The religious role of children in the Andes - Past and Present

CERUTI, CONSTANZA

AmS Skrifter

Museo Arqueologico - Universidad de Stavanger

Lugar: Stavanger; Año: 2010 vol. 21/3 p. 123 - 131

0800-0816

This paper analyzes the religious role of children in the Andes, past and present, from the perspective of archaeology, ethnohistory and ethnography. Five centuries ago, children played a prominent role in the ritual life of the Incas, who were the first and only civilization to construct shrines on the summits of snow-capped Andean peaks, over 6000 meters in elevation. These remote locations became the settings for ceremonies that involved the burial of offerings and exceptionally, the sacrifice of children and young women, whose mummified remains have been discovered and studied by high altitude archaeologists in mountains of Peru, Chile, and Argentina. According to the chroniclers, the purity of the children enabled them to become messengers into the world of the mountain deities. Ethnographic references provide information about the participation of children in contemporary rites of the life cycle, collective agricultural ceremonies and even modern mountain pilgrimage in the Andes. Combined with the diachronic perspective introduced by the archaeological research on the Inca civilization, it is possible to infer Prehispanic roots in many of the rituals that involve children as prayer-tellers, participants or assistants, in the ceremonial life of the Andes today.