Encyclopedia of the Incas

the city’s populace, who also sat in rank order. The Inca ruler, together with a
high priest, drank chicha (maize beer) from a large golden beaker and poured
libations for the Creator, the Sun, and Thunder (see Deities; Religion). Then
there came a procession of priests bearing yet more mummified nobility from
Upper and Lower Cuzco. They too were seated in rank order, after which
everyone set to sharing food and drink, singing and dancing together. The Inca
shared chicha with the noble mummies, who consumed it through the persons of
their appointed retainer-priests; the mummies in turn sent beakers of chicha to
the Inca ruler. This pattern repeated among the rest of the participants; thus the
living and dead celebrated together (see Mummies, Royal).
Molina and other observers saw these festivals as excess and debauchery, not
understanding the profound significance of commensality for Andean people
(see Feasts, State-Sponsored). Food sharing was the fundamental expression of
kinship; to eat and drink together was to partake of the same substance. It was
important to include deceased relatives—mallquis—in ayllu commensality; the
retainer-priest’s body provided a conduit through which the animating force of
food and beverage passed to the mummified ancestor. The intoxication and
intense conviviality that shocked Spanish missionaries occurred in this ritual
framework and had the purpose of joining the living and the dead in prosperous,
harmonious community.
The Spanish conquest was profoundly traumatic for the Andean populace in
many respects, not the least of which was the destruction of huacas and
mallquis, along with the requirement that the dead receive Christian burial
within churches and cemeteries. People grieved for their forebears, bereft of
offerings and suffering from hunger and thirst. They found unbearable the idea
that their recently dead kinsmen were weighted down by earth or enclosed in
cramped niches, and went so far as to surreptitiously remove these beloved
cadavers to traditional burial places, and to continue their traditional services
behind the missionaries’ backs. Indeed, some of our best information about pre-
Spanish burial practices and ancestral rites comes from missionaries who
zealously tracked down the would-be mallquis and carried them back for
Christian burial.
Severing the bond between living Andean peoples and their ancestors dealt a
decisive blow to the Inca way of life. Ancestor worship forged connections
among the living and the dead that were fundamental to Inca society and culture.
Bonds between the living and their dead were physical and communicative,
forged through close proximity and commensality. In these collective acts of