constitutes the achachila and symbolizes the social and politi-
cal unity of Mount Kaata. Andeans experience the solidarity
of their mountain and ayllu similarly to the way they experi-
ence the organic unity of their corporeal bodies. The individ-
ual’s corporeal life is dependent on environmental life. Thus,
the New Earth rite assures the individual’s organic life by
awakening Mother Earth to provide a good harvest.
RITUAL CALENDAR. Andeans insert themselves by ritual into
the cycles of nature—not to control them, but to experience
them and be in harmony with them. New Earth, for exam-
ple, is the second of three rites dedicated to the rotative field
of the year. Through these three rites the earth is gradually
awakened. One year before planting, the community leaders
study the fertility of the fields lying fallow to see which one
is ready to begin another growth cycle of potatoes, oca, and
barley. A diviner observes nature’s omens and asks the neigh-
boring mountains (achachilas) for their assistance. Once a
field is picked, the people of the ayllu celebrate the rite of
Chosen Field (Chacrata Qukuy) in the middle of the rainy
season. Leaders dance across the field’s terraces to the music
of flutes, and they offer a llama fetus to the earth shrine of
the selected field. The fetus brings new life to the soil, and
thus the field becomes the anointed land for the year. Ande-
ans later fertilize their plots by spreading sheep dung along
the furrows where they will plant potatoes.
The rains continue to soak the anointed field, and near
the end of the rainy season, in April, Andeans prepare to
plow. But before the earth can be entered, it must be nur-
tured by the sacrifice of a grown llama during the rite of New
Earth. With this rite the land is vitalized; it is opened for
water, air, dung, and blood, until the time of Potato Plant-
ing, when it is covered over again. Potato Planting (Khallay
Papa Tarpuna), in mid-November, is the field’s final ritual,
celebrated after the Feast with the Dead. According to Ande-
an legends, the dead push the potatoes up from the inside
of the earth. Also in November, people of lower levels cele-
brate Corn Planting (Khallay Sara Tarpuna), and at Christ-
mastime herders sponsor their herding rituals, All Colors
(Chajru Khallay). Although each rite is concerned with the
animal and plant life of its zone, collectively the rites influ-
ence the corporate life of the ayllu and region, and leaders
from the various communities participate in all of the rituals
of the ayllu and the region.
Between the cycle of the seasons there is a day when an-
cestors return to the community—2 November, the Feast
with the Dead. Ancestor worship remains an important part
of Andean religion. Prior to the conquest, Andeans mummi-
fied the dead by wrapping them in cloth and seating them
in chullpas, which are rock monuments above subterranean
cists. The Incas dressed the mummies of their kings in fine
textiles and kept them in the Temple of the Sun in Cuzco,
where they were arranged in hierarchical and genealogical re-
lationships. Today, Andeans dress the dead person for a jour-
ney, provide him or her with coca, potatoes, corn, and a can-
dle, and bury the deceased in a cemetery near the
community. Traditionally, many Andeans believe that peo-
ple originate from and return to the highland lakes of the
mountain. They compare death to the eclipse of the sun:
Death is ecliptic, hiding the dead within the earth, where
they journey with the movements of the sun, seasons, and
land.
The Feast with the Dead is an annual rite of passage
from the dry to the wet season and from the activity of the
dead to that of the living. The dry season connotes resting;
the wet season, growth. The living invite the dead to a meal
when the harvest and festive times have ended and planting
rituals begin. At this pivotal point in the Andean year, the
dead visit the living, and then they are sent on another year’s
journey with their share of the harvest.
At noon on November 1, the leader of the community
awakens the dead with dynamite, and for twenty-four hours
the dead are served food on tables that usually have three
tiers, symbolizing highlands, central altitudes, and lowlands.
The arrival of a fly or the flickering of a candle signals to the
living that the dead are present. The living and dead share
in a meal and communicate with each other by laments and
prayers. At noon the next day, everyone returns to the ceme-
tery to place more food near the graves. Relatives of the de-
ceased distribute food to friends, who pray for the dead rela-
tives. Later the same afternoon, the fiesta ends with a meal
and drinking.
COSMOLOGY. For Andeans, the finality of death is alleviated
by their ecology. During life, Andeans become part of the
land that they work: As their bodies get older, their land in-
creases. When they die, they enter into the mountain, jour-
ney upward, and have access to the land of the dead. More-
over, the decay of their bodies enriches the land of the living.
The visible levels of the living are only half of the mountain;
the other half consists of the subterranean waterways of the
dead.
The Andeans’ worldview is an extension of the three
mountain levels; they divide their universe into the heavens
(janaj pacha), this world (kay pacha), and the netherworld
(ura pacha). Each place has an ancient, a past, and a present
time, to which specific beings correspond. The heavens are
where the elders of lightning, sun, and stars have dwelled
since ancient times; where God, Jesus, and Santiago have
roamed since past times; and where dead baptized babies are
descending to the uma pacha in present times. By their per-
manent and cyclical features, the heavens suggest origination
and restitution, whereas the experiences of this world are
temporal and consecutive. The three times of this world are
symbolized by chullpas, the cross, and the graveyard, which
refer respectively to the ancestor mummies, Jesus, and the re-
cent dead (those who have died within three years). The an-
cestor mummies and the past and recent dead journey to the
highlands within the subterranean waterways of the nether-
world, which is the recycling area between death and life.
The supaya are dead unable to travel because of some unfin-
ished business. They bridge the gap between the netherworld8618 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS: INDIANS OF THE MODERN ANDES