states of consciousness, could understand and translate into a verbal message
that was intelligible to the faithful.
Essentially, Andean religion in Inca times was a system of representations and
practices of a strongly aural nature, that is, one which focused on sensing and
interpreting the “voices” emitted by the universe that surrounds humanity. The
huacas, the manifestation as well as the fulcrum of this religion, were conceived
as essentially sonorous sacred entities, and their shrines as spaces where one
went to hear their “voices” (see Oracles). Inca shrines, located at strategic sites
carefully prepared to heighten the perception of the sounds of nature as well as
those produced by different devices and instruments, thus provided intense
auditory experiences, creating, perhaps, the most perfect and generalized case of
acoustic spaces and structures made by an ancient society. Indeed, one of the
most common and striking characteristics of these sacred sites is that they are
located in places that have some natural source of sound, or comprise structures
meant to produce or amplify the sound of flowing water or wafting wind. In this
sense, splendid monumental Inca oracular centers of a pan-Andean nature such
as Titicaca or Pachacamac were simply the largest imperial manifestations of an
institution—the huaca—that lay at the very heart of ancient Andean religion.
Further Reading
Curatola Petrocchi, Marco. “La voz de la huaca. Acerca de la naturaleza oracular y el trasfondo aural de la
religión andina antigua,” In El Inca y la huaca, edited by Marco Curatola Petrocchi and Jan Szeminski.
Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2015.
Betanzos, Juan de. Narrative of the Incas. Translated and edited by Roland Hamilton and Dana Buchanan.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996 [1551–1557].
Demarest, Arthur A. Viracocha. The Nature and Antiquity of the Andean High God. Peabody Museum
Monographs 6. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1981.
Itier, César. Viracocha o el Océano. Naturaleza y funciones de una divinidad Inca. Lima: Instituto Francés
de Estudios Andinos and Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2013.
MacCormack, Sabine. Religion in the Andes: Vision and Imagination in Early Colonial Peru. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Staller, John E., and Brian Stross. Lightning in the Andes and Mesoamerica: Pre-Columbian, Colonial, and
Contemporary Perspectives, New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Steele, Paul R., and Catherine Allen. Handbook of Inca Mythology. Santa Barbara, CA.: ABC-CLIO, 2004.
Ziólkowski, Mariusz S. La guerra de los Wawqui. Los objetivos y los mecanismos de la rivalidad dentro de
la élite inka, siglos XV–XVI. Quito: Ediciones Abya-Yala, 1997.
■MARCO CURATOLA PETROCCHI
DISEASES, FOREIGN
The impact of the so-called Columbian Exchange transformed the Inca Empire.
It was a biological exchange first and foremost, but also an economic and social