https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183518803385 Journal of Material Culture 1–21 © The Author(s) 2018 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/1359183518803385 journals.sagepub.com/home/mcu Journal of MATERIAL CULTURE Where places fold: The co-production of matter and meaning in an Aymara ritual setting Angel Aedo Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile Abstract This article explores the enigmatic centrality of a seemingly unoccupied place located at the very heart of an Andean community in northern Chile. It investigates how the apparent emptiness of a ritual site paradoxically operates as an ineffable agent that articulates beings, things and landscapes. The author argues that the study of what happens in this place is of significance beyond regional studies. It goes beyond the usual cultural frameworks to consider theoretical concepts such as topology, materiality, vitality and relationality. In order to explore this, he investigates how the ‘empty’ heart of the ceremonial centre, Isluga Marka – the place that blurs borders and centres (taypi) – emerges as a theoretically challenging topological phenomenon. The ethnography underlying this article is problematized in order to contribute to the general understanding of how matter, place and meaning can become entangled and mutually constituted. Keywords Aymara, materiality, meaning, place, ritual, topology Unde erit machina mundi quasi habens undique centrum et nullibi circumferentiam (The world- machine will have its centre everywhere and its circumference nowhere). (Nicholas of Cusa, De docta ignorantia, 1966[1440], II: 161) Meaning and matter are critical theoretical terrains of debate in anthropology, geography, cultural studies and gender studies, among other areas of analysis. In an important work of the ‘new materialism’, 1 Karen Barad (2007: 3) has argued that meaning is a key constituent in mattering. Indeed, ‘matter and meaning’, she writes, ‘are not separate elements.’ From Corresponding author: Angel Aedo, Department of Anthropology, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna N°4860, Macul, Santiago, CP 7820436, Chile. Email: jaedog@uc.cl 803385MCU 0 0 10.1177/1359183518803385Journal of Material CultureAedo research-article 2018 Article