INCA.pptx

2014

The inhabitants of the Pre-Columbian world created numerous religious belief systems, many of which included huge pantheons of deities, human sacrifice, and state controlled worship. The Andeans, and the Incas in particular, had a unique world view in which natural features -- mountains, springs, rivers, and hills -- were sacred. The entire universe was considered "an animate being, a living entity," created by higher powers that exercised continual control. (Jones, p.124, 2010) The Inca "worshiped their ancestors and features of the landscape;" weather and natural phenomena were logical foci of prayers and offerings.

A Jungian analysis of the Quiche Maya creation myth the Popol Vuh

2011

This investigation grew from an experience of living among the modern Maya for about seven years in the first decade of the new millenium, during which many fond hours were spent teaching in the classroom as well as shepherding students down Guatemala's less-traveled back roads. Seeing the Maya area in its authenticity from atop temples under starry skies and beside smoky, three-stone hearths within mountain abodes instilled a profound respect for the modern, indigenous peoples of Central America and the ancestors to whom they are related-I can only hope that this sentiment is communicated in the pages that follow. Like my experience in Guatemala, this study veers off the beaten path in an attempt to uncover the hidden and the sacred. I am indebted to many influential people who led me to undertake this investigation and saw to its completion. Credit should be given to Dr. Nikolai Grube, whose enthusiastic portrayal of the underworld journey and rebirth of the Maize Lord during a workshop in Antigua Guatemala in 2005 convinced me to further explore this theme and attempt to reconstruct its chronology within this work. Dr. Judith Maxwell and the Kaqchikel-Mayan language program, Oxlajuj Aj, were also instrumental in the decision to pursue further studies. At the University of Texas, Dr. Brian Stross was tremendously supportive of my interest in addressing difficult questions regarding Mesoamerica's most ancient beliefs and provided excellent guidance. Dr. David Stuart was nothing short of the very best resource for the most current readings of Maya hieroglyphs, while Dr. Julia Guernsey recommended valuable perspectives and theory as to the best approaches to interpreting belief systems across large spans of time and between different cultural groups. I would also like to acknowledge the goals of Dr. vi Charlie Hale and the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS), whose encouragement of an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving, as well as a perspective which attempts to see -eye to eye‖ with indigenous sources of knowledge, are fundamental to the interpretations made herein. To my family and friends, former and future students, and those in the Maya area who I have met along the way, I sincerely thank you for your inspiration.

Research, 2024

New findings indicated that the Andean panel in the Inca Sun Temple was a relic of an ancient drawing now dated 13,000–15,000 years old. The drawing was an Atlas of Heaven and Earth that contained astronomy, geography, weathering, calendars, and a stratified society. The atlas was seamlessly integrated with dualistic cosmology, religion, ideology, and philosophy. The atlas contained the “Five Divine Stars” of the Sun, the Moon, Rising Venus, Setting Venus, and Polar Star Vega in 12,000 BC. Its “Four Sacred Asterisms” on the ecliptic were the southern Bird, the northern Snake/Turtle, the western Tiger, and the eastern Dragon. Since the atlas was created, the North Pole has turned 180 degrees on the circle of precession. In the east, there were mountains, monsoon, and thunder. In the west, an easterly running river drained a lake or lagoon into the sea. The atlas had several metaphors. Examples were Genesis of Seven Days Creation, Life Cycles, Andean Cross, later Mayan Eight-Sided Cross, and Chinese Yin Yang Eight Gua. Heaven was round, Earth was square, and the stratification of mankind was a mandate of the Creator. The two calendars had 13 months and four seasons. One of them was a Sidereal calendar with 365 days in a year and used Antares for the start of a year and conjunctions with the moon. The other Solar Lunar Calendar had three Leap “Back” Months for alignment with the solar circle. Fu Xi (ca 5,324 BC) composed Chinese dualistic religion based on its drawing. Its contents were also found in China, Japan, Koreas, Incans, Mayans, etc., and to some degree in Bronze Age Mesopotamia, India, and Egypt. Its birthplace was assumed to be in Paleolithic East Asia, but its exact location was unknown.

Global Forum on Arts and Christian Faith, 2023

In his travels through the Amazon during 1850, the renowned English naturalist Russell Wallace, coauthor with Charles Darwin of the theory of evolution, was the first to describe this legend: "One of their most singular superstitions is about the musical instruments they use at their festivals, which they call the Jurupari music. These consist of eight or sometimes twelve pipes, or trumpets, made of bamboos or palm-stems hollowed out, some with trumpet-shaped mouths of bark and with mouth-holes of clay and leaf. Each pair of instruments gives a distinct note, and they produce a rather agreeable concert, something resembling clarinets and bassoons" (Wallace 1890). This draws my attention how Wallace engages in conversation with the natives and asks them about a creator God. He writes, "I cannot make out that they have any belief that can be called a religion. They appear to have no definite idea of a God if asked who they think made the rivers, and the forests, and the sky, they will reply that they do not know, or sometimes that they suppose it was 'Tupanau,' a word that appears to answer to God, but of which they understand nothing" (Wallace 1890). From my experience living in the Amazon jungle and sharing life with different communities, I can attest that the term Tupanau is used for the creator God of the universe-especially among the Ticuna tribe, who recognize the God of the Bible as Tupana. The SIL Ticuna-Castilian dictionary, compiled by Doris and Lambert Anderson, contains hundreds of examples using the word Tupana (Anderson 2017). Wallace continues his story by trying to explain the meaning of the word Jurupari, with which our study legend was baptized: "They have much more definite ideas of a bad spirit, 'Jurupari,' or Devil, whom they fear and endeavour through their Pagés to propitiate. When it thunders, they say the 'Jurupari' is angry, and their idea of natural death is that the 'Jurupari' kills them. At an eclipse they believe that this bad spirit is killing the moon, and they make all the noise they can to frighten him away" (Wallace 1890).