Page 282 - Perú indígena y virreinal

Pachacamac, Huanacauri, Titicaca, Machu Picchu...) visited Cusco each year. Between August and September these huacas were received by the Incas and their court and accommodated at the Haucaypata: all of them were questioned like oracles regarding the development of the state, and those that managed to answer correctly were honoured the following year with objects made of gold, silver, llamas, textiles, human and animal sacrifices, sent from the sacred sites in a solemn procession known as Capac Cocha. Those who failed lost their repute: with this practice the Inca and Cusco faithfully ensured the balance of the Andean sacred universe, integrating essential aspects of the economy and the world of politics.
It was the State-wide character of religion that produced a structure of divinities to parallel the structure of the state. Thus, the wife and sister of Inti was called Quilla, the Goddess of the Moon, whose image was depicted by a silver disk located alongside a solar disk, with her own particular sacred site located at Coricancha. Inti Illapa, the “thrower of rays”, was a deity of considerable importance, being responsible for rain and hail; this god was linked to the constellation Orion and was generally worshipped in the southern mountain range. Amaru, the rainbow, was also widely worshipped there. On occasion, the Incas maintained lively cults of territories that were of importance to their geopolitical set- up. Pachacamac, “Lord of the Land”, god of the universe, was an example of this, being widely accepted along the central coastline area during the pre-Inca period. We might also mention the cult that revolved around Pachamama, “Mother Earth”, represented by an image incorporating feminine features combined with those of a pumpkin. All of these divinities were linked with natural phenomena and associated with agricultural fertility and the successful outcome of the empire’s political actions.
The main cults were organized around these general deities, with the cult of the sun being the most popular: to this god was devoted a third of the agricultural lands throughout the empire and the harvest of each cultivated plot, not to mention human and animal sacrifices, luxurious offerings, funeral rites and the mummification of the Inca: the official character of this cult was marked by the ceremony of the Inti Raimi, designed to commemorate the solstices and the control of the harvests. The priesthood occupied the highest spheres of power, which spread throughout the empire. At the very top stood the Vilcaoma or Grand Priest, a brother or an uncle of the emperor, who was accompanied by a council of nine members; nevertheless, the most important rituals were always carried out by the Sapay Inca. The relatives of the Inca reserved the most significant religious missions for themselves. The local priests were recruited at the ayllu, originating from the curacas. Sacrifice was linked to the cult of the sun at important ceremonies. Sacrifices of llamas, rabbits, wild-fowl, dogs, jaguars, snakes and a wide variety of agricultural produce were made in ceremonies of lesser importance. The most important sacrifices were of human beings—children, young people and war captives—, although these were only made at dramatic moments, such as widespread natural catastrophes or Inca enthroning ceremonies.
Running alongside the official cults, the Andean peoples maintained an entire parallel structure of divinities of lesser extension and power, who were no less strongly venerated for this reason. This was the case with those gods who supported a single lineage or were shared by various ayllu, or legendary heroes of some groups who had led their people to a specific territory or who had played a leading part in certain victories of transcendental importance for their existence. This was the case with Manco Capac among the Incas, or Tutaiquiri along the Central Coastline, and with Uscovilca and Ancovilca de los Chancas in Cusco. In addition, plants, animals and a highly varied universe of items possessed their own spiritual powers and, alongside the ancestors, maintained a strong cult following in the provincial centres and rural communities.
This varied religious universe began to decline from the earliest moments of the Spanish Conquest: the Spanish invested all their efforts in eliminating the State-wide cults and all of the ideologies that contained a strong political element due to the structuring power they had possessed in the former Inca state. However, in the small villages, in the rural ayllu, the native religion survived in vigorous form, traces of which can still be observed in the daily practices of indigenous groups throughout the Andean Region.
tradition and innovation in the art of ancient peru
Cristina Vidal Lorenzo
When, in the year 1586, Miguel Cabello Balboa related the myth of Ñaymlap in his work Miscelánea Antártica, the figure to whom was attributed the founding of a dynasty in the Valley of Lambayeque prior to the Chimu conquest of this area, he surely would never have imagined that many of the aspects reflected in this legend would have to be verified four centuries later by archaeological and iconographic studies. We are referring to aspects such as the presence of a range of specialists intimately connected to the royal circle, among whom it is possible to distinguish musicians, perfume-makers, painter-make-up artists, weavers, shell master-craftsmen and servants versed in the culinary arts: “furthermore, what was valued most among them were their skilled craftsmen, who numbered forty, such as Pita Zofi who was his trumpeter or player of a series of large snails, instruments valued very highly among the Indians; another was Ñinagintue who was responsible for his Lordship’s drink in the manner of the Keeper of the Cellar; another was known as Fonga Sigde, who was in charge of crushing sea-shells on the earth that his Lordship passed over, another known as Occhocalo was his Cook, whilst another looked after the unctions and colours that his Lordship adorned his face with, known as Xam Muchec; another, who was in charge of bathing Lord Oilopcopoc, and producing shirts and feather clothing, was highly valued and important to the Prince, known as Llapchiluli” (Cabello Balboa [1586], 1951, 327).
Although attempts have been made to identify this founding hero and his sizeable entourage of skilled attendants with the characters featuring “winged eyes” and wearing feathers and false wings depicted in the paintings that cover the walls of a building in Ucupe, in the Valley of Zaña (Alva and Meneses de Alva, 1983), we still do not have sufficient historical evidence to prove the existence of this figure and his descendants. However, we do have proof of a complex division of labour dating back to pre-Inca times, involving the participation of numerous artists and craftsmen.
In this respect, archaeological investigations such as those carried out at the Moche site of Pampa Grande (Shimada, 1994 and 2001) or in the suburbs of the Chimu city of Chan Chan (Topic, 1990) have enabled us to document workshops in which a prolific craftsmanship-based activity took place, judging by the remains that have been found relating to spinning, textiles, sewing, metal-working, pottery and tombstone art.
THE ARTS OF FIRE
Among the attendants who waited on Ñaymlap according to Cabello Balboa’s account, we do not find any reference to a metal-working specialist, although there is no doubt that if this legendary figure really did reach the Valley of Yampallec (today known as Lambayeque) on a large raft, he would have worn elaborate metallic items as part of his attire, as well as other metallic insignias corresponding to his rank and political status.
These metals, especially gold, had been discovered and exploited since time immemorial and their use became more widespread as of the Formative Period, especially as a result of the expansion of the Chavin cult, becoming popular throughout a very extensive area and laying the foundations for future regional technological developments. As of the Early Horizon Period, the workshops of Chavin produced beautiful objects in gold and silver featuring designs and stylistic conventions that conveyed the complexity of their religious art, as well as three-dimensional forms produced by soldering sheet metal. Furthermore, the artists of Chavin decorated the metal surfaces of these items using repoussé techniques and also created gold and silver alloys, thus demonstrating the considerable levels of skill they had achieved in terms of temperature control (Burger, 1995, p.201).
Rolled metal techniques were, therefore, preferred by the ancient settlers of the Central Andes, given that with sheet metal they could also create mechanically-joined items that produced sounds when they were moved. Examples would include cup-rattles, whose use was restricted to activities of a ritual nature in which the musical qualities and
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