teuiad Tw: 34e40e3 IIIMIIN NNT Harvard Depository ILLiad TN: 344083 | Date: 4/23/2010 Borrower: HLS Lending String: HUL Barcode: HX4FXY Patron: Faculty: Marco Curatola-Petrocchi Journal Title: Viracocha :the nature and antiquity of the Andean High God /Arthur A. Demarest. Volume: Issue: Month/Year: 1981Pages: 52-86 Article Author: Article Title: NA ia Scan and Deliver Service Imprint: ILL Number: 3483748 NN Call #: WID HD F3429.3.R34D45 Deliver By: Mail Shipping Address: Harvard College Library Interlibrary Loan Widener Library Room G-30 Main College Yard Cambridge, MA 02138-1994 Fax: 617-495-2129 Ariel: 140.247.124.160 ‘Odyssey: 206.107.43.1093. The History of the Andean High God In the preceding presentation a nusber of complex rela tonships and ideological concepts have been denonstrated to be important elements of the Inca worship of a manifold ce- Aestial godhead. Study of the development and elaboration of the sultiple sky god should provide both secondary con- fimmation and more corplete understanding of this ideologi- eal construct. Working backwards in time, diachronic evidence and comparative ethnographic data can be used to deteraine the antecedents and the modifications that led to the imperial Inca version of this high god. Such an analy~ is aust begin with the late Inca period itself in order to Address the fundasental problen of Inca modifications of Preexisting highland ideology. TCA IMPERIAL’ MANIPULATION OF THE ANDEAN HICH GOD A brief sumary of sone of the major characteristics of the manifold sky god should help to isolate the uniquely Inca elenents. Sone of the key concepts relating to the nea upper pantheon are: (1) The unity of many celestial entities (sun, thunder, weather, stars, etc.) in a manifold godhesd. (2) The general metaphor of the creation myth: a syz- bolic representation of the novenents of the sun (one of the referents of the generalized eky god). (3) The solstitial partitioning of the sun in some ideo~ Logical contexts. (4) The association of the creator, a solar metaphor and highland culture hero, with the mature, older aspect of the sun, el Sefor Sol, el’ sol Llanado Viracocha. 43Viracocha (3) The e: culture hero (Viracocha) and a specific royal progenitor and imperial patron (Inti-Guaugut or, soetines, Punchaa), both jential dichotomy between a general creator snd being solar aspects of the generalized aky god. (6) The greater emphasis in the Inti complex on solar as: pects of the Andean celestial godhead as compared with the ‘wore generalized Collao Thunupa and the sky/creator deities of other highland groups. Tr 4s the last two points that lead to the question of Inca modification of a more ancient sky god. The more gen- eralized and unified sky god, comparable to Tllapa, 18 wide- spread in the highlands, while sone of its specific aspects (e.g- Inti-Guaugul and ’Punchao) are unique to the In This Inca divergence 1s most clearly seen by comparison to the Collao Thunupa. The sun vas the central symbol of the Collao creation myth, and the golstices were probably also celebrated by the Aymara (ef, La Barre 1948, pp. 174, 177, 187). However, the sun was not extensively worshipped in the Collao region and was certainly not the dominant aspect Of the sky god, as 4t vas anong the Inca (1bid., pp. 170~ 171, 198; Brundage 1963, p. 43). Thunupa incorporated all of the aspects of the Inca upper pantheon and was the sole creator and ancestral hero, in contrast to the clai structured dichotouy of Inca ancestor deities (Viracocha fand Intd~Guaugui). To soma extent these differences are due to patterns of sampling by the Spanish chroniclers. Information on the Collao region or the Aysara peoples 4s scanty and general. Much of it is dravn fron nonelite sources, from Colonial visitas, or fro sumary descriptions based on travels in the region. Such sources tend to reflect the broad outlines of Adeology and the simplified religious thinking of the comon people. In contrast, the best sources on Inca re~ Ligton are elaborately detailed and dravn alnost entirely from priests or senbers of the imperial fantlies (cf. Cieza, bk. Ti, chap. 6, 1943, p. 51). This plethora of religious detail’ allove for careful description of esoteric elenents which aay have been unimportant or even uaknown to the gen~ feral populace. The general nature of Inca religious con~ ceptions (including the unity of the sky-creator complex) ‘may have been obscured by the chroniclers’ painstaking ex- position of the official cules and detailed description of those aspects of divinities enphasized by inperial dogma. 44