Virgin Mary/Pachamama Syncretism: Exploring filial ayni relationship with the Divine Feminine in early-colonial Copacabana, Bolivia

Authors

  • Lynette Yetter Reed College

Keywords:

Pachamama, Virgin Mary, Peru, Bolivia, Colonial, Spanish, Quechua, Aymara, Copacabana, Lake Titicaca, Andes

Abstract

This paper explores an historical event in the sixteenth century when the indigenous people of early-colonial Copacabana, Bolivia exchanged their patron saint Santa Ana for the Virgin Mary. This paper attempts to elucidate why they did this by drawing evidence from Spanish chronicles, archaeology, art history, sixteenth-century Spanish intellectual history, linguistics, and colonial court documents. It has generally been accepted by Andeanists that the Catholic Virgin Mary in the Andes is syncretized with indigenous Pachamama (Mother Earth and space/time continuum). It has been assumed that this syncretism serves as an intermediary between people and a divine father, God. However, history is written by the conquerors. By exploring the point of view of the conquered Andean people it becomes apparent that there was no overarching concept of divine father, and therefore no need for an intermediary. Instead of the Spanish imaginings of a divine court with saints like the Virgin Mary as lawyers and God the Father as judge, the Andean people have viewed themselves as Pachamama's children in a loving and reciprocal family relationship with the sentient landscape.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Lynette Yetter, Reed College

Lynette Yetter is a permanent resident of Bolivia, studied Quechua at UCLA, and is halfway through the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program at Reed College. She has written two books inspired by her experiences living and working with indigenous people in the Andes, Lucy Plays Panpipes for Peace, and 72 Money Saving Tips for the 99%. You can find out more about Lynette's music, movies, books and art at www.LynetteYetter.com.

References

American Museum of Natural History, https://anthro.amnh.org/south. Accessed 10 Apr. 2016.

Betanzos, Juan de. Narrative of the Incas. University of Texas Press, 1996.

Bray, Tamara. “An Archaeological Perspective on the Andean Concept of Camaquen: Thinking Through Late Pre-Columbian Ofrendas and Huacas.” Cambridge Archaeological Journal, Vol. 19(3), October 2009, pp. 357-366.

Cadena, Marisol de la. Earth Beings : Ecologies of Practice across Andean Worlds. Durham, Duke University Press, 2015.

Christian, William A., Jr.. Local Religion in Sixteenth-Century Spain. Princeton University Press, 1981.

Christie, Jessica Joyce. “Inca Copacabana: A Reconstruction from the Perspective of the Carved Rocks.” Anthropos. Bd. 101, H. 1., 2006, pp. 179-201.

---. Memory Landscapes of the Inka Carved Outcrops: From Past to Present. Lexington Books, 2016.

Cobo, Father Bernabe. Inca Religion and Customs, translated by Roland Hamilton, University of Texas Press, 1990.

D'Altroy, Terence N.. The Incas. Second edition, Wiley Blackwell, 2015.

Damian, Carol. “The Virgin of the Andes: Inka Queen and Christian Goddess.” Atlantic World Vol. 10: Women and Art in Early Modern Latin America, edited by Richard Phillips, Brill Academic Publishers, 2006, pp. 73-97.

Dean, Carolyn. “The Inka Married the Earth: Integrated Outcrops and the Making of Place.” The Art Bulletin, Vol. 89, No. 3 (Sep., 2007), pp. 502-518.

Dransart, Peggy. "Cultural Transpositions: Writing about Rites in the Llama Corral." Creating Context in Andean Cultures, edited by Rosalleen Howard-Malverde, Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 85-98.

Garcilaso de la Vega. The Incas: The Royal Commentaries of the Inca, translated by Maria Jolas from the critical annotated French edition edited and introduced by Alain Gheerbrant, Librerias ABC S.A., Lima, 1979.

Guaman Poma de Ayala, Felipe. First New Chronicle and Good Government : On the History of the World and the Incas up To 1615. University of Texas Press, 2009.

Julien, Catherine. Reading Inca History. University of Iowa Press, 2000.

Kirchhoff, Herbert. Bolivia, Its People and Scenery; photographs by Herbert Kirchhoff. Guillermo Kraft Ltda., Buenos Aires, 1944 (1942).

Mesa, Jose de and Gisbert, Teresa. Bolivia Monumentos: Historicos y Arqueologicos. Comisión de Historia del Instituto Panamericano de Geografia e Historia, Mexico, 1970.

Mills, Kenneth. "The Limits of Religious Coercion in Mid-Colonial Peru." Past & Present, No. 145 (Nov., 1994), pp. 84-121.

Pillsbury, Joanne. “Inka Unku: Strategy and Design in Colonial Peru.” Cleveland Studies in the History of Art, Vol. 7 (2002), pp. 68-103.

Ramos Gavilon, Alonso. Historia de Copacabana y de la Milagrosa Imagen de su Virgen,¬ y Compendiada por el P. Fr. Rafael Sans, Cura interino del Santuario y misionero apostolico del Colegio de la Paz, Impresa—Por J. Enrique Del Campo, Lima, 1867.

---. Historia de Copacabana y de la milagrosa imagen de su Virgen. Tercera Edicion, Imprenta de “La Union Catolica,” La Paz, 1886.

Salomon, Frank. "Ancestor Cults and Resistance to the State," Resistance, Rebellion, and Consciousness in the Andean Peasant World, 18th to 20th Centuries. The University of Wisconsin Press, 1987.

Stanfield-Mazzi, Maya. Object and Apparition: Envisioning the Christian Divine in the Colonial Andes. The University of Arizona Press, 2013.

Virgin Cerro. http://for91days.com/photos/Bolivia/Casa%20Moneda%20Potosi/Most-Famous-Painting-Potosi.jpg. Accessed 17 Apr. 2016.

Downloads

Published

2017-12-19

Issue

Section

Articles