His repeated ethnographic inquiries led him, among other conclusions, to question the heliolatric character that in consensus it has been assigned to the pre-Hispanic religion (Kauffmann Doig, 2003). On the other hand, regarding the analysis that he has been carrying out in the field of iconographic-archaeology -and following in this the gap opened by Rebeca Carrión Cachot (1955, 1959), this led him to deduce that a divine couple, made up of a species of God of Water and Goddess Earth, was the one that should have occupied the highest seat among the divinities of the Andean worldview. In this regard, as will be seen in due course, he considers that a particular type of Moche sculptural containers in which two realistically represented motifs appear and which represent a wave crest that overflows onto a group of platforms or cultivation terraces ( Figs. 22a, 23, 31), are the ones that allow us to reliably decipher, that is without having to act "by the eye of a good eye", the innumerable and more diverse motifs represented in textiles, ceramics and archaeological material in general as symbols of the water and fertile land. The experiences accumulated over many years, combined with the issues that are currently the subject of this investigation thanks to the contract as a teacher-researcher at the URP, allow the author to hope to offer a study on the religion of ancient Peru. based on new perspectives. Next, the author presents a Summary of the crucial points that comprise the investigation about the religion professed by the ancient Peruvians. It is not a list, but rather a list of topics exposed with summaries that abound in information on each of the topics mentioned:
First The religion of the ancient Peruvians revolved around an axis other than the biblical one, which focuses its attention on the field of morality. His compass pointed almost exclusively to the search for the necessary quota of food, something that was difficult to achieve due to the limitation of land suitable for cultivation and the atmospheric catastrophes to which the Andean coastal region is exposed, mountains and the Andean Amazon.
Second The only sin proffered to their divinities was, in ancient Peru, not honoring and offering, reaching even sacrifices of individuals in times of extreme crisis. This is crying out with intensity to the two most conspicuous divinities that were presumed to have full control over agricultural production and thus over existence itself.
Third For these reasons, the most conspicuous beings of the Andean pantheon should receive the qualification of gods of sustenance. We advance a kind of God of Water and an Earth Goddess or Pachamama.
Fourth The problem of having a sufficient quota of food was aggravated by the rapid and sustained population increase brought about by agricultural activity, which in order to increase production at the rate required by the growing demographic rate, stumbled upon the aforementioned limitation of land suitable for cultivation. and the frequent natural scourges that resulted in prolonged droughts or, on the contrary, in disastrous torrential rains that swept away the crops.
Fifth Andean religiosity was basically reduced to the execution of rituals directed to supernatural powers, to implore for the quota of food necessary for a population in constant growth for three or four thousand years. When the main food resource came from agricultural activity and partially from animal husbandry, in particular llamas and other South American camelids. The phenomenon of the population rate added to the hostilities of geographical and atmospheric type, shaped the structure of the ancestral Peruvian religiosity. Since these adversities were always present, once the appropriate agrarian techniques were increased, the strategies to be followed in the socio-political and government field, and to conceptualize the propitiatory religiosity of production, fully achieved in the third millennium before Christ , the Andean culture was consolidated reaching its maturity which took place early:3000 years ago.
Sixth For this reason, the highest-ranking divinities were imagined as forming a couple, on whose union the crops symbolically depended. We anticipate that the divine couple to which we refer was made up of a species of the God of Water and an Earth Goddess or Pachamama.Seventh This situation allows us to explain why, in ancient Peru, there was not a single God, masculine and asexual, like the Eternal Father of the Bible, but rather a divine couple, masculine and feminine, on whose marriage depended the sustenance and with it, existence itself.
Eighth The masculine divinity was imagined as the donor of water, and his counterpart as the fertile land, which could only gestate and thus offer food, if fertilized by the life-giving liquid of his consort.
Ninth In this way it is clear that the ancient Peruvians conceived of two main gods, sustainers of humanity:a Water God and an Earth Goddess or Pachamama.
Tenth: Morality was in the hands of the State, which through its officials applied severe forms to those who broke what was prescribed.
Eleventh Since neither heaven nor hell was conceived in the Andean religious structure, matters concerning morality were in the hands of the State. It was incumbent on him to sanction the infractions to the established norms. The punishments were executed with severity, according to the degree of the affront, and what should also be pointed out in terms of the social status of the offender.
Twelfth The highest-ranking divinity was not conceived in the form of a creator God, something that Pierre Duviols and María Rostoworowski already noted. As we will see in due course, there were two superior divine entities, one masculine (God of Water) and the other feminine (Earth Goddess or Pachamama). In order to resemble Jehovah, the masculine Andean god was distorted in the 16th and 17th centuries by the evangelizers in response to their search for strategies aimed at lightening their task of introducing catechism.
Thirteenth : We anticipate that considering the Sun as the Andean god was also the product of a forgery. Although the sovereign Pachacútec wanted to impose it, he did not achieve it. For the same reason, at present it is verified that in the Andean places the adoration is not heliolatric, but is directed to the secular sacred mountains or apus. They are implored so that the rains are not delayed or absent altogether, causing droughts. The worship of the apus is to this day accompanied by offerings or payments. It is for the same reason that we advanced, that in the sacred mountains what we propose to describe as God of Water should have materialized; divine being with domains in the firmament where lightning, thunder and rain come from.
Fourteenth Many other elements were also held sacred:amulets or conupas, certain animals, mummified ancestors and their kamaken (soul), etc., etc.
Fifteenth For the same reason that the God of Water was considered adverse, he was feared and considered demonic, because in order to spill the rains that were under his control on time and in the right measure, he demanded veneration and beg him to leave. benevolent. For this they used pompous rituals and gifts. In the event of acute climatic crises he spread desperation, to the extent that even humans were sacrificed, especially children in Inca times. In this regard, remember the presence of the Lady of Ampato or “Juanita”, found on snowy peaks.
Sixteenth This type of sacrifice was called capac-cocha (qhapaq =great; kotsha =water store:lagoons, lakes and sea).
Seventeenth Contrary to the biblical god, the God of Water, although considered supreme divinity, was considered malevolent. This presumption came from the fact that it was attributed to exercise supreme government over inclement weather, generated by El Niño and other meteorological phenomena that continually threatened food production and thus threatened existence itself. He was to be constantly worshiped and sacrificed to achieve his benevolence. Otherwise, he punished with prolonged droughts, torrential rains, cold weather and other calamities that equally affected the crops and made the ghost of hunger appear.
Eighteenth For the same reason that the God of Water was a god considered demonic, in his representations he is portrayed as a male endowed with bird attributes (claws) and threatening feline fangs. Nineteenth:Contrary to what the Bible narrates, it was estimated that man had been created by self-gestation and to have been born from the womb of Pachamama, in other words from the Earth Goddess. He would have sprouted from her entrails through caves, his symbolic vulvas. The different populations each indicated a particular cavity, such as their pacarina or place of origin of their first ancestors.
Twentieth Official myths refer that the creation of men would have been produced by three caves:the ancestors of the sovereigns and the nobility would have emerged from the first; of the second the women of these; and of the third the ancestors of the town, peasants fundamentally. With this saga, the ruling elite propagated that humanity, from its very origins and by divine mandate, had been divided into two social classes. With this propaganda resource, the orders given were slavishly obeyed by the people. That, in its pristine form not necessarily due to caste pride, but obeying objectives that would allow an efficient production of the food quota required by the population; For this he was forced to work hard, as a result of the recurrent climatic anomalies that the ancient Peruvians endured.
Twenty-first As a continuation of what was stated in Report No. 4-2013 about the presence of a divine couple as entities of the highest hierarchy of the pantheon of ancient Peruvians, it is necessary to clarify that our formulation contradicts the widely spread and accepted traditional concept that wields that in the religion in the Incario the Sun prevailed as supreme divinity. Accepting that Pachacútec tried to impose the heliolatric cult, perhaps supported by the myth of his ancestors Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo who would have been children of the Sun, as will be explained in due time, this appreciation did not take hold in the town, which continued worshiping the apus or determined hills in which the spirit that ruled over atmospheric phenomena, a kind of God of Water that fertilized the fields of the Goddess Earth or Pachamama, resided. In addition to all this, it is necessary to clarify whether, deep down, the elite made up of the relatives also ended up considering that, above all, there was a universal creator god who was personified in the Sun.
In the case of Wirakocha, Pierre Duviols and Maria Rostworowski have revealed that this is an early colonial concept. Indeed, the Andean myth of Wirakocha had to be distorted in order to magnify this character, pretending that he was the very Jehovah of the ancient Peruvians. This hoax, the fruit of the sixteenth century catechists, was created with the healthiest intentions:to have a valuable crutch in the evangelization process, which would allow them to facilitate evangelization. For his part, invited by Mircea Eliade to collaborate in his "Encyclopedia of Religion" (New York / McMillan 1987), Federico Kauffmann Doig, upon delving into the subject in question, observed that not only the Andean myth of Wirakocha had been manipulated. So had the very concept of the Andean sun god; or that it had been misunderstood and misinterpreted by the Western perspective. Indeed, the Sun does not seem to have been, however unlikely and incongruous this assertion may seem, nothing more than a personification of the God of Water. Iconographic testimonies offer glimpses in support of what is stated in this hypothesis:in these the Sun was not represented. And in a kero, although the Sun is portrayed, it is placed above the clouds from which the rain falls.
Twenty-second Following the common thread, regarding Pachacamac, Miguel de Estete, an eyewitness during the original presence of the Spaniards in that sanctuary, reports in his "Noticias del Perú" (1938, p.195-264) that the god of this name that Estete saw represented in a wooden sculpture, he was implored for "good times..." And he adds "that... he tells them that he is angry... and the sacrifices they have to make, and the presents that He wants them to bring him." For this reason, Pachacamac could not have been anything other than the inveterate God of Andean Water.
Twenty-third Wirakocha must not have been more than one of the many denominations that the God of Water received, in Incan times he was popularly known as Illapa. The God of Water also received several other names, according to the different regions, which has led some religious scholars to maintain that in ancient Peru there were an infinity of gods. Naturally, next to the God of Water there were also countless divine beings, but these were not hierarchically comparable to him or to the Earth Goddess or Pachamama, his "consort".
Twenty-fourth The Pachamama or Earth Goddess was universally symbolized by a stepped emblem, which alludes to the platforms or cultivation terraces; The God of Water was for his part, since time immemorial, symbolized by a wave crest in the form of a fretwork made up of sticks; these at the same time symbolized feathers, with equivalent emblematic value. This symbol appears represented, for example, in the Raimondi Stela, and eloquently in the representations of the head of Ai-apaec embodied in the walls of the Huaca de la Luna, Moche Valley. In the last case cited, the symbolic transfiguration experienced by the "crest of a wave" motif with that of the feather is clearly noticeable; which, in this way, embraces the same emblematic value.
Twenty-fifth When the God of Water is portrayed in full body, it records human contours in addition to anatomical elements from felines, plus others of an ornithomorphic nature, as can already be seen in the image sculpted on the Raimondi Stela and in later variants such as those mentioned above. portray Ai-apaec, the God of Water in his Moche modality.
Twenty-sixth The Pachamama or Earth Goddess was linked to women, the Moon, the night, the feline, and silver. For his part, the God of Water, with markedly masculine features, except for the primary or sexual ones that were not prominent, was associated with the Sun, with the day, with birds of prey (especially the falcon), and with gold.
Twenty-seventh The tupo or large metal pin with a disc or a crescent motif must have evoked the Moon. For the same reason, it was an adornment typical of the feminine world; its small hole could have had a function in the practices of lunar magic
Twenty-eighth Food was offered to the God of Water. Especially mullo, that is crushed shells of marine animals, particularly those of the genus Spondyllus; plus many other “goodies” such as llama fetuses...
Twenty-ninth Camelid fat had a very important symbolic meaning, greater than blood:objects used in rituals are still smeared with fat. It was also deposited on the ground "so that it always appears moist." In both cases also to strengthen it, as is asserted to this day in places where these old practices still throb. The word Wirakocha contains precisely the word wira =fat/tallow, and if the word wira does not come from willka (sacred) – perhaps a term in some equivalent form – the name of the divinity could be broken down into Wira-kocha, its etymology being:" primary container of water endowed with fat". In its symbolic form, fat was also associated with water:in the foam that forms on the shores of the sea and lagoons as well as rivers.
Thirtieth The magical-religious beliefs ended up being consolidated in ancient Peru during the Flourishing Formative stage (Cupisnique-Chavín); this is in the first millennium BC. Since then and until the arrival of the Spaniards, they remained in force, with only second-order variants. This is confirmed by an analysis of the iconographic images of all times and regions. The God of Water is represented, in this way, always sporting the same essential features that characterize him, over almost three thousand years:a humanized bird with feline attributes or a winged feline-man, who must be his acolytes , the Qhoa, Oscollo or Titi, are often designed in flight. In a simplified way by means of a symbol in the form of a cane, graphed with infinite variants, which in its origin discovers to derive from the figure of a wave crest. Sometimes this motif was represented forming a unit with the symbol with which the Earth Goddess was figurative, which basically takes on the aspect of three steps; iconographically it is verified that they allude to cultivation terraces.
Thirty-first The "flying cats" of Andean iconography survive in the current myth of qhoa, oscollo or titi. They are present in myths still reported today in high-Andean areas of Cuzco, Apurímac, Ayacucho, Puno and Arequipa. The information I have comes from, at least, the regions mentioned.
Thirty-second The Qhoa myth recounts how this mountain cat with spots -possibly allusive to raindrops- rises through the fog starting from a spring or puqio. That would be done precisely at the time of storms. Then the mythical character is seen moving through the sky, in the middle of the clouds. Lightning flashes from his eyes, lightning flashes from his tail, and thunder belches from his belly. In some versions of the mythical tale, it is additionally told that his urine turns into rain.
Thirty-third The flying cats are not, however, images of the God of Water as we initially assumed based on the initial information collected. It is the God of Water who orders them to move to reward men by causing rain; or failing that, punish them by letting hail and frost fall which, by negatively affecting crop fields, cause famine. This supreme divinity appears materialized in the imposing peaks or apu(ses), so the flying felines are nothing more than his acolytes.
Thirty-fourth It is assumed that the punishments imparted through adverse atmospheric phenomena are caused by not having been worshiped and offered to the extent required by the supreme divinity. That is, the God of Water that is presumed materialized in certain summits, or residing in them. The hills are generally known by the name orqo-kuna (kuna=plural).
Thirty-fifth The divine couple made up of the highest Andean gods, is constituted by the God of Water and the Goddess Earth (Pachamama). They are basically characterized by being gods of sustenance.
Thirty-sixth The Sun was and is certainly revered for offering light and warmth. But on no occasion have we been able to verify that he is venerated as a divinity, much less as a divine being of the highest hierarchy. According to the written sources, it is pointed out that Pachacútec tried to impose the heliolatric cult. But apparently he was not successful, otherwise the Sun would be worshiped today, in the high Andean landscapes, where an important portion of Andean religiosity still survives today.
Thirty-seventh The Andean gods had no interference in matters concerning the moral rules existing at the time. The only "sin" was not paying respect to them and not offering them rituals and sacrifices. It was presumed that in this way, in particular the God of Water, could be tamed; this is to prevent it from causing climatic anomalies that threaten food production. Breaking ethical norms were only considered affronts against the State, and it was the latter that was in charge of the punishments, which were generally very severe.
Thirty-eighth For these reasons, moral offenses were punished in this world and not after death as in the Christian religion. However, there was the firm conviction of a life beyond the grave. But this was conceived without the presence of heaven or hell. It was presumed that, as it had happened in this world, life was prolonged after death. Thus, in the afterlife, the hierarchies and the need to work the fields to "subsist" continued. The illusion of well-being in life in the afterlife was limited to having abundant harvests. The offerings of food and drinks placed in the tombs were symbolically intended to satisfy the hunger that the deceased would experience on their way to the afterlife; as well as to flatter him, offering him the stews that had been his favorite in life.
Thirty-ninth The preservation of the corpse was an essential requirement to "survive" in the afterlife. That explains the flourishing, in Ancient Peru, of sophisticated mummification techniques. Also the special effort put into the construction of the tombs, whether those built on the ground or the tombs on the ground; It goes hand in hand with the social rank that the deceased held in life. It was considered that it was of special importance that the body of the deceased did not suffer damage due to putrefaction or other agents that could threaten its integrity. This conception must have distant roots and have been present in the magical-religious thought that must have governed the world since early Neolithic times, or perhaps before. For this reason, the ancient tradition, such as the one mentioned, with clear shamanic roots, must have been introduced in America with the first waves of immigrants from Asia.
Fortieth The continuity of life after death brought with it that necropomp, or self-immolation, was practiced in Ancient Peru. It was practiced by elite wives and servants. Here too it could be an ancestral tradition common to humanity.
Addendum The case of Atahualpa, being in prison, is pathetic in terms of the firm belief in a life after death, as long as the corpse was preserved. Upon hearing the side by which he sentenced him to death by hanging, to the stick, eyewitnesses of that event emphasize that the sovereign did not flinch in the least. That yes, at the moment in which it was communicated to him that his corpse would be burned at the stake for not being baptized, he burst into sobs, collapsing his spiritual strength. And it is that being cremated meant for him to die definitively and thus not be able to enjoy life in the afterlife. It is understood that after accepting the baptism, the sentence of the stake was commuted to that of the club or suffocation.
Amauta Federico Kauffmann Doig