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Apus y Qhapaq Ñan. Estudio de las vialidades Incas en las montañas sagradas de los Andes.
Abstract
Estudio sistemático de caminos ceremoniales en los Apus (montañas sagradas) del Tawantinsuyu, con especial énfasis en el volcán Llullaillaco (6.739 m) y el Nevado de Chañi (5.896 m). Se realiza una propuesta metodológica para su estudio y se brindan indicadores arqueológicos para su localización. Se dan a conocer más de medio centenar de montañas con presencia de caminos ceremoniales.
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La expansión del Collasuyo hacia el sur de Toconao, donde estaban sus términos, significo prolongar una ruta que siguiera la meseta altiplánica, donde se podían encontrar los elementos vitales sustanciales: agua y combustible. Aquellas fuerzas adelantadas del inca preparan el trazo, abren pozos y abrevaderos, construyen refugios que son elementales recintos pircados. Estos aposentos rústicos son los tambos o tambarías que todavía pueden reconocerse en ese prolongado camino.
This work attempts to tread new paths in mountain archaeological investigation. Although high
altitude Inka sanctuaries have been extensively treated during the last years, the study of other
sites, located at lower heights, also related to this kind of ritual has been notoriously relegated.
This paper constitutes an approach to the study of this type of settlement from the case of the site of
El Apunao del Chinchillar (4,800 msnm) located in the Nevados de Cachi mountain range (Salta,
Argentina), whose first systematic investigations are presented here.
Our intent is to humanize this prehispanic landscape, considering the people who inhabited these
heights, who experienced it every day, attempting to understand the way in which these subjects
conducted themselves and perceived this three-dimensional space and to understand the dynamics
of these settlements. It is at these sites where Tawantinsuyu achieves an absolute control of the
ritual and displays all its symbolic paraphernalia. In this way, we will clearly observe how social
practices related to imperial power and ideology gain its material expression at these new spaces,
rituals and buildings.
This paper presents new results of our ethnohistorical, archaeological, and astronomical research in the Qhapaq Ñan of the Despoblado of Atacama, specifically in the Punta Negra salt basin. Two sets of saywas -Tocomar and Vaquillas-, their associated contexts, and the general characteristics of the road in the studied sectors, were recorded and analyzed. In both cases, alignment with the sunrise on the day of the winter solstice and the equinox, respectively, was checked. From a temporal and spatial perspective, an interdisciplinary discussion is presented on these localities and structures, as well as their meanings. Furthermore, the new information collected allows for resuming previous analyzes and proposals on the Qhapaq Ñan of the Despoblado, the astronomical saywas, the geographical environment, and the symbolic construction of a sacred space and an imperial oral cartography.
In this paper, we explore the complex subject of Capacocha ceremonies held in some mountain tops of the Andes during Incan times, where human sacrifices, especially of girls and boys of great beauty and deemed perfect, were done. We have focused on one aspect of these sacred rituals, namely, the pattern on the miniature woven feminine garments dressing the figurines that are part of the mortuary offerings. These patterns stand out not only because of their iconic nature, not always present in the Cusco art, but also because of their obsessive repetition in these offerings made in the Andean peaks.
Archaeological study of a part of the Inkan Road system near an active cooper mine in Northern Chile.
This work presents new results of archaeological research carried out in a mountain massif known as Nevado de Cachi (Salta, Argentina). We will focus on an Inka ceremonial platform located near the summit of Cerro Meléndez (6020 masl), which is one of its most prominent peaks, and integrate this information with data collected on two archaeological settlements located on its hillsides to the east. We will argue that a complex system of archaeological settlements and sacred places which included local and Inka enclosures, was designed not only for mountain worship but also as the manifestation of the Inka conquest of the North Calchaquí Valley. Thus, the existence of a complex system of settlements and sacred Inka sites in the Nevado de Cachi is highlighted.
HIGH-ALTITUDE SHRINES AND INCA DOMINATION IN THE ALTO LOA, NORTHERN CHILE. Mountain
shrines are one of the most important expressions of Inca domination across the Collasuyu related to the ideological
manipulation of local religious beliefs and practices. Recent archaeological surveys conducted on the Colorado,
Palpana, and Miño mountains in the Alto Loa region (Antofagasta Region, Chile) have proved the existence of
high-altitude shrines, not previously documented on the latter two. In this article descriptions of the finds are
presented and, building on the data recovered, topics related to their chronology, the logistics of climbing,
and the types of activities conducted at the summits are discussed. In order to explain the role of these shrines
within the context of the Inca control of the region, possible relationships between mountain worship and the
occupation of major Inca facilities associated with state mining-metallurgical operations are examined.
Los adoratorios de altura constituyen una de las principales expresiones de la dominación incaica en el
Collasuyu relacionadas con la manipulación ideológica de creencias y prácticas religiosas locales. Prospecciones
realizadas en los cerros Colorado, Palpana y Miño en la región del Alto Loa (Región de Antofagasta, Chile) han
permitido comprobar la existencia de adoratorios de altura inéditos en los últimos dos cerros. En este trabajo
se realiza una caracterización de los hallazgos y, a partir de estos datos, se analizan aspectos relativos a su
cronología, la logística de los ascensos y la naturaleza de las actividades realizadas en las cumbres. A fin de
intentar explicar el rol de estos sitios en el contexto de la dominación incaica, se examinan las posibles relaciones
que a nivel de actividades productivas (particularmente minero-metalúrgicas) y ceremoniales podrían
haber existido entre el culto a los cerros y la ocupación de las instalaciones incaicas más importantes del área.
This paper is a presentation and discussion of data regarding contemporary archaeological research of the Qhapaq Ñam in South America, mainly focused on paths and roads. It also includes definitions on what is a road in archaeological terms. Finally, there is an analysis on Inka road classification criteria, deeply focused on archaeological implications.
This article presents the preliminary results from the archaeological survey of the Chiliques Volcano (23°34'S / 67°42'W / 5778 masl) situated in the Atacama desert, northern Chile. The main goal was to verify the existence of archaeological sites in the area, as well as a possible ceque line projected from the ceremonial center of Socaire. The results suggest the importance of Chiliques Volcano as a facilitator of methereological phenomena within the system of sacred mountains which are invoked during the ceremony for cleaning the canal held in October in Socaire. Chiliques might have constituted an "axis mundi" for the following reasons: its conical shape and permanent visibility from other prehispanic shrines, the existence of two lakes in its summits (ctonic element), its geographical location at the eastern horizon and the natural characteristics of the soil at the origin of the Nacimiento Ravine.
U n i v e r s i d a d d e C h i l e EN BUSCA DEL GRAN MENTIROSO: RELATOS ORALES, DEMARCACIONES TERRITORIALES. EL CAMINO DEL INCA EN EL DESPOBLADO DE ATACAMA 1 Cecilia Sanhueza Tohá Magíster © en Etnohistoria Universidad de Chile Se incursiona, a través del análisis de textos coloniales, en posibles categorizaciones espaciales que habrían operado en los sistemas de demarcación territorial incaica. Para ello, se analizan relatos hispanos referentes al Camino del Inca del despoblado de Atacama, y particularmente la narración " inter textual " de discursos míticos y de procesos de sacralización del espacio, tanto de origen español como indígena. Se intenta, a partir de ello, realizar una propuesta de " relectura " interpretativa, tanto de las fuentes escritas, como de los restos arqueológicos de la región. 1 Este artículo es producto de la investigación desarrollada en el Proyecto: " Arqueología del siste-ma vial de los Inkas en el Alto Loa, II Región " , en el cual participo como coinvestigadora.
English: This essay explores the ties between religion, materiality and ethical behaviour, among the comunarios of Qaqachaka, an ayllu of around 10,000 Aymara and Quechua speakers in the highlands of the South-central Andes. These ties are examined in present day attitudes towards two of the principal tutelary saint-gods of the place: the patron saint called Tata Quri (Father Gold), a regional variant of Santa Vera Cruz with his feast day on 3rd May (“Cruz”) each year, and Mama Candelaria (Kanti layra), considered to be his wife, with her feast day at the beginning of February. Both gods are housed in the colonial church in Qaqachaka pueblo. However, the real Tata Quri in the form of a small cross (“cast from pure gold”) is kept in a wooden retablo-type of box, wrapped in layers of weavings “which change him into stone”, and guarded by the mayordomo feast sponsor of the saint’s feast day in his house under lock and key. Wrapped up in these various layers of cloth, the saint-god now called “Wrapped Lord” (K’iru tala) is considered by the majority of the comunarios (with the exception of the evangelists) as much more miraculous than the god held the church; in certain contexts he is even held to be a wak’a in the sense of a very powerful entity at a regional level, with echoes into the precolonial past. Our argument here is that with the new moral and ethical trends over the last decade, the comunarios, above all the women, are rethinking the ancient customs of wrapping this wak’a in weavings, repositioning these customs much more radically in relation to the ecological crisis that is beginning to be felt in the region.
Español: El presente ensayo explora los nexos entre religión, materialidad y el comportamiento ético, en los pobladores de Qaqachaka, un ayllu mayor de unos 10.000 pobladores (los comunaríos) aymara y quechua-hablantes en las tierras altas de los Andes surcentrales de Bolivia. Se examina estos nexos en las actitudes actuales hacia dos de los santos-dioses tutelares principales del lugar: el santo patronal llamado Tata Qurí (el “Padre Oro”), una variante regional de la Santa Vera Cruz con su fiesta el 3 de mayo o “Cruz” cada año, y lo que se percibe como su esposa, Mama Candelaria (Kantí layra), con su fiesta en el inicio de febrero. Ambos dioses se albergan en la iglesia del pueblo de Qaqachaka. Sin embargo, el verdadero Tata Qurí en forma de una pequeña cruz “fundida de puro oro” se guarda en una caja de madera de tipo retablo, envuelta con varios textiles “que le convierte en piedra” y custodiada por el mayordomo pasante de su fiesta patronal bajo llave en su casa. Por estar envuelto así con varias capas de textiles, se lo llama “el Señor envuelto” (K’iru tala) y aquella versión de Tata Qurí es considerada por la mayor parte de los comunaríos (con excepción de los evangélicos) mucho más milagrosa que el dios en la iglesia, contando en ciertos contextos con el apelativo wak’a, en sentido de una entidad muy poderosa a nivel regional con ecos del pasado precolonial. Nuestro argumento es que, bajo nuevas influencias morales y éticas en la última década, los comunarios, sobre todo las mujeres, se han puesto a repensar las costumbres antiguas de envolver las wak’as en textiles, haciendo que éstas se posicionen de manera mucho más radical en relación a la crisis ecológica que se comienza a sentir en la región.
La Cordillera Oriental de Argentina (COA) presenta una forma elongada norte-sur extendiéndose desde los 22º hasta los 26,3º LS. Actualmente debido a un efecto orográfico en las precipitaciones presenta una notable asimetría entre su vertiente oriental más húmeda y la occidental más seca. Durante el Pleistoceno tardío numerosos glaciares ocuparon los sectores más altos de las distintas serranías que la componen. En este trabajo se realizó un relevamiento de la distribución de la morfología glaciar, una caracterización de las principales geoformas glaciarias reconocidas y se discutió acerca de su implicancia pa-leoclimática. Además, se eligieron dos sectores representativos dentro de la COA para ilus-trar las principales características de su morfología glaciar. Las geoformas más abundantes corresponden acircos, valles, aristas y morenas, cuyas características y distribución permi-ten inferir que fueron generadas por glaciares de valle de base húmeda. La longitud máxima que alcanzaron los glaciares no superaba los 10 km. Las morenas se sitúan por encima de la cota de ~3500 m y altitudinalmente presentan una asimetría en sentido este-oeste, ya que en la vertiente oriental alcanzan cotas menores que en la vertiente occidental. Esta asi-metría estaría marcando que durante las glaciaciones el patrón de precipitación habría sido similar al actual. De acuerdo a las características de las morenas marginales se interpretó que en el margen de los glaciares existía una evacuación reducida de los sedimentos hacia sectores proglaciares, lo que se asocia con una alta tasa de aporte de detritos desde las cabeceras de los glaciares y condiciones climáticas áridas a semi áridas. Palabras clave: Noroeste Argentino, glaciaciones de altura, Pleistoceno tardío, morenas. Abstract — " Distribution and characterization of glacial geomorphology in the Cordillera Oriental, Argentina ". The Cordillera Oriental of Argentina (COA) is a north-south trend mountain range which extends from 22º to 26.3º SL in Northwestern Argentina. An orographic effect on the precipitations creates a sharp contrast between the wetter eastern side and the drier western side. Many glaciers occupied the highest parts of the COA during the Late Pleistocene. In this work we survey the distribution of the glacial geomorphology, characterize the main geomorphic features, and discuss about its paleoclimatic implications. Also, we choose two representative sectors to show the main characteristics of the glacial geomor-phology of the COA. The main glacial landforms correspond to cirques, valleys, arêtes and moraines. The characteristics and distributions of these landforms suggest that they were formed by typical wet-based valley glaciers which maximum length was less than 10 km. The moraines are located above ~3500 m a.s.l. and show an east-west asymmetry, where they are best developed and reach lower altitudes in the eastern slope than in the western slope. This difference is attributed to the greater amount of precipitation on the eastern slope which indicates that the pattern of rainfall during the glaciations was similar to the present. The characteristics of the marginal moraines suggest a decoupling between the glacial and glaci-fluvial transport systems, which is associated with high rates of sediment supply to the glaciers and arid to semi-arid climate.
We present social aspects related to the concepts of border, ushnu and lunar observation at the inca site of La Ciudacita, Tucuman province, northwestern Argentina. The analysis focused on the possibility of observing the lunistice or major lunar standstill, in relation to concepts of geographical latitude, architecture and horizon landmarks from the perspective of cultural astronomy. Our hypothesis is that the ushnu serves as a representation of the Moon at the zenith, south of the Tropic of Capricorn, highlighting its utility for following and predicting eclipses. Results show that the relationship between the ushnu and gnomon in observing the Moon's phases was possibly linked to relations of power and the expansion of Tawantinsuyu, circa.
En este trabajo daremos cuenta de las nuevas investigaciones realizadas en los Nevados de Cachi, Salta, Argentina focalizándonos en el sitio que hemos denominado Uña Tambo, y cuál fue su integración dentro de la red de sitios inkaicos de la región. En esta ocasión haremos hincapié en algunos aspectos arqueoastronómicos del asentamiento, sin dejar de lado la importancia visual y simbólica que tuvo la ubicación de esta clase de sitios así como también la relevancia de los mismos dentro de los rituales inkaicos relacionados con el agua, la agricultura y con el culto a los Apus.
The use of quechua terms to define formally and functionally Inca material culture constitutes a generalized practice among Andean archaeologists. In very few cases, however, do the election of these terms rest on historical or linguistic analysis that justify their employment. In this article, we will focus our attention on the study of an architectural category widely used to refer to large roofed halls existing in the principal Inca establishments: kallanka. After the review of ethnohistorical information, a redefinition of this category is proposed.
La prehistoria del Norte Grande de Chile se ha construido en gran parte gracias a una arqueología cuya principal fuente de información ha sido la cerámica, por lo menos en el caso de sus períodos agro-alfareros. Este elemento de la cultura material ha recibido una atención que frecuentemente no la han tenido otros aspectos del pasado a pesar de la monumentalidad de muchos restos o el alto potencial de conservación de otros materiales en la zona (p.e., arquitectura, cestería, maderas, textiles, etc.). Siguiendo las principales tendencias del desarrollo de los estudios cerámicos, nuestro propósito en este trabajo es mostrar ciertos lineamientos metodológicos e interpretativos en el tratamiento de la fragmentería cerámica, en términos de sus aplicaciones conceptuales y herramientas analíticas básicas (funcionales, conductuales y contextuales), especialmente relacionadas con las dinámicas sociales y políticas de entidades culturales particulares. Lo anterior se enmarca dentro de un objetivo más amplio que pretende estudiar las materialidades cerámicas y arquitectónicas del período Tardío de la región atacameña (1450- 1536 d.C.) para comprender arqueológicamente los procesos sociales que desarrollaron sus poblaciones durante el dominio del Inka en el norte de Chile.
This paper explores prehispanic roads and paths in the Andean Cordillera of Antofagasta, Chile. It uses ethno-archaeological interpretative systems, such as cultural landscapes and vernacular oral history, as complementary sources for archaeological interpretation. Preliminary results are discussed.
The debate concerning ontology is heating up in the social sciences. How is this impacting anthropology and archaeology? What contributions can these disciplines make? Following a session at the 2010 Theoretical Archaeology Group conference at Brown University (“‘Worlds Otherwise’: Archaeology, Theory, and Ontological Difference,” convened by Ben Alberti and Yvonne Marshall), a group of archaeologists and anthropologists have continued to discuss the merits, possibilities, and problems of an ontologically oriented approach. The current paper is a portion of this larger conversation—a format we maintain here because, among other things, it permits a welcome level of candor and simplicity. In this forum we present two questions (written by Alberti and Witmore, along with the concluding comments) and the responses of five of the Theoretical Archaeology Group session participants. The first question asks why we think an ontological approach is important to our respective fields; the second, building upon the first set of responses, asks authors to consider the difference that pluralizing ontology might make and whether such a move is desirable given the aims of archaeology and anthropology. While several angles on ontology come through in the conversation, all share an interest in more immanent understandings that arise within specific situations and that are perhaps best described as thoroughly entangled rather than transcendent and/or oppositional in any straightforward sense.
The archaeological survey carried out in the upper Los Helados river and in mount El Potro, confirms mountaineering and scholarly descriptions of evidence attesting to the existence of a pre-Columbian huaca, and contributes to explain the orographic architectural orientation of the Viña del Cerro metallurgical center. Our findings suggest Andean mountain cults were indeed carried out there, including public ceremonies in the center and more exclusive ones on the El Potro and its surroundings. Distinctly separate traces of Copiapó valley fertility rituals express the dual power and reciprocity relations established amongst the Incas and local groups, which sustained their mining-metallurgical activities in the area.
The paper analyzes ritual practices in regional traffic, based on a set of ceremonial archaeological sites identified in association with pre-Hispanic routes of the Atacama Desert. A suggestive variety of ritual practices is identified, with differentiated distribution, along with the observation that certain manifestations were shared across the Andes and around the circumpuna area, while others allude to rituals exclusive to the Atacama Desert. Integrating ethnohistoric and ethnographic information, we generate an interpretation of the archaeological data in relation to pre-Inka socio-spatial structuring, symbolic meanings and, especially, the offerings found, as representative of interregional traffic and trade.
La reseña no presenta resumen.
Indigenous peoples of the Andes have shared their territories with a variety of animated and sacred non-human entities, with whom they have maintained complex interactions. Because these entities are providers of the vital elements that human communities need to guarantee their survival and reproduction, people must treat them with respect and affection. This entails reattributing with rituals, offerings, and attention, the goods and materials these entities supply them. Denial and neglect make these entities sad and angry, and willing to harm people in different ways. In this paper, we discuss how Diaguita-Kallchakí communities from the North Calchaquí Valley (Argentina) interacted with the sacred high-altitude territory of Nevado de Cachi during pre-Hispanic times, with the wak’as that dwelled in it, and how this interaction was completely transformed once the Inkas conquered and settled in the region around CE 1400/1450. We show that the Inkas not only reorganized pilgrimage and ritual activities in this area, but they also intentionally marked their presence in order to represent themselves as superior entities capable of dealing, without risk, with non-human forces.
Este trabajo corresponde a nuestra primera mirada sobre el tipo de ocupación y dominio incaico en la cuenca del río Jorquera, formativa del río Copiapó, y pone su acento en organizar un cuerpo de “viejos” y “nuevos” datos en forma sistemática.AbstractThis work corresponds to our first look, on the occupation type and domain incaico in the basin of the Jorquera river, formative of the Copiapó river, and it puts its accent in organizing a body of “oíd” and “new” data in systematic form.
Durante la construcción de un camino al este de Iquique, a 905 m.snm, en la cordillera costera de los Andes, en el cerro denominado Esmeralda, se encontró un entierro de dos personas. El Museo de Iquique dio cuenta que el hallazgo es de suma importancia, y podría tener significado sobre la evidencia de los incas en la zona que es relativamente poco conocida. En este artículo informamos sobre el ajuar que ha sido encontrado en este entierro.
Bruno Latour and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro provided the initial impetus for explicitly ontological research in archaeology. Their impact on archaeologists, however, has been quite different. What I call the “metaphysical archaeologists” trace their genealogy from Latour, though they are now equally influenced by “new materialism” and the “new ontological realism” (Gabriel 2015). They have introduced an alternative metaphysical orthodoxy to archaeology. In contrast, Viveiros de Castro and colleagues have authorized the return of the grand ethnographic analogy to archaeology, particularly in the case of animism. A second, quite different tendency inspired by these same anthropologists is to engage with indigenous ideas as theories to reconfigure archaeological concepts and practice. I suggest that a point of convergence between the metaphysical and the latter anthropological approaches exists in their focus on the concept of alterity. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Anthropology Volume 45 is October 21, 2016. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/catalog/pubdates.aspx for revised estimates.
Este trabajo propone evaluar las particularidades y los matices de las estrategias implementadas por el Estado Inca para ocupar un sector meridional del Noroeste Argentino (Departamento de Tinogasta, Catamarca). Para ello, nos focalizamos en el análisis de dos sitios arqueológicos, Fiambalá-1 (5.000 msnm [metros sobre el nivel del mar]) y Batungasta (1.480 msnm), cuyas historias de ocupación nos remite tanto a tiempos pre-incas como incas. Sus emplazamientos se relacionan con rasgos de la geografía que tuvieron alta significación social en la cosmovisión andina, como son los volcanes, las fuentes de minerales y los ríos de aguas de color rojo. Discutimos cómo la memoria social jugó un papel importante en la construcción de este nuevo escenario social.This article evaluates the complex strategies utilized by the Inca state in the southern section of northwest Argentina, in the Department of Tinogasta, Catamarca. We analyze two archaeological sites—Fiambalá-1, located at 5,000 m above sea level (m.a.s.l.) and Batungasta, located at 1,450 m.a.s.l. The occupation of these sites spans both pre-Inca and Inca times. The geographical characteristics of these site locations were very significant in the Andean world, including volcanoes, mineral sources, and rivers with red waters. We discuss how social memory played an important role in the construction of this new social identity and landscape.
The turn to ontology, often associated with the recent works of Philippe Descola, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, and Bruno Latour, but evident in many other places as well, is, in Elizabeth Povinelli's formulation, "symptomatic" and "diagnostic" of something. It is, I here argue, a response to the sense that sociocultural anthropology, founded in the footsteps of a broad humanist "linguistic" turn, a field that takes social construction as the special kind of human reality that frames its inquiries, is not fully capable of grappling with the kinds of problems that are confronting us in the so-called Anthropocene-an epoch in which human and nonhuman kinds and futures have become so increasingly entangled that ethical and political problems can no longer be treated as exclusively human problems. Attending to these issues requires new conceptual tools, something that a nonreductionistic, ethnographically inspired, ontological anthropology may be in a privileged position to provide.
Llullaillaco is one of a chain of Quaternary stratovolcanoes that defines the present Andean Central Volcanic Zone (CVZ), and marks the border between Chile and Argentina/Bolivia. The current edifice is constructed from a series of thick dacitic lava flows, forming the second tallest active volcano in the world (6739 m). K–Ar and new biotite laser ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar step-heating dates indicate that the volcano was constructed during the Pleistocene (≤1.5 Ma), with a youngest date of 0.048±0.012 Ma being recorded for a fresh dacite flow that descends the southern flank. Additional ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar measurements for andesitic and dacitic lava flows from the surrounding volcanic terrain yield dates of between and corresponding to an extended period of Miocene volcanism which defines much of the landscape in this region. Major- and trace-element compositions of lavas from Llullaillaco are typical of Miocene–Pleistocene volcanic rocks from the western margin of the CVZ, and are related to relatively shallow-dipping subduction of the Nazca plate beneath northern Chile and Argentina.
We started our research in high mountains in Southern Perú by 1980 together with Dr. Johan Reinhard. We have concurrently performed fieldwork and have gathered literature relevant to our research. Then, we have a lot of information about the Inca Santuaries in high mountains. Our Research is mainly about Ampato, Pichu Pichu, Calcha, Sara Sara, Hualca Hualca, Huarancante, Misti, coropuna and other volcanoes. So far, we have recovered and are keeping eight human bodies from: Ampato volcano (4 bodies), Pichu Pichu (3 bodies), and Sara Sara (1 body). As a result, of our research we now have a better understanding and conceptual framework about human sacrifices and offerings that were carried out by Inca as worship to the mountains (Apus). Our research work confirms many data written in early chronicles of Spaniards. Sanctuaries that were investigated by us in Pichu Pichu and Ampato, confirmed that Inca performed their offerings on those mountains trying to appease the Apus after the volcanic eruptions in Misti (about 1440 AD _ 1450 A.D.), and Sabancaya volcanoes (about 1466 A.D.). Our preliminary results obtained after hard multidisciplinary team work open new avenues for research since the variety of materials collected is enormous. Material available for research includes: DNA, pollen, microorganisms, chemicals, Cat Scan views etc. © 2007 Universidad de Tarapacá Facultad de Ciencias Sociales Administrativas y Económicas Departamento de Antropología.
La mas ligera comparacion entre datos — de diferentes etnologos — relatives al « dios del cerro » (uno de los mas importantes dioses andinos), pone de manifiesto el caracter extremadamente contradictorio de esta deidad : Una gran variedad de apariencias, ropajes y conductas sugieren, mas bien, una multiplicidad de entidades religiosas diferentes reunidas arbitrariarriente en un solo nombre (sea wamani, apu, achachila, mallku, etc., segun la region). Considerando, sin embargo, esta diversidad como un conjunto que proviene de un mismo universe micro-semantico, el autor se aproxima a la estructura profunda que le otorgaria su coherencia interna, su logica, y permifiria la manifestacion, a niveles mas superficiales del discurso social, de imageries tan ambiguas e imprecisas.