Through a photo-ethnography on the Machaq Mara (Aymara New Year) celebration at the border community of Cancosa in Northern Chile, we reveal how an ethnogenesis process operates. We suggest that the central-Andean foundational principle of complementary reciprocity plays a fundamental role in this process. Our methodology consists of a visual reflective approach through photographic exposure, made possible through a combination of observant participation, the review of archives and interviews on the contemporary genesis of the festivity in Chile. We propose that the Machaq Mara celebration represents a preferential analytical space to identify dynamics of local ethnogenesis, in which ritual complementarity, as well the role of the State and indigenous officials in its process.

DOI: http://doi.org/10.47725/RAV.028.06