ABSTRACT
The methodological and theoretical frameworks offered by the anthropology of the senses have much to offer in the study of ritual and religious experience, especially if combined with those used in ethnomusicology, dance, and performance studies. In this chapter, through the example of pilgrimage in the Peruvian Andes, the author argues that the study of public performance, ritual, and the religious experience in any society needs to start from careful understanding of how the senses are organized in such society. She focuses on the fact that the most important element that mediates the encounter between Jesus and the shepherd, or the main thing they share, is the performance of the Wayri Ch'unchu dance. The author analyzes the intrinsic relationship that for the people of Pomacanchi5 exists between walking to the sanctuary and the music that accompanies them.