Yanantin and Masintin in the Andean World: Complementary Dualism in Modern Peru

3: Of Time and Space

49 CHAPTER THREE Of Time and Space Along the southeast side of Avenida del Sol (“Avenue of the Sun”), not far from the Plaza de Armas, is a 150-foot mural upon which is painted a pictorial representation of the history of Cuzco. Within the boundaries of the mural, illustrations of the city’s past, present, and imagined future roll into one another seamlessly, beginning with images of pre-Columbian times, then transitioning into scenes of the Inca reign, including the sun-honoring festival Inti Raymi. These more joyous images are replaced by brutal scenes of the torture and cultural decimation that took place during the Spanish invasion in the sixteenth century. The next section of the mural shows the Andean people’s resistance to the European invaders, including the battle at the great stone fortress of Sacsayhuaman that overlooks the city. The final portion of the mural shows Peru’s independence from the Spanish in 1821. Here, a group of Cusqueños looks off into the distance, their arms thrown up in joy and optimism. They stand on Inca stonework—a symbol of the literal and figurative foundation of their great city. At the foremost section of the mural, closest to the viewer’s gaze, chapter three 50 a high-cheeked Inca dives forward into the future. The next section of the mural, it is implied, will be entirely his. As well as being a chronicle of Cuzco’s history, the Avenida del Sol mural reflects a prophesy that at some time in the future the runa (indigenous Andeans) will return to power and regain their position as masters of the land (Allen, 2002), establishing “an age of plenty and social harmony” (Classen, 1993, p. 143). Standing at the mural’s center is a depiction of Pachacuteq, the ninth Inca king-hero, whose name translates to “he who turns time-space” (Sullivan , 1988, p. 174). Pachacuteq is honored for having expanded the Inca civilization not only geographically but also spiritually. Amado told me, “He was a leader, a great governor, a prophet, and also a great and powerful healer.” It is from his name that the Andean people get the word pachacuti, which is used to describe a mytho-historical event of great significance. In Quechua, the prefix pacha- represents both time and space simultaneously (Urton, 1981). Cruz (2007) said that in the Andes, “[time and space] cannot be separated. . . . They are like two faces of the same coin. You cannot separate one from the other because the pacha is time, but it is also space” (n.p.). The widespread use of the word pacha in the Quechua language is noteworthy . Used alone, the word has multiple, yet interrelated, meanings. It can refer to a group of related entities (both human and nonhuman) existing in a similar geographic area (Apffel-Marglin, 1998). As noted previously, the Andean cosmos is likewise split into three separate, yet interrelated, pachas—the kay pacha, the ukhu pacha, and the hanaq pacha. The term Pachamama, while often seen as being equivalent to what we in the West would refer to as Mother Earth, is viewed as a multidimensional entity or energy that is both physically present and contained within time. The word pacha is also used to connote certain epochs in history. According to the Andean mythos, the history of the world is made up of a series of 500-year intervals of time called pachas (Allen, 2002). At the end of each 500-year cycle, it is said that the existing pacha ends and a new one begins. The transition time between the pachas is called a pachacuti (Allen, 2002; Classen, 1993; MacCormick, 1991; Sullivan, 1988; Urton, 1999; Wilcox, 1999). The word cuti translates as “revolution” or “turning over/around” (Urton, 1999, p. 41), and it is said that as one pacha or epoch replaces another, a “world reversal” occurs in which existence is turned inside out, Of Time and Space 51 thus revealing its opposite (Allen, 2002; MacCormick, 1991; Sullivan, 1988). In Quechua, the term pachacuti is said to mean “the world is transformed” (José Imbelloni, as cited in Sullivan, 1988, p. 878). In the Aymara language of Bolivia, it translates as “like a time of war” (according to Bertonio, as cited in Sullivan, 1988, p. 878). MacCormick (1991) described a pachacuti as a time when “what is up goes under and what is under comes up” (as cited in...