THE CONTEXTUALIZATION OF WORSHIP IN THE ANDES

OF ECUADOR: A CASE STUDY IN EL TINGO

By

Alan David Gordon

A Dissertation Presented to the

Faculty of the School of Intercultural Studies

FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

November 2010

ii

ABSTRACT

Gordon, Alan

2010 ―The Contextualization of Worship in the Andes of Ecuador: a Case Study

in El-Tingo.‖ Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Intercultural

Studies. Ph.D. 131 pp.

This study looks at the contextualization of worship in the Andes of Ecuador

using the pueblo of El-Tingo as a case study. The author builds a model of worship based

on communication theory, theology of worship, ethnomusicological theory, and

anthropology. The methodology follows the epistemological assumptions of

phenomenology. The research took place during the years of 2006, 2007, and 2008. The

research of each year followed on the previous and narrowed in its focus and

methodology. The study is based on the thesis that understanding must precede

contextualization. The author concludes that his abstract, doctrine-based, and

individualistic spirituality contrasts starkly with the concrete, identity-based, and

communal spirituality of the folk in El-Tingo.

Dr. Roberta King 112 words

iii

DEDICATION

To God be the glory, great things He has done.

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Indented Paragraph

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ ii

DEDICATION ....................................................................................................... iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................... iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS .........................................................................................v

LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................ vii

LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................. viii

INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................1

CHAPTER 1 CONTEXTUALIZATION ...............................................................7

CHAPTER 2 WORSHIP AND COMMUNICATION .........................................11 Communication Theory ..........................................................................12

Cross-Cultural Communication ..............................................................17 A Worship Model ...................................................................................21 Understanding Precedes Contextualization ............................................26

CHAPTER 3 EPISTEMOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY ................................32

CHAPTER 4 RESEARCH IN 2006 .....................................................................39

Indigenous Festivals................................................................................39

Evangelical Worship ...............................................................................49 Interpretation ...........................................................................................56 Conclusion ..............................................................................................60

CHAPTER 5 RESEARCH IN 2007 .....................................................................61 Introduction .............................................................................................62 The Corpus Christi Festival ....................................................................62 Some Historical Background ..................................................................70 The Meaning of Corpus Christi ..............................................................73

Interpretation ...........................................................................................96

The Research Process .............................................................................98

CHAPTER 6 RESEARCH IN 2008 ...................................................................100 The ―Pingullero‖ ...................................................................................100 Personal Reflection ...............................................................................102

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CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .......................108 A Process for Contextualizing Worship ...............................................108 The Research Process ...........................................................................111 Implications...........................................................................................113

APPENDIX A CALENDAR SUMMARY OF FIELDWORK IN 2006............117

APPENDIX B FOTOS AND VIDEOS ..............................................................118

APPENDIX C THE BIBLICAL ESSENTIALS OF WORSHIP .......................119

Systematic theology perspective of worship .........................................121 Narrative theology perspective of worship ...........................................124 Missional theology perspective of worship ..........................................124 Summary ...............................................................................................125

GLOSSARY ........................................................................................................126

REFERENCES CITED ........................................................................................127

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LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1 COMPARISON OF SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES ....................................34

TABLE 2 COMPARISON OF FESTIVALS AND WORSHIP ......................................57

TABLE 3 COMPARISON OF THE MEANING OF WORSHIP ...................................59

TABLE 4 KALLENBERG‘S ANALYSIS OF MODERN THOUGHT ........................103

TABLE 5 KALLENBERG‘S ANALYSIS OF CONVERSION ....................................104

TABLE 6 APPLICATION OF KALLENBERG‘S FRAMEWORK TO WORSHIP ....105

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LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1 BASIC MODEL OF CODE THEORY ..........................................................13

FIGURE 2 SHAW AND VANENGEN´S INTERPRETATION OF RELEVANCE

THEORY ...................................................................................................15

FIGURE 3 THE AUTHOR´S INTERPRETATION OF RELEVANCE THEORY ........16

FIGURE 4 RELEVANCE THEORY IN CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION ..18

FIGURE 5 ACCOMODATION THEORY AS SEEN IN RELEVANCE THEORY ......19

FIGURE 6 THE MISSIONARY TASK OF ACCOMMODATION ...............................20

FIGURE 7 A MUSIC-CULTURE MODEL.....................................................................23

FIGURE 8 A MODEL OF WORSHIP .............................................................................24

FIGURE 9 A MODEL OF NON-CONTEXTUALIZED WORSHIP ..............................25

FIGURE 10 THE MISSIONARY´S TASK OF CONTEXTUALIZING WORSHIP......26

FIGURE 11 UNDERSTANDING MUST PRECEDE CONTEXTUALIZATION .........27

FIGURE 12 MERRIAM‘S THEORY ..............................................................................29

FIGURE 13 MERRIAM‘S THEORY MODIFIED ..........................................................30

FIGURE 14 DISCOVERING BELIEFS THROUGH MUSIC-RITUAL ........................31

FIGURE 15 MAP OF THE CHILLO VALLEY ..............................................................37

FIGURE 16 MEANING IN THE FESTIVAL .................................................................96

FIGURE 17 A SUMMARY OF THE RESEARCH PROCESS ......................................99

FIGURE 18 THE DIFFERENCE IN WORSHIP ...........................................................109

FIGURE 19 A PROCESS FOR CONTEXTUALIZING WORSHIP ............................110

FIGURE 20 THE RESEACH PROCESS SEEN AS A SPIRAL ...................................113

FIGURE 21 TIENOU‘S STRATEGY OF THEOLOGY ...............................................120

1

INTRODUCTION

If you were to travel to the country of Ecuador, and to visit a small, rural

evangelical church in the Andes Mountains, you would probably find a small, simple

church building made of cinder blocks and a metal roof. The congregation might be

seated on wooden benches or plastic chairs. Up front is a simple wooden pulpit, behind

which several musicians are lined up welding guitar, bass, keyboard, and drums,

connected to a complete amplification system. As the singing begins, you are blasted

with one-hundred decibels of sound. You try to sing, but the miked singers up front are

too much to complete with. You were expecting to hear some kind of folk music that has

to do with the Quichua Indians, but instead you recognize the song as a Spanish

translation of what you have heard in the States. You think, ―This is Ecuador. I didn´t

expect the worship to be so similar to the worship in the US. I thought it would be

different.‖ Should it be different?

The author believes that a church needs to be relevant to its culture in order to be

effective in its ministry. It follows that a worship service that is not relevant to its culture

with be meaningless to the people of that culture. The exception is when a people adapt

to the culture of the missionaries, and thus deny their own culture in order to be members

of a church. The worship service style should adapt to the people and not the people to

the worship service. After all, God is our example. Did God enter our world as a Jew or

did we have to enter God´s world as angels? Did we have to adapt God´s language or did

He adapt to ours?

When God spoke to Abram, did he expect Abram first to learn a heavenly tongue?

No, God used Abram´s native tongue in order to give him the promises and the covenant.

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If God were to speak to us today, would he use Hebrew? No, he would speak to us in

English. God adapts to our language and doesn‘t expect us to adapt to his. Kraft refers to

this as ―divine accommodation‖1 (Kraft 1991:23). In regards to worship, it would follow

that God expects us to worship him from within our own culture. He would not expect us

to learn another culture first, before being able to worship him. So why is worship in

Ecuador so much like worship in the US?

A brief review of the history of Ecuador tells us that Christianity arrived in the

Americas with the Spanish conquest. The conquerors brought along Catholic priests,

because their duty was to ―conquer and evangelize‖ although they had a hard time

separating the two (Gonzalez 2008:106). When the Inca chief, Atahualpa, was presented

with ―the gospel,‖ he couldn‘t understand it, because it was presented to him in a way

that he couldn‘t understand. His response was to throw the Bible to the ground. The

Spaniards responded by killing the Incas, because they were convinced the Incas had

rejected the gospel (Mackay 1933:36); (McIntyre 1975:148).

The Spanish conquerors were ―gold-hungry‖ (Mackay 1933:31). Their objective

in America was to extract all the wealth possible to send back to Spain, thus honoring the

king and achieving their own personal fame. Literally, the conquered land was divided

into ―encomiendas‖ and the delegate for each was required to extract taxes from the

Indians (Costales Samaniego 2006:64). He was also required to ―indoctrinate‖ the Indians

into the Christian faith (Gonzalez 2008:106); (Mackay 1933:44). Thus the Christian faith

became mandatory for all the Indians. They also were forced to adapt to the Spanish

culture and style of worship. Outwardly, they conformed, but inwardly they maintained

their original beliefs. The Christian faith and the indigenous beliefs merged into one and

developed into a stubborn syncretism that persists to this day (Gonzalez 2008:109). The

1 Literally, ―he is receptor-oriented‖

3

Catholic priests were never able to convince the Indians to give up their pagan festivals.

Instead they began to use the festivals to evangelize the Indians (Moya 1995:11).

The Evangelicals didn´t arrive in Ecuador until the late nineteenth century

(Padilla 1989:191). At that time, Western culture was seen as superior to other cultures,

which were seen as ―pagan.‖ Western missionaries did not participate in the customs of

―pagan‖ cultures, and any converts to Christianity were required to give up their ―pagan‖

customs and become ―civilized‖ by adopting the Western culture (Kraft 2005:13). One

had to become ―Western‖ in order to become ―Christian.‖ The missionaries had a hard

time distinguishing between the two (Gonzalez 2008:105). When Hudson Taylor decided

to wear Chinese clothes instead of Western dress, he was considered a ―heretic,‖ because

he was adopting ―pagan customs.‖ Mission thinking has changed greatly since then.

We‘ve come to realize the importance of the local church becoming ―indigenous.‖ We

now call this ―contextualization,‖ although the term is moving toward ―appropriateness‖

(Kraft 2005:4).

The Evangelical Church in Ecuador is still hanging on to the old concept that to

become Christian is to become Western. (Today they use the term ―Modern.‖) In

Ecuador, anything from the West, especially from the United States, is considered to be

―better‖ or more ―modern.‖ The Evangelical Church is still a reflection of foreign

influence. It has yet to be contextualized, and to become truly ―Ecuadorian‖ (Darino

1993:25). It´s worship reflects this reality. A worship service in Ecuador is much like a

worship service in the United States, except for the language.

We need to create an indigenous Church, beginning with the worship, in the

Andes of Ecuador so that Christianity will be seen as relevant to the Ecuadorians,

especially to the Indians. In many ways, to be a Christian in Ecuador means to become a

foreigner. It requires one to give up their national identity and take on a foreign identity

4

(Segura Guzmán 2006:180). Christianity is still a ―foreign religion‖ in Ecuador. The

worship services are still seen as something foreign to the Ecuadorian Indian.

The purpose of this study is to understand the culture of the Ecuadorian Indian in

order to contextualize evangelical worship so that they will see Christianity as relevant to

them. The Critical Research Issue is to understand the spirituality of the Ecuadorian

Indians in El-Tingo.

The following research questions will be used to guide this study:

How do Evangelicals worship in Ecuador?

How do Ecuadorian Indians celebrate their religious festivals?

How do Evangelicals view worship?

How do Evangelicals view the religious festivals of the Indians?

What is the spiritual mentality of the Ecuadorian Indians?

What is the spiritual mentality of the Evangelicals?

This study looks at the contextualization of worship in the Andes of Ecuador

using the pueblo of El-Tingo as a case study. First, in Part I, the author discusses the

history and development of ―contextualization.‖ Second, in chapter two, he establishes a

theoretical framework which is built on contextualization, communication theory,

theology of worship, ethnomusicological theory, and anthropology. The result is a model

of worship as a ―cultural, divine communication event.‖ Next, in chapter three, he

discusses his biases and research assumptions which form the basis for his methodology.

In Part II, the author discusses the research cycle used and the resulting

conclusions. The author performed the research in the rural pueblo in Ecuador in which

he has lived for the past twenty-four years. The investigation took place during the years

of 2006, 2007, and 2008, and is described in chapters four, five, and six. The research of

each year was built on the process and conclusions of the previous year. Each year the

5

author used a progressive strategy and method scheme. The first year, the author focused

on the Indians festivals and the Evangelical worship services. The second year, he

narrowed the focus to the Corpus Christi Festival. The third year, he concentrated on the

flute player, and on personal, on-site, theological reflection. The final tentative

conclusions contributed to the development of a model that missionaries can use to begin

to contextualize worship.

PART I

THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The first part of this dissertation develops the theoretical model used for the

investigation. Guba emphasizes the importance of this when he says, ―No inquirer, we

maintain, ought to go about the business of inquiry without being clear about just what

paradigm informs and guides his or her approach‖ (Guba 1994:116). The model used is a

combination of contextualization theory, communication theory, theology of worship,

ethnomusicological theory, and anthropological theory. The author will explain the

development of each theory and its contribution to the final model. Finally, he will

explain his epistemological assumptions for this investigation.

7

CHAPTER 1

CONTEXTUALIZATION

The concept of ―contextualizing‖ in missions is relatively new, only being

discussed in the last half of a century. But modern Evangelical missions have been going

on for two centuries, and Catholic missions for five centuries. By looking briefly at the

history of missions, one gains perspective on the recent emphasize in ―contextualizing.‖

Mission texts see modern missions as beginning with William Carey‘s trip to

India in 1792 (Kraft 2005:13); (Neill 1964:222); (Tucker 1983:114), but the author,

following Gonzalez, will use the Spanish Colonization of the sixteenth century as the

starting point for missions as it has affected South America (Gonzalez 2008). Kraft gives

an excellent summary of the development of missions with regards to contextualization,

and divides the historical development into seven periods (Kraft 2005:13). Shenk

simplifies the same history into only three stages (Shenk 2005:31).

Here the author will summarize Kraft´s and Shank‘s discussions as they apply to

this study. Basically, for three hundred years, from 1500 to 1800, the whole concept of

missions was to ―civilize into order to Christianize‖ (Kraft 2005:13). The missionaries

saw their culture as being ―Christian‖ and the other cultures to which they went as being

―pagan.‖ Therefore it was necessary to bring the pagans into a civilized culture before

they could become Christians. This worked well in the Americas, because the cultures

were not well-developed and the people were open to change by giving up their culture.

In the Far East and Asia, where the cultures had been developing for hundreds of years,

the peoples were proud of their cultures, and didn´t want to change (Gonzalez 2008:122-

8

123). Thus Central and South America are generally Catholic, and the Far East and Asia

remain Hindu and Buddhist.

According to Kraft, it wasn´t until the 1800s that the mission mentality began to

change, influenced by the writings of Venn, Anderson, Nevius, Taylor, and Allen, and

the slogan, ―Self-governing, Self-supporting, and Self-propagating.‖ The new idea was to

allow the churches overseas to become ―indigenous.‖ The reason behind this was that the

foreign churches were still being run by foreigners, and the mission boards began to

realize that they needed to hand over the work to the nationals. But the result was merely

that the nationals took charge of a foreign church system that had been implanted in their

country. Of course, if the new Christians prefer a new culture, they readily adapt to a

foreign system, as they see it as ―superior‖ to theirs. This has often happened (Kraft

2005:12).

In the twentieth century, missiologists began to incorporate anthropology into

their thinking, and to realize how ethnocentric missions had been for the past centuries.

Western culture was not all that ―Christian,‖ and the foreign cultures were not all that

―pagan.‖ The idea that ―God had adapted to the Jewish culture to reveal himself, and that

He could and would adapt to any culture to reveal himself,‖ transformed the whole

concept of missions. Christianity could take on new forms in any culture, and, in fact,

should do so. Christianity needed to be ―re-birthed‖ from within a culture, and not

imported from without. The word for this is ―contextualization.‖

This not only implies a change in mission strategy, but implies that Western

theology is ―culture-bound,‖ and that each culture should develop its own theology. Kraft

says, ―No theology is an absolute representation of the mind of God‖ (Kraft 1978:36).

If we want to get to the root of the issue, we have to talk about epistemological

positions. One of these is ―critical realism.‖ This position believes that there is an

objective reality that is subjectively comprehended (Hiebert 1999:69). Kraft uses this as

9

the basis for his discussion on Christianity and Culture (Kraft 2005:302). God is seen

from different perspectives from different cultures. No one culture has a complete and

full concept of God. Nor does any culture have a monopoly on biblical interpretation.

Therefore, each culture has to develop its own theology, and its own forms of expressing

that theology.

When the idea was to make foreign churches ―indigenous,‖ the result was only an

outward change. In order to ―contextualize Christianity‖ in a foreign country one must

start from its cultural roots and to create a new theology. A new theology will result in a

new form of Christianity. One of those forms is worship.

If we applied these concepts to worship, we come up with the following ideas:

every culture has a particular way of worshipping. This worship comes from their

theology. Also, every culture has its particular way of conceptualizing God. Each culture

should be encouraged to worship God in its particular way according to its particular

theology. ―The call is for all evangelicals to worship according to their own doctrines‖

(Hustad 1998:28).

Kraft warns that contextualizing theology is necessary and risky (Kraft 2005:21).

It must be done according to Scripture, but it must also allow for cultural variations. The

danger is that Scripture becomes subordinate to the culture, but the other extreme is that

Scripture becomes locked into just one cultural interpretation.

Bevans gives several reasons of the necessity of contextualizing theology (Bevans

1992:5-7). The first is that Western theology doesn‘t satisfy all the questions of other

cultures. For example, it does not deal with the problems of social oppression. Second,

Western theology has traditionally been a ―theology of the rich‖ and has been used to

maintain the poor in their social position. Third, Western theology is closely linked to

Western culture. Other cultures can see the evil in Western culture to which Westerners

are blind.

10

Bevans has summarized many different methods of contextualizing into five

models (Bevans 1992:27), but, as we shall see later in this discourse, the beginning point

of contextualization is not in the method used, but in the understanding gained.

11

CHAPTER 2

WORSHIP AND COMMUNICATION

We shall see in this chapter how communication theory can be combined with a

theology of worship. Worship is very important in the life of the church and of the

Christian because ―The corporate worship event is at the very core of our individual and

corporate Christian identities‖ (Morgenthaler 1999:29).

Worship is most commonly defined as ―the human response to divine revelation.‖

Worship is ―the affirmative, transforming response of human beings to God´s self-

revealing‖ (Hustad 1993:100). The emphasis of this definition is on God´s initiative that

stimulates our response, as opposed to our effort to seek God. But as a result, we do

respond to God´s initiative and thus worship begins. ―The memory and rehearsal of

God´s saving action is the divine side to worship. The other side to worship is our

response‖ (Webber 1998:44).

This is often seen as communication between God and humans: ―The most

significant benefit of a worship service is connecting with God‖ (Morgenthaler 1999:23).

―Worship is an act of communication‖ and ―divine action demands a human response‖

(Webber 1992:17). ―Worship is conversation between God and human beings, a dialog

that should go on continually in the life of the a believer‖ (Hustad 1993:105).

The author will look at worship by viewing it as two-way communication

between God and humans. This is really not so new, as Nida saw it this way in Latin

America twenty six years ago (Nida 1974:145).

12

Communication Theory

The question remains as to which theory of communication is more appropriate

for studying worship. Generally speaking there are two perspectives of communication:

the transmission of messages, and the interpretation of messages. The difference lies in

the opinion of whether the meaning resides in the message or whether the meaning is

created by the receptor. Kraft advocates the latter (Kraft 1991:77), and argues that this is

the Biblical model for communication (ibid:23), which he calls ―receptor-oriented

communication‖ (ibid:37).

Let us briefly review these two types of communication and their models. The

first falls under the title of ―code theory,‖ which has been the traditional model for

communication theory. Shannon are Weaver are credited with developing this model

which is based on a mathematical perspective applied to the telegraph (Shannon 1949:5).

The central idea of code theory is the transmission of a message. The message

requires someone to send it, and another person to receive it. The message must be

encoded into some symbolic form, whether this be spoken words, electric signals,

gestures, or written words. The receiver must then decode the symbols in order to

understand the message. The message can be transmitted through various channels, and

its transmission can be affected by noise. The basic model is illustrated in Figure 1, and is

often represented by the symbols: ―S-M-R‖ which stand for ―sender,‖ ―message,‖ and

―receiver‖ (Schramm 1963:7); (Nida 1960:47).

On the other hand, if one assumes that meaning is not transferred in the message,

but rather created by the hearer, (Kraft 1991:77), then a different communication theory

develops. Some of the founders of this theory are Grice, Berlo, and Sperber and Wilson.

Grice stated his thesis as ―‘A meant something by x‘ is (roughly) equivalent to ‗A

intended the utterance of x to produce some effect in an audience by means of the

recognition of this intention‘‖ (Grice 1957:385). Berlo followed on this and proposed that

13

―meaning are not in the messages‖ but ―meanings are in people‖ (Berlo 1960:175).

Sperber and Wilson took this one step further and defined communication as ―an attempt

to modify the cognitive environment of another person‖ (Sperber 1986:150).

Sender ReceiverMessageEncodes Decodes

Channel

Noise

Feedback

FIGURE 1

BASIC MODEL OF CODE THEORY

In order to understand Sperber and Wilson‘s theory of communication, which is

called ―relevance theory,‖ we need to define a few concepts. The first is ―cognitive

environment.‖ Sperber and Wilson explain this by saying: ―An individual´s total

cognitive environment is the set of all the facts that he can perceive or infer: all the facts

that are manifest to him. An individual´s total cognitive environment is a function of his

physical environment and his cognitive abilities‖ (Sperber 1986:39). Shaw and

14

VanEngen use two synonyms for this: ―field of experience‖ and ―worldview‖ (Shaw

2003:110-111). In this paper, the author will use the term ―cognitive environment,‖ and

will define it as ―Everything one knows, based on one´s experience and reason.‖

The second term that needs to be defined is ―context.‖ Sperber and Wilson define

this as ―a subset of one´s cognitive environment that is most relevance to the situation at

hand‖ (Sperber 1986:132) which in this paper relates to the situation of communication.

One cannot use his or hers entire cognitive environment at one time, and so one chooses

subsets or contexts in order to process information. The contexts one chooses are those

one feels most relevant to the information being processed (ibid:141). In other words, in

the communication process, one recalls certain things and not others.

The third term is what we usually call ―the message,‖ but which Sperber and

Wilson refer to as ―a set of assumptions‖ (ibid:157) or ―the evidence produced‖ (ibid:65).

This is because Sperber and Wilson are defining communication as both verbal and non-

verbal. Non-verbal communication has no spoken message. In their opinion, code theory

includes only verbal communication, whereas relevance theory includes both verbal and

non-verbal communication (ibid:63). This is one reason that the author prefers relevance

theory over code theory when studying worship, because worship deals with spiritual

communication which involves both verbal and non-verbal communication.

The fourth term is ―stimulus‖ or ―intent‖ (ibid:153) . This refers to whatever the

communicator does to communicate, whether it be verbal or non-verbal. It is not

necessarily a ―message‖ as we normally think of the term, but any words, signs, gestures,

or movement that have the intent of communicating with someone else.

The fifth and last term is ―inference‖ (ibid:65), which is the most important

concept in relevance theory. The person who is the object of the communication intent

does not decode a message, but rather, based on the evidence given by the communicator,

15

and based on his or her cognitive environment (what he or she already knows), the person

―infers‖ or ―deduces‖ the meaning of the ―message.‖

From these five terms, we now construct a model of communication. Sperber and

Wilson do not have any illustrations of a model, so we turn to Shaw and VanEngen and

their interpretation of such as seen in Figure 2.

FIGURE 2

SHAW AND VANENGEN´S INTERPRETATION OF RELEVANCE

THEORY

The two principal circles represent the worldview of the author of the message

and the worldview of the audience, respectively. Their two worldviews are different, but

not completely so. The overlap between the two circles represents some aspects of their

worldviews that are similar. Communication takes place in this area of shared knowledge.

The author of message attempts to communicate with the audience by presenting

16

―evidence‖ (traditionally called ―a message‖). This is referred to as the ―intent,‖

illustrated by the two-way arrow. The process is completed when the audience makes

inferences from the evidence presented, as illustrated by the second two-way arrow.

Good communication takes place when the inference of the audience matches, or comes

close to matching, the intent of the author of the message.

Evidence

CognitiveEnvironment B

AUDIENCE

CognitiveEnvironment A

AUTHOR

Intent Inference

Context1

Context2

Context3

Context1 Context

2

Context3

FIGURE 3

THE AUTHOR´S INTERPRETATION OF RELEVANCE THEORY

This illustration lacks the concept of context, which is a subset of one´s cognitive

environment. The author proposes an addition to this model, as illustrated in Figure 3.

Since each circle represents the cognitive environment of an individual, we must add

17

smaller circles within the circle to represent various contexts of one´s cognitive

environment. Both the author of the message and the audience choose one or more

contexts to use in the communication process. It is the hypothesis of the author of this

paper that if the contexts are similar, it is more likely that the inference will match the

intent. But if the contexts are different, the inference will probably be different from the

intent.

Cross-Cultural Communication

So far, this model illustrates communication within the same culture. Even though

the author of the message and the audience may choose different contexts for the

communication, their cognitive environments are within the same worldview. This is

illustrated by using large and small circles to represent the cognitive environment and the

contexts as being related to the same worldview. But in cross-cultural communication

this changes. The two worldviews are now very different. We will illustrate this by using

circles for the cognitive environment and contexts of the author of the message, and

squares for the cognitive environment and contexts of the audience1, as in Figure 4. In

this case, the contexts may appear to be matching, but really they are very different,

because of the different worldviews involved. Notice in the illustration how both the

author of the message and the audience have chosen ―context 3,‖ but one is a circle and

the other is a square. For meaningful communication to take place, the contexts need to

hold the same worldview.

1 The idea of using shapes to illustrate worldviews was borrowed from Nida (Nida 1960:47), and

reinforced by Kraft (Kraft 1991:2-3).

18

CognitiveEnvironment B

AUDIENCE

Evidence

CognitiveEnvironment A

AUTHOR

Intent Inference

Context1

Context2

Context3

Context3

Context2Context

1

FIGURE 4

RELEVANCE THEORY IN CROSS-CULTURAL

COMMUNICATION

Now the question arises: For meaningful communication to take place, ―Who

needs to change their worldview and thus their context? The author of the message or the

audience?‖ From our previous discussion, we have seen from God´s example that the

missionary must accommodate to the audience. In terms of relevance theory, the

missionary must modify his or her context to that of the audience in order to effectively

communicate the gospel to them. This is illustrated in Figure 5.

The emphasis in Figure 5 is in the red arrow which says ―conversion.‖ The author

of the message must modify his or her ―context 3,‖ which is a circle that represents his or

her worldview, to that ―context 3‖ of the audience, represented by a square, which holds a

19

different worldview. This improves the cross-cultural communication, because the

contexts are now matching.

CognitiveEnvironment B

AUDIENCE

Evidence

CognitiveEnvironment A

AUTHOR

Intent Meaning

Context1

Context3

Context3

Context2Context

1

Context3

Context2

FIGURE 5

ACCOMODATION THEORY AS SEEN IN RELEVANCE

THEORY

The missionary‘s task is to communicate God‘s message to another culture. From

both contextualization theory and communication theory we have seen that the

missionary must accommodate to the other culture. This implies two cultures, but if we

include the Biblical message, we must take into account a third culture. When God

revealed himself to the people of Israel, he did so from within their culture. (To simplify

20

this argument, we will maintain that Biblical revelation was from within just one culture.)

Therefore, God accommodated himself to the Jewish culture, from which we received the

Biblical message. Since our culture today is different from the Jewish culture, we have

accommodated the Biblical message to our culture. From our culture, we as missionaries

take the message to another culture. But, as we have discussed, often we have failed to

contextualize or accommodate to the other culture. Instead we have mixed our culture

with the Biblical message. This is illustrated in Figure 6.

Missionary

God

People

UniversalExperience

Bible Writers

P R E F E R R E D R O U T E

U S U A L R O U T E

FIGURE 6

THE MISSIONARY TASK OF ACCOMMODATION

21

Here we have three cultures involved: that of the Biblical writers, represented by a

triangle; that of the missionary, represented by a square; and that of the people to where

the missionary goes, represented by a pentagon. God is represented by a circle to

illustrate that He is acultural, and accommodates to any culture. In this case, God

accommodated his message to the Biblical writers. This is represented by the circle

becoming a triangle. For the message of the Biblical writers to reach the missionary, it

has been transformed into a square. Thus, the missionary now sees the Biblical message

from within his or her culture. What has happened historically is that the missionary has

taken the Biblical message to another culture, but has not accommodated the message to

that culture. Thus the people of that culture see the gospel (a square) as foreign to their

culture (a pentagon).

Here is where relevance theory helps us see the need to accommodate the

message in order to communicate it effectively cross-culturally. The missionary needs to

change his or her mentality (cognitive environment and contexts) to that of the people.

This is illustrated by the red arrow.

But as missionaries our task is two-fold. Not only must we accommodate our

mentality to that of the people, but we must recognize that the Biblical message is also

encased in a culture. Therefore, our task is to accommodate both our mentality and the

Biblical message into the mentality of the people to whom we go. Then they will see the

gospel from within their culture, and see it as relevant to them.

A Worship Model

We are now ready to apply these concepts to contextualizing worship. We have

previously defined worship as two-way communication between God and humans. We

have also seen how God will accommodate himself to the culture of the people. The

missionary brings the people into contact with God, but tends to impose his or her culture

22

on the people. Therefore the missionary must learn to accommodate the gospel to the

people. While the gospel is reaching the people, one of the missionary‘s tasks is to help

the people contextualize their worship, and not to impose the missionary‘s worship style

on the people.

This paper limits its focus of worship to the musical aspect of the Sunday morning

worship service. We will define this worship as ―a cultural, divine communication, music

event.‖ This is the author‘s definition, and is a combination of four disciplines:

anthropology, theology, communication, and ethnomusicology. We have already

discussed the contributions from anthropology (culture), theology (worship), and

communication (relevance theory). What is left is to describe the proposed model within

an ethnomusicological framework.

Ethnomusicology is the study of music within culture. Since we are looking at the

musical aspect of worship and how to contextualize it within a culture, this discipline will

help us. Traditionally, ethnomusicologists have focused on the music itself: the notes, the

harmony, the instruments, and the words. A couple of them have focused on the musical

ritual, which includes the previously mentioned elements, but also includes the

environment, the moment, the musicians, the audience, social interactions, etc.

Ruth Stone focused on what she calls ―the music event‖ (Stone 1982:1), referring

to the music as it is performed, and used it as the basic unit for her investigation. Titon

and Slobin have constructed ―a music-culture model that is grounded in music as it is

performed‖ (Titon 2002:16). It consists of four concentric circles with music at the

center, then the performers, followed by the audience, all within the context of time and

space, as illustrated in Figure 7. In this study of worship, the author will also use the

music event as it is performed as the basic unit of investigation. He will also use the idea

of a circle (or another shape) to represent this music-culture event symbolically.

23

Time and Space

Audience

Performers

Music

FIGURE 7

A MUSIC-CULTURE MODEL

Let us now construct our final model for this investigation as illustrated in Figure

8. Using a large square to represent the music-culture event of the worship of a culture,

we use a smaller circle to represent God, and a smaller square to represent the

congregation within that culture. As we have previously discussed, God will

accommodate to the culture of the congregation in order to communicate with them, and

he also expects the congregation to respond to him from within their culture. We

represent this communication cycle with an arrow from God to the congregation, and

another arrow from the congregation to God. We place a square on top of the arrows to

illustrate that the communication is within the cultural framework, or cognitive

environment of the congregation.

24

God

Congregation

Musical Worship Response

God’s Revelation (Word and Works)

FIGURE 8

A MODEL OF WORSHIP

What happens, then, when a missionary goes to another culture and replicates his

or her worship style among a new congregation? The result is that this forces the

members of the new congregation to adapt to the missionaries mentality in order to

worship God. They have to learn the missionary‘s culture in order both to hear God and

to talk to God. In other words, the missionary is forcing the new congregation of another

culture to accommodate to the missionary, rather than the missionary accommodating to

the new congregation. This is illustrated in Figure 9. We have used a large pentagon to

represent the culture of the new congregation, and have placed the missionary‘s worship

cycle within this pentagon. Note that the congregation is forced to hear God‘s revelation

in the form of a square which represents the missionary‘s way of hearing God. And the

congregation is also forced to talk to God in the form of a square, when their way of

25

doing so is different, and represented by a pentagon. As a result, the members of the

congregation are not able to truly worship God.

God

Musical Worship Response

God’s Revelation (Word and Works)

Congregation ??

FIGURE 9

A MODEL OF NON-CONTEXTUALIZED WORSHIP

It is the missionary‘s responsibility to initially create a worship style that matches

the culture of the new congregation. We illustrate this in Figure 10. Here we place the

missionary, represented by a square, in the center of the diagram to illustrate that the

missionary is the facilitator of this process. The missionary needs to create a music-

culture event in which the congregation hears God from within their own culture,

represented by a pentagon. The missionary also needs to create a music-culture event in

which the congregation can express its response to God‘s revelation in their cultural way

26

of doing so. This task is illustrated by the arrows from the missionary to God‘s revelation

and the music worship response.

God

Musical Worship Response

God’s Revelation (Word and Works)

Congregation

Missionary

FIGURE 10

THE MISSIONARY´S TASK OF CONTEXTUALIZING WORSHIP

Understanding Precedes Contextualization

We have now firmly established that in order to contextualize worship and to

enable effective communication with God in worship, that it is the missionary‘s task to

accommodate the worship style to the congregation in their culture. This concept is

reinforced by relevance theory in terms of the missionary accommodating his or her

context of worship in his or her cognitive environment to that of the congregation in their

cognitive environment. This task is impossible unless the missionary understands the

27

context to which he or she is accommodating. In other words, until the missionary

understands the people of the congregation, it will be fruitless to attempt to contextualize

their worship. Therefore, the first thesis of this dissertation is that understanding must

precede contextualization.

Change the form of our music ritual to theirs

Evangelical Worship

Change our understandingto that of their

music ritual

Leave our cognitive environment

Adopt their cognitive

environment

Traditional route

Proposed route

AndeanWorship

FIGURE 11

UNDERSTANDING MUST PRECEDE CONTEXTUALIZATION

This idea is illustrated in Figure 11. We have represented evangelical worship

with a square to illustrate the missionary‘s concept of worship as dictated by his or hers

cognitive environment. The traditional route of contextualization is to simply change the

form of the missionary‘s worship to that of the people, in this case, to that of the Andean

28

Indian in Ecuador, represented by a pentagon. It would then appear that the new form of

worship allows them to communicate with God. The author believes that is not

necessarily true. Only when the missionary understands the cognitive environment or the

mentality of the people, will he or she be able to begin to contextualize their worship.

This is illustrated by the second arrow that passes through a circle. This step implies that

the missionary is able to leave his or her cognitive environment, or at least realize what it

is and not impose it on the people. Once the missionary understands the cognitive

environment or the mentality of the people, only then will he or she really be able to

create a worship style that truly matches their cognitive environment. For this reason, the

main focus of this investigation is to understand the mentality of the Andean Indian in

Ecuador with respect to their worship.

The second thesis of this dissertation is that one can understand the worship

mentality of a people through their pagan worship. The anthropologist Clifford Geertz

proposed that

―sacred symbols function to synthesize a people‘s ethos—the tone,

character, and quality of their life, its moral and aesthetic style and

mood—and their world view—the picture they have of the way things in

sheer actuality are, their most comprehensive ideas of order‖ (Geertz

1973:89).

This paradigm can be adapted for the present research in the following way: Taking out

the added definitions, Geertz‘s paradigm reads: ―sacred symbols function to synthesize a

people‘s ethos and their world view.‖ This implies that symbols can represent a people‘s

mindset or their cognitive environment. Music is definitely one of those symbols. In other

words, music functions to synthesize a people‘s identity (part of their ―ethos‖) and their

theology (part of their worldview). Therefore, through the music ritual of worship, one

can begin to understand a people‘s mentality.

29

We can also illustrate this by using one of the basic theories of ethnomusicology

with some changes. In 1964, Alan Merriam proposed that that music comes from

behavior which comes from concepts.

"The music product is inseparable from the behavior that produces it; the

behavior in turn can only in theory be distinguished from the concepts that

underlie it; and all are tied together through the learning feedback from

product to concept‖ (Merriam 1964:35).

FIGURE 12

MERRIAM’S THEORY

This can be seen as a linear process, in the sense that one thing produces another:

concepts produce behavior which produces music. We illustrate this in Figure 12. This

linear thinking can be seen as coming from Goodenough‘s concept that culture is a set of

rules to follow (Goodenough 1957:167). But rather, if we use Geertz‘s definition of

culture as ―webs of significance spun by people themselves‖ (Geertz 1973:5), then it

would be more appropriate to diagram Merriam‘s theory as a set of concentric circles,

which represent layers of meaning. Thus the innermost circle, which would represent the

deepest layer of meaning, would be ―concepts.‖ Moving outward, the next circle would

represent behavior, and the last circle, music, as illustrated in Figure 13. We add arrows

to illustrate how the inner layers affect the outer ones.

CONCEPTS BEHAVIOR MUSIC

30

Music

Music

Behavior

Behavior

Concepts

FIGURE 13

MERRIAM’S THEORY MODIFIED

In order to apply this to spiritual worship, we need to narrow the focus of

Merriam‘s concepts, and use different terminology. We will narrow and change ―music‖

to ―music-ritual;‖ ―behavior‖ to ―traditions;‖ and ―concepts‖ to ―beliefs.‖ Since a music-

ritual is a representation of a people‘s traditions and these reflect what people really

believe, one can study music-ritual in order to understand the belief system of a people.

This would be to reverse the normal way of looking at this process. We illustrate this by

placing arrows from the outer circle toward the inner circle. The resulting model is

illustrated in Figure 14.

31

Music-Ritual

Music-Ritual

Traditions

Traditions

Beliefs

FIGURE 14

DISCOVERING BELIEFS THROUGH MUSIC-RITUAL

We now have a model for discovering the beliefs of a people, which, when

implemented will give the missionary the understanding necessary to begin to

contextualize their worship.

32

CHAPTER 3

EPISTEMOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY

The question now remains as to how the missionary will go about understanding a

people. This has to do with methodology, but before we can discuss this, we must first

choose an epistemology. The reason being that in the past fifty years, the scientific

paradigm of investigation has been giving way to other paradigms, which are challenging

the foundational assumptions, or epistemology, of traditional science. We can refer to this

as the shift from modernism to post-modernism. This shift has serious consequences for

the way research is conceived, executed, and reported. One cannot discuss the methods of

an investigation without first laying an epistemological foundation. In other words, one‘s

epistemology will determine one‘s methodology, and will define also the kind of

conclusions that will result. The foundation of an investigation is no longer the data, but

the epistemological biases chosen (as well as the theoretical framework).

This investigation falls within the discipline of missiology, but uses four other

disciplines: theology, communication, anthropology, and ethnomusicology. We can see

that in all five of these disciplines, postmodernism is making profound changes.

Missiologist Paul Hiebert discusses three epistemologies: positivism, instrumentalism

and idealism, and critical realism, and chooses the final one as his missiological

preference (Hiebert 1985:69). Anthropologist Russell Bernard discusses the two basic

epistemological positions (with all of their variations) of positivism versus humanism,

and decides to stick with positivism (Bernard 2002:5). Clifford Geertz took anthropology

in a completely new direction (Geertz 1973). In communication, Sperber and Wilson´s

33

relevance theory (Sperber 1986) was a complete shift from Shannon and Weaver‘s code

theory (Shannon 1949). Liberation theology was a change from rational theology to

contextual theology (Segundo 1976). And finally, ethnomusicologist Ruth Stone

discusses thirteen different theoretical approaches to the field (Stone 2008). We are in a

time of change, and, therefore, for any research, one must define his or her

epistemological position before beginning the investigation (Guba 1994:116).

For this investigation, the author favors the epistemological position of

ethnomusicologist Jeff Titon and the methodology that he proposes as most suitable for

this investigation. Titon favors phenomenology over positivism, and proposes

interpretation over analysis. In Table 1 we summarize his discussion (Titon 1997:87-90,

95).

Titon begins by contrasting two kinds of knowledge: explanation and

understanding, as distinguished by continental European philosophy. Explanation is what

science does, and understanding is the goal of the humanities. The most common

epistemology of science is positivism which assumes that knowledge previously exists

and is to be discovered. Whereas, in the humanities, a common epistemology is

phenomenology which assumes that knowledge is a dynamic creation of social

interaction. The epistemological position of a discipline is the starting point which

determines the kinds of goals, focuses, and methods that will follow.

34

EXPLANATION UNDERSTANDING

Science Humanities

Positivism Phenomenology

1Knowledge previously exists and

is to be discoveredKnowledge is a dynamic

creation of social interaction

2 Directed toward objects Directed toward people

3Drives toward law Drives toward agreement

through lived experience

4 Expressed as universal laws Expressed as shared experiences

5 Enables prediction and control Enables comprehension

6Method is Inference, Hypothesis, and Experiment

Method is participation, reflection, and interpretation

7Based on observing and collecting

Based on experiencing and understanding

8 Proceeds through analysis Proceeds through interpretation

TABLE 1

COMPARISON OF SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES

(Titon 1997:87-90, 95)

In Table 1, we have numbered eight rows to facilitate this discussion. Row

number one contrasts the epistemological positions of the two disciplines. Rows two and

three contrast the focus; rows four and five, the goals; and rows six through eight, the

methods. The contrast is not to illustrate which is ―correct,‖ but to show that each one is

better suited for different situations. In general, science is directed toward objects and

drives toward law, while the humanities are directed toward people, and drive toward

agreement through lived experience. As a result of these focuses, a scientific

investigation will be expressed as universal laws, and will enable prediction and control.

35

In contrast, a study in the humanities will be expressed as shared experiences, and will

enable comprehension.

The whole point of this discussion is that the resulting methodology is quite

different in these two disciplines, and it is easy for researchers in the two fields to

criticize each other as one being more ―objective‖ and the other too ―subjective.‖ But the

issue is not in the methodology, but in the epistemology.

We now note the contrast in the methodologies. Scientific method uses inference,

hypothesis, and experiment, and therefore is based on observing, collecting, and

analyzing data. Whereas, in phenomenology, one investigates through deduction,

exploration, and reflection, and therefore the study is based on experiencing,

understanding, and interpretation.

Since this study is focusing on people and spirituality, the author believes that a

phenomenological approach is much more suitable that a scientific one. People are not

logical, predicable beings, and spiritual meaning is a dynamic concept that is constantly

being re-shaped, and re-defined by those persons.

36

PART II

THE INVESTIGATION

The second part of this dissertation discusses the investigation itself as based on

the theoretical framework and the epistemology of phenomenology explained in part one.

The author performed the research in the area of Ecuador in which he has lived for the

past twenty-four years. The investigation took place during the years of 2006, 2007, and

2008, and is described in chapters four, five, and six. The research of each year was built

on the process and conclusions of the previous year. Each year the author used a

progressive strategy and method scheme. The first year, the author focused on the Indians

festivals and the Evangelical worship services. The second year, he narrowed the focus to

the Corpus Christi Festival. The third year, he concentrated on the flute player, and on

personal, on-site, theological reflection. The final tentative conclusions contributed to the

development of a model that missionaries can use to begin to contextualize worship.

The investigation took place near Quito, the capital city of Ecuador, in the valley

east of Quito, called ―The Chillo Valley.‖ This valley is a mixture of white, middle-class

urbanites, and indigenous, lower-class ―pueblos.‖1 The word ―pueblo‖ refers to what Dr.

Alfredo Costales, one of the first anthropologists in Ecuador, refers to as a ―reduction‖

(Costales Samaniego 2006:107). Historically, the Catholic Church gathered the Indians

into small communities in order to indoctrinate them (Gonzalez 2008:108). These are the

present pueblos, all of which have a central park where a catholic church is strategically

1 Many excellent ethnographies have been written about some of these pueblos: Conocoto

(Gallardo 1994); Sangolquí (Gomezjurado Zevallos 2003), (Hinojosa Figueroa 2002); Pintag (Sosa Freire

1996).

37

located. The whole Ecuadorian Andes Region is dotted with these pueblos from north to

south. In the Chillo Valley alone lie more than three dozen pueblos. The Catholic Church

is central to the community life of the pueblos as it is where baptisms, weddings,

funerals, catechisms, and the festivals are held. At first the catholic missionaries tried to

eliminate these pagan festivals, but were unsuccessful. The festival eventually merged

with many catholic traditions (Moya 1995:18).

Volcano“Ilalo” El-Tingo

GuangopoloToglla

Alangasí

La Merced

San Carlos

Conocoto

Sangolquí

Pintag

Tolontag

San PedroAmaguaña

Eastern Mountain Range

Quito

San Juan

San José

Checa

Quinche

Location of some of the pueblos in the Chillo Valley

Yaruquí

Pifo

Tumbaco

Puembo

La Comuna

Santa Teresa

Armenia

FIGURE 15

MAP OF THE CHILLO VALLEY

38

In Figure 15, twenty-two pueblos are listed and represented in the Chillo Valley.

Many more exist. The investigation included nine of these pueblos: La Comuna, La

Armenia, La Merced, Alangasí, El-Tingo, Pintag, Santa Teresa, Conocoto, and San José,

the choice being determined by accessibility and personal contacts of the author, and

limited by time and resources. All of these pueblos, and most of the others, have

evangelical churches, but they are small and have a relatively small influence as

compared to that of the Catholic Church.

39

CHAPTER 4

RESEARCH IN 2006

The purpose of this phase of the investigation was to compare indigenous worship

with evangelical worship, and to begin to understanding the meaning of each. The author

was able to film and observe four different religious festivals in three different pueblos:

the Patron Festival in Alangasí, the Passing of the Child in Armenia, and in El-Tingo,

Holy Week and Corpus Christi. For two of these festivals, the second and third

mentioned, he was able to show the video to some of the participants and listen to their

comments.

As for evangelical worship, the author filmed and observed a Sunday morning

worship service in evangelical churches in five pueblos, and was able to show the video

to the participants, particularly the musicians, and discuss it with them in four of the five

churches. Afterwards he held a joint workshop in which three of the five churches

participated, plus two others not included in the first list.

Indigenous Festivals

Every pueblo in Ecuador celebrates festivals several times a year or more. The

festivals are varied and differ some from pueblo to pueblo. They are always in public and

involve most of the community. They are also heavily influenced by the Catholic faith

and tradition.

40

Patron Festival in Alangasí

Alangasí is the next pueblo east of the author‘s home in El-Tingo. It is also one of

the oldest pueblos in the Chillo Valley, dating at least 500 years (Landázuri 1990:28).

Thus, for many years, is has been the administrative center for most of the nearby

pueblos. This implies that it receives a significant budget from the Ecuadorian

government, and that it needs to maintain its reputation as the ―best‖ pueblo around.

The Patron Saint of Alangasí is the ―Candle Virgin‖ (Virgin de la Candelaria),

and is celebrated each year on the weekend nearest to February 2nd

. On this year, 2006, it

fell on Thursday, which meant the festival would begin on Friday, the 3rd

. The main park

is the center of the festivities, and around seven o‘clock the parade arrived. The main

figure was a six-foot virgin figure, encased in glass, and transported on a much decorated

truck bed. Four different bands marched around the park following the virgin. Following

the bands were groups from different neighborhoods, each with an ―offering.‖ One group

paraded an offering of large bamboo structures, rigged with fireworks for later in the

evening. Another group carried offerings of ―globes.‖ These globes are tissue paper hot

air balloons made to hold a candle at the bottom and rise when lit to disappear into the

sky. Another group paraded in their pickup trucks, each loaded with dry branches to feed

the bonfire later at the stadium. The parade finally ended at the church door where the

virgin was carefully lowered and placed at the entrance. Everyone crowded around the

door, leaving a ten-foot circle of space in front of the virgin. Into this space entered a

group of Mexican-style Mariachis who began to serenade the virgin with love songs a

young boy would sing to his girlfriend.

Once the virgin was carried into the church and left there, everyone trickled down

to the stadium, which is made of wooden poles tied together to enclose a large field with

second story viewing. The entrance fee is one dollar, and includes a plastic chair to sit on

and view the events. Each marching band took its place in one of the corners of the

41

stadium, and played on, completely ignoring what the other bands were doing. The trucks

entered from one side and left their loads of branches. The bamboo structures were set up

and the bonfire lit to set off the fireworks. After watching the colorful explosions in the

sky for about an hour, everyone gradually returned home to rest for the next day.

Saturday was the big parade where nearly every neighborhood participates in one

way of another. The military band led the parade, followed by the president of the pueblo

who organized the whole weekend celebration. Various groups followed, and the parade

continued for about two hours. One group would represent a typical indigenous tradition,

such as faces painted black, men dressed in ponchos, wielding machetes, and dancing to a

drum. The next group was scantily dressed girls dancing to reggae! Another group of

indigenous folk was followed by a group a cheerleaders!

At noon, the Catholic Church was packed for mass. All the pews were full, and

many were standing at the back of the sanctuary and in the doorway. Various musical

groups participated during the mass, including the Mexican-style mariachis, and directed

their serenades toward the Virgin. In talking informally with several persons present,

their opinion was that the mass was the only spiritual part of the week-end festivities;

everything else was just empty tradition.

“Passing of the Child”

This festival took place in the pueblo of La Armenia. The ―Passing of the Child‖

refers to an image of the baby Jesus which is being transferred from one house to another.

This involves a whole day of dancing, parading, eating, and celebrating mass. The person

who hosts and finances the festivities is called the ―prioste.‖

At ten o‘clock, at one of the neighborhood homes, a large group had gathered

wearing costumes of ponchos and masks. As soon as a band paraded in from the street,

the dancing began. The band members were dressed in black pants and white shirts, and

42

played brass and percussion instruments: trumpets, trombones, saxophones, snare drums,

bass drum, and cymbals. The music was pentatonic and repetitive, excellent for dancing.

The dancers were organized into groups, each with its own costume. In general,

either they dressed as Indians with ponchos or as clowns. With the temperature at

seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit, they must have been sweating profusely under those

costumes! The four groups pretty much stayed together during the dancing, although their

lines would intertwine. Two who were not part of any group were a wolf and a small boy

who held the leash.

Soon the whole group paraded down the road to another house, where they briefly

repeated the music and dance. Then they paraded off to another house for more music

and dancing. On the way, another group of women, not in costume, but in uniform, joined

the parade. They carried flowers and the fruit baskets. At the following house, two groups

of children dressed as Indians, joined the parade. The boys formed one group and the

girls another. Finally the whole crowd paraded to the house of the ―prioste.‖

Here they had three tents set up with chairs underneath. One tent sheltered a long

table with an adorned class case at the end. Here lay the Baby Jesus, which is the center

figure of the festivities. The music and dancing continued with the women offering a

drink called ―chicha‖ to everyone present.

Then the whole group took to the street again. This time marching a good eight

blocks to the Catholic Church. All the groups of dancers stayed together. The ―prioste‖

followed, carrying the Baby Jesus in a small cradle. Just ahead of him were two girls

holding ropes which suspended burning incense between the two of them. Behind them

followed the band, playing loudly, then a group of women carrying fruit baskets on their

heads, and another group carrying tall candles.

Once at the church, all the women filed into the church. Those with baskets set

them at the front of the sanctuary. No one in costume entered the sanctuary, but these

43

went off to a neighboring house, only to return when mass was over. The rest waited

patiently for over half an hour for the elderly priest to begin mass.

The mass was ordinary with no special music, and focused on the baptism of one

of the children of the ―prioste.‖ The ceremony was very solemn, and most of those

present seemed rather bored compared to the events that had preceded mass.

Once mass was over the atmosphere changed dramatically. The prioste exited

with the baby Jesus, and the women followed with their baskets full of fruit, and others

holding their candles. The band struck up their usual beat, and the dancers reappeared and

moved with the rhythm. Several pigeons were released from cages, and some women,

who held baskets full of bread, began to throw the bread into the air as others scrambled

to catch the bread. Dancing followed. Soon a parade began to form again and headed off

to the house of the prioste for more dancing and drinking which often lasts late into the

evening.

Four months later, one of the participants was available and willing to view the

video of the festival and discuss it. He commented that about half of the groups in the

festival did not live in the pueblo, but had been invited from other pueblos to participate.

Some groups had been contracted. As for explaining the meaning of the festival, his only

answers were, ―That‘s the tradition.‖

Festivals in El-Tingo

The three largest annual festivals in El-Tingo are Holy Week, ―Corpus Christi,‖

and the patron festival of ―Saint Peter.‖ The dates of the first two festivals changes

yearly, based on calculations of the moon. The patron festival falls every year around

June 23rd

, which is the solar equinox.

44

Holy Week

In El-Tingo, during Holy Week, they act out the last days of the life of Christ

from Thursday through Sunday. This is not on a stage, but throughout the whole pueblo.

For example, on Thursday, Roman soldiers actually go up the mountain nearby to arrest

Christ and bring him back down for judgment.

On Friday, they enacted the thirteen stations of the last hours in the life of Christ.

This is a Catholic tradition, coming down the ranks from the Pope. The first station lay on

the east side of town, and the last five were celebrated in the central park, ending at the

door of the Catholic Church. At each station they held a prayer, a scripture reading, and,

at some, a short drama or a reflection. The whole program, including the readings and

prayers, was written in a pamphlet they were selling for fifty cents.

In this procession, only a few people were wearing costumes: the Roman soldiers,

Jesus, the thieves, a few select men and women who represented the disciples, and some

hooded figures, dressed in purple. The rest of the people, numbering over one hundred,

followed in regular dress. A few carried the Virgin Mary, followed by another figure. The

band was next, playing solemn music. At the rear, carried on shoulders, were two more

idols: Christ crucified and Saint Peter. The priest directed the program and led the parade

from station to station. They finished at the park and then entered the Church for mass.

Saturday everyone rested from the activities, since Saturday Christ spent the day in the

grave.

On Sunday, the procession left from the park and headed toward the west end of

town to one of the neighborhoods that houses a chapel. The band went first, playing and

up-beat melody. Next came four men carrying the Virgin Mary, who was dressed in a

black cloak and veil. About twenty people walked behind her, followed by four more

bearing the image of Saint Peter. From a basket, a woman threw flower petals on Saint

Peter every thirty feet or so. After a long procession of more than one kilometer, they

45

arrived at the chapel which lay in a field, and once the priest arrived, (he was very late in

coming,) they held mass.

Back in the park, another group awaited the return of the procession, which

delayed around three hours while the first group finished mass, ate a communal lunch,

and then marched back to the park. Earlier that morning, a group of men had constructed

a fifteen-foot high, square, wooden structure, with a six-foot diameter hole in the high

platform, covered by a cloth dome. Just before the band and procession arrived, two men

scrambled up the ladder into the dome. Others removed the ladder, while the two men

lowered a plastic chair with thick ropes onto the ground. Quickly they placed a small girl,

dressed in white as an angel, into the chair, and hauled her up into the dome.

The band arrived first and moved to one side to make room for the Virgin Mary,

who was placed directly underneath the dome. The angel then descended, suspended by

ropes, and gave a short poetic recitation. Then she reached over to the Virgin Mary and

exchanged the black veil for a yellow one. The band struck up a lively tune, and the

Virgin Mary, with her new veil was processed to the Catholic Church.

Group Discussion in El-Tingo

Two months after filming the Holy Week, an opportunity arose to hold a

discussion group about the videos. The author reduced eight hours of video recordings to

thirty minutes. There seemed to be a fair interest among folk in town to see themselves in

the videos of Holy Week. The meeting was announced for Saturday afternoon, a time

when most folks are free, at the cultural center in the pueblo. But the weather didn‘t

cooperate. It poured rain for one straight hour before the meeting, which discouraged

most folks from coming.

In the end, three women, two youth, and one man came to view the clips. A thirty

minute discussion developed afterwards, but as much as the author tried to stimulate

46

discussion on the meaning of the festival, most of the discussion focused on how to

improve the festival: more time needed for preparation, lack of better communication

with the priest, and reaching the same level of quality as the other nearby pueblos. It

seemed like the festival had more to do with identity than with spiritual worship.

Corpus Christi

This festival was totally different from the Holy Week celebration. The main part

had nothing to do with the Catholic tradition, and the part that did was clearly marked so.

―Corpus Christi‖ means ―the body of Christ‖ and the name obviously comes from the

Catholic tradition. But a flute player with a drum, a large cone figure, and costumed

dancers definitely were not portraying ―the body of Christ.‖ This festival appeared to

have roots that may precede the Spanish Conquest.

On Friday night, around seven o‘clock, some folks started to set up plastic chairs

on the wide sidewalk in front of the Catholic Church. Some men brought a dozen or so

bamboo poles, each eight feet long, and began to construct a cone-like figure which they

call the ―Mama-Pacha,‖ which is the Quichua term for ―Mother Earth.‖

Several groups were going to participate this year, each with its own ―Mama-

Pacha.‖ Each group dances around this figure to the music of a man called the

―pingullero,‖ which refers to the flute he is playing, which is called a ―pingullo.‖ This

flute is a seven-inch long piece of bamboo with a whistle mouthpiece at the top and three

holes at the bottom. One hole is underneath for the thumb, and the other two are on top

for the index and middle fingers. The pinky and ring finger hold the flute. At the same

time the ―pingullero‖ plays the ―pingullo‖ with one hand, he beats a small one-foot

diameter drum, slung from his shoulder, with a stick in the other hand. The back of the

drum had a string across it with a small stick in the middle for an extra buzzing sound

effect.

47

The dancers are called ―rucos.‖ They are dressed uniformly with colorful ponchos

and two matching cloths hanging out each rear pocket of their black pants. Their shirts

are white, and around their knees are tied a row of bells which clang as they dance to the

beat of the drum. They say that the ―pingullero‖ ―makes the ‗rucos‘ dance.‖ From

underneath their black hats, long trails of hair drape down their backs. They also wear

masks made of mesh and painted flesh color. In one hand they hold a white handkerchief

around either a corn cob or small bull horns.

Traditionally, the groups are made up only of men, but this year one of the groups

was exclusively women, except for the ―pingullero.‖ They say that the women decided a

couple of years ago to form their own group, and they have since continued each year.

Since ―pingulleros‖ are hard to come by, theirs will be male. Of the four ―pingulleros‖

playing this year, two have been contracted from other pueblos.

While the men were putting together their ―Mama Pacha,‖ someone asked,

―Where‘s the ‗pingullero‘?‖ Someone said, ―He‘s inside.‖ Then someone else said,

―Bring him out and let him play!‖ He appeared and began to play a melody on the

―pingullo‖ while maintaining the beat with the drum. He played all during the

construction of the ―Mama Pacha,‖ and afterwards for the dancing.

Once the ―Mama Pacha‖ was complete with face (a mask over one-hundred and

fifty years old), hair, arms, hands, and a big white sheet for a body, one of the men

entered the cone, lifted it a few inches, and began to dance to the music. The rest of the

men put on their outfits and began to dance in a circle around the ―Mama Pacha.‖ Their

feet moved in a unison ―shuffle,‖ sort of like skipping without jumping. Every minute or

so they reversed direction.

During this dancing by the men, the women‘s group arrived and paraded twice

around the park with their own ―Mama Pacha‖ and ―pingullero.‖ Then they left the park

and paraded back to where they had come from.

48

Then one of the ―rucos‖ began to draw a five-foot circle on the cement where they

were dancing. Someone placed a small paper cup filled with beer in the middle. Two

―rucos‖ began dancing around the circle. They spread their legs apart, placed their hands

behind their backs, bent over at the waist, and tried to pick up the cup with their lips, all

while dancing to the music. When they lost their balance, they left the circle and let

someone else try.

A small boy, dressed as a ―ruco,‖ wanted to try. As he bent over, his poncho

draped in front of his body. He seemed to be successful in picking up the cup with his

lips, when someone lifted the poncho and discovered that he was using his hands to lean

on. Everyone had a good laugh. He tried again, this time with his hands behind his back,

and soon fell over just like the men. After some more dancing, the men carried the

―Mama Pacha‖ into the Church until the next day, and everyone retired for the night.

The next day, Saturday, each group gathered at different homes in the pueblo in

the morning, and around eleven o‘clock began parading towards the park. As they met,

they seemed to intermingle, but each group apparently had a leader who led the line, at

times in a snake-like pattern, or often in a circle. They circled around the park a few

times, and then continued in front of the church in what appeared to be utter chaos, but

they seemed to be enjoying it, especially when they were blocking the flow of traffic.

At twelve noon, the church bells rang and most of the participants entered the

church for mass, first removing their masks and hats. After half an hour, the priest exited

first, holding the chalice which represents the body of Christ. Four women held the four

corners of a canopy which covered the priest and the chalice. They paraded around the

park with everyone following, very quiet and solemn. At one corner of the park was a

table decorated with flowers and an arc of palm branches to represent an altar. The priest

paused here and led the crowd in some prayers. Then they solemnly paraded back to the

church, singing a few quiet melodies, and the priest entered with the chalice.

49

Once this ―formal‖ ceremony was completed, the ―rucos‖ put on their full

costumes, the ―pingullero‖ began to play the flute and drum, and the dancing began once

again around the park. This lasted well into the afternoon until finally everyone returned

home. The contrast between the folklore part of Corpus Christi, and the formal

procession with the priest, must be noted. It appears they are two very different

ceremonies.

Evangelical Worship

Now that we have described a few of the religious festivals of the pueblos, we

turn to the evangelical, Sunday morning worship service. Each service was filmed and

later shown to the participants in order to discuss its meaning. When possible, the

participants were shown videos of the festivals in the pueblos for their opinions of these

festivals and their possible meaning.

La Merced

La Merced is the next pueblo past Alangasí. The church there is small and meets

in a private home in the living room. Twenty people fit into three benches and a few

chairs. Two youth played the guitar and drums. The guitar was amplified, and both the

guitar player and the pastor used microphones for the singing. The congregation sang

enthusiastically, and all the songs were ―modern.‖

In this paper, we will refer to four broad categories of Christian songs: hymns,

traditional, modern, and national. None of the churches studied used hymns in their

worship services. Over twenty years ago, most of the churches in Quito were switching

over from hymns to short choruses. We will refer to these choruses as ―traditional‖

evangelical music.

50

In the recent decade, Christian Latin artists have been producing new music,

based on amplified sound, using drums, electric bass, guitar, and keyboard. Through their

concerts, sales of their CD‘s, and the internet, their music proliferates rapidly, and many

evangelical churches are using these songs for their worship services. We will refer to

this music as ―modern.‖

―National‖ music refers to a folklore style here in Ecuador that has survived for

several generations. It is usually pentatonic, does not follow the I, IV, V chord

progression, and has repetitive lines. Usually it is accompanied by acoustic instruments

such as the guitar, charrango, tambour, and wooden flutes. The further one is removed

from the city, the more one finds this type of music, especially among the Quichua

Indians.

The church in La Merced is made up mostly of a younger generation, thirty-five

years or below. They have adopted the ―modern‖ music as ―their music.‖ And their

choice of instruments and songs reflects this.

The following Saturday, the Pastor, the musicians, and a few others met with the

author to view the video of the worship service and to discuss it. The group was very

eager to talk about the music in their worship, but they couldn‘t give a clear answer to its

meaning. The author tried prying from different angles, but the general answer was, ―We

sing on Sunday to praise God.‖

When it came to commenting on the festivals in the pueblos, the conversation

became more interesting. The initial response was that the festivals are just tradition.

They are part of the identity of the pueblo, and often bring in tourists. The only spiritual

part is the Catholic mass inside the church. But when asked if they had participated in the

festivals, one youth, who had joined the meeting after we began, said that the festivals are

―art‖ and that he enjoyed putting on a costume and dancing with them all day long. When

asked, the rest of the group said that Christians shouldn‘t participate in the festivals. But

51

they did agree that it would be possible to celebrate a Christian festival. The Pastor added

that this might help the Christians be more confident in their public testimony.

San José

The church at San José consists mostly of indigenous folk. The Chillo Valley

consists of both white folk and indigenous folk. The indigenous folk are descendants of

the original inhabitants of the Valley, and the white folk are those who are moving out of

Quito into housing complexes near the pueblos. The older indigenous folk maintain some

of their identity, but their youth, who are going for higher education in the city, are

caught between these two people groups and tend to lean toward the urban culture. As a

result, in many indigenous evangelical churches, the adults and youth have different

cultural preferences. This is especially manifest in their worship music.

In the church at San José, the youth want to sing the ―modern‖ songs, but the

older generation prefers the traditional and national songs. The church has a full drum set,

electric bass, electric guitar, electric keyboard, and four large speakers, but on Sunday

they only use a guitar and their voices with two microphones. This is because the older

men lead and play the music. In most churches, the youth control the music, but this

church was the exception. In this church, one can hear the congregation singing. In many

churches, one can hear only the band.

We settled on a Thursday night for the discussion group, which was the only time

they had available. It was also right after their bible study. Most of the congregation

eagerly stayed to watch the video of the worship service and comment on it. Responses to

the question of the purpose of worship were: ―to praise and glorify God;‖ ―to love Him;‖

―to be in his presence;‖ and ―to express what‘s in the heart.‖ When they viewed the video

of an evangelical church playing ―modern‖ music, they began to be apologetic: ―We do it

differently;‖ ―Their music is worship music. Ours is praise music;‖ ―You can‘t hear the

52

congregation in their church;‖ and ―All you can hear is noise.‖ Apparently, they were

content with their music, and didn‘t want to ―modernize.‖

Then they viewed a video of a festival to see if they saw it as worship or not. At

first they rejected the idea of it being worship. They said the festivals were pagan and not

acceptable for Christians. They said this because most of them had come out of that

environment and to go back would be to deny their faith. But later they began to agree

that the festival was part of who they are, and that it could be adapted for Christian

worship.

Alangasí and Conocoto

It turns out that the musicians at the church in Alangasí are the same ones who

play at the church in Conocoto. At eight o‘clock they lead the worship in Alangasí, and

then have to skip the sermon in order to be ready to play at nine thirty in Conocoto. They

do the same in Conocoto, and then leave early to play at another service at eleven

o‘clock. In the first two services, they played modern songs, and they played them very

loud! They used electric guitar and bass, keyboard, full drum set, and amplified voices. It

was difficult to hear the congregation singing, although they kept the beat with their

clapping.

We set up a time to see the videos one Thursday night after their rehearsal. When

they saw themselves on video, they had the same opinion that the sound was too loud.

But they blamed the problem of the noise on the sound setup. Their comments on the

purpose of worship were: ―that the congregation participate,‖ ―to praise God,‖ and ―to

express what‘s inside the heart.‖

Several youth among the musicians said that they had participated in festivals in

the pueblos. When asked to compare festival worship with evangelical worship, they

commented: ―We worship a living God, and they worship an idol.‖ They clearly saw the

53

festivals as pagan worship, but they did agree that the festivals were very expressive and

full of joy. One of them commented that the evangelical worship services used to be that

way, but now they are more like concerts where people go to see the show. Then

someone commented that many Christians participate in the festivals, because it‘s fun.

They don‘t see it as worship, but rather as a party, to enjoy the music and enthusiasm of

the crowd.

Santa Teresa

Santa Teresa is another indigenous church, located in a rural area of the Valley.

For the worship service, a woman led the singing with her voice and a tambourine, while

another member played the guitar. Without any amplification, one could hear the

congregation singing quite nicely. The songs they sang were ―national‖ ones that used the

pentatonic scale and repetitive lines. When asked what song the congregation would like

to sing before the sermon, one elderly woman said, ―Open my eyes.‖ Now that title can

refer to either a well-known hymn or a well-known modern song. It turned out the

elderly, indigenous woman was asking for the modern one!

It was not possible to show them the video later for discussion. Not long after that

Sunday, the church split and disintegrated. There was no longer a congregation to meet

with.

La Comuna

La Comuna is actually within the city of Quito, but it is an indigenous community

up on the western hills of the city. The city grew around La Comuna, but it still functions

much like a pueblo. Since the author has a good relationship with this church, he decided

to include it in this investigation.

54

The music in the worship was led and played by all youth. Besides the usual

electric guitar and bass, keyboard and drums, they also used two set of conga drums. All

the songs were modern ones, and the noise level was well above the singing volume of

most of the congregation. The musicians were happy to meet two weeks later for a

discussion group. This turned out to be the best discussion group of them all, with

thirteen musicians present, including the music director. The environment was calm, and

each person allowed the others to speak in turn.

When asked directly what worship means to them, their answers included: ―I

enjoy it;‖ ―It‘s a gift God has given me;‖ ―I feel closer to God;‖ and ―It‘s a way to

express myself.‖ In response to what they expected to happen during a worship service,

they said, ―to be edified,‖ ―to feel the peace and joy of the Lord,‖ to glorify God and to

see the congregation doing the same,‖ and ―to leave my burdens with God.‖ All of their

comments included a sense of feeling and emotion. No one gave a dry, ―doctrinally

correct‖ answer. When they viewed the video of the festivals, they couldn‘t respond to

the question of whether it was worship or not. They just said it was not worship, and the

conversation moved on to another topic about music in their church.

A Joint Workshop

After holding discussion groups with each church individually, the objective was

to invite three or four people from each church for a final discussion group. To motivate

people to come, it was promoted as a workshop. The church at San José was

geographically central to all, and they were willing to host the event. The result was only

too good: sixty people came! That was too many for a discussion group, so plans were

immediately changed into a workshop format instead.

All five churches studied had been invited, but only three of them participated.

Yet two other churches sent representatives. They had been invited by the others. In all,

55

there were members from the following churches: La Comuna, La Merced, San José,

Pintag, and Ubillus. The last two are rural churches with predominately indigenous

congregations.

The workshop had five objectives: 1) to discuss the philosophy of worship; 2) to

talk about how to combine the musical sound of the instruments; 3) to learn about volume

control; 4) to stimulate composition of new songs; and 5) to discuss the meaning of the

festivals. The first and last objectives had to do with this investigation. The others were

part of an obligation of the author to share with the churches his knowledge about music

and worship.

In order to start the workshop, the musicians from each church presented a song

that they had used the previous Sunday in worship. Out of the five churches present, two

played modern songs, one a traditional song, and the two others, national songs. That was

quite a mix! It appeared that the variety was not related to geographical location or age,

but rather had to do with the church‘s tradition. La Comuna played a modern song with

full instrumentation. They are all youth. San José followed with a national song. They are

all older men. Pintag played a traditional song and Ubillus a national one. La Merced

played a very popular modern song in which the whole workshop joined in.

This was a demonstration that all three styles continue to be current and popular

in the Chillo Valley. The whole group sang along with the songs they knew, whether they

were modern, traditional, or national. So it‘s not just the style, but familiarity, that makes

a song popular.

Stimulating conversation in such a large group was difficult, but some persons did

have the courage to speak up. In response to the question of the goal of worship, some of

the answers were: ―to lead the people of God into the presence of God,‖ ―to resolve

personal conflicts and take them to God,‖ ―to feel God‘s presence and leave our problems

with Him,‖ and ―to get into the groove of praise.‖

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The rest of the workshop didn‘t result in any information worthwhile for this

investigation, although the participants appreciated the expositions and the new ideas

they learned. In the end, there wasn‘t time to show the videos of the festivals and get their

feedback about them.

Interpretation

The purpose of this phase of the investigation was to compare indigenous worship

with evangelical worship, and to begin to understanding the meaning of each. As

explained in chapter three, this study is based on experiencing, understanding, and

interpretation. The following is the author‘s interpretation of his experiences in the

festivals and in the evangelical churches.

Comparison of Events

The comparison of the pagan festivals and evangelical worship is summarized in

Table 2, and emphasizes the differences between the two events. First of all, note that the

festivals are held outdoors. They are public events for everyone to see. Whereas the

evangelicals meet behind four walls, and no one outside can see what they‘re doing.

It is truly amazing for one to realize how individualistic the evangelical services

are. In comparison, the festivals are community events, where group participation is

extremely important. If everyone doesn‘t do their part in the festival, it‘s a failure. On the

other hand, in the evangelical services, even when half the congregation doesn‘t show up,

the service continues.

It is worthwhile to note that the festivals are yearly, (although they have several

during each year), and the evangelical services are weekly. If the pueblos held weekly

festivals all year long, either they would go broke or the festivals would become very

insignificant events.

57

PAGAN FESTIVALS EVANGELICAL WORSHIP

Outdoors Indoors

Group Oriented Individual Oriented

Several every year Weekly event

Every neighborhood participates Only leaders participate

Long hours Short – 30-40 minutes

Social obligation Voluntary

Dancing Clapping

Very little speech Monologue

Meals included No meals

Children can participate No children allowed

Mobile Stationary

Acoustic Amplified electrically

TABLE 2

COMPARISON OF FESTIVALS AND WORSHIP

As a community oriented event, everyone participates in the festivals. In fact they

need everyone to participate. They often force participation either by social pressure of

by imposing a fine. Groups of leaders organize the event, but it is executed by the whole

community. In an evangelical worship service, the event is led by a selected few, and the

rest do not play a major role in the service. Their participation is voluntary.

Consider the time involved. An evangelical service lasts only an hour and a half.

The members are ―in and out.‖ No wonder it works so well in an urban setting! In the

58

pueblos, the festivals usually last the whole weekend. The evangelical service is just a

meeting, but the festival is a full-scale celebration.

It‘s a wonder why there isn‘t more dancing and movement at the evangelical

services. The festivals have lots of it. In fact, that is the emphasis of the festival. The

evangelical services center on a monologue, but the festivals center on celebrating

together. This includes food. A festival cannot be celebrated with a lot of food and drink.

Evangelicals in this valley rarely eat together at the services. And the author has yet to

witness a speech at a festival.

In the pueblos, children participate alongside their parents in the festivals, doing

the same thing they are doing whenever possible. The adults are clearly the leaders.

Whereas in the evangelical church, small children do not participate in the service, and

the music is usually led by the youth, not by the adults.

A festival will parade around the whole pueblo, from one end to the other. The

park is central, but the participants don‘t stay there. They will visit houses and other sites.

Evangelicals, on the other hand, spend the whole time of the service in just one place,

often in front of the same seat.

Evangelicals are keen on amplifying sound. The few who participate need to have

lots of volume for their voices and instruments. This may be why the congregation is

inhibited from participating. Whereas the pueblos use brass bands that don‘t need

amplification. Even the flute and drum of the ―pingullero‖ can be heard for more than a

block away.

Meaning of Worship

The author‘s preliminary conclusions are summarized in Table 3. The indigenous

folk see their festivals as long-time tradition that gives them their identity as a pueblo.

Their participation in the festivals is part of their commitment to each other.

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TABLE 3

COMPARISON OF THE MEANING OF WORSHIP

Among evangelicals, they see their worship as being ―up-to-date‖ or ―modern.‖

Since the Evangelical Church in Ecuador is only one-hundred years old, and most of the

churches studied have existed for less than ten years, they have no history of tradition. So

they copy what other, bigger churches are doing. They have not yet reflected on who they

are in their community. For these evangelicals, participation is an obligation ―to worship

God.‖

In the last column, the author summarizes how evangelicals perceive the festivals.

They see them as idolatry, whereas the indigenous folk themselves see it as tradition. Yet

the evangelicals do see the festivals as an expression of culture and as enjoyable to watch

and participate. This is a conflict among Evangelicals on how to interpret the festivals.

On the one hand, they see the festivals as idol worship, and, on the other, the festivals are

closer to the Ecuadorian culture and identity than the evangelical worship service.

A few Latin authors give their opinions about the indigenous festivities. Campaña

studied festivals in Riobamba, a city three hours south of Quito. In his opinion, the

festivals have a double motivation. First, they a motivated by tradition, faith, devotion,

past miracles, and catastrophes. But they are also motivated by prestige and financial

Contextual Meaning of

Indigenous Festivals

Contextual Meaning

of Evangelical

Services

Meaning

Evangelicals give to

the Festivals

Reason Tradition ―Modernization‖ Idolatry

Content Identity Giving God worship Expression of culture

Motive Obligation to the community Obligation to God Enjoyable

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gain. He concludes that ―the festival is not a reflection of past traditions, but of a present

social system‖ (Campaña 2000:14).

Sosa sees the festivals in a different light. Latin Americans have been under

conquest for centuries, first by the Incas, then by the Spanish, and now by capitalism. The

festival is a time of liberation:

"Out of oppression, men and women rise up to celebrate, not forgetting their

struggle, to be nurtured by the sweet foretastes of the great fiesta of victory and

liberation. It is not ordinary fiesta, intended to have people forget about their

worries, to alienate them. It is the fiesta which liberates. For this reason it is said:

'People who have no strength to celebrate, have no strength to liberate themselves'"

(Sosa 1993:68).

Conclusion

To summarize, the author found the indigenous festivals and the evangelical

worship to be totally different, not only in outward form, but also in the way each view

their worship.

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CHAPTER 5

RESEARCH IN 2007

In the previous chapter, the first research cycle was documented. The author

compared pagan festivals and evangelical worship in their presentation and meaning.

Based on that experience and preliminary conclusions, the author returned to Ecuador for

another research period in 2007, and implemented the following changes in his research

strategy: First, focus exclusively on the Corpus Christi Festival in the pueblo of El-Tingo.

Of all the festivals studied, this one seems to be the most autochthonous festival. For one,

it has no idols, and the focus is definitely on the harvest. The pueblo of El-Tingo is the

most accessible pueblo, since the author has lived there for over twenty years and has

gained the confidence of the people there. Second, research the history of the pueblo to

search for past records that may shed light on its traditions. Third, switch from an

impersonal style to a personal one. If knowledge, or in this case ―meaning,‖ is created

during the research as a result of the interaction between the investigation and the people,

then the research write-up should be in the form of a personal journal so that the reader

might re-walk the path of the researcher, and thus understand his interpretations.

The goal of this research period was to understand the meaning of the Corpus

Christi Festival for the people in the pueblo of El-Tingo. The method strategy was to

interact with the people before, during, and after the festival. The result is a journal of

what happened, and what the author learned. From here on the author will use the first

person singular ―I.‖

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Introduction

It‘s Wednesday night, July 18th

, 2007. I am in the Catholic Church of our small

pueblo, El-Tingo, Ecuador. The priest is present, along with 20 members of the pueblo.

Many of them are leaders in the community and in the church. Using a laptop computer

and a digital projector, I am presenting to them some of the history of the pueblo,

followed by a fifteen minute video clip of their annual folk festival called, ―Corpus

Christi.‖ When the video ends, the priest leads a discussion about the spiritual

significance of the festivals and why there‘s such a difference between the folklore and

the formal procession with the ―Holy Chalice.‖

So how did an Evangelical Pastor like me, gain entrance into the Catholic Church,

and convince the priest not only to lead the discussion about spiritual significance, but

also to personally invite the pueblo folk to attend? The process that led to this meeting is

just as important as the results of the discussion itself.

The Corpus Christi Festival

This is the second year in a row I have filmed this festival in El-Tingo. So I have

a much better idea this year of what to expect, but still there are always surprises. The

usual date for this annual festival is around the solar equinox (June 23rd

), which this year

falls on a Saturday. They always celebrate Corpus on Saturday, so I figured this would be

the date for the festival.

We arrived in Quito on May 26th

, and settled into our house in El-Tingo. Our first

matter of business was to check with some of the local women as to the details of the

planning for Corpus. Wow! They had moved the date from June 23rd

to June 9th

. That

was only two weeks away. In God‘s time we had come early enough! According to their

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account, the elders of the church (―Los Santos Varones‖ [The Holy Men]) were in charge

of planning the festival, and their brother, Patricio,1 was leader of the group.

I had to get my pick-up truck in shape for its annual registration. So I drove it to

one of the local mechanics in our pueblo: Carlos. He‘s great at welding, and the truck‘s

frame needed some mending. I‘ve known Carlos for many years, and this was not the

first time he had done some work on my truck. So while we looked at the truck to see

exactly what needed to be done, I pried him with questions about the coming festival.

By his account, ―The Holy Men‖ were not in charge this year. They had planned

Corpus Christi Festival for the past fifteen years straight, but this year the ―Central

Neighborhood‖ was in charge. I asked why the change had occurred, and he replied that

since they had been in charge for so long, others were complaining that ―The Holy Men‖

we‘re not letting anybody else do it. So they had conceded.

By choosing to reside in El-Tingo this year, we could engage in casual

conversations constantly with the inhabitants of El-Tingo. Since we have lived in El-

Tingo for almost twenty years, most of the folk know us. Last year we had stayed in

Quito, and had to commute one hour to film the festivals. As a result, we were only there

for the festivals, and had no time for these ―casual conversations‖ where one obtains a

huge amount of information!

Friday night

So on Friday night, June 8th

, I was in the central park of the pueblo, on the church

patio, watching ―The Holy Men‖ put together a nine foot tall bamboo figure in the shape

of a cone. They place a wooden face at the top, two horizontal arms below it, and cover

the whole thing with a white sheet. It looks sort of like a stick figure, except that the body

1All the names in this chapter have been changed to fictitious ones.

64

is a cone, but the cone is big enough to accommodate an adult underneath, so that the

adult volunteer ―makes the figure dance.‖

It always interests me that the flute player, called the ―Pingullero,‖ plays

continuously during the construction of this figure. His three-holed flute is called a

―pingullo‖ which he plays with one hand (in this case the left), and the other hand beats a

drum suspended by his left shoulder. The melody is pentatonic and very repetitive, but its

purpose is to ―make the men dance,‖ not necessarily carry a melodious tune.

The cone figure is called the ―Palla.‖2 I had heard last year from an ex-patriot who

had returned for a visit, that it represents the harvest in some way, but I was anxious to

hear it confirmed directly by the participants. I didn‘t even have to ask, for they had

draped a ribbon over the ―Palla‖ which said, ―Queen of the Harvest.‖

I was amused that the priest had come out to watch what was going on. I had

learned from the local women that he is relatively new here, having arrived only about

four months beforehand. He was also very young, maybe around thirty or so. But as he

was admiring the completed ―Palla,‖ he asked, ―What‘s this?‖ ―What do you do with it?‖

―Do you burn it later tonight?‖ I imagine that only because he was their spiritual

authority, could he get away with asking such offending questions without being thrown

out of town. Usually the priest is the one who helps organize these festivities. I was

amazed that he didn‘t even know what was going on!

Last year, once the ―Palla‖ was put together, almost a dozen men joined in the

dance around the ―Palla‖ to the tune and beat of the ―Pingullero.‖ This year, four

children, brought by their parents, had begun dancing around the figure even before it

was finished. Once it was finished, the men were supposed to dance as well, but all of

them hesitated. One entered the ―Palla‖ and began to make it dance. Since Patricio was

head of ―The Holy Men,‖ he led the children around and showed them how to dance

2 Or ―Mama Pacha‖

65

―correctly.‖ But the rest just stood there looking at each other. Even the priest said,

―Come on! At least dance once around the park!‖ The children danced for about ten

minutes, then the men stored the ―Palla‖ in the church and went home.

I was convinced that they didn‘t want to dance because the priest was present, but

several days later, I talked to one of the men, Marco, and he told me that they didn‘t

dance because he was upset with the rest. They had wanted him to do all the work, and he

had resented it. So they had to let things cool off for the next day.

Actually, they didn‘t go home right away. Just as they were storing the ―Palla,‖

another group, from the Central Neighborhood, came dancing into the park, with their

―Palla,‖ and ―Pingullero.‖ The men were about to put on their costumes and dance, but it

was too late. The ―Palla‖ was already in the church. The others danced a bit, and Patricio

served them some of their ―chicha‖ (a beverage made from fermented corn), since he was

the host.

During some of the confusion of whether to dance or not, I took advantage of the

time to introduce myself to the priest. I had been wanting to get to know him, and to see

if he was interested in discussing the meaning of this folklore. He was very eager to talk,

and he was also very interesting in discussing the festival. I proposed showing my videos

at a future date. He accepted the idea, and even offered the church meeting room for the

event!

Saturday

The main celebration takes place on Saturday. I had learned that four different

groups of dancers were going to participate. They were to gather at ―The Black Bridge‖

and parade down the main road to the park. Here I need to describe a little bit of the

geography of the pueblo.

66

El-Tingo is sandwiched between a river and a mountain. Thus the pueblo consists

of one main road that runs parallel to the river. ―The Black Bridge‖ lies at the east end of

the pueblo where a river runs under the main road. At the west end of the pueblo lies the

main park where the Catholic Church stands. The idea is to march/dance from one end of

the pueblo to the other. So the four groups were to meet at ―The Black Bridge‖ and from

there process to the park where Mass would be held in the church at noon.

A ―dancing group‖ consists of fifteen to twenty dancers called ―rucos,‖ a flute

player, called the ―Pingullero,‖ and the ―Palla,‖ with someone inside to make it dance

with the ―rucos.‖ The ―Pingullero‖ is dressed in normal clothes, but the ―rucos‖ wear a

colorful costume. They all have on black pants and a white shirt. Draped over their

shoulders they bear a colorful silk-looking poncho. Hanging out of each back pants

pocket is a matching cloth. They wear black hats, long hair, and screen masks over their

faces. In their right hand they hold some kind of figure, usually a corn husk, or small bull

horns, held by a white handkerchief. The left hand is held at the waistline. Some tuck

their left thumb into their pants.

Each group has its own color uniform. Tied around each knee is a string of metals

bells. They dance a light shuffle to the beat of the drum and the tune of the ―pingullo‖

(flute). The bells follow the rhythm of the drum. Every minute or so, they shout

repeatedly a word, which is hard to distinguish. Everyone tells me that the function of

the ―Pingullero‖ is to make the ―rucos‖ dance. But I noticed that the ―Pingullero‖ does

not lead the group. Both he and the ―Palla‖ follow the group which is led by the person at

the front of the line. Often there are two lines, which will double-back on each other.

When they arrive at the park, the group will often form a dancing circle around the

―Palla.‖ I assume that it‘s easier to parade in a line, and upon arriving at the park, they‘re

in one place, and so can dance in a circle.

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Now, one of my main informants is Marco, with whom I have had several

excellent conversations about the Corpus Christi Festival. He tells me that what I have

just described are the original and authentic participants of this festival. I did not describe

in the preceding paragraphs the other groups who are also participating in the Corpus

Christi Festival in recent years. These include what I call ―Inca figures,‖ since they are

quite similar to figures in the Inca Sun worship, which, incidentally, takes place annually

on the solar equinox (June 23rd

). Also present, and dancing as well, are military figures,

police, and persons dressed as ―weeds‖ from head to toe. These are called ―sacharunas,‖

(which is from the Quichua language). This year also included a ―prioste‖ who finances

the festival. He was carrying a three-foot ―baton,‖ holding it in both hands with two white

handkerchiefs. After the festivity is over, the baton is passed to another person, who

becomes the ―prioste‖ for next year.

The parade/dance is very interesting to watch, and I‘m not the only one filming

the event. Many people come from other pueblos, and even from Quito to witness some

of the traditions of Ecuador.

At noon the atmosphere changes. The church bells clang and everyone is

supposed to enter the church to celebrate mass. This year, the priest actually stood at the

church door and said, ―I won‘t start mass until everyone is inside!‖ He had a good

attendance that day.

Now, here‘s the interesting part of the Corpus Christi Festival: after mass the

priest exits holding the ―Holy Chalice‖ (―La Custodia‖) which contains the body of

Christ (―El Santisimo‖). Four women held poles which suspended a cloth canopy over the

priest and the Chalice. They were to process from the church to the hot water pools

(about three blocks) and back. Along the way there were three or four altars where they

stopped to pray.

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The procession is solemn, whereas the rest of the Corpus Christi Festival is joyful.

Everyone follows the ―Holy Chalice‖ in a straight line, four or five persons wide. Those

in the first part of the procession sing a slow, meditative song. The rest follow in silence,

except for the bells which continue to clang as the ―rucos‖ walk, only now they‘re not in

unison. The dancers are in full costume, except for the hats and masks which they have

removed.

They pray at each altar, led by the priest, and return to the church, where the

―Holy Chalice‖ re-enters the church. Then the ―Pingulleros‖ begin their music and the

groups once again form and dance around the ―Pallas‖ for most of the afternoon.

Sunday

My women informants had told me that the following day, Sunday, the next

pueblo up the road, Alangasí, would hold its Corpus Christi Festival as well. So I went to

see how it would compare with the celebration in El-Tingo. Now Alangasí is much

bigger than El-Tingo, and considers El-Tingo as one of its ―neighborhoods.‖

In many aspects, it was the same festival, celebrated in a different pueblo. There

were more groups, but it was pretty much the same thing. My wife and I have some good

friends in that pueblo, who live right on the corner of the park next to the church. From

them we learned more about the Corpus Christi Festival, but the main news was that the

following Sunday would be a bigger celebration called ―The Eighth Day of Corpus.‖

“The Eighth Day of Corpus”

From our friends in Alangasí, I learned much more about how Corpus Christi was

celebrated on a larger scale. There were the same groups: ―rucos,‖ ―sacharunas,‖ the Inca

figures, police, and military, and the same ―Pingulleros‖ and ―Pallas.‖ But around the

park were several altars. These altars consisted of a saint on a table-like booth. Behind

69

the altars were tall bamboo structures that they call ―Castles.‖ My point is that each

neighborhood that participates in this Corpus Christi Festival has its own altar and

―Castle.‖

In the morning, the festival is much like the one in El-Tingo. Each group parades

around the park several times, often going down a side street to a particular house for a

break. There they may be offered a meal or a drink before returning to the park to

continue dancing.

At noon is mass. The priest exits the church with the ―Holy Chalice‖ and visits

each altar. But here was something different: the ―rucos‖ and ―Pingulleros‖ continued to

dance while the priest visited each altar. Also, as part of the group with the priest, three

idols were each carried on the shoulders of four persons. The Corpus Christi Festival in

El-Tingo had no idols. Those with the priest were singing, but it was hard to distinguish

over the noise of the ―Pingulleros‖ and ―rucos.‖

After the priest returned to the church, the groups continued to dance for most of

the afternoon. Around three o‘clock the ―rucos‖ began to dance around the park with

bags of oranges. This was new for me. Then they began to throw the oranges into the

crowd. It seemed like everyone wanted to catch an orange. A few of the ―rucos‖ were

throwing candy instead of oranges, but not many. Obviously the tradition is with oranges.

I thought that was all to see, but our friends told us that each group says

―goodbye‖ to their saint and takes the saint and ―Castle‖ back to their own neighborhood

where they continue the festivities until evening. I watched the members of a particular

group, one by one, kneel on one knee and make the sign of the cross over their chest in

front of the saint. Then they lifted the saint to their shoulders and marched off.

Another group had the tradition of weaving ribbons around a pole while dancing

in a circle. At the top of the pole was a small house from which they set free a couple of

pigeons. They also did something similar to those in El-Tingo, which I saw last year, but

70

not this year. Three or four men placed some objects on the ground, along with a small

paper cup. Then they had to pick up the cup with their lips while spreading their legs and

holding their hands behind their back. If they fell, they were excluded. It appeared that

the winner took the objects as prizes. When they were done, they took their saint and

―Castle‖ and marched off to their neighborhood somewhere down the hill.

What most impressed me about this particular celebration of Corpus Christi was

the participation of each neighborhood. Each would prepare their own group of dancers,

etc. All the groups would come together, and then they would all separate and return to

their particular location.

Something else to note here is that I saw several small children participating in the

festival with their parents. In some cases the parent was also dancing with the child, but

in other cases, the child was dressed in a costume and dancing, and the parent would

simply walk alongside, and make sure they were okay. I can see one reason why this

festival has persevered for so many centuries: the parents continue to pass on the tradition

to their children.

Some Historical Background

Before delving into what I am understanding at this point about the meaning of

the Corpus Christi Festival, I must give you, the reader, some background information

about the history of the Ecuadorian Indian and the Corpus Christi Festival.

The Ecuadorian Indian

Whereas in North American, the Indian was conquered by extermination, in South

American, the Indian was conquered by domination. The Spaniards enslaved the Indians,

drove them off the best lands, and forced them to become Christians.

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In the Chillo Valley, where El-Tingo lies, lands were distributed by the Spanish

Crown to what are called ―encomenderos‖ (―those in charge‖). In the years 1551 to 1559,

the Chillo Valley was divided into ―encomiendas‖ (districts) (Landázuri 1990:11). The

―encomenderos‖ were not given the land, as many believe, but were in charge of

collecting taxes from the Indians who worked those lands (Costales Samaniego 2006:65).

Even so, the Indians often rebelled against this treatment, and conflicts over lands

continue to this day.

The Ecuadorians Indians were treated as slaves, considered as less than human,

and excluded from the Eucharist (Cisneros Cisneros 1948:44); (Mackay 1933:44-45). As

a result, millions of them fled to the mountains and the jungle to escape (Cisneros

Cisneros 1948:46). And that‘s why today, most of the concentrations of Indians are in the

mountains. The Spaniards took away the best lands in the valleys. Chillos is one of those

valleys, and ever since Colonial days was one of the most fertile and productive valleys

in Ecuador, providing the capital, Quito, with most of its food (Costales Samaniego

2006:92). The small pueblo of El-Tingo is located at the foot of the mountain Ilaló, as are

the other nearby Indian pueblos of Guangopolo, Toglla, Angamarca, and La Merced.

During the Conquest, the Spaniards felt it was their obligation to convert the

Indians, even if by force. ―The Crown charged the colonists with the conversion of the

Indians to the Holy Catholic Faith‖ (Mackay 1933:43). Along with each ―encomendero,‖

a ―doctrinero‖ was assigned to teach the Indians the Christian doctrines. Both received

taxes from the Indians (Landázuri 1990:36). In the Chillo Valley, the Jesuits received

large portions of land, known as ―El Colegio.‖ The Indians were forced off these lands,

and many conflicts resulted, one case being in Guangopolo (Costales Samaniego

2006:88-92). Even the lands left to the Indians on the mountain tops became objects of

dispute. The Ilaló mountain was no exception. In 1933, the government had to intervene

to settle disputes among the Indians in El-Tingo, Alangasí, and Angamarca about land

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rights on Ilaló (Cisneros Cisneros 1948:190-191). Even today, the natives of El-Tingo are

nominally Catholic, and are extremely sensitive about land issues.

Corpus Christi

The Corpus Christi Festival in El-Tingo is a mixture of historical traditions. The

―Palla‖ and ―rucos‖ are symbolic of the harvest. The Inca figures date back to Inca sun

worship. And the Catholic procession traces its roots to Spain itself. Police and military

figures are a recent addition.

Before the arrival of the Incas, the inhabitants of Quito, who were called

―Quitus,‖ worshipped the sun and the moon, and had a temple for sun worship on the

mound in the center of Quito (Cisneros Cisneros 1948:18). The harvest festival is related

to sun worship, because the solar equinox marked the date between sowing and

harvesting (Friedemann 2002:93). In the Chillo Valley, the old crater of Ilaló was a

sacred place where ―Pachacamac,‖ the Creator of the Andes world, was worshipped with

―yumbos‖ (holy men) and ―sacharunas‖ (men dressed as weeds), directed by a priest

(Costales Samaniego 2006:92). I mention this, because at the foot of Ilaló the most

ancient evidences of human life in Ecuador have been found (ibid:7-8). Therefore this

worship at the crater may have a long history.

The Corpus Christi Festival came from Spain with the conquerors. In the fifteenth

century it became the principal ritual of the Catholic faith (Friedemann 2002:93). It was

superimposed upon the ritual of sun worship: Inti Raymi (Moya 1995:16). In fact, the

Indian race was never really Christianized (Mackay 1933:48), the festivals merely

became a means of celebrating old rituals (Moya 1995:15). This is the syncretism I see in

the Corpus Christi Festival celebrated in El-Tingo: a nominal Catholic faith celebrated by

a mixture of historic rituals. But what does this ritual mean to those who participate in it?

That is the question under investigation.

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The Meaning of Corpus Christi

I began to work my way into the meaning of the Corpus Christi Festival by

beginning with the opinions of outsiders (authors), then asking the opinion of the

Evangelicals in the Valley, and then delving into talking with the people in El-Tingo.

Outsiders

Moya has written about all the various festivals in general in Ecuador. So many

festivals are celebrated in Ecuador that no one book can cover them all. But here, we are

beginning with festivals in general, including Corpus Christi. Moya sees the festivals as a

expression of how a people see themselves in relation to their environment, and how they

perceive their spiritual identity (Moya 1995:21). This is a good starting point, but doesn‘t

really give us much insight into any festival in particular, nor any specific pueblo.

Campaña has studied a specific pueblo and a specific festival. This festival was

not Corpus Christi, but a ―passing of the Jesus child.‖ His investigation is worth noting,

because it is a thorough investigation of a specific festival. Therefore his insights are

profound. His main theory is that the festival is celebrated partly because of traditional

beliefs, but also that the festival also allows certain persons to maintain control over their

meat business (Campaña 2000:113). So he sees this particular festival as not having only

spiritual meaning, but monetary and social interests. This could apply to the Corpus

Christi Festival as well.

Cuvi delves into the meaning of the festivals in Ecuador as well. He has a good

description of the Corpus Christi Festival, but his discussion of meaning is in the

introduction which covers all the festivals in general. Yet his insights are worth noting.

He has three main ideas (Cuvi 2002:11-13): The first is that the festivities reinforce

identity and community spirit. Many emigrants return from the countries where they are

residing to participate in these festivals, out of their need to belong to a group. Second,

74

Cuvi believes the drinking of alcohol and dawning of masks is a way to escape reality

and enter into the imaginary. Third, along social lines, the ―prioste‖ who finances the

festival, is re-distributing the wealth he has accumulated. These are all general

observations which may or may not apply to the Corpus Christi Festival in El-Tingo.

Evangelicals

Moving closer to the actual location of the festivals, I held several discussion

groups last year among evangelical churches that reside within these small pueblos in the

Chillo Valley.3 Along with asking them about their own musical worship, I also

questioned them about their view of the festivals.

The evangelicals see the festivals as pagan worship, but upon further discussion,

they will admit that the festival is enjoyable. I held discussion groups in five churches. In

three of them, I was able to do it twice.

San Pablo is a church in La Comuna on the edge of Quito, but its inhabitants hold

a small pueblo mentality, and continue the traditions of the festivals. At first the church

group said that the festivals were not worship, but on my second visit they made the

comment that they were worshipping an idol. Yet the rest of their comments were

positive: ―They‘re united. There is lots of participation, expression, and movement. And

they‘re not ashamed of what they‘re doing.‖

The congregation in La Merced is very small, but they‘re right in the middle of

one of the pueblos next to the Ilaló mountain. They immediately commented that the

festival was idol worship, but ―it‘s tradition, and it‘s enjoyable.‖ A couple of them had

actually participated in the festivities, and confirmed that they really enjoyed doing so.

3 These workshops took place in October and November 2006.

75

The church in San José, one of the older pueblos in the Chillo valley, said almost

the same thing: ―the festival is enjoyable and very expressive.‖ They saw it as idol

worship, but much more as a festival than as spiritual worship.

The two churches in Pintag and Ubillus are much further removed from the city,

and lie at the foot of the mountains on the east side of Chillo Valley. Their members are

much more closely connected to the reality of the festivals. Those in Ubillus immediately

said, ―We came out of that! It‘s paganism and idol worship. We could never go back.‖

Those in Pintag said, ―We have been told that the festivals are sin.‖ Yet those in Pintag

have been Christians for much longer than those in Ubillus, and could make some other

comments: ―The festival attracts people and is enjoyable.‖

Most of these Christians are not able to see the festivals except from a ―Christian

point of view.‖ They see them only as pagan worship of idols, and as something to be

avoided. Yet they are close enough to the festivals to know that the participants enjoy

what they‘re doing. Of course the main motivation may be to get drunk, but my personal

opinion is that there has to be another reason. Otherwise they could just go to the local

store, buy liquor, and get drunk anytime.

The Evangelical point of view has been biased by the Church‘s teaching, which is

mostly doctrinal. The Church does not see things from a sociological nor anthropological

point of view. Therefore they miss the value of community, identity, and a sense of

belonging.

Insiders

The main emphasis of this chapter is what the insiders think. To get that

information I could not simply ―set up a meeting‖ as I could with the Evangelicals, who

know me well. The social dynamics of a small pueblo are totally different. People don‘t

trust outsiders, and setting up a meeting has to be done by someone recognized in the

76

pueblo as a leader. Here‘s a running account of all the encounters that led up to that

meeting Wednesday night in the Catholic Church with the priest. By reading this

abbreviated journal, you, the reader, will begin to appreciate the whole process of

―digging for meaning.‖ Like digging for gold, you never know when you will hit a

―strike.‖ Only by God‘s grace does one ever find a ―real nugget.‖ And the more

―nuggets‖ you find, the greater your understanding of what‘s really going on. It‘s a pain-

staking and fascinating process.

Background

My wife and I have lived in this small pueblo of El-Tingo for some twenty years.

Back in 1994 we decided to get involved in the community, and worked to get the

government to build a Health Center for the pueblo. It took three years of pushing papers

and visiting governmental offices, but the Health Center was finally built. Yet we ended

up as enemies of most of the pueblo‘s inhabitants, and they even tried to kick us out of

the country! The details are beyond this paper. My point is that the pueblo did not trust

us. We got discouraged, put up our house for sale, and limited our involvement with the

pueblo.

The house never sold. When we returned to El-Tingo to film the Holy Week

Festivals, we were surprised to be received with a welcome by many people of the

pueblo. I‘d be standing on the sidewalk with the video camera pointed at the procession,

when someone would come up and say, ―You‘re back. How nice to have you in town

again!‖ These folks are unpredictable (at least until you begin to understand their

mentality).

77

Carlos and Ana

There‘s a mechanic in the pueblo to whom I‘ve gone many times for repairs on

my 1981 pickup. He used to live next to us. We‘d never exchange more than a causal

greeting, but since I‘ve been visiting his shop, he calls me ―neighbor,‖ which means he

recognizes me as someone he knows. So rather than call him by his name, Carlos, I also

call him ―neighbor.‖ He‘s an average mechanic, but when it comes to welding, he‘s an

expert! My truck didn‘t pass yearly inspection, and it needed some welding on the frame.

So I thought I could use this as an excuse to talk to him about the upcoming festivals.

As he was looking over my truck, I asked him if he was going to dance in Corpus

Christi this year. ―I don‘t think so,‖ was his reply. He was still a little reserved. But his

son was going to dance. ―He loves to dance,‖ he told me, ―They even came from

Alangasí to recruit him to dance on Sunday too.‖

Carlos‘ wife came out, and since my wife, Faby, was with me, they got to talking.

Now that in itself is remarkable! Years ago when our church had held a worship service

in the central park of the pueblo, it was this woman, Ana, who had raised her voice in

protest among the whole pueblo. Now we were her friends. Word had gone around that

we had gotten the Health Center built with much effort and without any personal benefit.

Now people believed in us.

Anyway, Faby told me later that they were discussing the situation about the local

priest. A group in the pueblo had gotten the last one removed (Jonatan). The present one

(Mario) was new, and had only been there a few months. Her comment was that Jonatan

was a fine person, and had taught them the Bible, but the Guamán family had gone to the

Cardinal to have him removed. It was probably because Jonatan was strict and was telling

folks the things they were doing wrong. In the end, I didn‘t find out much about the

meaning of Corpus, but I did learn about what‘s going on in our pueblo.

78

A week later, we met Ana as we were walking around the pueblo. Faby convinced

her to present us to the priest, since she knows him well. Her son is the priest‘s helper

(―sacristan‖). We had no idea of what the priest thought about evangelicals, and so it was

better to have someone in the pueblo make the introductions. She rang the doorbell at the

church, but the priest wasn‘t in.

Neighbors

We had hired a local workman, Jaime, to make a kitchen cabinet for us so we

could cook in our small quarters in El-Tingo. He came over with his wife, Silvia, to

measure the space for the cabinet. We got to talking about my investigation, so I thought

I‘d ask their opinion about the festivals. They have lived here several years, but have

never participated in the festivals. In their opinion, the festivals used to have a spiritual

significance, but it has since been lost.

It turns out that Jaime‘s workshop lies in the same lot as Carlos‘ mechanical shop.

(Carlos rents to Jaime.) So I decided to walk back with Jaime and see if Carlos was in a

talking mood. When we arrived, Carlos was taking apart an engine, his hands filled with

grease, too busy to talk. But he did say that he would be at the park tonight to help

construct the ―Palla.‖

On the way back to our house, we stopped in at a friend Linda‘s, house. She

couldn‘t dance last year in Corpus Christi because of a bad knee. Her husband, Mateo,

appeared while we were talking. He informed us that the women‘s group was going to

meet at the Dentist‘s house tomorrow and from there dance to the park. We didn‘t get

much else of a conversation going. He was busy.

Closer to home, we had to drop in on two sisters (Laura and Mery) who always

tell us the latest of what‘s going on in town. The Cultural Center was the first piece of

conversation. From there we moved on to other matters. The priest is new, and was

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trained by the priest Juan, who had served before Jonatan. Jonatan had only lasted a year.

As for the festival, the Town Council plans the civic part: the election of the queen, the

town dance, and the fireworks; and the priest plans the spiritual part: Corpus Christi.

These visits are all preparatory. I am building relationships, gaining people‘s

confidence, and letting people know what I‘m doing.

Patricio

This year, the first day we drove into El-Tingo, Laura and Mery had seen us and

made us stop to greet us. I had transferred some of my video recordings of their festivals I

had filmed last year to my pocket pc. So as we talked I showed them some of the videos.

They watched. I expected some comments, but they really didn‘t say anything special

except, ―That‘s nice.‖ I guess it wasn‘t a good time for a discussion.

Their brother, Patricio, came by as we were talking. I showed him some of the

video. He was impressed, ―We don‘t have anything like this.‖ I offered to show the

videos on a big screen at our house. He was interested, but we never set any date or time.

At least they got an idea of what I wanted to do with the video recordings.

That night, Friday, was when the men put together the ―Palla.‖ I showed up with

my cameras, and waited a bit before filming. Not all of the men knew me. I made sure

Patricio was there before I took any photos. As soon as I shot the first photo, which came

with flash, Marco, who was tying the face to the bamboo poles of the Palla, looked at me

and said, ―That photo will cost you!‖ I had never talked before to Marco, although he

lives right across the street from our house, so I wasn‘t sure how to react. Patricio saved

me. He said, ―No! He‘s got films from last year too!‖ However you want to interpret that

comment, Marco went back to work. A few minutes later, I saw my opportunity, pulled

out my pocket pc and showed Marco some of the video from last year. He said, ―Please

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give me a copy.‖ ―No problem,‖ I answered. I had crossed an important obstacle toward

future conversations.

The Priest

The priest came out. Not hard to recognize, since he wears the priestly collar. I

had wanted someone to present me to him, the best way to do introductions in Ecuador,

but since no one was thinking about such a thing at such a time, I decided to take the risk

and make the most of the opportunity. The priest was standing alone and the men were

occupied with their ―Palla.‖ My introductory line was, ―I live in that house right over

there with the green roof. My wife and I have been living here for the past twenty years.‖

Since the priest‘s job is to know folk in town, he had to take an interest in me. It worked.

The result of that conversation was an invitation to project my videos in the Catholic

Church at a later date. I could hardly believe it!

During that conversation, I got a quick glimpse of how the priest views the

Corpus Christi Festival: He said the festival was pagan. He explained that the festival was

related to the volcano Ilaló, and that the ―Palla‖ as a feminine figure appeases the

volcano. I don‘t know where he got those ideas. He also noted that it was ironic that men,

in a machista culture, were dressing a woman (the ―Palla‖).

At this point I conceived the festival as a celebration of the harvest, and that it

could probably date to before the Inca Conquest. But the question in my mind was:

―Supposing that it at least began as a harvest festival, are these men still celebrating the

harvest? Or something else?‖ I still had yet to discover the meaning the locals give to it.

Preparation for the Discussion Group

Once I had filmed the Corpus Christi Festival, my next task was to show the film

to the local folk and get their opinions. Easier said than done. Last year I had projected

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some video clips of previous festivals in the local community center. Four people came,

all from the same family. This year, the invitation would come from the local priest. I

was depending on him for a good discussion group. But in the meantime, I sought out

some conversations.

I had four men in mind. All four are part of the ―Holy Men‖ group who are

traditionally in charge of planning the Corpus Christi Festival every year. (I assume they

coordinate with the local priest.) German and Patricio are brothers. Carlos is the

mechanic, and I‘ve heard that Marco is one of the old timers in this pueblo.

The History of El-Tingo

I had a strategy for these conversations. For several years I had been researching

the history of El-Tingo. It began as a curiosity, not as part of my research. Our apartment

in Quito was only six blocks from the best anthropological library in Ecuador: a Jesuit

Monastery. I had visited this library with the desire to know when El-Tingo had been

founded. The pueblo is known for its thermal springs, and I was curious to know if the

pueblo had existed before the springs or because of the springs.

My first visits in 2005 turned out a few documents, one describing a plague that

had wiped out a large percentage of the Indians in the Chillo Valley in 1931, and another

that showed a plan to move the pueblo after the big earthquake in 1938. I also found a

book about how the lands in the Chillo Valley were distributed during the Conquest. It

wasn‘t much. So I left it for a time.

The following year, I had learned that Quito‘s Municipal archives are held at an

old mansion estate in the middle of Quito. Here I began to learn the ropes to doing

documental research in Quito. After a couple of visits, and getting to know the folks who

ran the place, I was going page by page through the minutes of the City Council from

1900 to 1940. El-Tingo‘s fame was definitely the hot springs. The City Council had taken

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over the pools in 1932, placed an administrator, and had developed a plan for expansion,

including expropriating two and a half acres for hotels, cabins, and a medical clinic. I

found maps, once of my best sources of information, showing the families who owned

parcels of land in El-Tingo. My information file began to grow.

The next step was to visit the National Archives in downtown Quito. You would

expect to see some historical building like a museum with fancy signs. In this case, it was

an old building on the corner that looked abandoned. I had to ascend three flights of

stairs, without hardly seeing a soul, to arrive at a small room with ten desks. One

attendant sat at the front desk with a handful of indexes. It took a while to learn the filing

system, but I ended up tracing the previous owners of our house in El-Tingo back to 1916

to ―Marcelo Loachamín.‖ Since I had a copy of our neighbor‘s land title, I traced her

history back to 1945 to ―Gerónimo Pilaquinga.‖ At least two families owned land in El-

Tingo early in the 20th

Century.

While filming the Corpus Christi Festival in Alangasí, I had met a researcher from

Minnesota. She suggested I look for maps at the National Archives. I didn‘t know they

had maps. Using their index I found over 30 maps that named El-Tingo, but only one

really showed El-Tingo. But that map was ―gold.‖ It showed the mountain of Ilaló in

1792 with the ―Chapel of Saint Peter of El-Tingo‖ at the foot of the mountain, exactly

where the Church stands today!

I printed the photos I had taken of all these documents and put them in a folder.

When I would go for a ―conversation‖ in El-Tingo, really just a visit, I would take this

folder with me and show it to the person I was talking to. This opened all kinds of

conversations!

I began to collect more documents. At the Jesuit library I found the newspaper

describing the earthquake on August 10th

, 1938, whose epicenter was in El-Tingo, plus

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photos of houses and churches affected. I also found books on the history of the nearby

small pueblos of Pintag, Sangolquí, and Conocoto.

As I would show people my document collection on the history of El-Tingo, they

would take a great interest in it. Inevitably this would spark a conversation on what they

knew about the history of El-Tingo. This opened up a deeper level of conversation. Often

they would recommend I talk to a certain person, who knew a lot more.

Word started spreading around that I was researching the history of El-Tingo. In

fact, one day, a woman from Quito knocked on our door, and wanted to see me. She

needed some information on the pueblo, and the neighbors had sent her to me! As if I

were the expert! Well, I did have some material nobody else had.

Marco and the Cross

Only in this way did I reach a level of confidence with Marco. My first visit was

with my wife. In the usual way, we talked about a lot of other things before turning the

conversation toward the Corpus Christi Festival. One great topic is ―The Cross.‖ Not the

cross of Calvary, but a forty-foot high, metal structure cross that stands at the top of the

Ilaló mountain, visible from the pueblo of El-Tingo.

I had known from hearing years before in El-Tingo, from Mr. Rodriguez, that a

man named Leopoldo Mercado had built the Cross. I had found some documents showing

that he was the owner of the tobacco company nearby, and that he had owned land in El-

Tingo, but now Marco told me more of the story. His father had helped Leopoldo

Mercado build the Cross. Leopoldo had made a promise to God, that if the hot thermal

waters of El-Tingo (which were just a muddy spring then) healed him, he would build a

cross on top of Ilaló. He was healed, and contracted workers to haul the materials up the

mountain. One of those workers was Marco‘s father. They built the Cross, and to

dedicate it to God, they celebrated the first Corpus Christi Festival here in El-Tingo.

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When the dancers (―rucos‖) were at the Cross celebrating the ritual, an earthquake began.

A few years ago, Marco suggested that they celebrate Corpus Christi at the Cross. But

many folks said that it would cause another earthquake, and rejected the idea.

I was fascinated to see the connection he made between the Cross, Corpus Christi,

and the Mountain Ilaló. The Cross is definitely a part of the pueblo. Is it a sacred site?

They do celebrate mass there once a year, the week before Palm Sunday, but I have yet to

hear someone suggest that the site is sacred. Technically, that part of the mountain still

belongs to the ―Commune‖ (a land sharing cooperative, at least fifty years old).

Marco has organized the Corpus Christi Festival in El-Tingo for the past eighteen

years. In his group of ―rucos,‖ he prohibits them from drinking alcohol until after they‘re

finished dancing. Then Marco began to tell me what I wanted to hear: ―The purpose of

Corpus is to celebrate the harvest. It is spiritual. It is a celebration toward God who gives

the harvest. Very few understand this meaning. To them it's just festival and tradition.‖ I

have yet to hear anyone else give such a clear, voluntary, spontaneous statement about

the meaning of the Corpus Christi Festival. It must be because he‘s the founder and

organizer, so he‘s thought about it more than the others.

He couldn‘t remember the year they build the Cross, but he told me that the date

was inscribed at the bottom of the cross. Since he had told me the story about the

earthquake during the inauguration of the Cross, I had to see if the date coincided with

the quake of 1938. The next day I set out at six a.m. to climb the mountain and find out.

They say the older folks still remember a lot, but I could never find the right

situation to talk to one of them. (Rather, the right person to introduce me.) To my

surprise, on the hike up to the top of Ilaló, I met an elderly man on his way down! ―Good

morning!‖ ―Good morning!‖ ―I‘m on my way up to find out when the Cross was built.

Would you happen to know?‖ I asked. Without hesitation, he replied, ―the 15th

of

September of 1935.‖ He also told me that when they inaugurated the Cross, the ground

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shook. Then he went on his way. I don‘t think I could have met him nor asked that

question in any other circumstance. That‘s the wonder of research.

I still had to see the date for myself. As I continued climbing I met an elderly

woman, also on her way down! She was seventy-seven years old! That meant she might

remember the earthquake, and she did. She confirmed that when they built the Cross,

there was an earthquake, and she placed it on August 10th

, which coincides with the

newspaper‘s account.

At the Cross itself, I could still read at the base: ―September 1935.‖ The day was

illegible. That would confirm that the earthquake was three years after they built the

Cross. Maybe they had gone up for a late inauguration. The information doesn‘t quite

match, but the legend persists: when they were celebrating Corpus Christi, the earthquake

hit.

The Priest

I had to confirm with the priest the idea of showing the videos in the church

conference room. He was at the church when I rang the doorbell, about four p.m. one

afternoon. He was quite hospitable, but it took about an hour of conversation, I think,

before he really trusted me and understood what I was doing. After all, I had clearly said

I was an Evangelical pastor. He looked through every page I had in my folder of El-

Tingo‘s history, and he wanted a copy of a letter of 1964, in which someone from El-

Tingo was asking the priest in Alangasí to come and bless the new cemetery. But he did

give me his commentary on the festivals: ―The festivals are pagan. At Corpus Christi, it‘s

the procession of the ―Holy Chalice‖ that‘s the sacred part. The folklore part should point

and lead into the sacred part.‖

We settled on a date and time for the showing of the videos: July 18th

. I said I

would reduce all my filming to about twenty minutes, so there would be time for a

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discussion afterwards. I asked him to lead the discussion, since he is seen as the spiritual

authority of the pueblo.

Marco Again

I went back to visit Marco, with the excuse that the year of the earthquake didn‘t

coincide with the year of inaugurating the Cross. He agreed there was only one

earthquake, but couldn‘t explain the dates. Now I could talk to Marco as a friend. We

would stand on the sidewalk in front of his house, and he would greet various folks as

they passed by. He‘s one of the old-timers here, and I take him as one of my main

informants.

In this conversation, Marco told me a lot more about his view of Corpus Christi. It

isn‘t what it used to be. People have added so many ―foreign elements.‖ But nobody

complains, because they don‘t want to cause problems. (I‘m beginning to see how

important the community spirit is here. There‘s no place here for radical individualism.)

He clearly stated that the Harvest Festival and Corpus Christi have been

integrated. ―They have nothing to do with each other, but that‘s just the way it is now.‖

―The ―Palla‖ is the mother of the Valley. The ―rucos‖ protect her.‖ ―These are the

traditions we‘ve been celebrating for years.‖

It seems to me that the Corpus Christi Festival is losing its original meaning. It

has become a meaning in itself. But that‘s needs to be confirmed by the people

themselves.

The Discussion Group

To prepare for this discussion group, I had not only reduced several hours of

video to nineteen minutes, but I also put together a short presentation in Power Point of

some of the history of El-Tingo. I visited the priest again to let him know what I had

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prepared, and to make sure we were in agreement about what we were going to do. I

would present some historical documents, then the videos, and afterwards he would lead

the discussion.

Briefly, this is how the meeting went. The priest had done all the inviting, and

twenty people showed up. Most of them were active members in the community. He had

expected more people, but we still had a sizeable group.

As I presented various documents of the history of El-Tingo, people began to

speak up and share their stories. When I presented the book about Ilaló, German started

off on a story that his father had told him about a man and his mule who found a cave in

Ilaló with bricks of gold inside. I had to stop him, because he would have gone on and on,

but someday I should record and transcribe the story. 4 When I talked about the hot

springs, German said, ―They belong to the pueblo, not the government.‖

I received a lot of extra information about the history of El-Tingo. In a map that

showed some lands that the Municipal Government was going to expropriate, one owner

was Joaquin Pacuar. Doña Piedad said, ―Joaquin Paucar was my grandfather.‖ When I

showed the document that founded the Commune, someone asked, ―Did Guangopolo and

Alangasí exist?‖ As for the Cross, I immediately received comments that it used to have

mirrors, and that ―when they built the Cross, the ground shook, and a huge thunderstorm

came.‖ ―When the Priest Vaca suggested we celebrate mass at the Cross, no one wanted

to.‖ ―There‘s a site on the mountain where you can see volcanic rock, with all different

colors.‖

They continued to tell me about the hot springs, the house of the administrator,

where the Colegio Ranch lay, where the old road used to be, and even about other hot

springs that the government took over. But my point here is that they talked. And they

4 I found a similar story in the history of Conocoto (Gallardo 1994:278).

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would have talked on and on, but they also wanted to see the videos. So I had to cut short

their conversations.

Once I started projecting the videos on the screen up front, with a sound system to

give the full effect of volume, I moved to the back of the group. My participation was

over. The priest would lead the discussion after the videos. I stood leaning against a

column behind the last row of chairs. Marco was sitting right in front of me.

A few minutes into the first video, Marco got up and stood beside me. Then he

began to give me his commentary on the videos! If I had not visited him beforehand, and

gained his confidence by explaining who I was and what I was doing; and if I had not

developed a friendship before this moment, he would never have told me anything. But

now he was giving me all kinds of comments. We began a dialogue of questions and

answers during the video.

His first comment was that much of what we were seeing was not ―original‖ to

the Corpus Christi Festival. ―The police and military figures have nothing to do with this.

The original figures are the ‗Palla,‘ the ‗rucos,‘ and the ‗Pingullero.‘‖ I asked what they

hold in their hands. He said, ―a corn cob or bull horns.‖ ―What do bull horns have to do

with the harvest?‖ I asked. ―They represent the bulls that grazed on the mountain,‖ he

replied. It was hard to ask more questions with the video going.

He continued to make comments to me: ―The circle dance is original to El-

Tingo.‖ ―The real folklore does not have uniforms.‖ ―In Alangasí the procession is joyful,

not solemn. The idols are part of their procession;‖ ―We don‘t use the ‗Pallo‘‖ [male

counterpart of the ―Palla‖].

The videos ended and the priest began the discussion. I had prepared one slide in

Power Point with the question, ―What are we celebrating?‖ It had four questions below it:

The harvest? The worship of the sun? The presence of Christ among his people?

Something else? Just before we started the meeting I had checked with the priest to see if

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this would be appropriate and to let him know that I had the slide prepared. So he began

the discussion from this point of view.

When the priest asked the question, ―What does the ―Palla‖ mean to you all?‖

One person said, ―Mother Earth.‖ Another said, ―She‘s the Queen of the Harvest.‖ Others

confirmed that the ―Palla‖ represents the Harvest.

The priest was curious as to why the men would dress a woman, especially in a

machista culture. And he asked directly, ―What does this mean to you all?‖ The

immediate answer was, ―This is the culture we have inherited from our fathers,‖ followed

by some comments that the ―Palla‖ is dressed and worshipped by her children.

The priest did most of the talking. He was trying to enter into a discussion about

how to integrate the dancing around the ―Palla‖ with the procession of the ―Holy

Chalice.‖ Many of his questions were met by silence. After one question, German said,

―Father, I don‘t understand you!‖ I could see that the whole idea of theological

integration didn‘t register with them.

The discussion turned toward the history of whether the dancers and others who

were dressed in costume should enter the church or not for the noon mass. Previous

priests had made them enter. They didn‘t really want to, but the priest had said that this

was part of honoring God.

The present priest, Mario, kept trying to get a discussion going. ―The children

dance with the ‗Palla‘.‖ ―Of whom are we children?‖ ―Whom should we accompany?‖

―You dance around in a circle, what does that mean?‖ ―We need to keep our traditions,

but transcend beyond them.‖ There was no comment from the group.

Finally, a man said, ―This is what the priests have taught us. That‘s why we do it.‖

He had broken the silence. German added, ―We didn‘t used to do it the way we‘re doing

it now. Those who participated in the dance, never entered the church before, but now

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they do. Padre Cristofer taught us to do this. We didn‘t participate in the procession

either, but now we do.‖

The priest continued about why the procession is done in silence and why the

dancing is with music and shouting. I asked the priest why the procession was so short,

while the dancing lasted all day. Before he could respond, Marco spoke up. This was the

only time Marco spoke during the whole meeting. He stated that a previous priest, Juan,

wanted the procession to be done in complete silence, in respect for the ―Holy Chalice.‖

Then Marco asked the priest Mario, ―What is the truth?‖ (What he was asking was,

―Who‘s right?‖)

Priest Mario responded with a ten minute answer that I don‘t think anybody

understood, because no one said anything. Finally Patricio spoke up, but continued where

Marco had left off: ―Our forefathers didn‘t celebrate to worship God or anything like that.

It was a tradition, a dance that they performed. They never entered the church. Since

Padre Cristofer taught us to enter the church, we‘ve been doing it since then.‖ He added

the first comment so far about their children, ―Perhaps this generation is changing, and

our children don‘t want to participate in the festival.‖ The priest commented that children

are part of the culture. ―We shouldn‘t change the culture, but make them of part of it, a

part of who they are.‖ He went on for a while longer.

An hour of discussion had passed. It was about nine fifteen at night, and some

people were beginning to dose off. Finally German said, ―I think we need to talk more

about this, but more people should be here. We‘re only a few.‖ The priest insisted that

you start with those who are interested, even if they‘re only a few. Patricio added that the

priest should convoke another meeting and teach them from the Word of God how to

celebrate the festival. It was time to end.

As people got up and left, Patricio and German approached me and wanted to see

the books I had on the history of El-Tingo. I showed them more documents that I had not

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shown in the Power Point presentation. They were very interested. We talked some about

the volcanic rock on Ilaló. Then they helped me move my six foot screen and left.

These are my initial thoughts: They are not sure what the meaning of Corpus

Christi is. The ―Palla‖ represents the Harvest and the ―rucos‖ her children, but that‘s as

far as their meaning goes. Most of their reasoning is that this is the tradition of their

fathers. They feel obligated to listen to the priest, but their traditions hold much more

weight than what the priest says. Yet they are fascinated by their own history, and love to

see themselves on video.

Just by looking at the contrast between the amount of interaction during my

presentation and the videos and during the priest‘s discussion, I can tell that the former

was much more interesting to them. Yet what have I discovered about the meaning of the

Corpus Christi Festival?

Preliminary Thoughts

At first, I would say two things. One, because of their interest in their history and

their traditions, I would say that their identity is very important to them. My conclusion

would be that the meaning lies in preserving their identity through celebrating their

traditions. The spiritual implications of the festival are not important to them.

Second, if this is so, and if the harvest festival pre-dates the Inca conquest, I could

speculate that this festival is a means of resisting conquest and oppression, and is really a

statement of rebellion: ―You can take away our lands and make us slaves, but you can‘t

change who we are.‖ This is reflected in the festivity when the parade fills the road and

blocks all traffic. For a moment, the Indians are owners of the road, and dominate all

traffic flow. Since they have masks on, you can‘t tell who they are. They are no longer

Indians dominated by the white folk. They are now supernatural figures who dominate

their dominators.

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If I follow this line of thinking, the idea of contextualizing the gospel becomes

one of taking on a new identity as the people of God, but it must be their own renewed

indigenous identity, not a foreign one. They would need to develop a ritual similar to

Corpus Christi, but one that expresses what it‘s like to be ―an El-Tingo Christian.‖

But there‘s something else going on here. Something I didn‘t see before. When I

re-listen to the recording of the discussion group, it makes more sense to hear it from a

different bias. The thoughts I have already written are from a bias toward ―looking for

meaning.‖ I didn‘t find much. Why? Because I was looking for it from MY bias, not

THEIRS. The whole idea of ―meaning‖ is an abstract idea. We in the academic

community are used to examining things analytically, as abstract ideas, universal laws,

and general tendencies. These people in El-Tingo (I‘m talking about the adult generation)

don‘t think that way! So I‘m never going to find an answer to a question they‘re not

asking.

I re-listened to the tape using a different bias. Their interest is in HOW to

celebrate Corpus Christi, not WHY. Their thinking is concrete and visual, not analytical

and abstract. That‘s why Marco‘s comments were all focused on: ―That‘s not the way to

celebrate Corpus. That‘s not original.‖ Some of the others were focused on whether to

enter the church or not, or if the procession should be done as a solemn procession or as a

joyful dance. The answer to my question of meaning will be found in their deciding the

―how‖ and my guessing as to the ―why.‖

This implies that any further research should be done by discussing how to

celebrate the Corpus Christi Festival next year, and not by asking what the festival means

to them. Not only is discussion necessary, but also participation, in the planning and the

execution. This process will produce meaning.

After the discussion group, my conversations with the people in El-Tingo took on

a new perspective.

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Marco

I visited Marco once more, and started with the question, ―What‘s a ‗yumbo‘?‖ I

received a lengthy reply, ―A ‗yumbo‘ is a shaman. He wears only a feather head-dress

and a cloth-skin. Around his chest hangs a string of feathers with beads from the jungle.

In one hand he carries a metal box with rocks that he shakes during the dance.‖ He

himself had dressed as a yumbo and had danced so in many a Corpus Christi Festival.

Then I commented that he was only one I had talked to so far who could tell me

what the Corpus Christi Festival meant. My comment was supposed to provoke another

lengthy answer, but only silence resulted. Abstract ideas don‘t make good conversation

here in El-Tingo. I‘m still learning the process.

I asked about some of the history of the Corpus Christi Festival, and Marco told

me how a few years back, the Corpus celebration was almost extinct. Four of them,

Marco, German, David, and Juan Flores had met together and revived the tradition.

Marco wasn‘t going to dance, but the others insisted, ―Either you dance or none of us

will.‖

I mentioned the idea that we discussed in the church of making the Corpus Christi

Festival into a single festival. He liked the idea, but gave no suggestions. He talked about

the history of the pueblo, and the line of past priests, who have taught that the procession

should be done in utter silence. His children aren‘t interested in dancing in the festival,

but next year, he wants to get a small group of children together to dance, including his

grandson. I can tell from this that the tradition is important enough to preserve and pass

on to the next generation. He had revived it once, and wanted to make sure it would not

die again.

I renewed my interest here in obtaining a ―pingullo.‖ I had searched all over the

valley, and even made a two hour trip up north twice to where they make traditional

instruments, but had yet to find a pingullo. At that moment, David came by (one of the

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four). When I mentioned that I wanted to buy a pingullo, David wondered why, but

Marco said, ―He‘s going to play in Corpus next year!‖ That answered a question I had

never asked, ―Can I, an evangelical participate in Corpus Christi? Would they allow it?‖ I

think it‘s because they consider me as ―one of the town,‖ and my evangelical identity is

not important.

German

I had always had some reservations about talking with German. He had never

been easy to talk to. Now I went to visit him with a copy of the videos that I had offered

to give him. He welcomed me as if I were an old friend, and was eager to tell me more

about the history of the pueblo, especially the church.

About twenty years ago, they didn‘t celebrate mass in El-Tingo, nor many

festivities. They didn‘t even have a priest. German, along with Mayor Cruz, had gone to

the ―Curia‖ in Quito to ask for a priest. They had sent the priest Cristofer. He had been

wounded as a chaplain in World War II, and was quite elderly when he came to El-Tingo.

He only lasted a year before he died, but he started the masses and festivities once again

in El-Tingo.

With the help of a following priest, Julio, they had built a house for the priest so

that they would now be a Parish. The ―Curia‖ had donated forty-four million sucres, and

priest Julio had raised more funds from Spain. The pueblo contributed the labor, and until

today they have continued to celebrate mass and the festivals.

Again, I think it‘s not so much the meaning of the festival that‘s important to

them. What counts is making sure the tradition continues.

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Mateo

It turns out that Mateo is Marco‘s brother. Wow! I didn‘t realize that. Faby and I

dropped in for a brief visit, but when we got to talking about the history of the pueblo, the

visit turned into a lengthy conversation. The whole pueblo had built the road to

Guangopolo by hand. The Cross was built to divert lightning bolts from the pueblo. And

the Corpus Christi Festival surely dates back to before the Conquest.

I felt I was beginning to understand the mentality of these folks. Identity and

history are very important to them.

Daniel

Daniel is working on a project to create a flag and shield for El-Tingo. He‘s

taking it very seriously, and wants the whole community to participate in the process. He

wants government officials to be the judges of the contest, and to officially approve the

flag and shield by registering them in the city archives. This is another confirmation for

me that identity is very important to the folks here.

Daniel doesn‘t like the Corpus Christi Festival because of all the drinking

involved. He‘s not the type to go drinking with friends. But he did like the idea of

integrating the two parts of Corpus Christi: the dancing and the procession, into one. He

also took much interest in my desire to obtain a ―pingullo‖ and learn how to play it. He

told me the original ―pingullos‖ were made from the wing bone of the vulture.

These conversations confirm my view that way to understand the meaning of the

Corpus Christi Festival is to talk about the history of the festival, how they celebrate it,

and things they might change. From there, one could guess as to its abstract meaning.

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Interpretation

My goal of this cycle of the research was to understand the meaning of the Corpus

Christi Festival for the folk in the pueblo of El-Tingo. At first I saw the meaning of the

festival, not as a single meaning, but as a layer of meanings. I got the idea from seeing

the development of the festival as a layered development. I have illustrated these

concepts in Figure 16.

The festival has layered meaning

Enjoyment

Tradition

Identity

Worship

And a layered development

Harvest ritual

Sun worship

Catholic Corpus

Improvisations

(Inca)

(Cristianity)

(Military dictators)

(Indian)

FIGURE 16

MEANING IN THE FESTIVAL

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At this point, my understanding is that the festival has developed over time from

one festival superimposed over another. The Incas placed their sun worship on the same

date as the ―original‖ harvest festival. Then the Catholic missionaries imposed the Corpus

Christi Festival from Spain on the same date. I can see more additions in the festivals:

police and military figures, which could represent the military dictators who free the

country from oppression. I have also seen bears, men with their faces painted black, and

the yearly elected queens who represent the town.

As for the meaning of the festival, my understanding is that the festival is

enjoyable and a part of tradition. It‘s very likely that identity lies at a deeper level. The

spiritual level of worship I have only seen hints of. It‘s probable that it was originally

spiritual worship, but that meaning has since disappeared.

But I am still interpreting the festival from MY point of view. As I strive to see

the festival from THEIR point of view, I see the following: first of all, their interest in

their history and in preserving their tradition is not a doctrinal issue. They are not

concerned about the significance of the festival. Their concern is in preserving their

identity. The pueblo of El-Tingo is slowly becoming another generic neighborhood of the

city of Quito. The festival is one way of being unique, and of preserving their indigenous

roots.

Secondly, their way of thinking is not like mine. I was looking for ―meaning‖

which is an abstract idea. Their concern is identity which is something they can see and

live. As long as they continued to celebrate their festivals, they will remain as an

indigenous people group, distinct from the city folk.

Third, I am very individualistic, and they are very community oriented. The

festival is a demonstration of their unity, which they want to preserve. In order to discuss

an issue, like the festival and how it should be celebrated, they have to be together in a

meeting, and discuss it as a group.

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The Research Process

Each cycle of this investigation follows on the previous one. The strategy used

during the year 2007 was a narrower focus of the research during the year 2006. The

process of the investigation in the year 2006 consisted of brief visits to different sites and

events. During the year 2007, I stayed in one site used a multi-faceted process which I´ve

illustrated in Figure 17. This figure contains three concentric circles. The second circle is

divided into six parts. The arrows illustrate a spiraling process that goes closer and deeper

with each cycle.

The second circle illustrates the most obvious in my investigation. I did archival

research, video recordings and viewings, conversations, visitation of historic sites, and

reflection. But I did not do them only once, or in any particular order. I would use all of

them repeatedly as one led to another. I used some much more than others. Conversations

and reflection were very important. The point is that with each activity I would gain a

deeper understanding of the people, their festival, their context, and their mentality. The

more time I spend in these activities, the greater my understanding.

I place ―participation‖ in the center because that is my future goal: to participate

in the festival itself alongside the folk from El-Tingo. I believe that the process of

participating with them would lead to a deeper understanding of the festival than the

other activities could provide. But if I had participated in the festival without first doing

these, I would not gain as deep an understanding. The activities are a preliminary

necessity.

The outer circle represents two essential factors to doing this kind of research

among small towns in the Andes. First, you have to be there. Living there is essential.

You can‘t just drop-in, do your investigation, and leave. You‘ll never understand

anything that way. Second, you have to build relationships with the people. Otherwise,

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they will not tell you the truth. They will just tell you superficial answers. It‘s only when

they trust you that they will tell you what they really think. These two factors take time to

develop.

Physical Presence

Relationships

Archival research

Video recordings

Conversations

Video viewing

Reflection

Visit historic sitesParticipation

FIGURE 17

A SUMMARY OF THE RESEARCH PROCESS

The process I have illustrated here is not mechanical. I have illustrated my

concept of this process, but the process itself is one that you develop as you go along,

using these guidelines. You have to be open to opportunities that God gives at the

moment. You can‘t force it. And the longer you work at it, the more you gain from it.

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CHAPTER 6

RESEARCH IN 2008

The following year, 2008, I was back in Ecuador again for the Corpus Christi

Festival. Based on my research of the two previous years, I decided to focus on two

areas. The first was to focus on the ―pingullero‖ of the festival. Is he the center of the

festival? Is he the leader? Does the festival have a leader?

The second decision was to focus on my personal reflection process. I remind the

reader that the critical research issue of this investigation is to understand the spiritual

mentality of the folks in El-Tingo, so that the missionary, who is I, will be able to adapt

to their mentality, and be able to facilitate the contextualization process of worship. One

of the implications of this process is that the missionary must be aware of his or her

spiritual mentality so as not to impose it on the people. So not only am I reflecting on my

understanding of the people in El-Tingo, but also on my understanding of myself.

The “Pingullero”

In the year of 2008, El-Tingo only had two ―pingulleros.‖ The first is an elderly

man, Mike, who is considered by my friend, Marco, to be ―the best.‖ Marco tells me that

the melodies this ―pingullero‖ plays are ―original.‖ The second ―pingullero‖ is a young

man of about thirty-five years of age who has taken upon himself to learn this art. He has

played for the women‘s group in the Corpus Christi Festival for the past two years.

Marco and I had been talking about recording Mike‘s melodies in order to

preserve them before this elderly man passed away. I had approached Mike last year

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during Corpus Christi. He was not participating that year, but was in the park to watch. It

didn‘t take more than a minute for me to realize that I had no rapport with this man, and

that he didn‘t know who I was, much less trusted me. I would need someone from this

pueblo to help me convince Mike that we needed to record him playing the ―pingullo.‖

Marco also really wanted to record Mike‘s melodies. So I offered my service of

filming and recording Mike, if Marco could convince him to do it. Marco said he would

approach him after mass to see what he would say. After two attempts, Marco could not

convince Mike. I told Marco to offer to pay him for doing so. Mike still refused. If one of

the locals couldn‘t convince him, I wasn‘t about to try.

Ironically, this year in Corpus Christi, one of the groups had convinced Mike to

be their ―pingullero.‖ When I saw him playing in the park during the festival, I simply

followed him a couple of times around the park as he played, and filmed him. What could

he say?

Later I watched the video several times, and compared it to the other

―pingulleros‖ I had filmed during my previous two years of research. I had at least four or

five others on tape. No one played the same melodies as Mike. He had a unique style:

very melodious, well-combined with the rhythm of the drum, and very suitable for

dancing. I began to see him as the ―real-pro‖ in playing the ―pingullo.‖

Now I took note of the other ―pingullero,‖ the young man who had taught himself.

I had once asked him where he learned the melodies, and he said he had learned them

from a cassette recording. I assumed he had bought the cassette somewhere, but now I

realize that was not the case. He was playing the exact same melodies as Mike! So we

now had Mike‘s melodies recorded, plus a disciple from the next generation who would

continue the tradition.

It was very easy to note that the ―pingullero‖ is not the leader of the group. He

actually follows the group. In Mike‘s case, since he is elderly, the group almost had to

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―drag him along.‖ He often drifted from the group. One member of the group is the

leader, and he (or she) will lead the group in a circle, or in a curving line, and decide how

many times to go around the park. I now understand that the ―pingullero‖ is not the leader

of the group, but without him, the group could not dance. As the people say, ―He makes

us dance.‖

Personal Reflection

I have found as a result of this investigation that, as a missionary, in order to

really understand another people, you have to understand yourself and your own culture.

We from the West have grown-up with Modernity ground into our thinking since we

were kids. I don‘t think the older folks in El-Tingo have ever been part of Modernity, at

least not in their way of thinking. So in order for me to understand them, I need to realize

how Modernity has influenced my way of thinking. I will do this by discussing our

present shift from Modernity to Post-Modernity.

Kallenberg, building on Murphy and McClendon, suggests three axes as a

framework for comparing Modern thought with Post-Modern thought:

"In an article entitled 'Distinguishing Modern and Postmodern Theologies'

authors Nancey Murphy and James Wm. McClendon, Jr. suggest three axes along

which theologians, whose ideas are sympathetic with the philosophical agenda of

1650-1950, can be mapped. It does not require much reflection to see that the

metaphysical reductionism, linguistic reductionism, and epistemological absolutism

which I labored to illustrate in Berkhof's thought, are simply another way of

describing the individualism, representationalism-expressivism, and

foundationalism which defines the 'space' in which all modern thought can be

located‖ (Kallenberg 1995:345)

We can use this framework and apply it to different concepts. First of all, Table 4

summarizes the comparison between the two thoughts.

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3-axis of modernity Modern

Thought

Post-Modern

Thought

Relation of parts and whole Whole is the

sum of its

parts

Whole is a

dynamic

reality in itself

Function of Language Language

represents

reality

Language

shapes

experience

Knowledge Isolated

propositions

Web of beliefs

TABLE 4

KALLENBERG’S ANALYSIS OF MODERN THOUGHT

Modern thought uses metaphysical reductionism, which is seeing the whole as a

sum of its parts. It does not recognize that the whole can have a dynamic all its own, nor

that the whole can actually influence the parts. Likewise modernity sees language as

representing a reality, and cannot recognize that language itself has the power to shape

experience. The Post-modern view of knowledge is that it is a network of beliefs that are

interconnected. In modernity, knowledge consists of isolated propositions.

Let us now see how Kallenberg applies this framework to the concept of

conversion. This is summarized in Table 5. If the whole consists of its parts, then

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individual conversion is the basis for a Christian community. But if the whole is more

than the sum of its parts, then the Christian community is actually the breeding ground as

well as the agent for conversion. Kallenberg doesn‘t discuss communal conversions, but I

think that it can follow from his argument.

3-axis Modern

Conversion

Post-Modern

Conversion

Metaphysics Individual

Decision

Communal

Living

Language Cognitive Dialogue

Epistemology Accept

certain

propositions

Paradigm

change

TABLE 5

KALLENBERG’S ANALYSIS OF CONVERSION

In Modernity, since language represents concepts, conversion is a matter of

understanding those concepts. From the post-modern view, one learns the concepts by

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learning the language of the community. The epistemology follows suit: a modern

conversion consists of accepting certain propositions as true, but the post-modern view

sees that conversion is a matter of a complete paradigm change in one‘s web of beliefs.

The former can accept certain biblical truths and not others; the latter takes on a whole

new way of looking at the world.

Axis Evangelical

Worship

Corpus Christi

Metaphysics Individual

Communion

with God

Community

Participation

Language Singing Shouting

Epistemology Doctrine Identity

TABLE 6

APPLICATION OF KALLENBERG’S FRAMEWORK TO

WORSHIP

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Now let us apply this framework to worship. Using the assumption that

Evangelical worship comes from the Western culture, and that the Corpus Christi Festival

was never affected by Modernity, I structure my thoughts as illustrated in Table 6.

This explains why evangelical worship is so individualistic. It comes from the

modern view that the part makes up the whole, and therefore the person is more

important than the group. In Corpus Christi, it‘s obvious to me that either everyone

participates or it doesn‘t happen. I would not assume that they are ―post-modern.‖ I

would say they are ―pre-modern‖ in the sense that modernity never reached their

thinking.

Now with the language, evangelicals sing, and in Corpus Christi the folk only

shout a word or two. Using Kallenberg‘s analysis, the evangelicals are using words to

describe their feelings or to remember certain concepts. In Corpus, the folk are actually

using the words to create an experience. Yet I would not hesitate to add here that the

distinction is not black and white. I can also see in evangelical singing, that the song can

be used to create an experience. Thus I would assume that the indigenous heritage is still

at work in the evangelical, although it may be somewhat suppressed.

As far as epistemology, the evangelicals have been taught that doctrine is the

foundation of the Christian faith. Their worship is supposed to express what they believe.

On the contrary, in my talking to folk about the Corpus Christi Festival, no one expresses

interest in a cognitive reason for what they do. Everyone I talked to was interested in

preserving the tradition, and maintaining their identity.

I now begin to understand in a new way. Until this point, my investigation was

based on understanding ―meaning.‖ I had assumed that the spiritual meaning of the

festival determined how the festival was celebrated. That is how we Westerners think. I

am now understanding that this is not the best perspective to use. The foundational

concept is ―identity,‖ not ―beliefs.‖ This is how the people in the pueblo of El-Tingo

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think. I have also learned that my way of thinking is very individualistic, and that their

way of thinking is very communal. They make decisions as a group, and the festival is a

community activity. Finally, I am convinced that their way of thinking is more concrete

than abstract, and my way of thinking is first abstract before concrete.

The final conclusion of this investigation is the difference in spiritual mentality

between the missionary and the folk in El-Tingo. As a missionary, my way of thinking is

individualistic, abstract, and doctrine-based. In El-Tingo, the indigenous folk think

differently. Their way of thinking is communal, concrete, and identity-based. Therefore,

I, as the missionary, must adapt my way of thinking to their, not vice-versa. In order to

contextualize worship in this pueblo, I must use their way of thinking to begin the

process, with the hope that by developing a worship style according to their way of

thinking, they will be able to have communication with God and see God as one of them,

not as a foreigner.

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CHAPTER 7

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

I have discussed the difference in mentalities between the missionary and the

indigenous folk in El-Tingo, and explained their role in contextualizing worship. To

conclude this paper, I will propose a model of the process that could be used to

contextualize worship on the mission field. This model combines ethnomusicology,

anthropology, and communication theory with missiology as they apply to worship.

Afterwards I will discuss the implications of this investigation with regards to the pueblo

of El-Tingo, to the Ecuadorian Evangelical church, and to mission work in the Andes.

A Process for Contextualizing Worship

We return to my modification of Merriam‘s theory of music as I have applied it to

worship, and use it to illustrate the difference in worship between Western Evangelicals

and Andean Indians. In Figure 18, I have represented Western worship with triangles, and

Andean worship with squares to illustrate the difference between the two mentalities. The

concentric shapes represent the three levels of Merriam‘s theory: concepts, behavior, and

music, which I am applying to beliefs, tradition, and worship. I have concluded that the

fundamental difference in worship is not in the outward form of worship, but in the

concepts that produce each type of worship. Western worship is doctrine based, and

Andean worship is identity based. I am using this conclusion NOT as a proven statement,

but as a hypothesis, based on my understanding at this point and time.

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WESTERN EVANGELICAL WORSHIP IS ABSTRACT, INDIVIDUAL, AND

DOCTRINE BASED

ANDEAN INDIAN WORSHIP IS CONCRETE, COMMUNAL,

AND IDENTITY BASED

Worship

Tradition

Identity

Worship

Tradition

Doctrine

FIGURE 18

THE DIFFERENCE IN WORSHIP

Now I propose a five-step process of contextualizing worship which is illustrated

in Figure 19. I am using Figure 18 to begin with. Worship must be contextualized

beginning at the inner level, not at the outer level. A missionary must be able to share the

Scriptures without imposing his or her cultural interpretations of Scripture on the people.

The first step, illustrated by an arrow labeled with number one, is for the

missionary to understand his or her beliefs or doctrines that produce the traditions and

worship style that he or she practices. The second step, represented by the arrow number

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two, is for the missionary to extract Scriptural concepts of worship from his or her

cultural beliefs.1

Extract

WESTERN EVANGELICALS

ANDEAN INDIANS

1

2

3

4

5

Pagan Worship

True Worship

Tradition

Worship

Tradition

Beliefs Scripture Scripture Identity

FIGURE 19

A PROCESS FOR CONTEXTUALIZING WORSHIP

The third step, represented by the arrow number three, is the bulk of this

dissertation. The missionary participates with the people in their worship (as far as

possible) to discover with them what their deep-level beliefs are. That is what I have done

so far in this investigation. I am understanding their beliefs not only to be doctrinally

1 See appendix C for my own attempt to do so.

111

different from mine, but their whole mentality is different from mine. For them, identity

is important.

The fourth step that I propose is to interact with the people in El-Tingo using

Scripture as the basis for the discussion, but not talking about doctrinal issues, rather

about identity issues, such as what it means to be God‘s people. This is represented by the

two arrows with the number four interchanging ideas between identity and Scripture. I

believe that out of this interaction a new worship form will result. This is represented by

arrow number five. The present festivals are representations of an historical identity that

the folk in El-Tingo are trying to maintain. If they were to understand that God would

have them be His people, and to take on a new identity as such, this would definitely

change the festival they celebrate.

The Research Process

The time this process takes involves years of living with a people. It is also not a

linear process or one that can be ―planned‖ and ―forced.‖ The process I have used and

lived is a spiral one: one repeats research cycles that narrow with each research period. I

will illustrate this with a table and a figure. In Table 7, I have charted a three year

summary of my research. Each year I started with a strategy, spent time interacting with

people, followed by a time a reflection. Note that the summary is a table with columns

and rows. The table does not adequately represent my experience. I have numbered each

box in the table. To the normal, academic eye, the research is read linearly, as a process

from point A to point B, or in this case, from number one to number nine. But in my

mind, I see the process as illustrated in Figure 20. I have placed the numbers in the form

of a spiral to illustrate that the strategy narrowed with each cycle, as did the interactions

and the reflection. The spiral illustrates that each cycle is dependent on the previous one,

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and that one never arrives at dead center. One continues to understand more and more,

arriving closer to the center, but one will never fully understand.

Year Strategy Interaction Reflection

2006 Compare evangelical and indigenous worship.

Film the events.

Discuss the videos in workshops.•Evangelical music-worship-ritual and folk music-worship-ritual are TOTALLY different! (No contextualization has taken place.)•Neither evangelicals nor folk-Catholics can clearly verbalize the meaning of their ritual.•Evangelicals see the folk-rituals as “pagan.”

2007 Focus on the Corpus Christi festival in El-Tingo.

Film the Corpus Christi festival.

Informal conversations with people.

Historical research of the town.

Workshop with town leaders lead by the local priest.

•Town folk are more concerned about “how” to celebrate the Corpus Christi festival than about “why” they celebrate it. •Decisions are made when everyone is present.•The history of the town is very important to the people, but is disappearing with the older generation.

2008 Personal reflection Focus on the “pingullero.”

Interaction with the literature.

•The “pingullero” is not the leader.•They won´t celebrate unless everyone participates.•The town folk mentality is concrete, communal, and identity-based.•My mentality (as a Western missionary) is abstract, individualistic, and proposition-based.

1 23

654

987

TABLE 7

A LINEAR SUMMARY OF THE RESEARCH PROCESS

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1

8

7

6

9

325

4

STRATEGY

INTERACTION REFLECTION

FIGURE 20

THE RESEACH PROCESS SEEN AS A SPIRAL

Implications

As a result of this investigation, I can suggest the following implications at three

different levels. First of all, I will discuss the implications for the pueblo of El-Tingo.

Next, I will propose two implications for the Evangelical Church in the Andes of

Ecuador. And, third, I will reflect on implications for missionaries.

Implications for the Pueblo of El-Tingo

At present, there are three evangelical churches in El-Tingo. All of them meet in a

single room, and not one has more than twenty members. To these churches I have three

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suggestions. First of all, worship needs to be a community activity, not an indoor

meeting. Meeting in a building where no one can see you doesn‘t make sense in this

pueblo. If you‘re going to have a worship service, celebrate it in a public place where

you‘re visible to the public eye.

My second suggestion follows from the first: the Evangelical Church must

become part of the pueblo. This implies that the members should reside in the pueblo. If

church members come from outside the pueblo to worship within the pueblo and then

leave after it‘s over, the church will never be more than just a meeting. But if the

members live in the pueblo, participate in community activities, promote community

activities, interact with the people during the week, the Church becomes part of the

pueblo. The folk need to see the Evangelicals as: ―you are one of us.‖

The third suggestion is even more radical: Evangelical worship must reflect Jesus

as the Patron of the pueblo. The pueblo is named ―Saint Peter of El-Tingo.‖ The biggest

annual festivity is in honor of Saint Peter. Evangelical worship honors God who

apparently lives in heaven and is far away. The people need to see God as being closer to

them. They need to see God as relating to them. I believe one way to do this is to

celebrate Jesus as the Patron or Overseer of the pueblo. This would help the pueblo to

identify with God‘s son, and would also give the pueblo a new identity as true Christians.

A final suggestion that does not necessarily involve the Evangelical Church as an

institution, but I believe could help the Church integrate into the pueblo, is to record and

publish the oral history of the town. This would involve talking with the older folk,

learning their history, and gaining their respect by showing respect for them. Publishing

the history would help unite the town and strengthen their identity. Hopefully, if the town

would change its patron from Saint Peter to Jesus, this too would be recorded as part of

the town‘s history.

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Implications for the Evangelical Church in the Andes of Ecuador

Having studied and experienced the pueblo of El-Tingo, I will make a couple of

suggestions for the Evangelical Church in general in the Andes of Ecuador. I limit this to

the Andes of Ecuador, because the Coastal Region and the Jungle Region are culturally

different from the Central Region in the Andes Mountains.

First of all, the Evangelical Church needs to recognize its foreign roots. Just as I

the missionary, needed to realize who I was and how I think in order to begin to

contextualize worship in El-Tingo, the Church needs to recognize that the way they

worship is not indigenous. They are still using a foreign way of worship. Only if and

when they recognize this will they begin to change.

Secondly, they need to re-discover their Ecuadorian heritage. Ironically, the

government and many other groups are moving in this direction to recover their national

heritage. The constitution officially recognizes the various cultural groups in Ecuador and

includes their beliefs in its principal articles. The Evangelical Church in Ecuador needs to

―wake-up‖ and realize that they can very well worship God from within their Ecuadorian

culture.

What follows from the first two suggestions, at a more profound level, is that the

Evangelical Church of Ecuador needs to develop its own theology that is concrete,

communal, and identity-based. This may not hold for the churches in the cities, but for

those in the rural areas, this is an urgent necessity. Our Western and Urban theology is

forcing the rural folk to think like us in order to become Christians. We are missing the

rich heritage that the rural folk could teach us about God from their point of view.

Ecuador is going to need national theologians to do this.

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Implications for Cross-Cultural Missionaries in the Andes

For cross-cultural missionaries, my suggestions come directly from the model I

proposed previously and illustrated in Figure 19. First of all, the missionary needs to

recognize his or her cultural biases and be willing to leave them aside on the mission

field. Second, the missionary needs to spend time with the people. To me, think is highly

overlooked. We Western missionaries try to ―be efficient‖ and get the task done in the

minimum amount of time. It takes time to understand a people. There are no secret

formulas. One must take the time to build relationships. Third, the missionary must be

willing to worship in new ways, and be willing to let the national Christians make the

decisions as to how they want to worship.

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APPENDIX A

CALENDAR SUMMARY OF FIELDWORK IN 2006

PLACE EVENT DATE HOURS RecordingAlangasí Patron Festival 2006-Feb-03,04,05 10 VideoArmenia Passing of the Child 2006-Feb-18 6 VideoComuna Worship Service 2006-Feb-19 1 VideoComuna Focus Group 2006-Mar-04 2 AudioMerced Worship Service 2006-Mar-19 1 VideoMerced Focus Group 2006-Mar-25 2 AudioTingo Holy Week 2006-Apr-14,16 8 VideoSan José Worship Service 2006-Apr-23 1 VideoConocoto Worship Service 2006-Apr-23 1 VideoAlangasí Worship Service 2006-Apr-30 1 VideoSta Teresa Worship Service 2006-May-28 1 VideoConocoto Focus Group 2006-Jun-09 1 AudioTingo Focus Group 2006-Jun-10 1 AudioSan José Focus Group 2006-Jun-15 1 AudioTingo Corpus Christi 2006-Jun-16,17 8 VideoAlangasí Corpus Christi 2006-Jun-18 4 VideoArmenia "Focus Group" 2006-Jun-19 1 AudioSan José Workshop 2006-Jul-15 3 AudioPintag Worship Service 2006-Oct-08 1 VideoUbillus Workshop 2006-Oct-09 2 AudioUbillus Workshop 2006-Oct-14 2 AudioMerced Workshop 2006-Oct-21 2 AudioPintag Workshop 2006-Oct-21 3 AudioMerced Workshop 2006-Oct-28 2 AudioPintag Workshop 2006-Nov-04 2 AudioComuna Workshop 2006-Nov-04 2 Audio

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APPENDIX B

FOTOS AND VIDEOS

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APPENDIX C

THE BIBLICAL ESSENTIALS OF WORSHIP

Worship is central to religious belief. As one author put it: ―to deal with the

relationship between worship and culture is at once to deal with the heart of the Christian

life‖ (Stauffer 1995:1). But what is the biblical ―core‖ that we cannot compromise, but

must be a part of worship in every culture? That‘s an easy question to answer using

Western systematic theology, but what if I take the position that:

―theology is not so much a content to be understood as a process to be

entered into, a conversation in which Christians engage not only with the

content of Scripture and tradition but also with the context in which they

live‖ (Bevans 2005:69)

As Chibuko says: ―Theology…must be interpreted within the people's context‖ (Chibuko

2001:2). Tiénou spells out this issue:

―All theologies are human creations seeking to understand divine

revelation, and all theologies are embedded in histories and world-

views that shape the way they see things. There are no culture-free

and history-free theologies. We all read Scripture from the

perspectives of our particular context. This does not mean we can

know no truth. It does mean that we must never equate our

theology with Scripture, and that we need to work in hermeneutical

communities and draw on those who have gone before us to check

our personal and cultural biases‖ (Tiénou 2006:223).

I see from his discussion that it is not ―beliefs‖ that the missionary must

take to another culture, but the Scriptures.

120

Hesselgrave discussed this interaction between theology and culture by plotting a

continuum with two extremes: all Scripture or all culture (Hesselgrave 1979:6-7). He was

concerned that the gospel might be watered-down to cultural traditions. But I think he

was still seeing theology as ―content‖ rather than as a ―process.‖

Here I will try to deal with the question: ―What is worship?‖ using both ―content‖

and ―process.‖ I see the ―content‖ as Scripture and the ―process‖ as how we are

understanding God through our cultural lenses. But first I will use Tiénou‘s strategy of

Missional theology as I illustrate in figure 21. He argues that systematic theology cannot

change; narrative theology cannot deal with the present; and that missionary theology

puts God‘s word into a specific context. I will look at worship from all three points of

view.

Specific to a

context

God

communicating

with humans

MISSIONAL

THEOLOGY

Doesn‘t deal

with present

All worship

points toward

Christ

NARRATIVE

THEOLOGY

Cannot changeEphesians 5:19

Colossians 3:16

SYSTEMATIC

THEOLOGY

Theologies of Worship

FIGURE 21

TIENOU’S STRATEGY OF THEOLOGY

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Systematic theology perspective of worship

One has to choose a bias and work with it. I will choose the Reformed tradition to

view Biblical worship in a systematic way.

Reformed view of Old Testament worship

In Reformed doctrine the Old Testament law is divided into moral, ceremonial,

and judicial. The moral law continues to be binding. The ceremonial is abrogated under

the New Testament. The judicial law is no longer obligating. (The Confession of Faith

and Catechisms 1983:50). Under this view, the only commands concerning worship are:

to ―worship the Lord your God‖ (NIV 1993: Ex.23:25), and ―do not bow down before

their gods or worship them‖(ibid 1993: Ex. 23:24).

Since the ceremonial law is abrogated under the New Testament, all Old

Testament forms of worship, particularly the temple worship, are no longer valid for

Christians. They are ―descriptive,‖ but not ―prescriptive.‖ I am making a distinction here

between ―prescriptive‖ passages, those which are mandatory for Christians today, and

those passages which are ―descriptive.‖ The latter can be used as examples, but are not

mandatory.

I view the Psalms in the same way. They are not ―prescriptive,‖ but

―descriptive.‖1 They were written mainly as songs, which express the author‘s experience

with God. But the psalms do not give us a mandatory form of worship.

Therefore, the Old Testament gives us no mandatory way as to worship God.

Definition of worship

I will take the view that worship is not defined in the Bible, but assumed as a

natural act of man toward God. I see songs in the Bible in the same way. They are a

1 Gentile sees them as prescriptive (Gentile 2000).

122

spontaneous expression toward God. They are not ―models‖ of how we should sing.

Using this definition, the psalms are seen as responses to what God has done or can do.

My emphasis is that the psalms are an example of responses to God and not commands

for one to obey.

Most of the literature I have read give various forms of this definition of worship:

―Man‘s response to the acts of God.‖2 A couple of Latin authors base their definitions on

John 4:24.3 They describe a common philosophy of worship in rural Quito: worship has

no obligations; it is a free expression of pure motives. It‘s interesting to note also, that

these two authors also build their worship philosophy on Old Testament principles.

Gentile builds his whole worship philosophy on the Psalms (Gentile 2000:15).

Another way of viewing worship is through the sacraments: the Word, baptism,

and the Eucharist (Stauffer 1995:2); or through ―the principal occasions for Christian

worship in the first three centuries…Christian initiation, the Eucharistic liturgy, daily

prayer, and the liturgical year‖ (Johnson 2006:35). This view has just about died in

evangelicals churches in Quito today.

2 Worship ―is the affirmative, transforming, response of human beings to God‘s self-revealing‖ (Hustad

1993:99-100);

“It is an intentional response of praise, thanksgiving, and adoration to The God‖ (Morgenthaler 1999:47);

"just as the Christian faith is both God's action and our response, so also worship renewal requires that we

as the people of God pay attention to our worship and response to what the Holy Spirit has given in

Scripture and in the history of the church" (Webber 1992:15-16);

"The memory and rehearsal of God's saving action is the divine side to worship. The other side to worship

is our response" (Webber 1998:44);

―el culto empieza a partir de la experiencia de aquel amor divino y la emoción de la gratitud‖ (Hong

2004:22);

―Adorar es, en primer lugar, una experiencia interior. Es la respuesta del ser humano a la revelación de

Dios por Jesucristo‖ (Nelson G. 1996:7).

3 (Perez 1995:8); (Witt 1993:12-13)

123

New Testament worship

The New Testament is scarce in commands to worship God. I believe it is

assumed. The main passage commanding worship is Jesus‘ own words: ―God is Spirit;

and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth‖ (NIV 1993: John 4:24). Again,

here, worship is implied, and Jesus is giving us the form of worship, which is very open

and ambiguous. And yet, that‘s the whole point: worship is a creative, spontaneous

response to God‘s acts and revelation (Hustad 1993:99). If it were not creative and

spontaneous, it would not be worship, but strict obedience.

Guidelines for Christian worship

So where does this leave us as to how we should worship? Limiting my

discussion to the musical aspect of corporate worship, the only commands we have in the

New Testament are Ephesians 5:19:

―Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and

make music in your heart to the Lord‖ (NIV 1993),

and Colossians 3:16:

―Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one

another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual

songs with gratitude in your hearts to God‖ (NIV 1993),

which are not even imperatives, but participles. At least two authors agree that these are

the New Testament guidelines that we have: (Nelson G. 1996:100); (Pope 2004:244).

Their contexts imply that our singing be to one another, and to God; that it be Spirit led,

and focused on the Word of God. So, from a systematic theology point of view, that‘s all

the missionary needs to take into a new culture when it comes to worship.

124

Narrative theology perspective of worship

Narrative theology looks at the Bible as the story of God‘s dealing with man.

Now let‘s look at worship in the Bible as a story. I will use John 1:29 as my focus point

for this story. When John cried out to the crowd around him, ―Look, the Lamb of God,

who takes away the sin of the world!‖ (NIV 1993: John 1:29), only the Jews understood

what he meant. Who else could make a connection between ―a lamb‖ and ―taking away

sin?‖ The Jews knew that the blood of a lamb was required to expiate sin. Where did they

learn this, but through Old Testament instituted temple worship!

From this point of view, God instituted temple worship, with blood sacrifice, to

teach the Jews what was required for the forgiveness of sins. Thus, temple worship was

really preparatory, not mandatory. It was to prepare God‘s people for the coming of the

Messiah.

Now that the Messiah has come, and shed his blood, and forgiven his people,

worship takes on a different meaning. In the Old Testament, worship pointed toward the

Christ. In the New Testament, worship celebrates what the Christ did on the cross. The

focal point of all worship is what God has done for us! We respond spontaneously to that

event!

Systematic theology focuses on HOW to worship. Narrative theology focuses on

THE MOTIVE of our worship. And Missional theology gives us still another focus.

Missional theology perspective of worship

Now let‘s look at Biblical worship from the perspective of what God wanted to

communicate to his people. If God wanted to help his people understand Christ‘s future

sacrifice for them, what method would he use? Given the Jewish people had an oral

culture, and were concrete thinkers, not abstract ones, he would use ritual, not sermons!

Since animal sacrifice was already a common practice before Moses, why wouldn‘t God

125

use that ritual to communicate to his people the future work of Christ? So the temple

worship wasn‘t something that God wanted his people to practice for eternity, but it was a

way God accommodated to human beings, in order for them to understand his plan and

purposes. So why couldn‘t we use ritual in order to communicate God‘s plan and

purposes to other peoples?

Summary

The objective of this appendix was to define that ―core belief‖ that the missionary

needs to ―extract‖ from his or her culture and take into another culture. From a systematic

point of view, I would use Ephesians 5:19 and Colossian 3:16, and emphasize

congregational singing. Narrative theology motivates me to be open to how God has been

working in their past and present history, and missional theology inspires me to

participate in their traditions, and dialogue with them about the scriptures. After all,

theology is a process.

126

GLOSSARY

Term Definition

Term Definition

Term Definition

Term Definition

Term Definition

127

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