The Study of an Inca Huaca in a Modern Context

Summary

What happens when two imperial ideologies collide? How and why do indigenous objects of worship continue to be sacred 500 years after that collision? After defeating the Inca, the Spaniards during the late sixteenth and seventeenth century attempted to eradicate Inca religion and its influences from the indigenous memory during the famous extirpation of idolatry. While conversion to Christianity was largely successful, it also initiated a process of fusion as Andean elements subtly integrated with Western religious art and ceremonies. Our paper aims to refine and understand the nature of Spanish and Andean syncretism by considering an unnamed huaca, or an Inca sacred object that is still worshipped inside the Cuzco’s cathedral in Peru as a case study. Through data from the chronicles and other documents, we reconstruct the history of this Inca sacred stone and the dynamic process of Andean syncretism since the Spanish invasion. Overall, this poster will sharpen the idea of what a huaca is, how this definition changed over time, and shed necessary light on an important process of transition in Andean culture. As such, it will allow us to identify the emergence of a new hetereoglossic identity in Spanish and modern Peru.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage