Farewell to the Gods

A pre-Columbian building decorated with polychrome mural paintings was recently discovered at the site of Pachacamac, near Lima. Hundreds of offerings were scattered across the rooms and corridors of the building. They included extremely diverse objects from across the Andean region: parrot feather adornments and seeds from the Amazon; black stones from the mountains, chosen for their unusual shapes; unmodified and sculpted shells from the Equatorial region; ornate cups inlaid with mother-of-pearl in the style of the Northern Coast; metal; Inca ceramics, etc. In this chapter, the use of this peculiar building—probably a kind of sanctuary—and its links with pilgrimage, healing practices, and ancestor cult are discussed. Most of the offerings were placed within and around the structure at the moment of its abandonment following the Spanish invasion. The possible meanings and causes of such an unusual ritual are reviewed and discussed.

Different Shades of Early Shamanism in the Upper Amazon

Recent archaeological research in the upper Amazon region, on the frontier between Ecuador and Peru, has discovered a new pre-Columbian culture, now known as the Mayo Chinchipe-Marañón society. The most important site that has been studied until now is Santa Ana–La Florida (SALF), located in Palanda (Zamora Chinchipe province, Ecuador), where an Early Formative period ceremonial center has been studied for over a decade. This site has been occupied for over 5000 years. The ceremonial center has an architectural layout centered around a sunken plaza, with two platforms placed at each end on an east-west axis. The eastern platform served as the base of a round structure that contained evidence of ritual activities. Several tombs have been located in the body of the platform. One, however, stands out for its extraordinary paraphernalia, which suggests the presence of a very relevant individual: a shaman.

Introduction

This section essentially covers the issues in assembling the book and the aims of the project. A critical review of recent literature related to ancient ontologies, neo-animism, and perspectivism is provided as general background to the volume, and each contribution is briefly presented. The specific questions contributors aim to address are based on ascertaining the extent to which modern archaeology and related disciplines can hope to reconstruct pre-Columbian ritual behaviors. How should we undertake the daunting task of interpreting these remains of ritual activity? How are we to accurately comprehend the social significance of certain artifacts both portable and immobile—beyond any practical use? How can we decode sacred images, and interrogate them so that they may inform us about the societies that produced and disseminated them?

Metal in the Recuay Culture of Ancient Peru

Of the major media in the Recuay culture (AD 1–700, Peru), metalwork is perhaps the least understood. This chapter reviews the major forms of Recuay metalwork (personal adornments, weapons) and focuses on their imagery, technology, and contexts of use at three sites: Pashash, Pomakayán, and Chinchawas. Metals were not used for everyday objects. Rather, as signs of wealth and distinction, they served to affix people’s “social skin”—that frontier that mediates self and others. Metal objects were complements to textiles and therefore essential in making Recuay persons, namely chiefly lords and noble women, especially during times of social display and funerary cult. The imagery of metals repeats key designs in ceramics and stone sculpture, namely powerful mythical creatures and human figures seen as crucial in life and death transitions. Major changes in metal use occurred during the time of the Middle Horizon, when foreign cultural influence, especially Wari, transformed local practices.

The Sunken Court Tradition in the South Central Andes

The sunken court or patio represents one of the most enduring and ritually significant architectural forms in Andean prehistory. First created in the 3rd millennium BC, the sunken court was repeatedly reworked over 3500 years by different cultures in the highlands and coast. Perhaps as significant, a number of cultures rejected the court architecture for other monumental forms of political and ritual expression. This chapter examines the sunken court tradition in the central Andes, tracing its development, elaboration, and rejection over space and time. Authors likewise will contextualize this architectural form using theories of political and ritual performance.

Twisting and Spinning from Symbols to Signs

The Inca khipus—the principal record-keeping device used for administrative and narrative records in the Inca Empire—is usually thought of in terms of its display of signs (e.g., cord groups and color differences denoting categories of objects; knot clusters signifying decimal values). In this chapter, however, it is argued that both in their materiality, which in a few cases includes iconography, and in the elaborate displays of khipus by the cord-keepers (the khipukamayuqs) during cord-reading performances, there were numerous symbolic elements at play as well. This description and analysis of signs and symbols in khipus and khipu-reading performances provides the setting for comments on the relationship between signs and symbols in pre-Columbian Andean art and material culture more generally.

Reflective and Communicative Waka

Andean waka are frequently referenced as talking and are portrayed as being consulted by the living elite. In this type of dialogue these sacred entities often appear remarkably fallible. Community leaders such as Inca rulers are at times presented on an equal footing with the sacred beings, such as in kay pacha. This chapter attempts to unravel the nature of communication between the sacred realm and those who would mediate between waka and the people and interpret and give meaning to the speech of non-human actors.

The Life Force Materialized in the Andean Religion

Focusing on evidence from Titicaca basin, this chapter discuss how we are trying to comprehend the worldview of its past residents. This interaction with the landscape became part of a relationship that could not be escaped. Part of this relationship was played out in their constructed spaces where they gathered to interact, which included the sharing of food. These gathering spaces were the core of these early settlements, manifested in their architecture and displayed in the material. These exchanges embodied the animation of the world, as did the symbolic images they carved on the land and in stone, steadily crafting their society over 1500 years. Around 200 BC a shift occurred in society where social power was harnessed differently, in association with different performances, gifting, and labor.

The Meaning within Moche Masks

In this chapter, the author examines the remains of broken ceramic masks recovered in feasting middens at the Moche ceremonial center of Huaca Colorada (AD 650–900) in the southern Jequetepeque Valley of the North Coast of Peru. One objective of the chapter is to demonstrate that Moche masking traditions varied in terms of the rites and social context in which they were employed. The ceramic masks depicting Moche powerful beings became deeply meaningful and engines of semiosis in their own right within specific frames of ritual action. Those masks shed light on Moche theories of being and the workings of the world (i.e., “ontology”). Their iconography suggests they were worn by officiants who reenacted heroic myths and stories of creation in rites that promoted agricultural bounty, life, and fertility.