Slinging.org Forum - Peruvian Sling Fight Festival (videos)

HonderoPeru

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Peruvian Sling Fight Festival (videos)
Sep 9^th, 2008 at 3:59pm

this festival is know as Chiriaje in Cusco region in Peru. Ill give u more details soon about it but people have been doing this for hundreds of years
enjoy it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euN_95PTkyo&eurl=http://video.aol.com/video-detai...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YtnfXeSn6Q&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sf8jvFPCzE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9WIKKRsLo8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kentp34NkjE&feature=related

Hondero Peru

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dork Funditor Offline I feel Smurfy when I'm smurfing!!!! You too? Posts: 995 In Beautiful Wisconsin Gender:	Re: Peruvian Sling Fight Festival (videos) Reply #1 - Sep 9^th, 2008 at 4:47pm Interesting. looks like it might leave me with a headache
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Burner

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Re: Peruvian Sling Fight Festival (videos)
Reply #2 - Sep 9^th, 2008 at 9:37pm

Headache is an understatement!What's up with the dude in the portrait montage with his head all bloody.The people in the battles(are they symbolic battles?)seem to be switching sides and intermingling.So gnarly,sometimes you can see people getting hit.At first it appeared that dudes were holding back on their power,but I saw a bunch of them just unloading at like 5 meters,with what appeared to be some fist sized rocks.

Super crazy?

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peacefuljeffrey Interfector Viris Spurii Offline Peace through superior slinging power! Posts: 2700 West Palm Beach Gender:	Re: Peruvian Sling Fight Festival (videos) Reply #3 - Sep 10^th, 2008 at 8:12am I'm afraid I totally don't understand what I just saw. I watched the first video. Lots of dancing and culturally-alien singing, and I thought I saw slings and rocks involved, but wasn't sure. Were these people actually slinging those chipped rocks where people were to be in danger of being hit? WTH?!
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Rockman

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Re: Peruvian Sling Fight Festival (videos)
Reply #4 - Sep 10^th, 2008 at 2:21pm

Even for us Peruvians, the whole concept of this battle is utterly incomprehensible, but it´s an important part of the andean traditions. Every year there are casualties, you can actually see a dead guy with a blood stain on his hat.

As for the singin, they are speaking in quechua so I have no idea what they are saying, but here´s a translation for the captions on the first video

If I live, I´ll be back
If I die, I won´t be back
Only my soul will be back

That is the way my life will be
So on the Chiraje I must die

At the very end of the first video, the narrator says:
"The spilled blood belongs to the earth, on this battle, they are all victorious"

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timann Interfector Viris Spurii Offline Slinging Rocks! Posts: 2504 Norway Gender:	Re: Peruvian Sling Fight Festival (videos) Reply #5 - Sep 11^th, 2008 at 11:42am If this thing was not "CULTURE", I would think it was insanely stupid. But of course, if it is culture, it must be OK timann
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peacefuljeffrey

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Re: Peruvian Sling Fight Festival (videos)
Reply #6 - Sep 11^th, 2008 at 7:58pm

timann wrote on Sep 11^th, 2008 at 11:42am:

If this thing was not "CULTURE", I would think it was insanely stupid. But of course, if it is culture, it must be OK Cheesy

timann

I agree. There are some things cultural that really ought to be left behind, abandoned, as they are not necessary to be kept close to the heart of a people's identity.

If we figured out a way to dispose of human waste with portable vaporizers like something out of Star Trek, would we cling to the "tradition" of toilets and keep them around even though they were nothing more than a now-obsolete necessary evil?

I love the traditional aspects of slinging -- but what is the NEED to have people get HURT or KILLED to keep a tradition alive?

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wanderer Interfector Viris Spurii Offline Posts: 1360 Texas Gender:	Re: Peruvian Sling Fight Festival (videos) Reply #7 - Sep 11^th, 2008 at 9:06pm HonderoPeru, Very interesting pictures. Do you know if this is the only such 'festival', or what the tradition behind it is? For those who have the Cahlander book on sling braiding, the picture on the front was taken during this, or a similar, festival.
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Re: Peruvian Sling Fight Festival (videos)
Reply #8 - Sep 12^th, 2008 at 1:51am

Rockman wrote on Sep 10^th, 2008 at 2:21pm:

At the very end of the first video, the narrator says:
"The spilled blood belongs to the earth, on this battle they are all victorious"

Is that what they tell the guy who loses an eye or suffers a Traumatic Brain Injury? Perhaps they tell that to the 8 year old kid who loses his dad. Or to the 8 year old kid whose arm gets permanently disabled after being shattered by a rock...
I'm afraid I just don't get it. Embarrassed

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Curious Aardvark

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Re: Peruvian Sling Fight Festival (videos)
Reply #9 - Sep 12^th, 2008 at 7:34am

Fascinating.

For those who don't understand there are several ways to look at this kind of thing.

1) for a people who see their traditional way of life and culture being eroded by the modern world, hanging on to ancient traditions - even violent ones is one of the few ways they can express their culture. For the andean indians this is important more to reassert their traditional culture than anything.

2) this kind of thing is prevalent worldwide. Don't believe me ? Spanish bullrunning, english intra village 'football' matches etc. Traditionally this kind of thing helps young males establish their place in the soceity. It also allows for intra tribal feuds to be sorted out during an amnesty period. What happens during the festival stays on the festival field and life proceeds better because of it.

3) it also sends a message to the current government. 'We're not people you can mess with'.

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timann

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Re: Peruvian Sling Fight Festival (videos)
Reply #10 - Sep 12^th, 2008 at 12:27pm

Of course there are seweral aspects to this thing. When I first saw it, I decided it was not worce than the bull runs, a rock in the head, a bull horn up somewhere, so what Wink

And of course young male football supporters in england and elsewhere must find their place in the society, it looks great on TV Wink

.
I am aware of rather similar stuff in africa and in the Amaconas area.
And even here in norway, there is fights in the weekends, a tradition too.

The "sling festival" would have been fun with water balloons.
timann

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Rockman

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Re: Peruvian Sling Fight Festival (videos)
Reply #11 - Sep 12^th, 2008 at 1:00pm

curious_aardvark reasoning is pretty much spot on. Many years ago, my antropology teacher showed us some videos of a number of celebrations of villages deep in the Andes. He told us "It´s easy for outsiders to consider some aspects of traditions completly insane, which is a case of inebitable egocentrism" the same people who have no problem busting their heads open with a sling might look upon English Hooligans and view their ways as idiotic.

Poor comunities or people with dangerous jobs are very suppersticious, case in point, fishermen. Almost universally, fishermen throw some kind of offering to the sea or hold some sort of ritual before going inside.

Mountain climbers usually dig some sort of "present" at the foot of the mountain they intend to climb.

In the case of the Chiraje, they repay the land they depend on with the spilled blood.

In case you didn´t notice, the people on horseback use staff slings, check it out.

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Curious Aardvark

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Re: Peruvian Sling Fight Festival (videos)
Reply #12 - Sep 13^th, 2008 at 1:52pm

timann I'm not talking about football/soccer.

I'm talking about the very ancient inter vilage traditions that involve pretty much the entire male population of 2 villages.
They meet on central ground and the general idea (there are slight variations between matches) is to get a ball/object into the opposing village.

It's a bit like a day long 400 man rugby scrum - but with no actual referee or rules. standing apart and having at it with slings might be considered a bit 'soft' by the participants in these events lol

Probably vids on youtube somewhere.

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timann Interfector Viris Spurii Offline Slinging Rocks! Posts: 2504 Norway Gender:	Re: Peruvian Sling Fight Festival (videos) Reply #13 - Sep 14^th, 2008 at 7:32am Sorry for my mistake, curious_aardwark. Now, that sounds like good, clean, healthy fun timann
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Dave M

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Re: Peruvian Sling Fight Festival (videos)
Reply #14 - Sep 14^th, 2008 at 11:29am

I will agree that some of the inter village football matches here in the UK are a bit viloent there is one where the ball takes the form of a small wooden barrel filled with warm beer and yes there are injuries but nobody forces people to do this so it is up to them. If you know that you are going to get hurt the choice is yours play or don't play.

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