An Inca mummy is carried on a litter during the
feast of the dead. Guaman Poma de Ayala,
Felipe. El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno.
Edited by John V. Murra and Rolena Adorno,
230/256. Mexico City: Siglo Veintiuno, 1980
[1615].The term ancestor worship refers here to ritualized performances through
which living ayllu members expressed their ongoing relationship with
community forebears. Because these rites served to display group membership
and differentiate groups from each other, they had important political
dimensions. The descendant-ancestor bond was often as much a matter of
affiliation as it was of literal descent; outsiders could adopt ancestors as their
own by participating in their worship, thus defining themselves as members of
the descendant community. Exact genealogical reckoning held importance