The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical SystemsNuttall, Zelia
Religion
The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical Systems
With the dual division of the population the seeds of dissension were sown
in Peru as elsewhere. At a certain festival the youths of the upper
lineage encountered those of the lower lineage in trials of strength and
prowess, which sometimes resulted in violence. A certain feeling of
rivalry and opposition must have been thus fostered. Two forms of cult
prevailed: the Inca lords and warriors were associated with the cult of
the Above of which the emblems were golden images of the Creator and of
the Sun, “the lord of day,” to whose power rain and thunder were
attributed. The silver huaca or image of the moon, called Quilla in
Quechua and Pacsa in the Colla dialect, was in the figure of a woman and
was kept under the charge of women, the reason for this being “that the
moon was a woman.” During the festival Situa, one day was dedicated to the
Creator, the Sun and Thunder and another to “the Moon and Earth, when the
accustomed sacrifices and prayers were offered up.” We thus clearly
distinguish a cult of the Heaven and Day presided over by the Inca and a
cult of Earth and Night, whose high priestess was the Coya. She, moreover,
had charge of the embalmed bodies of her predecessors, which were regarded
as sacred and were solemnly carried forth in certain festivals, whilst the
bodies of the defunct Incas were guarded by their successor. The emblems
of both cults were, however, preserved in a single Great Temple, whose
principal doorway looked to the north, a fact of special importance in
connection with what follows.
All authorities, indeed, designate the north as the quarter whence the
foreign culture-heroes came to Peru. “The Incas had a knowledge of the
Creator from the first,” but it was not until the time of the Inca
Yupanqui that the ignorant sun-worship of the primitive inhabitants of the
country was superseded by a firmly established new and superior religion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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