Aymara Indian Perspectives on Development in the Andes

Chapter 1. The Aymara: Pre- and Post-Columbian History

1 / The Aymara Pre-­and Post-­ Columbian History Tarapaca, also known as Tunupa (Rivera 1991:28), Thunupa, or Tuapaca, was an Ay­ mara deity. The Indians say that he had such great power that he changed hills into valleys and from valleys made great hills, causing streams to flow from living stone. They called him Maker of all things created, Father of the sun who gave being to men and animals. Tarapaca traveled north along the highlands giving people instructions on how they should live. He spoke to them with love and kindness, admonishing them to be generous and good and to do no harm to one another. In most places, he is known as Ticci Viracocha, but in the province of Collao at Lake Titicaca, he is Tuapaca (Thunupa). The people heard it from their fathers, who in turn had it from the old songs, which were handed down from very ancient times (Osborne 1968:74). In many places, they built temples to Tarapaca; created great statues in his likeness, such as the huge forms at Tiwanaku; and made offerings before them (Figure 1.1). The central fig­ure of the Gateway of the Sun represents this Ay­mara celestial deity, Thunupa, who personifies the elemental natural forces such as the sun, rain, wind, and hail that are intimately associated with the productive potential of Altiplano ecology. He is the embodiment of the lightning and thunder that rips violently across the high plateau in the rainy season. This is the manifold image of Tarapaca, creator-­ spirit and Lord of the Atmosphere, who brings wind and rain, lightning and thunder, life and death (Kolata 1996b:158, 181; 1993:148). ItissaidthatTarapaca’sbodywasplacedinaboatmadeofbundlesofto­toraand 12 / Chapter 1 set adrift on Lake Titi­ caca, where the gentle waters and wind carried him away with great speed. The boat came to the shore at Cochamarca, where it struck the land with such force that it created the river Desa­ gua­ dero. On the water, his body was released many leagues away, to the sea­ coast at Arica (Osborne 1968:87).WithintheAy­mara cosmovision, water is the place of ­ creation and return (MamaniM.1989:90;1996: 233;Bastien1978:215;Ri­vera 1991:4), and the dead travel the road to the sea (Bouysse-­ Cassagne1986:207). This occurred in the former region of Tara­ pacá, which today is Region XV, Arica y Pari­ nacota. Tiwanaku Expansion Most of the valleys in the extreme north of Chile were inhabited by Aymara-­ speaking Colla groups from the Bolivian high plateau at the time of Tiwanaku expansion. This period represented reciprocal influences between the coast and the Altiplano and a large degree of regional integration and development in the south-­ central Andes (Mujica 1985:104–107; Rivera 1975:9). The inhabitants of this country possessed a high level of social organization, evidence of which may be seen in the great ruins of the temples and monuments of Tiwanaku on the south­ ern shore of Lake Titicaca. Tiwanaku’s influence on the west­ ern periphery begins in the coastal valleys in approximately 380 c.e. (Rothhammer 1990:46), and before 1000 c.e., this civilization had achieved considerable size in both mountain and desert regions 1.1. Tuapaca (Thunupa) at Tiwanaku, Bolivia. Photograph by John Amato Pre- and Post-Columbian History / 13 (Murra 1984:123). Its ability to incorporate other societies and ethnic groups into a greater productive whole required balance and power. Tiwanaku was a dynamic mosaic of populations that were linked together by a network of strategic policies and po­ liti­ cal relationships between interrelating and intricate parts, with reciprocal influences traveling between coast and highland (Lynch 1988:1). In the dry valleys of the coastal Atacama Desert, local peoples lived in densely settled villages, where trading with highlanders was practiced for centuries (Kolata 1993:243–245)(Figure1.2).Thenumberofpeople,po­liti­calunity,and regulation of resources were important variables associated with the development of 1.2. Map of areas of Tiwanaku trade and interaction in the south-­ central Andes. Courtesy of Alan Kolata 1993 14 / Chapter 1 vertical control of multiple eco­ logi­ cal levels in the Andean region. Ti­ wa­ naku anditsideologyexpandedovermuchofnorth­ernChile,particularlyinthewest­ ern valleys, which were in direct contact with the core area of the Titicaca basin. Altiplano people had access to the valleys of the west­ ern Andean slopes and to the ravines and oases of the coastal desert as part...