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Los Pendoneros (The Bannermen):
Understanding Ancient Symbols
(page 2 of 2)
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The rituals continue in the afternoon with the "Mass of the Saint"
in the house of the chosen prioste (the person chosen by the community
as host of the festival). The priostazgo comes to mean "person of
prestige." Interestingly and tellingly, the elected prioste
incurs tremendous expenses--materially and in time and effort--in
facilitating the ritual. This is just the opposite of what we in West
would expect of the "person of prestige." However, this sacrifice
makes total sense in the indigenous world of reciprocity, as we will
see later.
The day of the celebration, in the house of the prioste gather the assistants, family members and friends and they depart from here in a religious procession with the saint at the center. On the sides, the bearers of the red banners lead the procession.
The pendoneros (the bannermen) appear here carrying and waving red banners hoisted on poles of chota wood. The pendoneros represent the mystery and history of immolation and sacrifice. As the band begins to play, the bannermen zigzag around the procession waving their banners, reminiscent of an ancient warrior ritual.
According to the ancestral tradition, the indigenous people, after killing their enemies of war, suspended their bodies on long poles in view of everyone, the meaning of which was to warn others and to be a form of control. This situation is easily complemented within the Andean laws of immediate punishment to wrong doers and always in view of the entire community as the best way to educate the inhabitants and to give them guidance. The red banners of the bannermen are a reminder of these immolation of the past. What does this have to do with a religious celebration?
The concepts of sacrifice and penitence of the Catholic Church should manifest themselves in some manner for the indigenous people. The reminder of these deaths in a ritual of war and death represent this spirit of submission and melancholy that is proper to Christian celebrations.
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The entire group awaits the beginning of the mass, not without first
carrying out a special ceremony where they bless the products of the
earth and carry out a ritual of collecting cooked grains brought by
each companion from their harvest to present to the wife of the prioste.
All of these products will be used in the big party; dance, music and
drink are the complements.
Here we denote a very important element within the indigenous cosmo-vision
and that has also been inherited by our mixed-blood people, the festival
and collaboration between friends. The generosity and reciprocity are
two traces present in our actions and the indigenous unity manifests
itself from small family decisions like marriage that is accepted by
all of the members, up to the large decisions of the whole community
for which they get together and in consensus decide how to act.
The party ends with the rites of purification where water is always
present and a collective community work party in which the houses of
the priostes are fixed before going back to their daily lives.
The significance of the pendoneros, as well as of other typical
personalities that comprise Ecuadorian indigenous culture, passes virtually
unnoticed by non-indigenous observers even as they/we admire the colorfullness
of the indigenous traditions. This festival, as well as other celebrations
within the indigenous culture, offers itself as an excellent opportunity
to strengthen the ties of our complex national identity. The images
and symbols, properly understood and grasped, speak volumes to what
we were and are.
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