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Sacred Mountains in the Highlands of the South-Central Andes
Author(s): Victoria Castro and Carlos Aldunate
Source: Mountain Research and Development, 23(1):73-79. 2003.
Published By: International Mountain Society
DOI: 10.1659/0276-4741(2003)023[0073:SMITHO]2.0.CO;2
URL:
http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1659/0276-
4741%282003%29023%5B0073%3ASMITHO%5D2.0.CO%3B2
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The sacredness of Andean Mountains
Hills played an important role in the lives of the
Andean peoples, as established from documents from
the 16th and 17th centuries (Cobo 1890; Arriaga 1968).
The Incas established sacrificial practices on the peaks
of certain mountains, especially in the southern part of
the empire, the Kollasuyu region, which are currently
being studied by Andean archaeologists (Mostny 1957;
Reinhard 1983a; Beorchia 1987; Ceruti 1997).
Benson and Donnan have suggested that the signifi-
cance of mountains in Andean ideology dates back at
least to the beginning of the first millennium of our
era. According to Benson (1972), there was a principal
deity among the Moche people who dwelled in the
mountains and is represented on their pottery. Donnan
(1978) reaffirms the idea of the importance of hills in
Moche culture on the basis of the number of times and
the variety with which mountain scenes are depicted on
their vessels. Several authors have suggested that the
“Nasca lines” on the southern coast of Peru are related
to hills and mountains (Morrison 1978; Reinhard
1983b), establishing sacred directions. In the high-
lands, Garcilaso de la Vega, referring to the Inca con-
quest of the Kollasuyu locality of Cac Yauiri, states that
the villagers went to a hill considered sacred because of
its solitude and beauty and offered sacrifices. They
sought succor from it so that, as their God, it would
protect them and deliver them from their enemies
(Garcilaso de la Vega 1943 [1609], 133).
Today, worship of the mountains is a widespread
practice in the Andean universe. Andean peoples
believe that certain divinities dwell in the hills. Martínez
(1983) noted that divinities in some parts of Peru are
called awkillu (Huanuco), in others wamani (Ayacucho),
apu farther south (Cuzco), and machula, achachila, or
mallku in different regions of Bolivia. Despite the diversi-
ty in Quechua and Aymara names and the many local
manifestations of divinities, they fulfill such similar pur-
poses and share such similar features that it is feasible to
consider them a single Pan-Andean entity.
The hill deities have some or all of the following
characteristics: (1) in certain regions they are consid-
ered founders of communal lineages, related to people
recently and more distantly deceased; (2) they are
sometimes ranked according to the height of the hill;
(3) their attributes have a local or regional character or
both; (4) they may frequently fulfill a specialized func-
tion; and (5) they provide the products and values that
sustain human life. They are thus objects of various sea-
sonal and daily rites held on special occasions (Metraux
1967; Bueschler 1971; Martínez 1976; Aldunate et al
1982). These examples illustrate that mountains, as sig-
nificant elements of the earth (Pachamama), are among
the most sacred places in the Andes.
Mariscotti (1978) has carried out extensive
research on Pachamama and concepts linked to the
land, centered mainly on the Atacama puna of north-
west Argentina, which also includes the inhabitants of
the Salar de Atacama in Chile (villages of Socaire and
Peine). In other communities of this Chilean area, hills
and volcanoes are believed to have different origins: the
former are considered as stars that descended to the
earth and became hills, and volcanoes are considered
to regulate the functioning of the earth because there
are volcanoes of fire (eg, Licancabur), water (eg, San
Pedro), and wind. The last two are held largely respon-
sible for storms and rain (Castro and Martínez 1996).
The high canyons of Atacama:
Landscape and inhabitants
Our research was carried out in the Atacama puna. The
Andean term puna, which refers to highlands and their
Drawn by the rich pre-
Columbian legacy of
the region, we studied
the prehistoric groups
of peoples who have
settled in the high
canyons of Atacama
(above 3000 m), on
the western slopes of
the South-Central
Andes, for the past
30 years. The traditional culture of the present-day indige-
nous Andean population enabled us to interpret the mate-
rial remains left by pre-Columbian peoples, especially their
particular way of understanding and occupying the land,
knowledge of its flora and fauna, beliefs related to the
sacredness that permeates all aspects of their lives, and
their way of inhabiting the landscape that surrounds them.
Ethnographic research is a priority in the highlands of
northern Chile because the harnessing of water for indus-
trial and urban use has dramatically reduced extensive
areas of pastureland, springs, and streams. This progres-
sively restricts the possibility for flora, fauna, and humans
to survive in traditional settlements and stimulates grad-
ual, forced migration toward the urban enclaves of the
desert. Our research aims to present some aspects of our
archaeological and ethnographic work and, especially, to
explore ideological aspects related to the mountains in
this region, from pre-Hispanic to the present.
Keywords: Sacred mountains; Atacama; ethnographic
research; chullpas.
Peer reviewed: October 2002. Accepted: November
2002.
Sacred Mountains in the Highlands
of the South-Central Andes
Victoria Castro and Carlos Aldunate
73
Mountain Research and Development Vol 23 No 1 Feb 2003: 73–79
Victoria Castro and Carlos Aldunate
Mountain Research and Development Vol 23 No 1 Feb 2003
74
vegetation, has been adopted by geographers and
botanists to describe the landscape of these Andean
highlands (Custred 1977). In our area, the puna rises
within one of the most arid deserts in the world, which,
interrupting the valleys, prevents them from reaching
the sea, except for the Loa River that flows 420 km to
the Pacific Ocean. In general, the canyons of the puna
are only habitable beginning at 3000 m. They are natu-
rally related to the highlands of southern Bolivia and
northwestern Argentina, which have similar conditions,
forming a kind of island known as the Atacama puna.
The cultures of the inhabitants of these territories
were closely linked from early times, although the pop-
ulation was widely dispersed over this vast area of the
South-Central Andes (Lumbreras 1981). At present,
these peoples maintain strong blood and trade ties,
despite the political boundaries that separate them into
3 different countries (Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina).
We conducted archaeological and ethnographic
research in the districts of Caspana, Toconce, Ayquina,
and Cupo, which are still inhabited by indigenous peo-
ples (Figure 1). Each of these communities inhabits a
village and works on small farms located nearby. They
also own scattered farms, dwellings, and corrals related
to their pastoral way of life, which they manage in an
extensive communal territory that they recognize as
their own. From family ties and traditions, we were able
to ascertain that these 4 communities are closely linked,
with at least 3 of them having a common origin.
These districts are characterized by a steep,
inclined plane of rhyolite surrounded by tall volcanoes
to the north and east, with numerous canyons that carry
water from the volcanic glaciers. The vegetation
changes with the altitude. Vegetation is practically
absent at 4500 m, and below this level there is a sparse
growth of cushion-like plants to an altitude of about
4200 m, where they give way to a layer of vegetation
dominated by high-altitude grasses of the Stipa and Fes-
tuca genera that grow down to an altitude of 3850 m.
Between this altitude and 3000 m, there is a rich and
varied covering of Cactaceae and bushes of the Baccha-
ris, Chuquiraga, Parastrephia, Adesmia, Fabiana, and Acan-
FIGURE 1 Location map of
the study area. (Map by
Fernando Maldonado and
Andreas Brodbeck)
Research
75
tholippia species among others (Aldunate et al 1981),
which becomes progressively sparser to 2700 m, where
absolute desert dominates the landscape all the way to
the sea. After the summer rains, the high canyons are
densely covered by seasonal short-lived plants.
These vegetation strata are known to local inhabi-
tants by names that refer to the physiognomy of the
landscape. The highest layer, which corresponds to the
almost bare peaks of the mountains and volcanoes, goes
by the name panizo, or “mineral deposit,” because it
“gives birth to minerals.” The next strata is pajonal, or
“place abounding in straw,” referring to the tough
grasses that dominate the landscape. This is followed by
tolar, an indigenous collective name that refers to the
varied species of shrubs that dominate this stratum. The
lower limits of vegetation, where the tolar becomes
sparser and less varied and the landscape becomes a
plain, is called pampa, a Quechua word meaning “vast
plain” (Aldunate et al 1981).
When local inhabitants refer to the way they use
this landscape, they use the terms cerro (hill), campo
(farmland), and chacra (small farm), which sometimes
include several strata of vegetation. Cerro includes pani-
zo and pajonal and is associated with sacred and reli-
gious elements, as well as pastureland for llamas and
alpacas. Campo includes the entire tolar, composed of
shrubs that are the basic source of food for herds of lla-
mas, alpacas, sheep, and goats. Chacra is another eco-
nomic unit of vital importance associated with the vil-
lage. It consists of artificial terraces with irrigation sys-
tems that have been built into the sides of canyons,
where space has been made to cultivate corn, alfalfa,
quinoa, and other products that grow at this altitude in
the Andes (Aldunate et al 1981).
Knowledge of vegetation is noteworthy because
local people recognize and have names for 89% of the
134 species of native flora registered in this area. Most
plants are used for forage (61.9%), followed by those
used for medicinal purposes (27.6%), food (14.9%),
fuel (11.2%), and rituals (3%). Most forage plants
belong to the tolar level, allotted for grazing, which has
the largest variety of vegetable species. The medicinal
species are found at all levels but especially at the cerro.
The medicinal value of the plants increases in relation
to altitude. Thus of the 9 species that grow in the pani-
zo, 6 species (66%) are said to have the greatest healing
powers. This is similar for plants used in rituals and cer-
emonies. Species used as food or fuel are quite evenly
dispersed (Aldunate et al 1981).
We also studied ethnozoology at different ecologi-
cal levels in this region (Castro 1986). In this context,
vernacular taxonomies concerned with categories such
as difference in color, distinction between wild and
domestic, and certain kinds of symbolic features with a
special sacred connotation are relevant (Castro 1986).
In particular, in this study, we refer to the last catego-
ry—animals considered “beasts of burden” that carry
wealth from the masculine hills that provide them to
the feminine mountains that deliver them to humans
for their use (Castro and Varela 1992; see Table 1).
These “beasts of burden,” associated with wealth,
belong largely to and live on the panizo or cerro. They
are the vicuña (Vicugna vicuña), guanaco (Lama guani-
coe), taruka (Hippocamelus antisiensis), eagle (Harpyhali-
aetus solitarius), condor (Vultur gryphus), and guaicho
(Agriornis sp) (Fjeldsa and Krabbe 1990). The different
species of felines associated with the cerro also have spe-
cial symbolic significance. They have been present for
thousands of years in Andean ideology because of their
special abilities as predators. Significant in this regard
are the Hatun michi or puma (Felis concolor), which preys
on young vicuñas and guanacos, and the Quispa michi or
wildcat (F. jacobita and F. colocolo), a smaller feline that
preys on vizcachas and other rodents.
Digging up beliefs
In the final years of the 10th century AD, a number of
settlements with similar characteristics appeared in the
high canyons of Atacama. Villages were built in a well-
established farming and pastoral economy, and the
landscape was occupied in a way similar to the tradition-
al pattern described for present-day settlements. Vil-
lages located above 3000 m displayed features that
reveal a close relationship with neighboring lands in
the eastern altiplano. Particularly noteworthy here was
the presence of chullpas, small stone towers with a circu-
lar or rectangular base, with a “window” or opening in
the wall, frequently found in constructions in the high-
lands at that time (Aldunate and Castro 1981; see Fig-
ure 2). Chullpas have often been described in the Boli-
vian highlands in relation to funeral ceremonies, specif-
ically as burial places. In some areas, they were used
until the Inca period. The famous Sillustani chullpas in
the Titicaca highlands were used as graves for the elite
of the Kollasuyu kingdom in Inca times. They display a
characteristically excellent masonry.
In studying this society, which shows features simi-
lar to those of its Atacamenean neighbors as well as par-
ticular links to the peoples of the neighboring southern
highlands of Bolivia, especially to those in Sud Lípez,
we focused our archaeological research on trying to
unearth the mechanisms that influenced relationships
in Toconce (Castro et al 1984). One of the elements we
had to include was analysis of the pre-Hispanic settle-
ment of Likan, a complex unit that had a particular way
of understanding space.
The village of Likan is located on top of a small
promontory that drops abruptly into the Toconce River
canyon and is surrounded by a wall similar to the ones
Victoria Castro and Carlos Aldunate
Mountain Research and Development Vol 23 No 1 Feb 2003
76
described in the Bolivian highlands by Hyslop (1976).
Its residential area includes more than 200 dwellings
established on the northern side of the hill. Higher up
on the same side, just above the village and surround-
ing the summit, are some 70 cavities in the rock that
were used as graves. Above this level, separated by a
stone wall, is the summit with 74 chullpas. A sizeable
stone road crosses the village and reaches the summit.
Between the cemetery and the chullpas sector there are
examples of rock art, especially petroglyphs.
When excavating the chullpas located at the top of
the promontory, we found that none of them contained
human remains that would prove that they had been
used as funeral deposits. By interpreting the remains
found inside and outside these unique structures, we
concluded that they had probably been used for
ceremonies linked to a cult of the dead and of the
mountains.
One interesting element was analysis of the direc-
tion in which the “windows” or openings in the walls of
the chullpas pointed. When describing these remains,
Andean archaeologists had traditionally recorded their
orientation in relation to cardinal points. We decided
to explore the possibility that these structures faced the
summits of certain mountains. Subsequent calculations
appeared to validate this hypothesis. In fact, the struc-
tures faced the big mountains and volcanoes to the
northwest, north, and northeast of the localities exam-
ined. Important confirmation of these data was provid-
ed by another group of chullpas in Quebrada Seca, an
archaeological settlement near Likan.
Around AD 1450, this region became part of the
Tawantinsuyu of the Inca, who controlled it through pre-
viously established highland centers. Several manifesta-
tions of this Andean empire can be found in the high
canyons of Atacama, which reveal the hegemonic nature
of Cuzco. For a brief period (no more than 100 years),
the Inca redefined the sacred nature of the mountains,
establishing spectacular sanctuaries on their summits,
sometimes with human sacrifices, thereby imposing their
religion over the local ancient mountain cults. Inca dom-
ination in the region was so strong that it can still be
found in the present-day toponymy, traditions, myths,
and cults of the hills inhabited by the Inca (Figure 3).
The orientation of the prehistoric chullpas is very
similar to the orientation of present-day ceremonial
constructions, especially churches and chapels
(Berenguer et al 1984), which also face the hills that
dominate the locality (Figure 4). The rites of present-
day communities in the annual ceremonial calendar,
such as the cleaning of irrigation canals or the floreo
(livestock fertility rites), also constantly invoke the pres-
ence of the high peaks. Thus, we can confirm serious
indications that lead us to conclude that belief in the
sacredness of mountains in the high canyons of Ataca-
ma is well over a thousand years old.
Present-day sacred landscapes and hills
In the Andes, the landscape comes alive when it is
explained by its indigenous inhabitants. When review-
ing its natural features, indigenous memory transforms
the static natural territory into a vital stage full of
events and meanings where humans along with other
living creatures are one more element in the cosmologi-
cal system. Supernatural forces are always responsible
TABLE 1 Flora and fauna in the Caspana, Toconce, Ayquina, and Cupo districts of Chile, classified by altitude. (Percentages listed in column 5 do not add up to
100% because of minor uses for some species [food, fuel, crafts, etc] and the fact that species may have more than one use.)
Altitudinal level
Vegetation Landscape
categories
Landscape utilization
categories
Use of
vegetation
Fauna
Nival
(over 4500 m)
No vegetation Panizo
Subnival
(4500–4200 m)
Poor vegetation: perennial
herbs and cushion-like plants
Panizo Cerro 66.7% medicinal,
1.2% forage,
0% ritual
Cargueros and
predators
High Andean
(4200–3850 m)
Tall tussock grasses
and cushion-like plants
Pajonal Cerro 50% ritual,
21.6% medicinal,
13.3% forage
Cargueros and
predators
Puna
(3850–3000 m)
Evergreen shrubs
and Cactaceae
Tolar Campo 39.8% forage,
37.8% medicinal,
25% medicinal
Domestic
(livestock)
and wild
Pre-puna
(3000–2700 m)
Semiarid plain sparsely covered
with small thorny shrubs
Pampa Campo 18.9 medicinal,
18.1% forage,
0% ritual
Domestic
(livestock)
and wild
Desert
(below 2700 m)
No vegetation
Research
77
for shaping the landscape, giving it meaning, taking
possession of certain elements, and then governing and
deciding the destiny of nature, humans, and their cir-
cumstances (Castro 2001). To control or influence
these designs, humans must recognize the presence of
these forces and request their intervention or aid
through sacrifices or offerings.
The concept of Pachamama encompasses this
broad Andean feeling for a natural world animated by
divine forces of which humans are only a part. The
statement of a local inhabitant “Everything I see is
Pachamama” (Nuñez 1986) is equivalent to saying
“everything is sacred.”
The present article emphasizes the sacredness of
the hills today among the indigenous inhabitants of the
high canyons in the South-Central Andean area and,
more specifically, in the area of the Upper Loa River
where the hills are known as Mallku, an Aymara term
that recognizes hierarchical superiority and the rever-
ence of the sacred. Mountains are considered sacred by
the indigenous peoples and have different levels of
meaning: (1) mythical places of origin (achachilas or
“spirits of the hills”) inhabited by the ancestors to
which each village believes it is linked; (2) providers
of fertility and wealth; (3) altars (“tables”); and
(4) dwelling places of the divinities.
Each village recognizes one promontory as the
most sacred and believes that a strong connection exists
with it. The inhabitants of Toconce revere the Cerro
León (5771 m) to which they give many names: Mallku
Kulliri, Cerro León, Mallku Agua de León, and Puma
Urko. This hill has many beneficial properties that have
always linked it to the community, and it frequently
receives “payments” and sacrifices to gain its favor. It is
considered a masculine mountain, the “wealthiest” of
all because it holds the riches of the ancients and is a
very good provider of abundance and water. The hills of
Cupo are considered female. We were repeatedly told
that this whole mountain chain “is a provider for
Chuquicamata,” in other words, it is the source of the
wealth of this gigantic copper mine, located on the for-
mer female hill of Chukutukut’a Mallku (Berenguer et
al 1984).
The sacred mountain of the village of Ayquina is
the Paniri volcano (5960 m) revered at ceremonies
and considered to be the village’s place of origin.
Tomás Paniri, the chieftain of Ayquina in the 18th cen-
tury, spread the Tupac Amaru discourse of rebellion
against the Spanish crown in Atacama (Hidalgo 1986).
His surname is still preserved by important families in
this district.
The village of Caspana believes that its origins lie in
a pair of hills, with gently rounded shapes, smaller than
the others in the region, and rarely covered by snow.
They appear on the horizon, marking the location of
this village. One is Q’aulor, a female hill that also bears
the name of Sipitare Mama or Mama Sipaqa. Her twin
hill is Chita, a masculine hill, also called Sipitare Tata.
They are considered partners or spouses.
In the neighboring Salar de Atacama southern
area, the most important hill and provider of water to
the Socaire community is the Chiliques. A gray rock
near the village that resembles this hill is the focus of
prayers and sacrifices during ceremonies held to cele-
brate the cleaning of the irrigation canals (Barthel
1986). There is similar information regarding the near-
by villages of Río Grande and Peine.
In our region, hills are associated with springs and
streams, which is quite logical because the high canyons
and snow cover give rise to the watercourses that are
essential to the agricultural and livestock activities in
the region. One of the rites we detected, which also
represents a deep indigenous knowledge of ecology,
consisted of depositing seawater on the tops of moun-
tains or hills to pray for rainfall.
Conclusions
The Andean landscape is full of significance. Together
with present-day local inhabitants’ profound knowledge
of the orography, flora, and fauna, which enables them
to inhabit and domesticate this difficult area, the sacred
concept of the natural elements occupies a predomi-
nant place in cosmology.
Despite the isolation caused by the desert and the
altitude, these beliefs are still preserved in the high
FIGURE 2 Ancient chullpa in Toconce, with a window opening out onto a
sacred mountain. (Photo by author)
Victoria Castro and Carlos Aldunate
78
canyons of Atacama, where they are extremely relevant
to the life of local inhabitants. A yatiri, or local sage of
Toconce, pointed out to us that the earth is like a
human being. The peña (rocks, hills) are the bones, the
rivers are the veins the blood flows through, and the
earth is the flesh. The deep places (caverns, caves,
rocky shelters) and the ones that rise out of the earth
(mountains, mounds, large rocks) are the achachilas,
places of ancestral origin, inhabited by deities. The
canyons, near the rivers and springs, are dangerous
places. The juturi or sereno lives there, and when his
sound or music is heard it attracts the unwary.
This cosmology perceives the world as inhabited by
living and dead creatures: plants, animals, and humans
that can survive as long as they remain in harmony with
nature. The rituals of forgiveness, payment, and peti-
tion serve this purpose. Thus, a universe is created that
is entirely sacred where everything is mutually depend-
ent through the order established by rites, which pro-
foundly compromise the emotional life of the inhabi-
tants. Vernacular knowledge becomes a form of reli-
gious participation and a way of existing in the world
because all the models for understanding nature are
definitely taken from reality, and especially from the
landscape. The toponymy acquires special importance
because it is the expression of the meanings attributed
to the landscape.
The sacredness of mountains and highlands perme-
ates other aspects of the natural world such as the flora
and fauna, whose degree of importance coincides with
the altitude at which they grow. Most vegetable species
considered medicinal and ritual, as well as most of the
animals that have a relevant symbolic significance, are
native to or come from the cerro unit.
This cosmology is also manifested in local architec-
ture. Present-day churches and chapels, an expression
of the Andean syncretic cult, always face one of the hills
that is revered in the region. The dead, as well as the
cemetery structures for worshipping dead relatives, are
laid out in the same way.
It has also been shown that these beliefs have exist-
ed since prehistoric times. The architectural layout of
the prehistoric village on Likan hill follows a strict sym-
bolic order, with sacred structures increasing in number
as the altitude increases. The openings in the ceremoni-
al structures at this archaeological site face the hills in
the area.
Local inhabitants believe that they have a special
relationship with their ancestors’ archaeological
remains: they actively affect and influence our individ-
ual and community life. They are a link to an honor-
able and autonomous past (Mamani 1996). Oral tradi-
tion confirms this bond between the present-day inhabi-
tants and the past. Some of these beliefs are directly
related to the landscape and the hills. They include the
myths about the Reinka (Inca King), who lives on the
mountaintops and has the ability to transform the land-
scape as he passes by. When the litter that transports
him is set down on the ground, it leaves a hollow in the
earth; he gets angry at a hill and shoots the crest off
with his slingshot, leaving it drooping; he lives on the
heights laughing, singing, dancing, drinking alcohol,
and chewing coca leaves.
FIGURE 4 A 20th century chapel in the study area. Even modern religious
structures such as this one are oriented toward the mountains. (Photo by
author)
FIGURE 3 An Inca ceremonial ushnu in Cerro Verde, Caspana, oriented
toward the mountains. (Photo by author)
Mountain Research and Development Vol 23 No 1 Feb 2003
Research
79
AUTHORS
Victoria Castro
Department of Anthropology, Universidad de Chile, Avenida Capitan Ignacio
Carrrera Pinto, Santiago, Chile.
vcastro@uchile.cl
Carlos Aldunate
Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, Bandera 361, Santiago, Chile.
caldunate@museoprecolombino.cl
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research is part of a project that was funded by grant FONDECYT
1011006, Chile. We also gratefully acknowledge our friends in Toconce,
Ayquina, Turi, and Caspana, with whom we have had the privilege of shar-
ing and learning.
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