In this drawing by Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala,
men dressed in feathered tunics and plumed
headgear dance as a woman plays a drum.
Guaman Poma de Ayala, Felipe. El primer nueva
corónica y buen gobierno. Edited by John V.
Murra and Rolena Adorno, 301/326. Mexico City:
Siglo Veintiuno, 1980 [1615].Dances were used for work (harvest or sowing, for example), symbolized
battle, and praised the Inca ruler. They were also performed during rites of
passage such as the celebration of a child’s first haircutting (chukcha rutuy),
which took place at weaning; entry into service of the Sun; and passage from
boyhood to manhood (huarachicuy) when boys received their huara, or
breechcloth. The Spanish priest Cristóbal de Molina describes the boys’ dances
as lasting six days and nights, when sacrifices were made to the creator god,
Sun, Moon, thunder, and the ruling Inca, as well as to all the young men newly
armed as warriors. One particular dance during huarachicuy, known as coyo,
was said to have been invented by the Inca ruler Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui. It was
performed to the beat of two drums from hanan (upper) Cuzco and two from
hurin (lower) Cuzco. The dancers wore red tunics (uncu) with a white and red
fringe.
Each area or cultural group had its unique dances and songs, which, according
to the priest and chronicler Bernabé Cobo, changed with the introduction of
Catholic festivals when people began to imitate dances from other regions. One
hundred and twenty years after the Spanish invasion, Cobo wrote of a Corpus
Christi festival in which dancers represented 40 “Indian nations.”
Cobo described various dances: jumping masked men who carried the dried-
out body of an animal (guacon); men and women with painted faces, donning
gold or silver ribbons that hung from ear to ear across the face; farmer’s work
dances (haylli), performed by men with chakitaqlla (footplow) and women with
atuna (adz); weapon-carrying war dances; and circle dances with both men and
women (cachua). Forms of the haylli and cachua are still performed in the
Peruvian Andes today.
The dance for the Inca king, huayyaya, was restricted to the nobility, some of
whom bore royal standards. This dance could comprise up to two or three
hundred men and women who joined hands in a line and processed two steps
forward and one step back in a very solemn manner, to the beat of a large drum,