Disease, diagnosis, treatment and cure: Carving witchcraft in the Mantaro Valley

Molina J.J.A.M.; León-Chinchilla Y. · Bulletin of Hispanic Studies (2025) · DOI: 10.3828/bhs.2024.76

Resumen

This article analyses the circuit of provenance and the aesthetic representation of a micro-story about witchcraft in the Mantaro Valley of Peru. Engraved on a carved gourd housed in the BASA Museum (Bonn Collection of the Americas) in Germany, it was donated by the collector Johanna Schupp in 2021. Used for various purposes since pre-Hispanic times, mates are objects made from dried gourds that are then carved, pigmented, or pyrographed using various techniques. The carved gourd examined here is the work of artist Guillermo Ventura, who created it in the 1980s in the rural town of Cochas Chico. It represents the Andean disease, Chacho, contracted by a child through Daño (witchcraft perpetrated by a sorcerer), its diagnosis method through Jubeo de cuy, and its cure through an offering or Kutichi, dedicated to the tutelary deity that lives in the local mountain.