

BETWEEN THE SIMPLE AND THE COMPLEX: THE DUALITY IN THE ANDEAN WORLD In order to understand the way of thinking and the religious and politic practice in the Andean world we have to bring near their myths, because they translate the inner structure of their logic and at the same time they bring us far from the deceitful explanations made based in the traditions and faiths Christian-Jewish.The God Viracocha, according to Cieza de Leon -and many other chronicles- was a "white tall man with appearance of authority and reverence". With this description this deity did not correspond to a native vision, but to a Spanish one. Keeping the track of the chronicles about the presence of a pair of Viracochas -being this a more Andean model- there is a couple named Imaymana Viracocha and Tocapu Viracocha. According to the myth Imaymana outfit his properties to the plants in his magic-healing aspect. The term Tocapu, as long as in aymara as in quechua, is related with fine and rich textiles with geometric designs which seem to be some kind of language or information code. It may be possible that God Viracocha was an old southern deity pertaining to an ethnic group or a displaced faction because of the victory of Pachacutec over the Chancas. In fact, the chroniclers mentioned that the priests of Viracocha were plotted to give to the Chancas Cusco city, after leaving the city the regnant Inca. With the triumph of Pachacutec, the situation of the priests turned precarious, and they were declared as "betrayers". God Viracocha lost his privileges and he was replaced by the adoration of the Sun, and the Inca proclaim himself as his son. In the Tawantinsuyu Empire, the Sun had lands intended to his cult along all the territory ruled by the Inca. In this fields grew mainly corn, main product used to prepare the beverages for the ceremonies. Chronicler Father Cobo tells that the Sun descended from the sky and put three eggs, one of gold, the second one of silver and the third one of copper. From the gold one appear the curacas, from the silver one their women, and from the copper the common people or "hatun runa" with their women. Again the male duality arises, but it is also clear the female presence which determinates the "trinity". In the "ceques" (imaginary lines) system of Cusco, the forty one lines were classified in three groups: "collana", "payan" and "cayao". "Collana" means "the oldest"; the term "payan" was applied to royal women when the speaker is a male; finally, "cayao" may be consider as the "youngest" in opposition to "collana". It is necessary to understand that the first and last categories had a male connotation, while the second one had a female reference and presented herself as a mediator category between the others. We could see the presence of two different models that derivates from the main dual organization model: the cuatripartition and the tripartition. Every day this was reflected on the presence of two curacas for every ethnic group, each one accompanied with a "brother" or "yanapac", making a total of four curacas. THE INCA DUALITY It is known that the dual political organization existed between the Incas. From the myths of the beginning of the empire in Cusco, two were the Ayar brothers arriving to the future capital city. Ayar Auca, "the warrior", after the magic rod embedded itself in the land, flied to the place and transformed himself into a sacred stone. Preceding him was Ayar Manco with his two wifes: Mama Huaco, the bellicose and free woman and Mama Ocllo, the fireside woman; both of them are the archetype of Andean women. In this way, the Inca duality existed from the beginning of the Inca civilization, shown in the two halves of Cusco city: hanan and hurin. Santillan chronicler referred a "Royal Council" which was the Spaniard way to express the Andean custom of the dual power. Proving the presence of the myths in the male duality of the gods, it is a logical though that those faiths and their classifications were projected in the sociopolitical system. Definitely, the chiefs and Andean authorities were duals, not only the curacas, but also the army generals. THE CURACAS GOVERNMENT According to the information of the chroniclers and colonial documents, it is known that a great number of curacazgos (territories ruled by curacas) were divided in two halves. Each half was ruled by a curaca; in this way both had the responsibility of manage the "curacazgo" (curaca government). However, in some documents the Spaniards called to the second half as a "second person", subordinating him after the "main curaca". The meaning that the Spaniards gave to this form of political organization is clearly explained in the entitle document: Description and relation of La Paz city which says: "(.) this natives were ruled by the Inca's dispositions, this was pointed in each town by a leader named "curaca", each territory had two ayllus or sides named Hanansaya (upper side) and Hurinsaya (lower side) in each one there were a main curaca and a second one named yanapaque (helper or partner), these had other people in charge called "hilacatas" each hilacata had a hundred natives under their control and each one of this hundred had ten more below. |