Throughout the Andes, certainly over the last five hundred years, dead things share the attributes of being hard, dry and durable (Allen 1982; Salomon 1998: 11). Through stone effigies, ancient Andeans made permanence and centrality explicit themes in ancestor ritual. Ethnohistoric documents often elaborate on the propensity of certain figures, especially those of a mytho-historical past, to turn into stone (Duviols 1977). Ancestral ‘lithomorphosis’ took form in outcrops, boulders or large uprights (huancas). For Duviols (1979), monoliths (above ground) and mallqui mummies (subterranean) are complementary manifestations of ancestors, in a cyclical relationship compared to reproduction and agriculture.
Ancestor sculptures were often boldly displayed as incontrovertible landmarks of ancestry. Recuay sculptures adorn tombs and entry ways to important buildings. Other monoliths are consistent with testimonies that huanca uprights acted as vigilant stewards and tutelary figures for fields and settlements (Duviols 1979: 9). Stone sculptures of the San Agustin area, in Colombia’s southern highlands, were likely parts of elaborate funerary cults (see Chapter 21 in this volume) not unlike those of the Central Andes. Large monoliths depicting anthropomorphs occur commonly in cemeteries, as freestanding guardian figures or atlantean supports for megalithic tombs (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1972). While supernaturals and beings related to shamanic practices are portrayed, many sculptures also appear to commemorate important deceased (Figure 51.8). Interestingly, many of the themes treated in San Agustin sculpture have distinctive Central Andean analogues, such as presentation of small figures and drinking cups (Recuay, Chancay, Chorrera), skeletal figures (Moche, Wari, Pukara), and animal companions/alter-egos (Paracas, Cupisnique). San Agustin monuments, it seems, followed general Andean cultural dispositions, which perceived, and valorized in funerary art, death as a source of renewal/fertility (e. g., Donnan 1978; Silverman and Proulx 2002; Weismantel 2004).
Figure 51.8. Sculptures from San Agustin area, southern Colombia, first millennium AD. Left, standing figure, Uyumbe, 160 cm tall. Right, standing figure with cup, Alto de Los Idolos, 138 cm tall. (Redrawn after Sotomayor and Uribe 1987: 134, 164)
Some anthropomorphic images were the foci of specific religious activities, implied by their central physical context. In the Titicaca Basin at the end of the Early Horizon, Yaya-Mama tradition stone images were featured prominently in sunken courts or atop hills, including monumental stele. Tall vertical slabs depicted male and female images, probably ancestral pairs, and are often back-to-back on the same monolith (Chavez and Mohr-Chavez 1975); the male side apparently faced east, while the female side faced west (Arriaga 1968: 79). It should be noted that male/female pairs are also prominent in Recuay tradition sculpture (Tello 1929: 76), with similar east-west associations (Figure 51.3). Perhaps most relevant, both contexts openly showcase the centrality and autonomy of the images.
Other images were hidden until the appropriate time for their display. Concealment of some ancestor effigies was important to make purposefully periodic manifestations of divinity. During the second millennium BC, effigies of ancestral supernaturals, merging human and animal attributes, were manipulated in closed, episodic rites atop the U-shaped centers of the Manchay tradition. Through their revelation and performance, such objects animated mythic narratives for early agricultural societies of the central coast; their strangeness and rarity of presence heightened the drama (Burger and Salazar-Burger 1998: 49-51).
Episodic displays also characterize the celebration of mummy bundles. Mummies were brought out for display only at certain times of the year; otherwise, the bundles huddled amongst themselves inside chullpa and cave repositories. Revealing and wrapping the bundle alternated as part of the cycle of concealment: the textile veiled the mortal remains at the same time that it constructed/exposed the divinity.
In colonial times, concealing sacred objects also had the benefit of keeping them safe from church officials. Stone chancas were hidden atop shelves, near beds, in niches and alcoves, and on one’s person (Mills 1997: 80, 83, 88); they were also hidden within ceramic pots or small bags, to appear when needed.
World History
