Elżbieta Jodłowska

Chiririnka – Blue Omen of Andean Death

This essay is a monographic draft attempt concerning one of the most widely known omens of disease and death throughout the native Andean cultures. Among many signs, interpreted as approaching death, the figure of bluebottle fly called in Quechan chiririnka has a key position, which extends from pre-Colombian times, and its popularity exceeds other similar signs of similar meaning. Up to this date it retains its significance in funerary beliefs and functions in various forms of folklore, especially in songs. At the same time it is also commonly thought to be an incarnation of human soul, what finds resemblance in folk beliefs and tales of mythic characteristics, including tropes found in indigenous eschatology. This essay relies on ethnographic sources, and very important contributions to this topic which can be found in books and essays of José Maria Arguedas.
 

Huascarán – Mythology and Fatality of Peru’s Highest Mountain

Huascarán (6768 m. a.s.l.) – Peru’s highest mountain peak, located in Cordillera Blanca range, standing over fertile and populated since thousands of years Rio Santa valley in the Ancash department. It’s rich mythology, still rarely found among Quechua natives, was shaped in relation with geographical factor of being dominated by a huge seismic activity. Since the ancient times the inhabitants of this region have lived in the shadow of a constant threat, dying in large numbers as a result of earthquakes, enormous avalanches and floods. This study focuses on the mythological narratives and Indian perception of natural disasters, perceived upon broader view of archaic Andean outlook, while at the same time shaped heavily by the cultural trauma. The constant tension between tremendum a fascinans within the perception of Huascarán made impact on the folk theodicy, both core, as well as syncretic folk religiousness. The authors also focus on some of the contemporary forms of mythicization of Huascarán, trying to outline the most important aspects to functioning of this mountain within the culture of the Ancash region.
 

One of South America’s cradles of civilization is the Río Santa Valley lying in the northern part of the Peruvian Andes.  It is an alpine area with settlements located at altitudes from 3000 to 5000 meters above sea level, and its boundaries between the Cordillera Blanca and Cordillera Negra mountain ranges delineate the territory of a specific ethnic group of people who maintain rich historical and ethnographic traditions. Moreover, the great seismic activity to be encountered in this geographical zone plays an important part in shaping their culture. From the dawn of time, the inhabitants of this valley have lived with a constant threat of danger, often perishing as a result of earthquakes, great avalanches, and floods.  On May 31, 1970, a gigantic avalanche came down from the highest peak of Peru, Huascarán, and completely buried two cities, causing the deaths of many thousands of people.  These cities of Yungay remain unearthed, and the entire region has been recognized as a national sanctuary.  Subsequently, among the chapels and crosses erected on the site of the disaster, there appeared a colorful, more than a two-meter-high replica of a quero cup – a sacred libation vessel used for millennia in the Andes, and much favored by the Incas. Tracing the history of this surprising monument, the authors of this article encountered witnesses to an ephemeral indigenous mix between performance and spectacle, which was twice celebrated in the valley – in 1999 and 2001 – and during which the world’s largest raspadilla (or snow cone) was prepared, the oversized quero cup being filled with the resultant mixture of crushed ice and fruit syrups. The performance was thus an unprecedented amalgam of an indigenous „invented tradition” combined with an already long-established celebration of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days.  An anthropological analysis of the ritualized behavior of the participants of the fiesta points to the durability of certain archetypal elements such as a joint feasting with ancestors, ritual sacrifices, and the „eating or consuming a deity”.  It also reveals the esoterically localized (or time-space specific) nature of the event encompassing as it does the psychological mechanisms required for the revitalization of a socio-cultural system when coming to terms with a deep, collective trauma.  The example of the Yungay fiesta thus testifies to, if not proves, the morphological durability of a holy phenomenon, changing historical circumstances notwithstanding.