Veneration of a sculpture of Baby Jesus in Sotaquí. A case of Material Religion
The aim of this proposal is to approach a contemporary phenomena of veneration of a religious statue from a diachronic point of view, taking into account two important premises: First, the imminence of a long term relationship between the Church and the worshipers when coping with sacred images and, secondly, the importance of understanding religion as material realm.
The case to be studied is the veneration of a wooden sculpture of Baby Jesus in a small town in Chile called Sotaquí, from the beginning of its appearance to nowadays. Jumping through times, from the 18th century to contemporary days and also going from that time to the conquest period will illuminate the controversy upon the images in a specific place, but with the possibility to reveal that this is a long term historical phenomena. Different actors are going to give their voices in this process to show the controversial nature of this relationship.
To develop the idea of the importance of Material Religion to understand the veneration of this image, I will use the ideas of Tim Ingold (and his concept of entanglement), David Morgan (and his concept of Enchantment), Alfred Gell (and his concept of agency) and David Freedberg (and his Power of Images), all these important names when talking about the material turn in the social sciences. Nevertheless, the most important ideas to interpret the relationship of both the hierarchy of the Church and the worshippers of the sculpture of baby Jesus, will be borrowed from Hans Belting. In his book Likeness and Presence he states: “the idea of a religion was always less important the direct meeting with its representative”.
In the case of Sotaquí, the sculpture becomes the star of a great religious festival that is celebrated in his honor every January 6. During this festival the faithful sing, dance, drink alcohol, feast and make promises to God ("mandas") that they will do something specific for Him if he provides a certain miracle or favor for them.
It is this presence we want to decipher through the different experiences and practices that the community of Sotaquí has taken with their patron image.
Key words: Material Religion, sacred images, agency, religious practices
Olaya Sanfuentes is a tenured professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She got her bachelor degree at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, her master degree at Georgetwon University and her Phd at Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. She has written many chapters and articles regarding topics of visual and material culture. She has a chapter in the 2020 Oxford Handbook of Material Culture ("Christmas Nativity Scenes in Late Nineteenth-Century Santiago de Chile”)and also a chapter in the coming Routledge Handbook of Material Religion ("Christmas Gifts at the Turn of the Twentieth Century in Santiago, Chile: From a Gift Economy to Commodity"). She has been involved in many curatorships at museums and now she is curayting the next exhibtion at the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino. She is also the author of many History book for children.
The aim of this proposal is to approach a contemporary case of veneration of a religious statue (a wooden sculpture of Baby Jesus in a small town in Chile called Sotaquí) from a diachronic point of view, taking into account two important premises: First, the imminence of a long term relationship between the Church and the worshipers when coping with sacred images and, secondly, the importance of understanding religion as material realm. I will study this case jumping through times, from the 18th century to contemporary days and also going from that time to the conquest period.