities and human beings.

To understand the richness of these new rituals it is necessary to articulate them to the beliefs, practices and aesthetics of traditional ceremonies. It is in this continuity that the interest of this study is situated.