Tradition · Indigenous & Animist
Andean Religion (Inca and earlier)
Mountain gods, the sun and Mother Earth: the faith of the Andes from Caral to the Inca Empire.
c. 3000 BCE – 1572 CE · The Andes · Indigenous & Animist
Andean religion grew over thousands of years through cultures such as Caral, Chavín, Tiwanaku and Wari before the Inca made the sun god Inti the centre of an imperial cult. Mountains, springs and stones were huacas, living powers, and ancestors were kept and consulted. Reverence for Pachamama and the apus continues across the Andes.
Key figures
- Viracocha, the creator
- Inti, the sun
- Pachamama, Mother Earth
Texts
- Quipu records
- Spanish-era accounts
- Huarochirí Manuscript
Beliefs
- The land and mountains (apus) are alive
- Huacas, sacred places and objects, hold power
- Reciprocity binds people, ancestors and gods
Rituals
- Inti Raymi, the sun festival
- Offerings to Pachamama
- Care of ancestor mummies
Grew from
Connections in the atlas
- Hiram Bingham III
- Guaman Poma’s First New Chronicle and Good Government
- Cusco and the Coricancha
- Pishtaco
- Machu Picchu, Torreón: summer solstice sunrise
- ? Why were the Nazca lines drawn?
- Cerro Rico mines
- Chakana (Andean stepped cross)
- The gift of farming
- Irrigated land
- The Quechua and Andean peoples
- Into the Americas