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INCA
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KEVIN LANE
1 INTRODUCTION
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. . . by animism I do not mean the theory of the soul in nature, but the tendency
or impulse or instinct, in which all myth originates, to animate all things; the
projection of ourselves into nature; the sense and apprehension of an intelligence
like our own but more powerful in all visible things.
(Hudson 1918 [1982]: 162)
The animated world of the Andes evokes a vaster horizon than its occidental
equivalent, each thing that possesses a function or a nality is animated so as to
permit this function or nality: elds, mountains, rocks as well as people.
[El mundo animado de los Andes evoca un horizonte mucho ms vasto que su
equivalente occidental, cada cosa que posee una funcin o una nalidad es
animada para permitir que se realice su funcin o su nalidad: las chacras, los
cerros, las piedras as como los hombres.]
(Taylor 2000: 7, my translation)
. . . under the generic term huaca, Andean people meant the force that animated
what usually was inanimate; and this animation manifested itself, rstly,
through the ability to speak, to communicate with people.
[ . . . con el trmino genrico huaca, los andinos indicaban la fuerza que animaba
lo que comnmente est inanimado; y esta animacin se manifestaba, en primer
lugar, a travs de la facultad de hablar, de comunicarse con los hombres.]
(Curatola Petrocchi 2008: 17, my translation)
This chapter sets out to introduce and explain three underlying concepts underpinning Inca
and Andean religion: animism (and anthropomorphism), oracular divination, and ancestor
worship. Seeking to demonstrate how these worked within the evolution of Andean and,
ultimately, Inca religion. Emerging from coeval highland religious traditions during the early
Inca period, Inca religion was changing during the fteenth century as a consequence of the
experience of empire. The idea for this transformation of Inca religion was probably the effects
of exposure to new ideas, from such well-organized cults as that of Pachacamac-Vichma and
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INCA 571
those of the Chimu Kingdom, along the central and northern coast respectively. This was
manifested through the attempt by the Inca state to create a pan-Andean cult exalting the Sapa
Inca (unique Inca) and the concomitant pantheon centred on the different aspects of the
Viracocha deitythe Sun (Inti), Thunder (Inti-Illapa), and the Day (Punchao).
A series of specic problems arises in any consideration of a past cultures religion. This
is especially so in the case of the Andes where no writing exists from the indigenous
perspective at the moment of contact, quipus a mnemonic writing device on knotted
strings was unsuitable for long narratives (Urton 2003). The ethnohistoric accounts of
Andean folklore, apart from some notable exceptions (de la Vega 1979 [1616]; see Guaman
Poma de Ayala 1993 [1615]; Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui 1927 [1613]; Yupanqui 2006 [1565
70]), have been written by Spaniards usually on ofcial engagements, such as tribute or
tabulation visitas or for the eradication of heathen practices known as Extirpacon de
Idolatras (Pillsbury 2008). Even the native writers of mixed birth or mestizos were born
shortly before or just after the Spanish conquest and as such were already somewhat
removed from the events and rituals that they describe. Garcilaso de la Vega (15391616),
for instance, was writing at the end of his life, having left the Andes almost 50 years
previously; he also wrote a highly partisan account. This bias arose from the fact that these
learned mestizo chroniclers usually belonged to one or other of the Inca elite families known
as panacas, thus embellishing the accounts of their particular forefathers.
The Spanish accounts, such as that of Juan de Betanzos (1996 [1557]), Sarmiento de Gamboa
(1999 [1572]), Cieza de Len (1995 [1554], 1996 [1554]) and Cobo (1979 [1653], 1990 [1653]) suffer
from the prejudices and biases inherent in early colonial narratives. Many of these early
authors did not know or understand what it was that they were describing, others pandered
to a certain viewpoint or perspective. Sarmiento de Gamboa, for instance, was assigned by the
authorities to investigate and discredit Inca claims to long-term suzerainty of large swathes of
the Andean region. Nevertheless for all its problems the early documentary sources remains a
crucial tool for disentangling the intricate web of native beliefs.
This is particularly true of the set of documents produced as a consequence of the
Extirpacon de Idolatras. Known as the bastard child of the Spanish Inquisition (Duviols
2003: 48), the Extirpacon de Idolatras collected and collated native accounts of ritual
practices and religion. In sum, all these accountsindigenous, Creole, and Spanish
represent invaluable insights for understanding indigenous concepts of religion in the
Andes. The work done by eminent ethnohistorians such as Maria Rostworowski de Diez
Canseco, Gerald Taylor, Peter Gose, Pierre Duviols, and especially Tom Zuidema in this
matter serves to show the importance of this source material in elucidating past Andean
belief systems. Valuable as the work of these scholars has been, a major omission has been
the lack of engagement with anthropological theory to elucidate the nature of Andean and
Inca religion, especially the role of animism and anthropomorphism.
2 ANIMISM AND ANTHROPOMORPHISM

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Pre-Hispanic Andean religion has been described as animistic in essence; but what in effect
does this mean? Originally, animism was thought to represent the primitive belief system
common to primitive tribal societies (Evans-Pritchard 1965; Tylor 1958 [1871]). Recent
572 K EV I N L A N E
anthropological studies have revisited this theme contesting Tylors primitive label.
Stringer (1999), for example, states that Taylors use of phrases such as primitive, savage,
or children can only be understood under the epistemological concepts of the late
nineteenth century.
Following from this, the scope of animism has been revised. No longer is animism
understood to be a religion; indeed Tylor (1958 [1871]) himself acknowledged that animism
is more a philosophy than a religion per se. Insoll (2004) makes the pertinent point that
animism should be viewed as an element within a belief system and not necessarily as a
whole religion. The approach here concurs with this observation noting that although
largely animistic, Andean, and especially Inca religion cannot be viewed simply in these
reductionist terms. Inca religion comprised animism embedded within a religion that also
included a highly developed ancestor cult and oracular dimension.
Yet what is animism? Bird-David (1999: S79) notes that far from being a failed episte-
mology or simple religion, animism represents the interaction or relatedness between
people and animals or environments emphasizing the theme of nested relatedness within
these relationships. This nal point is crucial to any denition of animism. As she states,
against I think therefore I am stand I relate, therefore I am and know as I relate
(Bird-David 1999: S78). This denition highlights the concept of personhood and belong-
ing which is engendered through the animation and veneration of a given landscape. In
animist traditions the gods, spirits, or manifestations inhabit and are represented actively
in the world around them, opposing the separation that exists between the physical and the
metaphysical in many Western religions.
Bird-Davids linking of animism with anthropomorphism simplies a more complex
relationship. Stewart Guthrie (2001: 157) aptly describes the differences between these two
terms, noting that:
Animism . . . is best dened as attributing characteristics of living things (e.g. sentience and
spontaneous motion) to inanimate things and events, whereas anthropomorphism is best
dened as attributing characteristics of humanity (e.g. language and symbolism) to non-
human things and events, including other animals.
Guthrie (1993, 2001) therefore argues for a separation of the terms such that animals cannot
be animistic being already animate; but they can nevertheless by anthropomorphized. This
goes against the all-encompassing animist precepts espoused by Stringer (1999) and
Hornborg (2006). Yet diminishing the scope of animism, such that anthropomorphism
lies outside its denitional remit, supports the concept expressed by Insoll (2004) that
animism is but one element within a religious belief structure. Nevertheless, it should be
said that it is possible to both animate and anthropomorphize objects, a subject which we
will return to when examining Andean and Inca religion.
In support of Bird-David, Ingold (2006) claims that animism in essence, is a means of
being in the world, similar to the relationality expressed by Hornborg (2006). What is
meant by this is that humans partake and relate in a world where all manner of objects and
events are imbued with the logic of life, such that at its most extreme there is no division
between subjects and objects, a veritable holistic living-in-the-world. Supporting this view,
Bruno Latour (1993) argues that even in our modern, supposedly rigidly Cartesian, world
we have not been able to shake this perennial animism, a fact noted by Gell (1998) in his
theory on the agency of objects. In fact, Latour (1993) argues that in the modern world we
INCA 573
seek to understand everything around us through the creation and maintenance of hybrids
or quasi-objects that marry society, science, and nature in a new form of scientic
animism.
Somewhat cynically perhaps (and contra Boyer 1996), Guthrie (1993) suggests that
animism and anthropomorphism are in effect a form of insurance policy. Believing that
something is alive or human-like can save you from unintended consequences; such as
being eaten alive when the object you thought was a log turns out to be a crocodile.
Essentially, underlying all these denitional variations is the constant that animism is
always present, continuously alive, in movement (actual or perceived) and necessarily
immediate, forever on the verge of the actual (Ingold 2006: 12), and crucially that humans
are an integral part of this process. It is this ascription of animism that is particularly
important to the Andes.
3 HUACAS AND ORACLES

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In the animistic Andes effectively the whole world was alive and intimately interrelated.
Nevertheless, within this viewpoint there were aspects of the world which were more alive
than others. Central to this alive-ness was the concept of camac (Taylor 2000; see also de
Avila, 1999 [1598?]). As stated by Taylor (2000), the root of the word camac means to
animate. If the Andean environment was lled with camac, it was the huacas that best
expressed this vitality through the act of talkingoracular divinationthrough selected
intermediaries (the camasca). The more powerful the huaca, concomitantly the more
camac it had (Curatola Petrocchi 2008; Gose 1996).
This perception of life extended to the recently dead as well as to the living. Life and
death in the Andes was a complex issue that comprised a series of stages between actual life
and death (Salomon 1995). In death there was the possibility of the person becoming a
good, locale-based camaquen ancestor or a bad, wandering shadow upani spirit that drifted
aimlessly. It was the camaquen ancestor that became in turn revered and oraculara huaca
(Gose 1992).
It is through the concept of the huaca that Andean animism and anthropomorphism
really comes through. Features in the landscape and ultimately the totality of the physical
environment were represented by huacas. Huaca is a complex term that denotes a spirit or
deity revealed as an object, feature, or happening such as mummy bundles, trees, and
naturally occurring free-standing rocks or outcrops, as well as mountains, hills, rivers,
springs, and literally all manner of physical manifestations, including rain, hail, lightning,
thunder, and wind. Veneration of all of these deities and spirits was widespread and
conducted in sanctuaries, temples, mortuary monuments, and natural locations such as
lakes, spring heads, and caves. All these loci were also generically known as huacas. Efgy-
or idol-objectied depictions of huacas were also common, but especially so when the
physical manifestation of the spirit or deity was impossible, such as in the case of thunder
for instance. The term huaca was also used for these representations. These idols came in
many shapes and sizes, from carved stone, wood, dough, ashes, or precious mineral efgies
through to common rocks and stones.
Nevertheless, at the root of the huaca concept was animation, its camac, reected in
communication: in essence the huacas ability to impart wisdom and oracular divination.
The relationship between people and huacas (and by implication the environment) was
complex and in constant ux. Interaction with these physical manifestations of Andean,
and Inca, animism had to be constantly negotiated through libation, consultation, worship,
or even violence rendering some into kin and others into enemies (DAltroy 2002). The
centrality of huacas and oracular predestination within Andean society has been high-
lighted by MacCormack (1991) and Rostworowski (1988, 2002), and it has prompted
Curatola Petrocchi (2008) to claim that Andean oracles can only be fully understood as a
total social fact (from Mauss 1990).
The power of a huaca derived from oracular predestination, its strength from the
veracity of their divinations. Therefore a huacas power could wax and wane depending
on their ability. Conquered peoples huacas became subservient to the main huaca of the
conqueror, so much so that the Incas held provincial oracles or huacas as hostages back in
Cuzco. This allowed for the realignment of these huacas within the Cuzquenian ideology as
well as subordinating these huacas under the central Inca cult. When these huacas were
eventually returned to their places of origin they helped perpetuate the ascendency of the
imperial cult. Another particularly powerful expression of huaca subjugation can be seen in
the Capacocha ceremonies where children from the provinces were sacriced to the Inca.
These children were selected and came with their huacas to Cuzco where they were killed as
a ritual of afrmation to Inca power. This ritual was also a forum whereby provincial
huacas could negotiate with the principal Inca huacas residing in Cuzco (Schroedl 2008).
In the political sphere Andean oracles have been described as a form of political
ventriloquism (Gose 1996: 14). Indeed in the Andes, huacas functioned as a source of
wisdom and information, without necessarily setting a moral standard, as well as serving as
oracular entities. Generally, huaca oracles were a means by which rulers, in a segmentarily
organized society, could listen to factional interests spoken through the medium of a
founding ancestral hero or deity without the problem of a living rival (Gose 1996). This
was especially important under the Incas given the multi-ethnic, and therefore multi-
oracular, nature of their possessions (Ramrez 2008).
Finally, some huacas could disappear entirely; there is evidence to suggest that the
eleventh Inca, Huayna Capac (ad 14931527), rationalized the system of huacas by declaring
war against them and actually ridding the Inca Empire of a large number of them (Ramrez
2008). The Inca Atahualpa (ad 15323) destroyed the central Andean huaca oracle of
Catequil because it had predicted that his brother Huascar would win the civil war that
raged between them (MacCormack 1991). Similarly, Atahualpa destroyed Topa Incas body
(the tenth Inca, ad 147193, itself a huaca oracle), his attendant, and his descendants because
of this huacas support for Huascar (Sarmiento de Gamboa 1999 [1572]).
4 GODS AND ANCESTORS

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It is known that Inca cosmology shared many commonalities with that of other Andean
ethnic groups, for besides a special cult to the Sun known as Inti, Inca religion was similar
to other contemporary highland religions (Demarest 1981; McDowell 1992; Zuidema 2002).
INCA 575
This Andean pantheon included a certain number of gods, spiritual or natural entities and
regional and local, real and ctitious, ancestor heroes also sometimes known as mallquis,
founders of a lineage that were often hailed as conquerors (Rostworowski 1988). Generally
it has been acknowledged that at the root of this religion lie ancestors, especially dead ones
which nevertheless lived in the animated landscape of the Andes (Gose 1996; Salomon
1995). Although true, this is only a partial explanation of the complexity of Andean religion,
not all deities were ancestors, although they were all oracular.
Death and ancestor worship is a constant theme throughout Andean religion and it is a
complex issue especially regarding its role vis--vis ancestors and deities. As mentioned
above, death in the Andes was not so much a nite episode but rather a transformational
process or renewal and rebirth intimately tied to the Andean concept of the pacarina
(Albornoz 1967 [1569]; Gose 1992). A pacarina is described as the destination of the
deceased, also described . . . [as] a communitys place of origin (MacCormack 1991: 428);
it dened the community it represented. Pacarinas were places of worship centred around
veneration of ancestors and as such doubled as the origin point of communities or lineages.
It was deities and huacas in their role as ancestors that were intimately linked with these
community birthplaces.
A hierarchy of pacarinas existed from the local to the pan-regional through ancestors and
perceived ties of kinship upwards towards the main ancestor of a particular group. Linking
the various pacarinas was water, imaginary subterranean streams and rivers that returned
the dead spirit to the source and back again in a ritual of re-afrmation of group identity and
solidarity with the central or primary ancestor. New pacarinas could be established by a
group taking part of the soil or water from a given pacarina to a new site, a concept similar to
the idea of shrine-franchising developed by Insoll (2006). Death was the process by which
humans became mummies and in certain cases acquired alive-ness or camac, the rst step
in the process to becoming a bona de ancestor hero or mallqui (see Salomon 1995 for a
detailed description of the stages of death and return in the Andes ).
Ancestors were not the only type of deied entity in existence in the Andes; aligned
alongside proximate ancestors were also the original distant ancestor or creator-god. For
instance, amongst the people of the Huamachuco region, one encounters the creator-god
Ataguju and the primal ancestor Catequil; co-joined to Catequil is his companion aspect
Piguerao, and Catequils wife Mama Catequil (MacCormack 1991; Topic et al. 2002). This
central Andean cosmological division presages many common themes in Andean religion,
and indeed society. This is the idea of internal separation into unequal reciprocal divisions;
in this case Catequil had a homologous counterpart in Piguerao but some deities were
represented by two, three, or more aspects; Pariacaca, another central Andean deity had
ve aspects: Pariacaca, Churapa, Puncho, Pariacarco, and Sullca Illapa identied as his
brothers (Astuhuamn 2008).
In the case of the Inca, these creator and ancestor deities were represented by Viracocha
as the creator-god and Inti, the Sun, as the primary ancestor of the Inca royal lineage. Inti-
Illapa, the Thunder God, was Intis brother aspect as was Punchao, the Day; and Mama
Quilla, the Moon, was Intis wife (Demarest 1981). All four came together as part of a
quadarchic cosmological organization and were worshipped jointly in the Coricancha, as
well as individually. Nevertheless, Viracocha had less of a formalized, more distant,
worship. The distance of creator-gods has been underlined by Sabine MacCormack (1991:
147): Andean ancestor gods, [were] a more distant presence, hence they were removed
576 KEVIN LANE
from the exigencies of daily cult and affairs, as these concerns were satised by ancestors
and other local huacas.
Given the latent animism and anthropomorphism underlying ancestor worship in
Andean religion it is hardly surprising that the relationship between deities tended to
imitate life. The organization of the Andean supernatural reected many common social
and cultural themes that existed in Andean society such that principal Andean huacas had
kinship ties similar to those of the human inhabitants (Rostworowski 1998: 346). This was
reected in the often tortured relationships that existed between Andean deities, their
concubines, wives, brothers, and sons. These were reected in relationships where they
lived, fought, died, resurrected, and procreated. A ne example of what Stewart Guthrie
(1993: 3) has elegantly expressed in his statement man makes god in his own image.
Within the cosmological hierarchy it was ancestor heroes or mallquis, referred to by the
Spaniards as minor gods, that formed the most immediate type of deity with the most profuse
number of huacas ascribed to these entities. Shared lineage and corporate identity was an
important component of ancestral heroes and mallquis. A mallqui has been described as:
ancestor mummies that belong to an ayllu [community], and sometimes to various groups
unied by some type of reciprocity or kinship bonds.
[antepasados momicados pertenecientes a un ayllu, y a veces a varios grupos unidos por algn
tipo de reciprocidad o de lazos de parentesco.] (Rostworowski 1988: 14, my translation)
Alternatively, ancestor heroes are described as people who at some time either enacted large
scale construction work, such as terracing and irrigation systems, or conquered new lands
(Gose 1992: 4889). In essence they are sometimes very similar; both were invoked as the
heads of communities (ayllu) and both were venerated. The main distinction between the
two was predominately one of hierarchical positioning within the cosmological order.
Ancestor heroes were normally mythical and had many of the characteristics associated
with the larger creator-gods, or huacas, described in the deity section above. In a similar
fashion to the major deities they were also responsible for the creation of people, albeit at a
much more local scale. The pattern of veneration was also conducted in an almost identical
form, through idol worship, sanctuaries, and sacred loci in the landscape. Again as between
mallqui and ancestor heroes, the difference between ancestor heroes and major deities
seems to have been one of scale. Ancestor heroes were located in small communities,
forming the basis of belonging for groups of local ayllu. Mallquis were essentially dead
founder ancestors; in this fashion they provided a much closer connection between the
living community, the lived-in landscape and the past. Mallquis were usually thought to be
direct descendants of deities or huacas (Salomon 1995). Not all dead people in a community
became mallquis although other members of the lineage were added once deceased,
providing a link between the recent dead and the heroic dead (Salomon 1995: 322). As
with huacas, a hierarchy of mallquis or lineages existed below the local minor deity or huaca.
An adjunct to the whole pantheon of deities were female entities; female deities had a
more amorphous quality within Andean mythology. It is important to emphasize two in
particular, the Pachamama (Earth Mother) and the Mamacocha (Mother Water), although
others exist, including Mama Quilla (the Moon), Kuychi (the Rainbow), celestial con-
stellations, and dark patches between these (see Urton [1981] for further examples). Apart
from Mama Quilla, none of these important female entities seems to have been venerated
directly in purpose-built shrines, although it is possible that small oratories existed.
INCA 577
Mama Quilla may have been venerated in Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca
(Rostworowski 1998). Garcilaso de la Vega (1979 [1616]: 11617) recounts that Mama Quilla
was also venerated in the Coricancha, the Inca Sun temple in Cuzco, in a separate room as
the Suns sister-bride. This concept of the female being venerated through, or in, the same
place as the male might have pervaded much of Andean cosmology. Thus it is likely that
the Pachamama, sometimes referred to as the wife of Pachacamac, the powerful huaca of
the central Andean coast, was venerated to some extent within the large religious precinct
of the site of Pachacamac. Female deities appear more often than not as mothers, wives,
consorts, and sisters to male deities (Hernndez Astete 2002; Rostworowski 1988). Never-
theless, veneration of the Pachamama was practised throughout the Andes (MacCormack
1991: 192).
If female deities have been given short shrift in the literature it is possible that this was as
a consequence of both male bias on the part of the original Spanish chroniclers and because
they predominantly occupied the lower moiety within Andean cosmological divisions
(Hernndez Astete 2002). Another common theme of many of these female deities is
that they are often depicted as being manifest in important economic plants: Mama Sara
was materialized in maize, Mama Acxo in potatoes and Mama Coca in coca, for instance
(Rostworowski 1988: 723). It is possible, then, that female deities were of a slightly different
type, less violent perhaps, more universal and more nurturing (Millones 1980). Their
economic prowess, on the one hand, added to their geographical universality on the
other, and probably occasioned a heightened level of offering and libations to these deities
relative to their more geographically localized male counterparts.
5 UNDERSTANDING INCA RELIGION

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Along the path to empire the Incas claimed both the Pacic and Titicaca Lake as their
maximal Pacarinas, linking their ancestors and creator-god Viracocha-Inti to them. This
policy, akin to myth appropriation, had the dual purpose of restating Inca pre-eminence
amongst other cultural groups, as direct descendants of the two largest most prestigious of
pacarinas, whilst also subsuming all local pacarinas and, by association, all deities and
huacas under the mantle of the Inca Sun cult (Demarest 1981; Sherbondy 1992). Likewise,
the ceque system of radial lines linking shrines, huacas, and landscape to individual Inca
lineages, was itself being exported to the empire. These probably usurped pre-existing
pilgrimage routes that linked people and the living landscape, especially in the southern
Andes (Zuidema 2002). The placement of an Inca Sun temple within the precincts of the
powerful coastal oracle temple of Pachacamac also indicated the ascendency of the Inca
Sun cult and Pachacamac-Vichmas relative abasement to Viracocha-Inti (Eeckhout 2004;
Uhle 1903).
Yet, how different were the Inca in comparison to other cultures? The founding myths of
Pariacaca (de Avila 1999 [1598?]; Salomon and Urioste 1991) and Pachacamac (Rostwor-
owski 1992) also catalogue the defeat of earlier people and deities akin to that encountered
by the Inca creator-god Viracocha in his defeat of the Chanka and their idols. Similarly,
there is evidence to suggest that the Capacocha ceremony was not an innovation, having
existed previously amongst the cultures of the north-central highlands (Zuidema 1989). The
underlying indication seems to be that the Inca were not so much innovators, as collators of
pre-existing huacas, rites, and rituals brought under their control and the cosmological
suzerainty of Incan Viracocha-Inti deity.
Given the complexity of the various spirits, deities, and manifestations how then did the
Andean religious system function? Essentially, mallquis formed the lowest echelon in the
representational ladder of veneration, followed in the cosmological order by the local
huaca, through to major huacas. The relationship between the major huacas and the minor
ones was usually one of parentage and kin association between the parent huaca and lesser
deities. This had important repercussions for corporate cultural identity and was empha-
sized by the mallquis of ayllus that shared kinship ties at the huaca level being interpreted as
brothers of each other (Salomon 1995).
Yet, all these divisionsdeities, natural manifestations, and ancestral heroeswere not
xed. Many of these beings enjoyed a complex multilayering of complementary and
contradictory identities in much the same way that communities and people did. A mallqui
could be at the same time an ancestral hero and thus a local huaca, but it could also serve as
an important oracle transcending the purely local. Catequil, in the northern highlands, was
rst and foremost the creator-god and common ancestor hero of the local people in his area
in Huamachuco. But Catequil was also at the core of a larger regional cult centred in Cerro
Icchal that established client or franchise oratories across the land (Topic et al. 2002).
This pattern correlates well with what we know of other major huacas: Pachacamac was
venerated throughout the central coast and part of the highlands (Rostworowski 1992,
1998), Pariacaca enjoyed a similar status amongst the inhabitants of the central highlands
(Astuhuamn 2005; de Avila 1999 [1598?]; Duviols 1997) and the Incan Viracocha in the
southern cordillera (Demarest 1981).
As all of these entities, be they mallquis or huacas, were oracular, essentially their social
status and power could be circumscribed according to how well they performed this and
other duties, such as fertility, community protection, and conquest. Veneration of huacas
and mallquis was constant and sometimes conducted at specic locations whilst at other
times they were invoked in non-specic situations such as when a new eld was placed
under cultivation or a new house was built. This cosmological uidity is important as it
helps to trace the ways characteristically similar huacas could sometimes predominate over
their immediate peers. Therefore, although the broad similarities between many of the
larger huacas must have aided in the religious and physical assimilation of regional huacas
that accompanied the expansion of the Inca Empire (Conrad and Demarest 1984), the Inca
victory must in itself have cast doubt on the veracity and omnipotence of these regional
huacas in the eyes of the populace. A similar crisis of cosmological condence occurred
with the coming of the Spaniards, as huaca predictions of imminent Spanish defeat proved
singularly unfounded (MacCormack 1991).
Other than in the case of major oracles, such as Viracocha, Apurimc, and Pachacamac
who had formalized temples, lands, and a hierarchically arranged organization of prelates, it
is likely that for lesser-ranked and more local huacas there was no such formalized standing
number of huaca retainers. Duviols (2003) has shown, in his compendium of idolatry
persecutions in Cajatambo and Recuay from the seventeenth century, how the rank of
priest, at the community level, was chosen from among the constituent communities.
Similarly, with land given over to the huacas, there seems to have been a more formalized
division amongst the greater deities in the form of parcels which were worked by special
INCA 579
retainers or communities for the purposes of feeding the major huacas and their attendants.
This parcelling of land to deities saw its maximum expression under the Incas with the
division of land to important huacas as well as to the different royal Inca panacas or
lineages (Conrad and Demarest 1984; DAltroy 2002; Rostworowski 1999); considering that
the Incas portrayed themselves as deities in their own right this is not a surprising
development. At the localized level the difculty that the Spanish colonial authorities had
in disentangling community from huaca lands (Aibar Ozejo 19689; Varn Gabai 1980)
reects much less clear-cut distinctions between these two (three if you include those of the
Inca) types of land status. Probably most of the land and goods given over to the huacas
were selected in a more informal manner; as and when local ritual practice necessitated
them, rather than specically allocated as part of an Inca state agenda, or as a specied
donation to the major huacas (Gose 1992: 486). A strict division between lay and religious
property did not exist in the Andean world, as it did in that of late medieval Spain
(MacCormack 1991).
6 CONCLUSION
..................................................................................................................
There is no doubt that the Incas tied the origin of their own state and power to a
direct relationship, of an oral order, between their ancestors and the huacas and
to a whole series of other facts which were patently oracular.
[ . . . no cabe duda que los Incas hacan remontar el origen mismo de su Estado y de
su podero a una relacin directa, de orden oral, entre sus ancestros y las huacas y a
toda una serie de otros hechos patentemente oraculares.]
(Curatola Petrocchi 2008: 19; my translation)
Inca and Andean religion then was essentially an ancestor focused animism projected through
oracular divination, the roots of which were rmly within the longue dure of Andean religious
tradition. As such this religion represented the totality of the landscape and environment as the
stage, props, and cue to a veritable dramatis personae of manifestations, happenings, spirits,
ancestors, and deities to which people related, combined, and interacted.
In this sense Inca religion was not particularly different to its contemporaries. In fact,
evidence points to Inca religion, like the state, being probably in ux during the early
sixteenth century. Given the short duration of the Inca Empire it is likely that imperial
institutions had yet to crystallize and cohere into a more durable and rigid form (DAltroy
2002). Inca religion therefore was still at a pre-state of development. This can be appre-
ciated in the problems that Huascar, the twelfth Inca (ad 152732) had in curtailing the
power of the panacas (households, lineages) of the 11 dead Incas that existed by the time of
his reign. Some of these panacas, such as that of the ninth Inca, Pachacuti (ad 143871),
owned vast amounts of property, were extremely powerful, and had a propensity to
sometimes oppose the dictates of the ruling Sapa Inca (Conrad and Demarest 1984). The
panacas were a throwback to the segmentary form of leadership that existed amongst many
of the Late Intermediate period (ad 10001480) polities of the Andean highlands. In
opposing them Huascar was going against a system that curtailed effective state and
religious centralization.
Similarly, the Andes at this time enjoyed a plethora of local shrines and concomitant
huacas that were but very loosely tied to the Inca central religion. This is amply demon-
strated by the ease with which local groups abandoned the central Sun cult of the Incas
(MacCormack 1991). The reason for this is not that it was an alien concept or cult as has
been claimed (DAltroy 2002); many of the essential components of the Viracocha-Inti cult
were present in other great Andean creator-god cults, such as that of Pachacamac-Vichma
and Ataguju-Catequil of the central coast and highlands respectively. Rather, the problem
resides in the fact that the Incas just did not have enough time to consolidate their Sun cult
at the apex of a cosmological hierarchy that included all these numerous local and regional
cults. In the end, like the social, cultural, and economic ties that welded the empire together,
their foundations proved to be too shallow to survive the coming Spanish onslaught.
SUGGESTED READING
On the Incas themselves the long article by Rowe (1946) still remains a classic, succinctly
distilling a large amount of ethnohistoric information; for more recent compilations consult
Rostworowski (1999) and the outstanding Prssinen (2003). An excellent general book that
marries archaeological and ethnoarchaeological perspectives can be found in DAltroy (2002).
A closer perspective on the development of Cuzco and the rise of the Incas can be found
in Bauer (2004), whilst Zuidema (1964) and Bauer (1998) set out to describe the complexities
of the ceque system of ritual pilgrimage across the landscape; Duviols (1976) presents an
important short introduction to the Capacocha ritual. Finally, Ogburn (2004) and Morris
(1998) tackle the manner in which the Incas exported and imposed their religious and political
authority.
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by: PG1891 Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 0001204551 Date:18/5/11

2 ANIMISM AND ANTHROPOMORPHISM

3 HUACAS AND ORACLES

4 GODS AND ANCESTORS

576 KEVIN LANE

5 UNDERSTANDING INCA RELIGION

Franais dEtudes Andines: Dinmicas del poder: historia y actualidad de la autoridad

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