The saints that conglomerate and the saints that delimit. Religious festival and territory in San Pedro Cholula Puebla

Abstract

The text presents an ethnographic analysis of two religious festive cycles, one dedicated to the patron saints and virgins of the neighbourhoods and the other to three images called Las Circulares, in the city of San Pedro Cholula, México, both considered as fundamental references of the appropriation symbolic of the territory. In this ancient and sacred city, there are two ritual cycles: one at the level of the neighbourhood and another more generic that brings together the neighbourhoods called “La Circular”, both types of revels have different purposes, one level conglomerates all the Cholultecas and another delimits them. per neighbourhood unit. We are interested in specifically analyzing both festive courses: Circular and neighbourhood, as a set of symbolic repertoires and shared practices that allow the symbolic appropriation of the territory on two scales: city and neighbourhood, and the patron saints and virgins as territorial entities, which function as emblems of the territories.