An Andean anthropological focus on ritual and collective intoxication within a festive setting – in particular in funeral contexts - leads to a prolific and fascinating field of research since chicha, the thick fermented corn beverage, contains a world of meaning. The drunkenness it engenders promotes diverse ways of creating links with not only the surrounding animated world but also with the dead. In that sense, it is performative because it makes exist these entities who become serious interlocutors for the humans. This ethnography conducted in the Andean region of Cochabamba (Bolivia), in the Quechua peasant communities of Qhoari and in the nearby village of Arani, analyzes inebriation as a collective action that consolidates social ties, strengthens group identity and even brings the sacred closer. Intoxication is therefore sought, desired and valued. In short, it is a means of communication that allows the establishment of reciprocal relations among humans and between them and the Pachamama (all beings that inhabit animated nature). It is through liquor that human requests can be heard by supernatural entities who can dialogue with them only when they are inebriated, appearing through an alter ego. In fact, wetness is the symbol of life; dryness refers to death. Offerings of libations and blood sacrifices promote the rehydration and nurturing of evil entities and the dead. It is through mechanisms very similar to those at work in such offerings that the body of the drinker, wrecked by alcohol, almost agonizing, acquires its sacrificial meaning.
