Many Andean religious beliefs centered on the principle that people, animals, and objects were infused with an animating life-force or essence. That essence was called camaquen or upani (Duviols 1978: 132; Taylor 1976: 233). Although chroniclers likened it to the Christian concept of “soul,” it seems best approximated as a type of life energy or “forceful spirit” (Salomon 1995: 323). But camaquen also described a manifested image of the essence (Duviols 1978: 133-134). Thus, sorcerers could target a camaquen to hurt or kill the original (Rostworowski 1988: 10). Other recorded native voices spoke of worship of gold camaquen images of venerated ancestors (Duviols 1968: 70). The life-force, even when the original was alive, could be mobile and mobilized. I think that most ancestor images served as sacred containers/receptacles for animating energies.
Some of the best known effigies are from Inca times (van de Guchte 1996). Various chroniclers noted that Inca kings, nobles, and men of high standing fashioned simulacra of themselves, called huauque or brother (e. g., Cobo 1990: 37-38). These doubles were worshipped and treated as if they were the original, during the person’s lifetime. They were adorned in finery, supplied from their own fields by their servants, and were the focus of sacrifices and offerings.
Not all huauque statues duplicated the physical shape or likeness of the prototype. For example, the statue of Manco Capac had an avian form, while that of Sinchi Roca was
Said to be in the form of fish or serpent (van de Guchte 1996: 259-263). The great colonial Spanish expert on native religion, Bernabe Cobo (1990: 37), observes, “Some made the statue large; others made it small; still others [Inca nobility] made it the same size and shape as themselves. Some of the statues were made of gold, others of silver, wood, stone, and other materials”.
Regardless of form, these effigies possessed the potency of the prototype and could serve as his representatives and companions. The statues were vital participants in processions, oracular functions, or rites to bring forth rain. They would also be displayed during battles to bring morale to Inca warriors and generate fear among enemies. The huauque was buried with the person, and continued to receive the same treatment, as an esteemed forbear, in the afterlife.
Just as effigies were potent images, the parts and remains of sacred persons and things were revered, like saintly relics in early Christianity. Thus, a bone, sherd, feather, or wrapping could be important, as still potent parts or elements of the whole. For example, ashes or remains of burned idols could be salvaged and revived into new cult items (Arriaga 1968: 25). Body exuviae, such as hair and fingernail clippings, were often integrated into effigies because they contained the essence of the original person (Betanzos 1996: 205). Various native testimonies recount the incorporation of hair and clippings in the making and worship of mallqui mummies (Duviols 1986: 157,198), or as sacred objects in their own right (Avila, in Arguedas and Duviols 1966: 256). The use of exuviae in such cult practices resonates with a basic connection to human growth and the capacity of progenitors to promote fertility.
The potential for growth also underscores the diverse references to eggs in early colonial documents. For example, Pariacaca, the apical huaca for the peoples of highland Lima (Huarochiri), was said to have been birthed in the form of five eggs, which developed into five falcons, who in turn represented the five brothers that constituted the divinity (Kemper Columbus 1990; Salomon and Urioste 1991). In other references, idols were often described as simple round objects of stone or metal, in the form of eggs, which sometimes had the capacity to glow (Duviols 1986: 7, 14, 247).
Similar qualities apply to mallquis - conceived as “young plants for planting” [e. g., seedlings] or “fruit trees” in Quechua (Holguin 1989: 224; Sherbondy 1988). It has been noted how mummy bundles were, in fact, akin to seeds (Frame 1995: 14). Bundles were carefully placed in the ground, often with others of same type - i. e., corresponding to lineages or families (see also Duviols 1979: 22) (Figure 51.2). In periodic ceremonies, bundles would be retrieved from their repositories and provided with another cloth wrapping. Thus a new layer of growth was added by means of the labor, offering, and devotion of descendants. The veneration of mummies through wrapping was therefore a ritual of renewal. This practice goes back at least to Paracas times (see discussion of the Paracas burial grounds in Chapter 29 in this volume).
It is worth noting that such practices did not simply emphasize fertility, but also a kind of directed growth or emergence from an ancestral form. This quality seems to parallel what scholars have identified as the generative power (camac) of creator divinities, who have specific domains of efficacy (Salomon 1991; Taylor 1976). Such potency enabled small conopa effigies of maize, potatoes, or llamas to increase numbers of their own species (Duviols 1986: 415). The relationship between human progenitors and descendants functioned on the same procreative, like-from-like principle. An ancestor effigy is therefore an image of the prototype, and also its distributed product.
Figure 51.2. Cavernas tomb at Paracas (ca. 400 BC-AD 1). Mummy bundles were placed huddled together in the subterranean chamber, and consisted of flexed bodies wrapped with multiple layers of cloth. (After Tello 1929: fig.78).
World History
