Introduction

In the high-Andean village of Rapaz stands a tiny stone house in a walled and locked precinct. Rapaz village belongs to the coal and metal-mining District of Oyon in the province of the same name. For at least a millennium Andean people in high villages from Peru to Chile and Argentina have venerated mountains as the "owners of water". The unusual thing about Rapacinos is that they still do organize mountain cult in the form of a temple. It was an enormous surprise to find, in 2004, a working temple of Andean mountain veneration because Rapaz is in the very area where Christendom strove hardest to stamp out pre-Christian sacred culture. In the early 1960s, Rapacinos joined with many other villages in coordinated resistance to latifundism, invading and occupying such estate lands. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.