The title of the chief priest in Cuzco, who was of noble lineage, was villac umu, a lifetime post. He was also a culture hero, and he taught people various techniques and skills. Most religious festivals were calendrically based and marked by processions, sacrifices and dances. Many were chosen from the conquered provinces as part of regular taxation; “blood money” was scarcely a metaphor. Sacrifices to the gods normally consisted of llamas, cuys or chicha - only occasionally were chosen women and other adults killed. The people believed that Illapu’s shadow was in the Milky Way, from whence he drew the water that he poured down as rain. Ponchos or miniature vestments were burned in the offering. There are many gods in the Inca pantheon. Nothing of importance was undertaken without recourse to divination. The king and his family were believed to be descendants of Inti, a notion used frequently in ancient religions to keep a family ruling for generations.Daily offerings and sacrifices were a standard part of Inca religion, but they were not usually animal or human sacrifices except on special occasions. Inca priests led the sun-worship services, assisted by young women known as mamkuna, or "virgins of the sun" 1. Please select which sections you would like to print: Corrections? The priests were very powerful because people believed they could read the signs. Viracocha went through several transmogrifications (often with grotesque or humorous effects). Divination also was accomplished by other means, such as watching the meandering of spiders and the arrangement that coca leaves took in a shallow dish. Drawing by Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala from, In Peru the ruling Inca was believed to be the sun incarnate (Inti) and his wife the moon. Earth was called Pachamama (Paca Mama), or Earth Mother. Priests were in residence at all important shrines and temples. The man and woman married. Others spent their eternal days in the cold earth. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Sacrifice, human or animal, was offered on every important occasion; guinea pigs (more properly cui), llamas, certain foods, coca leaves, and chicha (an intoxicant corn beverage) were all used in sacrifices. Another method of divination was to drink ayahuasca, a psychedelic brewed from plants that profoundly affected the central nervous system. Crimes had to be confessed and expiated by penitence so as not to call down the divine wrath. That place was on the shores of Lake Titicaca, high in the mountains of southern Peru. The Inca are an ancient South American people that had their own distinct set of religious beliefs. The best-known Inca temple is the Sun Temple in Cuzco. Detail of the dry stone construction of the ruins of an Inca temple at Ollantaytambo, near Cuzco, Peru. Bookkeeper (right) rendering accounts to the Inca ruler Topa Inca Yupanqui. Life was believed to be controlled by the all-pervading unseen powers, and to determine these portents the priests had recourse to the supernatural. There were also priestesses who were chosen women that were to remain chaste unless they were chosen as concubines or wives of someone of the imperial families. Those who obeyed the Incan moral code ama suwa, ama llulla, ama quella (do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy) - went to live in the Sun's warmth. Updates? As protective ancestral spirits, dead Incas continued to play an active role in the world of the living. They could read signs in the flames of a fire, or in the way a plant grew. Some of these ancient Andean masks had movable parts, such as the metallic death mask with movable ears that was found in the Temple of…. A chronicler suggests that a priest’s title was umu, but in usage his title was geared to his functions as diviner of lungs, sorcerer, confessor, and curer. The ayllu was a group of families that worked a portion of land together. That is why the Incas called themselves the "Children of the Sun.". The contents of the storehouses (foreground and background) are recorded on the bookkeeper's quipu of knotted strings. The Inca's worship of nature demanded that almost all natural phenomenon had a god associated with it. He was the bringer of warmth and light to the people. Upon victory, Pachacuti raised a temple to Viracocha in Cuzco. He made peoples, destroyed them, and re-created them of stone; when they were re-created, he dispersed humankind in four directions. He was represented by a gold figure “about the size of a 10-year-old child.”. Within the temple was an image of the sun and in another precinct, the Golden Enclosure (Corincancha), were gold models of cornstalks, llamas, and lumps of earth. Theme by AcademiaThemes, religious-beliefs.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Deities. Consultation of the oracles was done using simple things such as the meanderings of a spider, the disposition of coca leaves or drinking ayahuasca (a hallucinogen). The waxing and waning of the moon was used to calculate monthly cycles, from which the time periods for Inca festivals were set. Drafted for a lifetime of religious service 2. The Inca focused on key nature spirits such as the moon, the stars, and thunder iii. The Incas had a more optimistic view of the afterlife than the Mayas or Aztecs. The stars had minor functions. Even a Chosen Woman from the Sun Temple might be taken out for sacrifice. He was considered to be the divine ancestor of the Inca: “my father” was a title given to Inti by one Inca ruler. According to the Incas the sun was god and he was the father of their people. Though there was an Inca state religion of the sun, the substrata religious beliefs and practices of the pre-Inca peoples exerted an influence on the Andean region prior to and after the conquest of most of South America by the Spaniards in the 16th century. The Incas believed that the members of the royal family were direct descendants of the first emperor, Manco Capac and his sister- wife, Mama Occlo Huaca, who were children of Inti (The Sun God). Omissions? Their children were the first class. His warmth embraced the Andean earth and matured crops, and he was beloved by farmers. Portions of the land, which supported the temples, the priests, and the Chosen Women, were allotted to the sun and administered for the priests. Inca religion—an admixture of complex ceremonies, practices, animistic beliefs, varied forms of belief in objects having magical powers, and nature worship—culminated in the worship of the sun, which was presided over by the priests of the last native pre-Columbian conquerors of the Andean… Everyone in the Inca Empire was a member of an ayllu. In general, temples were not intended to shelter the celebrants, since most ceremonies were held outside the temple proper. The mummies of lesser personages often had masks that were made of wood or clay. Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. The Incas were aware of lunar time and the solar year, although they generally used the blooming of a special cactus to gauge the correct time to begin planting. The ruins of the Temple of Viracocha at San Pedro Cacha (Peru), however, had a ground plan that measured 330 by 87 feet, which indicates that it was designed for use other than the storage of priestly regalia. Viracocha was the divine protector of the Inca ruler Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui; he appeared to Pachacuti in a dream when the Inca forces were being besieged by the Chanca, a group from the lands west of the Inca territory. They practiced daily offering and sacrifices. “Eat this, Lord Sun,” officiating priests said, “so that you will know that we are your children.” On the first day of every lunar month 100 pure-white llamas were driven into the Great Square, Huayaca Pata in Cuzco; they were moved about to the various images of the gods and then assigned to 30 priestly attendants, each representing a day of the month. A huaca also might be a mummy bundle, especially if it was that of a lord-Inca. Statue of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui in Aguas Calientes, Peru. Divination was also used to determine what sacrifice should be made to what god. The Incas believed in reincarnation. It was used to diagnose illness, to predict the outcome of battles, and to uncover crimes, thus giving it a judiciary function. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Inca-religion, Overview Of World Religions - Inca Religion, Camai Quilla [Inti Raymi in state calendar], the month to open lands coming into cultivation with songs of triumph, the month for planting; also, the Festival of the Queen, the time to scare birds out of newly planted fields. They were a pagan religion, much like that of Greece or Rome in that they worshiped many different Gods. Defeats, famine, and pestilence all called for human blood. They mummified their dead. Each god had a festival dedicated to them covering the twelve months of the year. Presumably, priests were chosen young, brought up by the more experienced, and acquired with practice the richly developed ceremonialism. It was an admixture of complex ceremonies, practices, animistic beliefs, varied forms of belief in objects having magical powers, and nature worship—culminated in the worship of the sun, which was presided over by the Inca priests. President, Institute of Andean Research, New York City. Inca Beliefs. Other times when human sacrifices were performed were during times of crises such as famine or epidemics ….Another part of Inca religious life was divination. As the Inca conquered new territories, temples were erected in the new lands. The Incas believed that gods, spirits, and long-dead ancestors could be manifested on earth in the form of natural features such as mountain peaks (apu), rivers, springs, caves, rocky outcrops, and even peculiar shaped stones. The flames were blown to red heat through metal tubes, after which a practitioner (yacarca) who had narcotized himself by chewing coca leaves summoned the spirits with fiery conjuration to speak—“which they did,” wrote a chronicler, by “ventriloquism.” Divination by studying the lungs of a sacrificed white llama was believed to be effective. Along with the shrines and temples, huacas (sacred sites) were widespread. According to the Incas the sun was god and he was the father of their people. Inti, the sun god, was the ranking deity in the Inca pantheon. Impressive shrines were built throughout the kingdom, including a massive Sun Temple in Cusco that measured more than 1,200 feet in circumference. The Inca religion centered on a pantheon of gods that included Inti; a creator god named Viracocha; and Apu Illapu, the rain god. … In El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno (translated in abridgement as Letter to a King) to Philip III he offered two different versions, one centring on state ceremonies and sacrifices performed at Cuzco and the other describing the agricultural practices at the local level in the highlands. Mama Quilla (Mama-Kilya) was the wife of the sun god. Humans also were sacrificed. Individual misdeeds would wound the ayllu, a basic social unit identified with communally held land. That place was on the shores of Lake Titicaca, high in the mountains of … Apu Illapu was a rain giver, an agricultural deity to whom the common Inca addressed their prayers for rain. At Latacunga (Llacta cunga) in Ecuador there was a sun temple where sacrifices were made; part of the temple was still visible when the German explorer and geographer Alexander von Humboldt sketched the ruins in 1801. i. Inca worshiped fewer gods than the Aztecs ii. Author of. The 30-day calendar was religious, and each month had its own festival. The Inca are an ancient South American people that had their own distinct set of religious beliefs. Most of these gods centered on nature and its cycles since planting and harvesting were the source of continued life to their culture. Powerful priests depended on divination to diagnose illness, solve crimes and predict the outcomes of warfare, in many cases requiring animal sacrifice.