Taki Onqoy and Idolatrous Dances: Archaeological Approaches to an Underground Religious Rebellion

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Rising Up Against Authority: Archaeological Approaches to Rebellion" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Though the term rebellion connotes direct, violent uprisings to authority, resistance of disenfranchised peoples can take subtle or indirect forms such as religious revitalization or rejection of dominant or colonizer cultural practices. In the 16th century central Peruvian Andes, Taki Onqoy (Quechua: dancing/singing sickness) practitioners discreetly rejected Catholicism and instead opted to revitalize their Indigenous huaca (Quechua: landscape deity) veneration through ritual drinking, dancing, and chanting. Materially, these more ephemeral practices often lack clear archaeological signatures and have been deemed impossible to research, particularly compared to violent rebellions, which typically leave behind weapons, deceased individuals, fortifications, or evidence of wide scale destruction. In this presentation, I argue that through creative applications and interpretations of archaeological evidence (spatial analysis considering invisibility, the materiality of ritual dances, and archaeologies of performance), scholars interested in rebellion can and should consider these more indirect forms of resistance. More broadly, investigation into revitalization movements can lend critical insight into contemporary political and religious factions, perhaps allowing for better understanding of our current world.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Rising Up Against Authority: Archaeological Approaches to Rebellion   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51002