Bolivia: Architecture and Rituality, Implications of the Miniatures of Buildings in the Alasita Festivity

The research focuses on the relationship between architecture and rituality in the Andean world, specifically in the cities of La Paz and El Alto in Bolivia, where the popular area of Aymara roots celebrates the Alasita festival characterized by the presence of miniatures that exemplify aspirationality and desires for abundance.

The buildings represented in the miniatures transcend from objects to subjects, thus they are also consolidated into references, into architectural heritage, through which social recognition is achieved for some contemporary buildings. This recognition does not necessarily correlate with the architecture promoted by state governments and Bolivian academia.

Through Alasita, the majority population makes known its horizon, its aspirations, its view of the possible city of the future, its autonomous imaginary of modernity incorporated into its cultural core.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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The datasets used in this study are openly available at [repository link] and the source code is available on GitHub at [GitHub link].

This work did not receive any external funding.