describes another version of this dance performed on the day of the ruler Huayna
Capac’s birth, when 200 people danced with a thick, long golden chain. He
explains that the Inca prince Huascar received his name in memory of this chain
(huasca).
Many dances were performed to the rhythm of a single, large or small,
individually held huancar drum (hollow log drum covered with llama skin).
Dancers wore ankle shakers made of large, colored beans (zacapa); silver and
copper, cup-shaped bells (chanrara); and sea shells (churu). Cobo notes that
these gave way to European bells, whose sound Andean peoples preferred. The
native chronicler Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala depicts ankle shakers worn by
a chunchu dancer from Antisuyu, the tropical, forested quarter of the empire.
Guaman Poma’s drawing shows one of the few dances that has maintained
continuity through time and is still danced today during patron saint festivals.
Further Reading
Cieza de León, Pedro de. The Incas of Pedro de Cieza de León. Translated by Harriet de Onis. Edited by
Victor Wolfgang von Hagen. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1959 [1553–1554].
Molina, Cristóbal de. Account of the Fables and Rites of the Incas. Translated and edited by Brian S. Bauer,
Vania Smith-Oka, and Gabriel. E. Cantarutti. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011 [1575].
■HOLLY WISSLER
DEITIES
The Incas worshipped two kinds of deities: a few high gods of the sky and the
sea, belonging to the state religious pantheon and decidedly political in nature,
and myriad sacred entities of the terrestrial landscape, known as huacas and
closely connected to the everyday and social life of individuals and groups. At
the height of the Inca pantheon there was the triad formed by Inti (the Sun),
Viracocha (a mythological figure ranging between a Creator and a civilizing
hero), and Illapa (the god of Thunder and Lightning).
Inti was the tutelary god of the Empire. He was believed to be the ancestor of
the Inca dynasty, and for this reason the Incas called themselves Intip churin
(children of the Sun). He was also linked to the growth and maturing of crops,
particularly maize, a major staple food of Andean people. The leading festivals
in the Inca ritual calendar were held during the solstices and marked the growth
cycle of maize. In the Coricancha, Inti’s shrine in Cuzco, a small sacred field
was devoted to maize and adorned with life-size, golden maize plants during the
festivals marking sowing, harvest, and the annual initiation rites of noble Cuzco
youths. A statue of Punchao (day, or young Sun), the most sacred image of the