ABSTRACT
Drawing on ethnographic research between 1995 and 2017, this chapter focuses on gender performativity during the Inti Raymi–Jatun Puncha. Specifically hypermasculine performances by indigenous men but also women, that challenge conventional notions of gender fixity and provide insight into Andean conceptualizations of gender duality. The women's participation during the Inti Raymi–Jatun Puncha provides an ethnographic illustration of the Andean approaches to duality. While the Inti Raymi–Jatun Puncha celebrations take place at the pinnacle of masculine time-space and exude a public male dominance and aesthetic, women also participate and play a crucial role in the festival. Although women play a much more public role in nearby communities such as Zuleta and Cayambe, dancing and singing alongside the men throughout the festival, in Cotacachi, the women's participation is publically understated. One individual in Cotacachi perhaps epitomizes yanantin as a concerted effort toward this perfect duality, and not only during the Inti Raymi festivities, but beyond the festival context throughout the year.
