Transformaciones en la sociedad andina (extracto)

Tomado de: http://www.uvm.edu/~dblom/kolatfin.html

Transformations in Andean Society
A Book Review of Irene Silverblatt's Moon, Sun, and Witches: Gender Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru
Deborah E. Blom
Submitted for Anth 363 Andean Prehistory, Autumn 1992, A. Kolata

Researchers have suggested many possible meanings of the capac hucha. Several of these follow. The sacrifices were often carried out to mark important events such as the beginning and end of the agricultural cycle (McEwan and Van de Guchte 1992, Zuidema 1977/78), during the initiation of young men (MacCormack 1991), or at the inauguration or death of Inca (MacCormack 1991, McEwan and Van de Guchte 1992, Verano 1991). The capac hucha were also a form of tribute to the Inca as they were collected for taxation (Verano 1991), and upon conquest (Zuidema 1982). The capac hucha was also to insure the health of the Inca (MacCormack 1991, McEwan and Van de Guchte 1992, Verano 1991). In addition, McEwan and Van de Guchte (1992:369-70) claim that the capac hucha was a "device for bonding sacred space and ancestral time." Boundaries of the empire and the individual regions were often marked with the shrines of capac huchas (MacCormack 1991). Capac huchas were likely given to the provinces through reciprocity for huacas that made correct prophesies (MacCormack 1991). In another reciprocal exchange, fathers that gave their children as capac huchas were rewarded with a place in the state hierarchy, commonly as curacas (MacCormack 1991, McEwan and Van de Guchte 1992, Zuidema 1982). MacCormack (1991) notes that the capac huchas were always non-Incas. This supports the conquest hierarchy models of Silverblatt. In addition, the aclla-capacocha traveling to and from Cuzco could have symbolically linked the Inca and Cuzco with the people and the four quarters (MacCormack 1991). McEwan and Van de Guchte (1992) claim that the miniature votives further symbolized the Incas' fascination with an ideal, invisible world while the "marriage" symbolized kin relations, alliances and a union of the feminine and masculine dualistic forces. Unfortunately, Silverblatt's focus on the capac hucha is too narrow. Silverblatt's insights regarding dualism would have made for a rich discussion of McEwan and Van de Guchte's (1992) ideas regarding the marriage of capac huchas.