In terms of cultural geography, South America
can be divided broadly in two. The Andean cordillera, including its foothills
and Pacific seaboard, was home to a succession of civilized states culminating
in the Inca Empire that dominated the region in the century before the Spanish
Conquest. By contrast, in the vast Amazonian rainforest and in other areas
outside the orbit of the Andean civilizations, a scattered population was
divided into many different tribal groups, each with its own myths and
religious customs. Rainforest and Andean mythologies share certain elements,
however, such as the symbolism associated with jaguars.
Throughout South America, as in Native North
American mythologies, every part of the physical universe was potentially inhabited
by spirits, or in some way spiritualized. In Andean cultures, an ancient belief
in sacred places, or huacas—typically mountains, springs, caves, and
rocks—persists to the present day, and sacred pilgrimages to huacas or shrines
remain an important part of life.
Andean Region
The mythologies of the pre-Inca civilizations of
the region can be only vaguely reconstructed from artistic iconography and
artefacts. In the period c. 900 to 200 BC,
the Chavín culture flourished in what is now west-central Peru. Chavín art
presents powerful images of supernatural figures, such as the so-called
“Smiling God” with bulging eyes and feline fangs, and the “Staff God”, who has
a downturned, fanged mouth and carries an elaborate staff in each hand. Chavín
animal imagery suggests the influence of rainforest mythologies. At Tiahuanacu,
a city and ceremonial centre near Lake Titicaca that flourished in the mid-1st
century AD, a figure who seems to
be related to the Chavín Staff God is known as the “Weeping God”. Carved on the
lintel of the Gateway of the Sun, he too holds a staff in each hand; he is
crowned with feline heads and seems to be weeping. Further north, on the
Pacific coast of Peru, the Moche culture flourished during the 1st century AD. Its capital, Moche, was dominated
by two massive ceremonial pyramids, the so-called Huaca del Sol (Pyramid of the
Sun) and Huaca della Luna (Pyramid of the Moon), which are so vast that the
first European observers believed them to be natural landscape features. Moche
deities are probably represented by painted figures on pottery—for example a
half-man, half-crab being, or an animal solar deity.
Gold had a special spiritual significance in
South American religions, quite different from the almost wholly material value
placed on it by Europeans. It was associated with life-energy and the Sun, and
golden objects played an important role in worship. The Spanish conquistadors
were captivated by the legend of El Dorado (“the Gilded One”), which came to
symbolize the hidden riches of South America. This legend derives from a ritual
practised on Lake Guatavita, Colombia, in which a new ruler was covered from
head to foot in gold dust and carried on a raft to the centre of the lake,
where offerings of gold were thrown into the water.
The Inca Empire (1438 to 1532) extended almost
the whole length of the Andes and Pacific coast. Its legendary founder was
Manco Capac (“Son of the Sun”), who was believed to have emerged from a cave with
his three brothers and the ten Inca clans. His father, the Sun god Inti, told
him to found his capital where a golden staff could be plunged into the ground
until it vanished. Once located, this spot became the site for the Inca city
Cuzco, which was reputedly laid out on a symbolic plan in the form of a jaguar.
The chief Inca deity was Viracocha, the primal
creator. He created the first world and peopled it with giants that he had made
from stone. After this world had been destroyed by a great flood, Viracocha
made humans from clay and sent them to Earth, which they entered through caves,
lakes, and hills. Viracocha then brought the Sun, Moon, and stars into being
out of the Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca.
Just below Viracocha in the Inca pantheon were
the Sun god Inti, the Moon goddess Mama Kilya, and the thunder god Ilyapá'áa.
Inti was the mythical ancestor of Inca rulers, and his cult centred on the
great temple of Coricancha in Cuzco. Here the image of the god and the walls of
the temple itself were covered in sheet gold. Ilyapá'áa was also worshipped at
Coricancha. He was believed to release rain for the crops by breaking a
celestial jug, which had been filled from the river of the Milky Way, with a
slingstone. Mama Kilya was the wife and sister of Inti and the Incas' ancestral
mother.
As in Mesoamerica, calendrical calculations
played an important role in Inca religion, whose two main festivals fell at the
winter and summer solstices. Celestial bodies were closely observed as well as
venerated. The Pleiades watched over the agricultural cycle, while other stars
and constellations were associated with the prosperity of the flocks of llama
that were all-important to the Andean economy.
Amazonian Region
In the 20th century much work has been done by ethnologists
collecting and analysing the mythologies and folklore of the different peoples
who inhabited the tropical forest region of South America. As in Native North
American mythology, the boundaries separating human life from animals on one
hand and spirits on the other are blurred. The mediating figure of the shaman
is all-important, and shamans are often thought to assume the form of a jaguar.
In a story told by the Bororo people of Brazil,
Jaguar marries a chief's daughter. One day Jaguar goes away, warning his wife
to beware of his mother, Caterpillar. In his absence, however, Caterpillar
succeeds in making the young woman laugh so much that she dies. On Jaguar's
return, he removes still-living twins from his wife's womb and burns
Caterpillar to death.
Many myths focus on the origins of human
society, and the activities of creator or ancestor figures and culture heroes.
In the origin myth of the Chibcha of Colombia, the primal deity first emerged
as light. The first creatures were birds, who flew over the world spreading
light from their beaks. The first humans were made by the Sun and Moon—the man
from clay, the woman from reeds. Another common theme is the explanation of how
the world came to be ordered as it is; myths evoke earlier ages when the present
scheme of things was reversed—when, for example, women rather than men ruled
and animals behaved as humans.
