WANTYAY, EL HIMNO DE LA MUERTE EN EL PUEBLO KICHWA OTAVALO-ECUADOR
Keywords:
Wantyay, funeral ritual, Chayshuk Pacha, Otavalo, deathAbstract
The invocation ritual called Wantyay is a funeral protocol of farewell of the Otavalo Kichwa. This qualitative research used the ethnographic method with in-depth interviews with 30 qualified informants chosen from the indigenous communities with experience in the Wantyay ritual. From this analysis, it is deduced that this ritual facilitates the transition of the soul of the deceased to the Chayshuk Pacha (paradise of the ancestors), which guarantees the perpetual relationship between the community of the living and the dead, ensuring the intergenerational transmission of knowledge in their ancestral language, as well as the revitalization of the principles of the Andean cosmovision. In order to enhance its value, it is proposed to strengthen the Kichwa language by having the funeral ritual declared an intangible cultural heritage of Ecuador. In short, this Norandino funeral rite is totally intertwined with the structure and social and linguistic relations of the Otavalo Kichwa people.