Sax, Marieka

Marieka Sax received her Master’s in Anthropology from Carleton University (Canada) in 2008, where she is presently a doctoral candidate in Anthropology. Her current research project concerns ritual healing in the northern Peruvian Andes.

An Ethnography of Feeding, Perception, and Place in the Peruvian Andes (where Hungry Spirits Bring Illness and Wellbeing)

2012 0-7734-3916-1
Drawing on anthropological field work, this ethnographic study by Marieka Sax proposes that an Andean “idiom of feeding” is enacted in a variety of everyday and ritual contexts so as to establish relationships, advance agricultural and market-based economies, and restore health. The book asserts that the process of feeding others carries with it a sense of self-identification for the people of the Peruvian Andes and that feeding as a ritual, is highly connected to Andean spirits who extend life-giving energy, productivity, and general well-being. The study of feeding and the cultural context given to it through language, presents to the reader local, national, and global connections with the people of the Peruvian Andes.