Abstract
This article examines the Fiesta del Señor de Soltera, held in the San Cristóbal neighborhood of Huancavelica (Peru), as a sociocultural dispositif where moral economy, Andean reciprocity, symbolic capital, and ritual sociability converge. Drawing on exploratory ethnographic observations and a critical review of anthropological and sociological literature, the analysis focuses on festive expenditures ---including organization, convites, and bullfighting--- as practices that articulate religious devotion, community cohesion, and social differentiation. Findings indicate that the economic dyna-mics of the festivity are embedded in a moral regime sustained by reciprocal obligations and collective affectivities, where ayni, compadrazgo, and ritual friendship operate as social technologies for mobilizing resources. Additionally, the study reveals that festive cargos and ritual expenditures function as investments in symbolic capital that produce prestige and legitimacy while simultaneously reproducing internal hierarchies and inequalities.
References
É. Durkheim, Las formas elementales de la vida religiosa. Madrid, España: Akal, 1912.
V. Turner, El proceso ritual. Madrid, España: Taurus, 1969.
J. C. Scott, The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia. New Haven, CT, USA: Yale University Press, 1977.
E. P. Thompson, “The moral economy of the English crowd in the eighteenth century,” Past & Present, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 76–136, 1971, doi: 10.1093/past/50.1.76.
K. Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston, MA, USA: Beacon Press, 1944.
M. Sahlins, Stone Age Economics. Chicago, IL, USA: Aldine, 1972.
M. Mauss, Ensayo sobre el don: forma y función del intercambio en las sociedades arcaicas. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Katz Editores, 2009 [1925].
G. Alberti and E. Mayer, Reciprocidad e intercambio en los Andes peruanos. Lima, Perú: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1974.
J. V. Murra, Formaciones económicas y políticas del mundo andino. Lima, Perú: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1975.
S. Gudeman, The Anthropology of Economy: Community, Market, and Culture. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 2001.
P. Bourdieu, “The forms of capital,” in Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, J. G. Richardson, Ed. New York, NY, USA: Greenwood, 1986, pp. 241–258.
P. Bourdieu, “Capital simbólico e classes sociais,” Novos Estudos CEBRAP, pp. 105–115, 2013.
M. S. Granovetter, “The strength of weak ties,” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 78, no. 6, pp. 1360–1380, 1973, doi: 10.1086/225469.
F. Cancian, Economics and Prestige in a Maya Community: The Religious Cargo System in Zinacantan. Stanford, CA, USA: Stanford University Press, 1965.
A. Appadurai, Ed., The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
J. M. Arguedas, Yawar Fiesta. Lima, Perú: Editorial Universitaria, 1973 [1941].
R. Bracamonte, “La observación participante como técnica de recolección de información en la investigación etnográfica,” Revista Arjé, vol. 9, no. 17, pp. 132–139, 2015.
J. A. Flores Ochoa, Enqa, enqaychu, illa y khuya rumi: aspectos mágico-religiosos entre pastores. Lima, Perú: Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos, 1987.
A. Molinié-Fioravanti, “Metamorfosis andinas del toro,” Revista de Estudios Taurinos, no. 16, pp. 19–34, 2003.
J. Hartigan Jr. and A. Menaker, “Playing with the bull: breeding, blood, and ritual in Peruvian bullfighting,” Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 469–487, 2022, doi: 10.1111/jlca.12585.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
