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Viracocha
Viracocha (also Wiraqocha, Huiracocha; Quechua Wiraqucha) is the creator and supreme deity in the pre-Inca and Inca mythology in the Andes region of South America. According to the myth Viracocha had human appearance and was generally considered as bearded. According to the myth he ordered the construction of Tiwanaku. It is also said that he was accompanied by men also referred to as Viracochas. It is often referred to with several epithets. Such compound names include Ticsi Viracocha (''T'iqsi Wiraqocha''), Contiti Viracocha, and, occasionally, ''Kon-Tiki Viracocha'' (the source of the name of Thor Heyerdahl's raft). Other designations are "the creator", Viracochan Pachayachicachan, Viracocha Pachayachachi or Pachayachachic ("teacher of the world"). For the Inca the Viracocha cult was more important than the sun cult. Viracocha was the most important deity in the Inca pantheon and seen as the creator of all things, or the substance from which all things are created, and i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inca Mythology
Inca mythology of the Inca Empire was based on pre-Inca beliefs that can be found in the Huarochirí Manuscript, and in pre-Inca cultures including Chavín, Paracas, Moche, and the Nazca culture. The mythology informed and supported Inca religion. One of the most important figures in pre-Inca Andean beliefs was the creator deity Viracocha. During Inca times, Viracocha remained significant - he was seen as the creator of all things, or the substance from which all things are created, and intimately associated with the sea. According to legend, the founder of the Inca Dynasty in Peru and the Cusco Dynasty at Cusco was Manco Cápac. His history is unclear, especially concerning his rule at Cuzco and his origins. In one story, he was the son of Viracocha. In another, he was raised from the depths of Lake Titicaca by the sun god Inti. Commoners were not allowed to speak the name of Viracocha, which is possibly an explanation for the need for three foundation legends rather t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inca Empire
The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca civilisation rose from the Peruvian highlands sometime in the early 13th century. The Portuguese explorer Aleixo Garcia was the first European to reach the Inca Empire in 1524. Later, in 1532, the Spanish Empire, Spanish began the conquest of the Inca Empire, and by 1572 Neo-Inca State, the last Inca state was fully conquered. From 1438 to 1533, the Incas incorporated a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andes, Andean Mountains, using conquest and peaceful assimilation, among other methods. At its largest, the empire joined modern-day Peru with what are now western Ecuador, western and south-central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, the southwesternmost tip of Colombia and Incas in Central Chile, a large portion of modern- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inti
Inti is the ancient Inca mythology, Inca solar deity, sun god. He is revered as the national Tutelary deity, patron of the Inca state. Although most consider Inti the sun god, he is more appropriately viewed as a cluster of solar aspects, since the Inca divided his identity according to the stages of the sun.Conrad and Demarest 1984, pg.108 Worshiped as a patron deity of the Inca Empire, Pachacuti is often linked to the origin and expansion of the Inca Sun Cult.Steele & Allen 2004, pg. 246D'Altroy 2003, pg. 147 The most common belief was that Inti was born of Viracocha, who had many titles, chief among them being the God of Creation ex nihilo, Creation. The word ''inti'' is not of Quechua language, Quechua origin but a loanword from Puquina language, Puquina.Cerrón-Palomino, Rodolfo. (2013). Las lenguas de los incas: el puquina, el aimara y el quechua. Frankfurt, Alemania: Peter Lang Academic Research. Borrowing from Puquina explains why historically unrelated languages such as Q ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unu Pachakuti
In Inca mythology, Unu Pachakuti is the name of a flood that Viracocha caused to destroy the people around Lake Titicaca, saving two to bring civilization to the rest of the world. The process of destruction is linked with a new construction. It has a very deep meaning in the language and traditions. Some people would translate it as "revolution". "The Inca’s supreme being and creator god, Con Tici (Kon Tiki) Viracocha, first created a race of giants, but they were unruly, so he destroyed them in a mighty flood and turned them to stone. Following the deluge, he created human beings from smaller stones. "In other versions of this story, the impious race is the pre-Inca civilization of the Tiahuanaco Americans about Lake Titicaca, the large high lake in the Andes. Viracocha drowns them and spares two, a man and a woman, to start the human race anew. Some versions of the Unu Pachakuti have the surviving man and woman floating to Lake Titicaca in a wooden box." See also *Flood *F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mama Ocllo
In Inca mythology, Mama Ocllo, or more precisely Mama Uqllu, was deified as a mother and fertility goddess. In one legend she was a daughter of Inti and Mama Killa, and in another the daughter of Viracocha (Wiraqucha) and Mama Qucha. In all of them she was the older sister and wife of Manco Cápac (Manqu Qhapaq),de Gamboa, P.S., 2015, History of the Incas, Lexington, whom she established the city of Cusco with. In some variations, she also had a son with him, Sinchi Roca, though all Incan rulers after Manco Cápac were believed to be their descendants."The Life of Pachacuti Inca Yupangui." ''Bilingual Review'', vol. 26, no. 2-3, 2001, p. 149+. ''Academic OneFile''. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tiwanaku
Tiwanaku ( or ) is a Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia, near Lake Titicaca, about 70 kilometers from La Paz, and it is one of the largest sites in South America. Surface remains currently cover around 4 square kilometers and include decorated ceramics, monumental structures, and megalithic blocks. It has been conservatively estimated that the site was inhabited by 10,000 to 20,000 people in AD 800. The site was first recorded in written history in 1549 by Spanish conquistador Pedro Cieza de León while searching for the southern Inca capital of Qullasuyu. Jesuit chronicler of Peru Bernabé Cobo reported that Tiwanaku's name once was ''taypiqala'', which is Aymara meaning "stone in the center", alluding to the belief that it lay at the center of the world. The name by which Tiwanaku was known to its inhabitants may have been lost as they had no written language. Heggarty and Beresford-Jones suggest that the Puquina language is most likely to have been the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kon-Tiki
The ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition was a 1947 journey by raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands, led by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl. The raft was named ''Kon-Tiki'' after the Inca god Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name. Heyerdahl's book on the expedition was entitled '' The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas''. A 1950 documentary film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. A 2012 dramatized feature film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition was funded by private loans, along with donations of equipment from the United States Army. Heyerdahl and a small team went to Peru, where, with the help of dockyard facilities provided by the Peruvian authorities, they constructed the raft out of balsa logs and other native materials in an indigenous style as recorded in illustrations by Spanish conquistadores. The trip began on A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mama Killa
Mama Quilla ( Quechua "Mother Moon", Hispanicized spelling ''Mama Quilla''), in Inca mythology and religion, was the third power and goddess of the moon. She was the older sister and wife of Inti, daughter of Viracocha and mother of Manco Cápac and Mama Uqllu ''(Mama Ocllo)'', mythical founders of the Inca empire and culture. She was the goddess of marriage and the menstrual cycle, and considered a defender of women. She was also important for the Inca calendar. Myths surrounding Mama Quilla include that she cried tears of silver and that lunar eclipses were caused when she was being attacked by an animal. She was envisaged in the form of a beautiful woman and her temples were served by dedicated priestesses. It is possible that word quilla is a borrowing from Puquina language explaining thus why genetically unrelated languages such as Quechua, Aymara and Mapuche have similar words for the Moon. Similitudes are not only linguistic but also symbolical as in Mapuche and Ce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Staff God
In "Southern Andean Iconographic Series" the Staff God pose is a religious icon and a standardized pose reminiscent in its way of the standardized poses in Byzantine art. The pose shows a front-facing human or human-like figure with vertical attributes, one in each hand. There is no uniform representation of a "Staff God". Dozens of variations of "Staff Gods" exist. Some scholars think that some of these personages are possible depictions of Viracocha or Thunupa (the Aymara weather god). However, there is little evidence to support the idea that these front-facing figures do represent deities. Some researchers point to their attributes and spatial organization which seem to indicate that they are ritual practitioners. Some attributes in their hands were identified as Qirus (Andean ritual cups), Snuff trays (used in ceremonial contexts) and Spear-throwers. The "rays" radiating or sprouting out of the faces of Tiwanaku front-facing figures appear to have approximately the value ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quechuan Languages
Quechua (, ), also called (, 'people's language') in Southern Quechua, is an indigenous language family that originated in central Peru and thereafter spread to other countries of the Andes. Derived from a common ancestral " Proto-Quechua" language, it is today the most widely spoken pre-Columbian language family of the Americas, with the number of speakers estimated at 8–10 million speakers in 2004,Adelaar 2004, pp. 167–168, 255. and just under 7 million from the most recent census data available up to 2011. Approximately 13.9% (3.7 million) of Peruvians speak a Quechua language. Although Quechua began expanding many centuries before the Incas, that previous expansion also meant that it was the primary language family within the Inca Empire. The Spanish also tolerated its use until the Peruvian struggle for independence in the 1780s. As a result, various Quechua languages are still widely spoken today, being co-official in many regions and the most spoken language in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quechua Language
Quechua (, ), also called (, 'people's language') in Southern Quechua, is an Indigenous languages of the Americas, indigenous language family that originated in central Peru and thereafter spread to other countries of the Andes. Derived from a common ancestral "Proto-Quechuan language, Proto-Quechua" language, it is today the most widely spoken Pre-Columbian era, pre-Columbian language family of the Americas, with the number of speakers estimated at 8–10 million speakers in 2004,Adelaar 2004, pp. 167–168, 255. and just under 7 million from the most recent census data available up to 2011. Approximately 13.9% (3.7 million) of Peruvians speak a Quechua language. Although Quechua began expanding many centuries before the Inca Empire, Incas, that previous expansion also meant that it was the primary language family within the Inca Empire. The Spanish also tolerated its use until the Peruvian War of Independence, Peruvian struggle for independence in the 1780s. As a result, var ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
