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217 _ Epilogue . . . so this work comes full circle, ending where it first began . . . By consecrating the victim at the Adoratorio—the circular “temple” on the slopes of El Plomo—and by burying him alive in the Enterratorio, the Inkas may have created a myriad of metaphorical rings. They may have bound themselves to the mountain-god in a circle of reciprocal responsibilities that guaranteed the renewal of life: in exchange for the spirit and vitality of the boy, the waqa sent fertility to make their crops bountiful. They may have perpetuated the circulation of water in the region: whereas in winter the deity made it snow, in summer the snow melted and ran together to form the Mapocho River, some of whose waters were tapped for agriculture, and some of which evaporated, starting the process over again. The Cuzqueños also may have sustained a temporal loop: they employed El Plomo and Peladeros to observe the solstices, which marked the beginning, middle, and end of one year, and the start of another. Tied to their everyday calendar was the ritual cycle, which was linked to the agrarian cycle. Very importantly, through the immolation the Inkas may have established a circle of mutual obligations between themselves and a kuraka in the Mapocho Valley: in exchange for the child’s life, which bolstered the local ruler’s authority, he pledged his loyalty to the state. Finally, by means of the El Plomo sacrifice—together with the offering of other victims and a wide assortment of materials on peaks throughout Qulla Suyu—the lords of Cuzco may have drawn a spatial ring around their polity : the oblations symbolically demarcated the imperial borders, making explicit what lands belonged to the state and what peoples were Inka subjects . In conclusion, the effects of the immolation—which were religious, economic, social, and political in nature—may have spread outward from El Plomo like circles expanding concentrically across the surface of a pond. ...

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