by Michael Mosley - The Incas and Their Ancestors
pages 54-55
Thames and Hudson Publishing 1992
Ancestors
Common ancestors gave ayllus their ethnic identity, and karakas ruled by
claiming close blood-ties to founding forefathers. Ayllus were often named
after their founders, who were heroic figures, if not mythical ones, and
could turn into stone or some special object. They secured lands for their
people, established codes of behavior, and were models for proper life.
Their corpses were worshiped, and were ranked among the ayllu's most sacred
of holdings. If outsiders captured these vital relics, the ayllu could be
held hostage.
For commoner and karaka alike, ancestor veneration was a fundamental institution of Andean society. Native concepts did not maintain a sharp division between the living and dead, and the deceased actively influenced the health and well-being of their descendants. People consulted and propitiated their progenitors on a regular basis. Forbears defined the lineage, moiety, and ayllu to which an individual belonged, and position within the hierarchy of life's relationships. With this went the practice of keeping ancestors close at hand, and of using graves or bodies to document rights and responsibilities among heirs. Employing the deceased as documents was accompanied by the notion that corpses should be conserved intact, and led to the development of artificial mummification of the dead more than 6,000 years ago. The tradition culminated with the potentates of Chimor and Tahuantinsuyu, whose mummies were richly clothed and carefully attended at special shrines. Inca royal mummies, regarded as quasi-alive, were regularly paraded about, and formally seated at important council meetings so that they might be consulted and guide the living.
Everyone venerated a variety of shrines, objects, and phenomena loosely known as huacas, but Spanish documents relating to huaca looting at the ancient site of Chan Chan indicate that native peoples distinguished two classes of sacrosanct places. One, called huacas adoratorios, comprised places for the adoration of supernatural forces. The other class, called huacas sepulturas, comprised shrines and burial places of important deceased. Ancestor veneration horrified Spanish clerics, who launched a vigorous campaign against it known as extirpation of idolatry, involving the destruction of huacas sepulturas, the burning of mummies, and the undercutting of the ancestral fabric of native society.
Supernaturals
The extirpation of idolatry extended to huacas adoratorios of which there
were many because the landscape was viewed as alive with supernatural forces.
Even today, the traditional Quechua and Aymara folk see nature as extremely
animate, and the earth, mountains, and waters can cause ill health and fortune.
The concept of a dynamic landscape is certainly appropriate to one with
smoldering volcanoes, frequent earthquakes, and recurrent El Nino crises.
There are rich survivals of this Pre-Hispanic cosmology, the most widespread
being the veneration of Pacha Mama (mother earth), who is offered
coca leaf, chicha beer, and appropriate prayer and ritual on all major agricultural
occasions by all who till the earth. Likewise, she is regularly toasted
on every occasion entailing formal consumption of alcohol.
Mountains and major peaks, called apu in Quechua and achachila in Aymara, are (and were) also influential in the lives of their adjacent communities. Water, the blood of agricultural life, is seen to flow down from mountain lakes and springs, eventually reaching the ocean. From the ocean it is taken up by the Milky Way, or 'celestial river', and from the sky redistributed as seasonal rains that water the sacred apu and achachila. The sanctity of mountain peaks has great antiquity and Andean people have made offerings to them for millennia.