Mountains in the Andes have been held sacred for centuries, as abodes of the spirits of the ancestors, providers and custodians of precious resources, and places of salvation in times of catastrophe. Andean peoples also assign a symbolic dimension to the Sun, the Moon, the stars, Mother Earth, the Pacific Ocean and atmospheric forces such as rain, wind and hail. Rituals of initiation, pilgrimage, divination and healing are practiced in connection with sacred mountains, as well as imported European traditions related to sorcery and witchcraft. Andean beliefs in the afterlife include funerary practices dedicated to the "new souls" of the recently dead, the infants or "little angels", the ancestors or "old ones", and the condemned souls. The underworld is home to evil spirits and a demonic figure known as "the owner of the mine". Dangerous places, such as haunted caves and lagoons, are sometimes linked to mermaids and golden horned bulls, which reveal peculiar European contributions to Andean mythology. This book describes and studies traditional beliefs on sacred mountains shared by Andean communities in South America, based on ethnological, ethnographic and ethnohistorical analysis. Inferences and observations are rooted in the author s field experience as a twenty five year resident in the Andes, and her pioneering contributions as a high altitude female archaeologist, anthropologist and mountaineer - Este libro sobre la dimensión sagrada de los Andes espera cumplir una función útil como puente entre culturas, acercando el universo de las creencias andinas a lectores interesados en otras partes del mundo, especialmente angloparlantes, por estar escrito en idioma inglés en su totalidad. Ofrece una descripción introductoria acerca del modo tradicional de vida de las principales etnias sudamericanas de altura y un análisis antropológico de ritos y creencias relativo a las montañas y otros rasgos sacralizados del paisaje.
