on drinking cups and constellations jlacs

7/30/2019 On Drinking Cups and Constellations JLACS

1/31

Denise Arnold and

Elvira Espejo Ayca

ON DRINKING CUPS AND

CONSTELLATIONS: SOME RELATIONS

BETWEEN AYMARA ASTRONOMICAL AND

TEXTUAL PRACTICES IN QAQACHAKA

AYLLU (BOLIVIA)

Introduction

A yaya pukara,mikuy yachakunqa,

puca yachakunqapukyu yachakunqa.

[Oh, Father Pukara,let there be plenty of food to eat,let there be plenty of food stocks,and let there be a full flow from the springs.](Itier, 1992: 1019)

This paper concerns astronomical practices in the Aymara-speaking ayllu of Qaqachaka

(prov. Abaroa, Dept. Oruro, Bolivia), where I have done most fieldwork togetherwith the Aymara linguist, Juan de Dios Yapita and where Elvira Espejo, myco-author, was born. The essay is based on our previous knowledge and experienceconcerning these practices, and on a recent conversation between us.

The paper explores in particular the relation between the ayllu womensastronomical and textual practices, above all that of weaving, which in turn structuresother everyday activities in the ayllu (herding, dance, rituals, counting, colouraesthetics) according to a series of homologies (see Arnold, 1997b; Arnold and Yapita,2006). As we shall see, many of these homologies are centred on the cultural meaningsof the Black Llama, whose outline can be seen as immense black lakes of interstellardust seen against the brilliant stars of the Milky Way, and of certain stars observed inthis part of the night sky (see figure 1). We intend the paper to complement Gordon

Brotherstons work on astronomical practices and their expression in the varioustextual practices of Mesoamerica.

Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, Vol. 15, No. 2 August 2006, pp. 183-213

ISSN 1356-9325/print 1469-9575 online q 2006 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/13569320600782245

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45


2/31

F I G U R E 1 The dark lakes in the Milky Way, among them the celestial Black Llama, as seen by

Pucher de Kroll (1950), Gaposhkin (1960), and used later by Urton (1981) and Arnold and Yapita

(2001).

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799

L A T I N A M E R I C A N C U L T U R A L S T U D I E S1 8 4

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90


3/31

Various studies have identified the so-called dark-cloud constellations or blackzodiac in theMilky Way (Pucher de Kroll, 1945; Gaposhkin 1960; Urton 1981). OthersQ1examine the importance of the Black Llama constellation in Andean societies, past andpresent (Zuidema and Urton, 1976; Urton, 1978, 1981: 109 ff.; Berenguer andMartinez, 1986; Arnold and Yapita, 2001; Arnold, 2004 etc.), or of certain stars such asVenus (Bauer and Dearborn, 1998; Villarroel, 2004). But few give ethnographic detailsof contemporary astronomical practices and their relation to other aspects of daily life,

such as weaving, organized according to a gendered division of labour.A more recent tendency in the literature on Andean astronomy is the

contemporary esoteric studies of authors such as Carlos Milla Villena (1992),concerning Andean constellations, particularly the so-called Chakana or SouthernCross. But these, too, fail to specify their sources of information, their regions of studyor regional observational practices, and tend rather toward a universalist and linearmodel of Andean astronomy that ignores local variations and contemporary practices.

As a wayof fillingthese lacunae, we examine here theastronomy textilerelationshipethnographically in two rituals in which both practices acquire a special importance:marking the animals (Sp.el floreo), known as killpha in Aymara, and their mating, knownas jarqhayana. We describe both rituals ethnographically elsewhere (Arnold and Yapita,1997, 1998, 2001, 2004). We showed that, in Qaqachaka, the marking of the animals isQ2

an annual recounting of the new offspring in the herds. In local oral history, the ritual hasstrong historical ties to an Inka presence in the region (possibly ofmitimaes), and Inka waysof measuring theirflocks. Local people saythat this is why the knotted cords, calledkipu inquechua or chinu in Aymara, are still used in the ritual today as a mnemonic device fortying and so recording the number of new young animals in the flocks. At the same time,the marking of the animals is a kind of rite of passage, especially for the female animals,since it marks the date at which the young females reach adolescence and sexual maturity.This stage of their lives is celebrated with a ritual in which the flow of blood from the ear-notching announces an animal menarche. The importance of blood-red, with its strongAndean association of female fertility, is repeated throughout the rite, even in the musicthat accompanies it (Dransart, 1991: 156).

For its own part, the ceremony to mate the llamas demands human intervention in

order to ensure the successful reproduction of the next generation of animals. Here,special attention is given to the use of certain colours, in particular weavings, readtogether with the pertinent astronomical observations, to ensure that the offspring havefleece of the same colours.

In Elviras family, the marking (killpha) of the Andean camelids (llamas andalpacas) is usually held at Christmas (Navidad), the sheep marking in February, and thellama mating ceremony (jarqhayana) follows at Carnival. In each ritual, astronomicalobservations are considered essential to determine the starting dates for theceremonies, and to contribute to the fleece colouring of the new offspring and thetrajectory of their animal lives.

Learning regional astronomical and textual practices

In order to understand the astronomical context of these rites, it is first necessary toconsider how children learn about astronomy in the region of Qaqachaka, whether the

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799

O N D R I N K I N G C U P S A N D C O N S T E L L A T I O N S 1 8 5

95

100

105

110

115

120

125

130

135


4/31

names of the stars, their groupings and forms, or the sites from which they make theseobservations.

In Elviras experience, the starting point for teaching about the stars is theobservation of the Grandfather Star, Achach Warawara, since this star appears first ofall at night, and then the smaller ones appear (yasta tijutijunkiw). First it is necessaryto distinguish this star in the company of an older person, for example a grandfather orgrandmother seeking kindling or driving a llama a little late in the day. Elvira learnt

thus from her maternal grandmother, who would ask her again and again while comingdown the hillside:

And which one is Grandfather Star?, so that I would be a hundred per cent sure.Then, she would start to teach me about the other stars. This is because theGrandfather Star is easily recognized; it is larger than the rest and shines stronglywith a yellowish tinge.

Another factor in this process was learning the size of the stars. You started with thelarger stars and then passed on to learn the middle-sized ones and finally the smallestones, considered to be their offspring, or wawa. For example, when looking at theGreat Pathway (Jacha Thakhi) of the Milky Way, the smaller stars were considered to

be like seeds. Typically, her grandmother would say:

Uka Achach Warawara intxtaw, jichha . . . mmm . . . arkir Jaqi Warawara intanta.

[You know the Grandfather Star, and now . . . mmm . . .youll know the one thatfollows: the Person Star.]

At the same time, her grandmother used to advise her not to count the small stars,because I would have the same quantity of babies!. Likewise, the small stars wereconsidered to be like mens seed and therefore women were not to count the littlestars, only observe them. They could only be counted when they became extendedvertically and appeared larger.

Once the position of the Grandfather Star or Achach Warawara was learnt, thisoriented the direction of the other stars. For example, Achach Warawara always appearstoward the right (kupituripiniw mistuni) when observed from a certain place.

The size and brilliance of a star of a certain group also influenced the weavingpractices of the young ayllu weavers in setting out their textile designs, whereby thefigure of the largest and most brilliant star, Achach Warawara, would have 12 points ormore, in a weaving design that is also relatively larger in scale, whereas woven figuresof the smaller stars would have only two or four points, in relatively smaller designs.Between these two extremes, other medium-sized figures of the middle-sized stars aremade (see figure 2).

On a larger scale, the more general observations of the Milky Way areincorporated into the textile design called aywira, which is like a herding river for the

llamas. The principal zigzag design in this case imitates the curved form of the MilkyWay or Great Road (Jacha Thakhi), while the textile designs on its edges imitate thestars and also the earthly herd animals: llamas and alpacas (see figure 3). These curvedelements also replicate the daily up- and downhill wanderings of the animals, guided by

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


140

145

150

155

160

165

170

175

180


5/31

the leading herd animal (delantero), expressed in the design as a coloured point in theform of an eye. This reiterates the presence of the Grandfather Star, Achach Warawara,which is the first to appear in the evening and the last to vanish at dawn, just like theleading herd animal.

This would imply that in Qaqachaka, as elsewhere in the Andes, Achach Warawara isa more generic name for Venus (Sp. Lucero), like both the Evening Star (Sp. Estrella del

Atardecer) and Morning Star (Sp. Estrella del Amanecer) (see Villarroel, 2004), due to itselliptical movement, accompanying the sun by day and the moon by night. Thisdifference evidently had gendered consequences. In some regions, Venus as theMorning Star accompanying the sun is considered to be masculine, and as the EveningStar, accompanying the moon, feminine, in a celestial version of the familiar Andeanduality. In other accounts, such as that of Garcilaso, Venus, in the more feminine guiseas the most beautiful star, must accompany the sun, whether in front or behind him(Bauer and Dearborn, 1998: 129). Villarroel (2004) describes how the textile designsin Chojnacota community, in another part of Oruro (Prov. Totora), draw on this dualaspect of Venus to express gendered difference, for example in images of a bull andcow, united by this star in a seed-like design. In Qaqachaka, however, both aspects ofVenus are regarded as masculine.

These kinds of association are evident historically, for example in the famouscosmological drawing by the Aymara- and Quechua-speaking chronicler, SantacruzPachacuti Yamqui, in his Relacion de Antiguedades deste Reyno del Piru (c.1613). Like thewhole document of which it is part, this drawing is a complex combination of Andean

F I G U R E 2 Achach Warawara: the Morning and Evening Stars.

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


185

190

195

200

205

210

215

220

225


6/31

names and ideas situated amid the criteria of Spanish indoctrination into Christianityduring that period (see the commentary by Duviols and Itier, 1993). Figure 4illustrates the Quechua names for Venus; as the Morning Star, Venus is called chazcacoyllor (many-pointed star) or the more masculine achachi ururi (grandfather of theday), whereas as the Evening Star, Venus is called choque chinchay (silver southernstar) or the more feminine apachi orori (grandmother of the day).1

Venus also figured in textile designs in Inka times. For example, in a rite of passageat the adolescence of young Inka men, when they were given a woven belt called wara,and a kind of breechcloth, inspired with designs of Venus (Guarac) that were held togive them maturity and truthful speech (Polia, 1999: 355). Mary Frame has analysedQ3these Venus designs at length, and her illustrations of both these belts and loinclothsshow how this star frequently appears as an eight-pointed figure. Gordon Brotherstonhas always insisted that this kind of numerical detail is not coincidental. The same kindsof star design appear, for example, throughout another seventeenth-century chronicle,that of Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala: The Nueva Coronica y Buen Gobierno (c.1613). Inthese cases, the eight-pointed design would refer to the cycles of Venus in Inkaastronomy.

It is customary among Qaqachaka herders to observe these stars when they go up

to the herding huts (janta) at certain times of year, for example from November toFebruary, in the stages of transhumance of the animals from the grazing points closer tohome, to others further out in the hills. In these months, the young shepherdesses walkat night under the full moon as they come down from the herding-out huts on the

F I G U R E 3 A woven figure of the Sky Pathway of the llamas: Aywira.

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


230

235

240

245

250

255

260

265

270


7/31

hillsides to their own homes, watching the stars to see if they are nearing the tops ofcertain hills, or not.

The fortress observatories called Pukara

Certain places in the ayllu are used for these astronomical observations. One is a ritualsite called pukara, fortress, on the way to Taqawa hamlet, on the border with theneighbouring ayllu of Laymi. You cant observe from just anywhere! Pukaras areinvariably situated on those hilltops (chutu) that have the form of a pap, neither on thevery top nor on the flat plain, rather between them. Each family and community has its

own pukara where these observations are made, and they are remembered in rituals andlibations as jiska pukara, jacha pukara, lesser and greater fortress.

These ritual sites have three principal uses according to three ceremonial stages, mainlyin the herding year. In the first of these stages, these sites serve as offering places (liwana),for both families and the whole community, for example for receiving the reconstitutedskeleton of a sacrificed animal in the rite called literally taking out health (salur waysuna),when you suck health out of the grey matter of a cranium before burying it in a mountaindug-out coffer (Arnold, 2005). In the second stage, the pukara sites serve as sites forceremonies such as the marking of the animals (killpha). And in the third stage of the year,they serve for observing the stars, for example at sowing time during September andOctober, called miracle time (milajr timpu), months considered especially propitious forthese observations since there is more communication between the heavens and the

earth. On these occasions, a family will go to itspukara on the night of a full moon, full ofstars, to observe the Pleiades or Goat-kids (Karwilla), and the Eyes of the Llama (which areAlpha y Beta Centauri in the Southern Cross, according to Western astronomy). Oncethere, family members collect in a textile bundle everything that has to do with the stars:

F I G U R E 4 The cosmological drawing by Santacruz Pachacuti Yamqui (c.1613).

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


275

280

285

290

295

300

305

310

315


8/31

stones, animal dung, wild plants, and so on,and the followingday they take these home andbegin a series of toasts (challa) to each one of them:

Ukaw chipiri churistu,chipiriri inachayitu . . .

[That which shines has given me this,

that which shines has shown me this. . .

]

The fact that starlight had shone on these objects is considered good luck for the family,and they speculate: So I think Ill have this . . . in the coming year. For example, thedung that shone with the starlight was considered particularly propitious for the fields(where it was buried the following day), and for generating more herd animals in theforthcoming year.

During these observations, the direction of travel and the incipient position of thePleiades (Qutu) or the Eyes of the Llama (Qarwa Layra, the Southern Cross) wasestimated in relation to some of the highest hills in the ayllu: above all Turu (theGrandfather Mountain), Jujchu (the Grandmother Mountain), and Phiri Phiri (regardedas their Son). The participants in the ritual wait for the moment when these stars drift

over such a hill and become centred on the middle of the hilltop. For Elvira, its as ifthe hill itself were breathing with the stars that approached (jitxatiw) the summit:

Phiri Phiriru yasta jitxatxiw, siw.

[Theyve already approached the summit of Phiri Phiri, they say.]

Her idea here is that the stars that dwell in the inner world (manqhapacha) within amountain, located in the subterranean lakes found there, are born again from themouth-like summits of these outstanding hills, when the mountain breathes them out(samachjiw) in the precise moment in the year when they appear just above the horizon(cf. Earls and Silverblatt, 1976).

Other occasions for observing the stars have to do with the farming year, and theritual duties of the authorities (mayura) in charge of both the collective and individualfields of the ayllu.

Yet another kind of observation has to do with the slow shifting or drift ofmovement (precession) of the Milky Way or Great Pathway (Jacha Thakhi) over thecourse of the year. According to Elvira, the axis of the Milky Way first moves to theright, and you would have to go to the place called jiska pukara (lesser fortress) toobserve it. Then it turns to the left, and you have to go to the greater fortress, jacha

pukara, for example the one called Purta (Gateway), which is an enormous pen in thehills where the male llamas graze.

The principle observations are made according to the three main seasons of the year:sowing, the rainy season and harvest. During sowing, the stars are watched to know if it is

the right moment to sow the crops. You watch in particular to see if the stars are twinklingor if they are dull, as well as for the moment of the full moon. Only then do you beginto sow, working on the nights of the full moon. Later, in the rainy season ( jallupacha),you watch the stars to identify the possibility of a cold spell, which could damage the plants.

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


320

325

330

335

340

345

350

355

360


9/31

If the stars are very bright and with a yellowish tinge, then you have to light fire in thefields, to prevent the cold from penetrating the plants and so that the clouds appear.During the harvest, you likewise watch for the full moon, and then the grains are harvestedby cutting the stems. If there is no full moon, people are reluctant to harvest.

The ceremony of marking the animals: killpha

Now let us examine the animal marking ritual called killpha. Before this ritual, youwatch the sky for a critical moment in the cycles ofthree celestial bodies: the full moon,the Pleiades and the Black Llama constellation.

Observations of the full moon (urta) are made from the three highest mountainsalready mentioned: Phiri Phiri (the Son), Jujchu (the Grandmother, situated on theborder with neighbouring Laymi) and Turu (the Grandfather, situated on the borderwith Condo ayllu). You watch particularly for the moment of willxta (scattering),when the full moon approaches the top of these hills, as seen from the ritual sites called

pukara. These hills are considered sacred for these observations, which also identifiesthe moment when the darkness of the night sky diminishes.

In the same way, you watch the position of the Goat-kids (or Pleiades) that moves

from month to month. In this case, there are two options. Sometimes this group of stars(which moves together) comes forward at Christmas-time, while at other times itfalls behind for February. When this grouping approaches one of the sacred hilltops,this is the sign to begin the killpha rite. People would remark that it is alreadyapproaching the pen, and so we must carry out the killpha.

The third series of observations has to do with watching the Black or Mother Llama(Tayka Qarwa), dark lakesof interstellardust, to see when they approach these sacredhills.

When these three heavenly bodies reach their destinations, only then do peoplebegin to prepare the ritual bundles (inkuna) that contain all the paraphernalia necessaryto carry out the marking ceremony, including the implements for nicking the animalsears, the woollen ear-rings to be inserted into the ears of the females, the wallqa orchimpu (coloured threads) of dyed wool tied onto the backs and necks of the males,

their tassels and bobbles (putuna), etc. (see figure 5).The young women of the family begin to prepare these different textile elements

from this moment onward, inspired by the colours of the stars they see in the night sky.Importantly, these observations also have to do with colour.

The bundles for this rite also contain the family knotted cords, the well-knownchinu (or kipu in Quechua), in which you tie the quantity of animals involved. They say,as they knot the animal count into the threads:

Jichha jupastasxanani . . . akan sum . . . akan waktasxanani qawqhapuniti utji. . .

[Now, how many are there? . . . Now good . . . we shall count how many thereare . . .]

Bonfires are kept up all night long at the side of the animal pens, where the participantswaft around incense and ground-up wild herbs, by way of forewarning the animals ofthe incipient rite and curing them against illnesses. Elvira recounts:

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


365

370

375

380

385

390

395

400

405


10/31

I saw it once, but I dont recall exactly how it was, but there were some bonfires. . . to turn away the foxes. And a few live coals were taken from these samebonfires, and then incense was sprinkled on them and they were carried around theanimals, as if to say that the animals were being forewarned, no? . . . They had to goaround the pens some three times, I think . . . with incense or some herb . . .

sometimes they had herbs instead of incense, if Im not mistaken. They collectedthings at Christmas-time, from Qhusmi Uma (Shiny Water), which is a place wecould call sacred: straw, shrubs of, whats it called?, muna (bittermint), then therewere others, such as putuputu . . . and all this was taken and ground up, right? So, asI say, they walked around with this mixture as a kind of medicine for the animals,giving them notice that they were going to carry out the killpha ritual.

Once they had done these rounds, the participants would say my animals are alreadygrouped together, now Ive to carry out the killpha. Then the other participantswere informed about the ritual with another round, this time of coca leaves, whenthey said:

Phaxsinakas yastaw walikirakis irjatanxi estero lumaru s ukhama. . .

[The moon is already approaching, this mm hill, they say, so . . . we must carry outthe marking now.]

F I G U R E 5 The animal marking ceremony: killpha.

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


410

415

420

425

430

435

440

445

450


11/31

Then all of them came outside and began the ritual. It began in the evening,awaiting the full moon, although the Evening Star (Achach warawara, the GrandfatherStar) came out first.

First of all, the most fertile female in the herd was marked by notching her earswith the family marking (whether key, window, partridge, and so on), and theparticipants, especially the women, watched the degree of blood flow, and then

decorated her with earrings. Then they went on to mark the rest of the animals. In eachcase, the animal owners destined each offspring for a certain member of the family:

Akax wawnakiw, akax tullqanxiw . . .

[This one belongs to my child, and this other one to my son-in-law . . .]

Gradually, a pile of ear-pieces was accumulated on two different weavings: the piecesfrom the males ears are put into a coca bag, of the kind used by men, and the piecesfrom the females ears on a coca cloth of the kind used by women.

The counting of the animals and the play of star colours

The animals were counted by knotting the cords of a family chinu, using a textilelanguage that codifies the quantity of animals in the kind of knot used, and the coloursof the animals according to the colours of the threads used (cf. Arnold et al., 2000:Chapter 11). In this context, each knot was called the knot of the star ( warawar chinu)or the eye of the star (warawar layra), because the animals of each new owner had toshine in quantity like the stars, and the knots (chinu) themselves were considered to bea part of the stars (warawar parti). Here again there is a vital semantic link betweenwoven elements (the knots), the quality of shining like the stars, and the notion ofproliferation, like the stars.

The key reference points in the night sky were always the Milky Way, considered

to be the Great Pathway (Jacha Thakhi) where the stars were piled up together, aswell as some other specific star groupings located there. In the context of the annualanimal counting, the Great Pathway of the Milky Way was considered to be the vein(sirka) that constituted the principal cord of the family chinu or kipu. Beginning with thisprincipal cord are born all the rest, in the sense that the knots that go in the form ofstars, mark out all the other pathways that exist in the Great Pathway. Each pendantcord of the chinu was of a certain person in the sense of his or her own road (thakhi)and the tying of the knots went one after the other.

As regards colour, specific colours were used for each thread, according to thecolour of each owner whose quantity of animals was marked there. The idea in this casewas that the inspirational colour used in the animal mating ceremony (jarqhayana) inthe previous year had come to bear, and now had to be assured there in the knots.

Once again, there is the vital link between colour and generation. Each knot of the maletype (urqu chinu) that did not come undone easily (see figure 6) marked the quantity ofeach animal group of a certain colour (see Arnold et al., 2000). For example, red-coloured threads (chimpu) were inserted in some knots to indicate the fact that the

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


455

460

465

470

475

480

485

490

495


12/31

quantity it marked was of animals of that colour; in other cases a white or black threadwas inserted to mark the quantity of white or black animals respectively. As a result,you knew exactly what colours you had in your herd.

Elvira heard from her grandparents that, in the past, the Inkas of the region usedthis technique of inserting threads (chimpu) into the knots so as not to lose thellamas and alpacas of the region (implying that the added threads, like the animals

they denoted, were constrained by the knots), and that the Inkas also used thetechnique of tying the beginning of each pendant thread with whippings of threecolours. The people of Qaqachaka simply followed this way of marking (see figures7 and 8).

The shining of the animals

In the killpha ceremony, the quantity and strength of the herds during the coming yearis at stake. This is why the younger animals born in the past year are compared tocertain stars in the Milky Way; the animals must live various years and few stars die,for the stars are shining everyday. Elvira commented:

A star rarely falls, rarely . . . and it has to do with that. The animals have to last.Therefore they do the marking together with the stars, because the animals mustendure in the same way as the stars.

F I G U R E 6 A male knot (urqu chinu) in a Qaqachaka chinu.

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


500

505

510

515

520

525

530

535

540


13/31

F I G U R E 7 Coloured threads (chimpu) inserted in a historical kipu (from the Miccinelli collection

in Naples).

F I G U R E 8 An Inka-style whipping of three colours on a pendant thread

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


545

550

555

560

565

570

575

580

585


14/31

She added, They must travel, they must render wool, and they must render theirdung for the fields. Thats why they say: Jumapiniw naya irpitanta Tatala . . . [Youwill always guide me, Lord . . .] because you are stronger. Here, she was addressingthe leading animal of the flock as an aspect of the strongest celestial body of all, theSun Father, Tata Inti, the Inka god they still worship in the ayllu. She emphasized howthey address this sky deity, saying: You must guide me because you really willendure for many years. The ayllu members repeat this same idea of endurance and

longevity in their toasts and songs to the animals, in formulaic phrases such as thefollowing:

Wawan wawpatakiw . . .

[For the offspring of my offspring . . .]

The tradition of animal inheritance (tuti) forms an integral part of the markingceremony. In a logical sequence, the participants contemplate how the stars bestowlongevity to the animals, and how the llamas that do not age rapidly will have plenty ofanimal offspring that can be passed on to a herders human offspring. It will go onreproducing; it doesnt die out. Its the same as the stars, which also reproduce.

Sometimes they fall, so there must be a new one, as they say. Here again, Elvirareiterates how the stars are like animals or people. When a star falls in the night sky,she holds that an animal or person dies, but another is born in that very instant.

Beyond these immediate analogies are other aesthetic ideas about colour andappearance. The ayllu members consider that the llamas and alpacas as a whole mustshine in quantity like the stars in the Milky Way, especially the Eyes of the Llama(Qarwa Layra). This idea seems to relate starlight and colour to the animals endurance.Thats why they say:

Qarwa layra, ya qarwa layras utjarakichi, utjarakisa.Jichha ukhamarakipi akas unatataspa. . ..

[Just as there is the Eyes of the Llama (Qarwa layra),So now my llamas will shine in the same way too.]

The herders hope that the llamas and alpacas will shine like these celestial Eyes. Thatthis Eye which is shining up there may shine the same way down here, then there can besome communication between them, with the animals, as we would say.

In the context of Qaqachaka ideas about the quality of colour and light, and theirorigins in a celestial domain, we are reminded of a local myth concerning the Origin ofFire, often told in relation to the practices of dying wool before weavingit (see also Arnold,1997b). The mythtells how the Foxis instructed by hisadversary toseek firefromdifferentcelestial bodies, in order to cook supper. The poor Fox goes off to visit the Moon or theEvening Star, in order to request some fire, but while he is waiting he manages to singe his

bushy tail in the fire, turning the tip red. Meanwhile, his adversary back on Earth eatsall thefood in the cooking pot. This tale seems to reflect on the celestial origins of fire, in thecontext of dyeing or cooking wool over fire (qhatiyana) so that the colours shine (qhana)from within, as if the starlight origins of the fire were still embedded there. The colour red

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


590

595

600

605

610

615

620

625

630


15/31

(wila) of the Foxs burnt tail is regarded as the very essence of all colours (Arnold andYapita, 1998), and has a close relationship with the dark lakes of the Milky Way, asopposed to the brilliant whiteness of the Great Pathway of stars.

Astronomical observations are also made in relation to other everyday herdingchores. In a similar semantic domain to that which relates each animal to its own star, itis held that the older animals of a flock are particularly associated with the Grandfatheror Evening Star (Achach warawara). In daily practice, the Evening Star is observed to

know whether all the llamas have arrived in time in their pens. In this context, Elvira,while herding her own llamas and alpacas, heard her grandmother say:

Achach warawaras mistkaraki, achach qarwanas janiraki purxiti.

[The Evening Star has already come out, but my grandfather llama hasnt yetarrived!]

Achach qarwanaka jani purxitikamichananis

Achach warawara janiraki mistunxiti,Mistunin uka purjanicha.

[The grandfather llamas have not arrived yet,What shall we do?The Grandfather star has not come out either,Perhaps they will come when it comes out.The old llamas will probably arrive when the Old Star comes out (laughter).]

These old llamas are called latu, because they delight in walking slowly at the tailend of the herd, and they always tarry in coming down from the hillsides. Theyused to walk with the Evening Star, with that light. According to Elvirasgrandmother:

The old llamas always used to arrive late, because they like to come by the light ofthe Old Star, the Evening Star, because this star is also old. Therefore a womanherder had to go and look for him; if she didnt, it was likely that a fox could gethim, lets say. And so shed go to look for him.

Elvira conceptualizes this relation as a communication between them, between the oldllama and the Evening Star.

The ritual of mating the animals: jarqhayana

Now let us consider the animal mating ceremony, jarqhayana, when the ayllu women

draw on a homologous set of relations between the stars and their weavings. As in thekillpha marking ceremony, the beginning of the mating ceremony coincides with thecoming out of the Grandfather or Evening Star (Achach Warawara) and with the fullmoon (urta). Later on, during the course of the ceremony, the women likewise handle

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


635

640

645

650

655

660

665

670

675


16/31

weavings of certain colours to influence the colouring of the offspring stemming fromthe ceremony. The difference is that, in this case, the use of colour is more inspirationalthan in the marking ceremony.

Before carrying out the rite, the participants wait for a clear night with a full moon,as it is important to see the stars during the ceremony. They go to the observatorycalled pukara situated about 3 km from the community. In times past, the lesser andgreater fortresses (jiska pukara, jacha pukara) were considered sacred for performing

the mating ceremony and it was never performed in the village; nowadays theygenerally perform it in the village, since people are lazier.

During the mating rite, in a gendered division of labour, the men control theparticipation of the male animals while the women focus more on the colouring of theresulting offspring (see figure 9). If there is a particularly strong male that could crush afemale, then the men have to restrain it with ropes. The men also participate indirectlyin controlling the colouring of the resulting offspring by using special decorated ropeswith splendid colours and complex patterns (see Arnold and Yapita, 2001). In addition,the men influence the colouring of the herd animals by picking out the male studs.Sometimes they go some distance to seek good sires in the high hillsides of the ayllu(around Mount Turu or Jujchu). At other times, they go even further, to MountAsanaqi or Sajama, where the pasture is better and likewise the quantity of the llama

meat and fleece, to hire a sire with pretty colours, in exchange for a whole aguayo fullof food (qurpa), say corn, or the dehydrated potato called chuno.

F I G U R E 9 The mating ceremony: jarqhayana, with the beautiful ropes woven by the men.

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


680

685

690

695

700

705

710

715

720


17/31

The desire for star colours

Meanwhile, the women participants try to predetermine the colours of the herdanimals by using weavings of particular colours, which have their celestial counterparts.This process begins in earnest as the Evening Star comes out on the day selected for theceremony, when the women take up their coloured mantles (aguayo) according to theoffspring colouring they desire the most.

In the case of llamas, if a woman wishes to have a dark-brown offspring (chumpi)in her flock, then she places an aguayo of this same colour over the mating sire as if tocover him. The idea is that the offspring of this mating will have the same darkbrown. Likewise, if she wants a black-coloured offspring (chiyara), she would place avery black aguayo (of the colour called chiyar chilu) over the mating sire, or if shewants pied offspring (allqa), she would place over him a striped food sack of similarcolours. As a result, according to Elvira, sometimes theyd turn out the same piedcolouring, allqa, or like a condor (kunturi) if shed put over him a weaving of thatcolour.

This aspect of the rite, of relating an aguayo or poncho colouring with the colour ofthe offspring resulting from the mating, has a strong nexus with starlight. For example,if a herder wants a baby llama of a dark-black hue, in this case the twinkling of the star

should not enter in any way underneath the textile placed over the sire, because thestarlight would lighten the colour. In this case, the star should not be allowed topenetrate this mating and the herder should cover the sire completely with blackweavings, so that not a single ray of light could get in. Only in that way will theoffspring turn out completely black (chiyar chilu).

On the other hand, if the herder wants a totally white offspring, then she wouldnot cover the sire at all, so that the offspring shines completely with the light of all thestars. Or if she wanted just a little white in the offsprings colouring, then she wouldcover the sire with a dark brown aguayo (chumpi) but with a little white in it.Alternatively she may allow a little starlight to enter underneath the mantle.

The women also use weaving designs to influence the colour of the resultingoffspring. For example, in order to have an all-black baby llama, the women might

place over the site a weaving with a completely black plain area (pampa), but with somefigures of stars or wild animals. They hold that the stars penetrate into these designsand that these figures answer the stars back, and that both of them come tounderstand each other, in the sense that the figures shine as do the stars. However, theblack plain area does not shine. That is why, in order to obtain an all-black llama(chiyar chilu), the stars should not penetrate through to the mating sire. In this case,a dark-black colouring is compared to the darkness of the night sky.

If, for some reason, the night sky becomes overcast, the herders believe that thisdarkening will make the offspring have a darker fleece, and they compensate bycovering the sires with weavings of lighter colours. As Elvira says, Its all of a game.Elvira told how her grandmother once wanted an all-white baby llama during aceremony with a particularly overcast sky. Her grandmother did not have one single

white aguayo at home, because these are not generally woven in Qaqachaka, and inthese circumstances she had to seek at the last moment some white rustic cloth ( bayeta)woven by the men in the family, to cover the sire during the mating.

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


725

730

735

740

745

750

755

760

765


18/31

A woman also draws on the star-colour-weaving relation to influence the sex of theyoung animals she desires for her flocks. For example, if she wants males (urqurara),then she covers the sire with a weaving that has some threads spun to the left (chiqarqaputaw kusa), usually a poncho or aguayo with a herringbone effect (kurti) at theborders. Such garments, woven with left-spun warps (kurti) on the textile edges (tirja)or in the central seam (chuku), ensure that the offspring will be male:

Akax kurtiniwaka urqunakatakiw kusaaka urqu wawachanpataki . . .

[This has kurti (a herringbone effect)These are good for having males,This is so there will be more male offspring . . .]

In the case of sheep, the practice is a little different. Since sheep mate year-round, awoman herder must take advantage of the marking rite to drape an aguayo of the colourshe desires over the wall of the pen, in order to generate this certain colour in her flock.

Elvira commented how weavings are generally woven taking this factor of the

colouring of the future animals into account. Sometimes, though, weaving labour athome is not sufficient to fulfil the ambition of a shepherdess for a multiplicity of coloursin her flock. For example, sometimes a shepherdess wants different coloured llamas inher flock, of say four, five or six colours, and not all these colours can be found amongthe weavings in her household. At home, there may be only three colours. In this case,the woman with foresight would have to go to borrow from someone, say her aunt orsomeone else in the community (just as her grandmother did), and say please lend mea textile of such a colour, I dont have one and I need it; then they would bring out thetextile and lend it to her. She would do this taking into account the days left before theceremony, according to her astronomical observations.

Even the edges (called kumpa) of food sacks are woven with reinforced seams sothat they dont wear out, and these strong seams (kumpana) are woven in white with

black or a coffee-brown colour, thinking of the beautiful colours of the animals in theflocks. Oh, condor, I shall get a condor-colour this time, theyd say, as they reinforcethe corners of the sack, with black at the ends and white in the middle, and theoffspring would come out just like baby condors. In the case of alpacas it was the same.Likewise, a woman would insert coloured threads (chimpu) into their aguayos, or in thebobbles at the corners, in order to have at her disposal a maximum colour range whenthe mating ritual came (see figure 10).

Libations (challa) and song

While the women concentrate on the colours in the woven garments and their structural

techniques, thinking of the coming offspring, the men begin to toast the results of theceremony, this time with the force of their words. As Elvira says, The men always helpwith their strength. Later on, after draping the coloured aguayos and ponchos over themating sires, the women too begin to toast the events and sing to the animals:

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


770

775

780

785

790

795

800

805

810


19/31

Ya uhka kanchanixtan ukha layranixtan . . .

[Now we have light, now we have eyes . . .]

The women also remember the stars in their songs:

Wayay irpitanta ay Tatalay. . .

[So you will guide me, oh Father . . .]

And record in their toasts the names of the stars, the moon, and so on.Later in the evening, the women take time to remember in toasts all the

pathways (thakhi) throughout the lives of their llamas, beginning with the place ofbirth of a certain llama, in the pens of other ayllus, and recording in this way the historyof the llamas from the time of the Inkas onward. Gradually, they name the places alongthe pathways where the llamas dwell (something like the structure of a city like LaPaz), mentioning in particular the fortresses they have frequented: Pinkillir Qasa(Fluted Gap), Uma Phusu (Blowing Water), Purta (Gateway) and so on. In addition,

they name the places the llamas frequent every day, given that their daily routes arealways different. They go one day to one place, then the following day to another,seeking the best pastures, and they do a complete circuit of the ayllu in the whole yearrather like completing the layout of a loom (see figure 11).

F I G U R E 1 0 Coloured threads (chimpu) in the womens mantles.

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


815

820

825

830

835

840

845

850

855


20/31

Only then do they turn to the ritual corner (iskina), which is the name for theirpens, and finally they name the stars associated with the animals.

The dance of the stars

After the ritual, the participants leave the pukara site to return to the village. Thewomen collect up the coloured weavings they draped over the mating llamas andalpacas, in order to obtain young of the same colours, and then they return dancing, ina row of women on one side and a row of men on the other. In a kind of throwing

game, they toss the weavings back and forth amongst them: This will be prettier foryou, and this will be prettier for you . . ..

And thus the women would begin to sing:

Chumpi awayuntis jaquntasxitayInamayakiti janiw sarantati . . .

[Ive put a brown aguayo over you,Youll not go in vain . . .]

Elvira clarified how the throwing game replicates the idea that you wont go in vain, since

brown offspring will really result from the brown-coloured aguayo Ive draped over you.The vital interrelationship between the night sky and earthly matters influences this

final part of the mating ritual, as the participants comment amongst themselves whentossing the textiles: With the oncoming darkness of the sky, my llamas will turn out

F I G U R E 1 1 The daily routes of the llamas in a woven form.

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


860

865

870

875

880

885

890

895

900


21/31

the same dark hue (chiyar chilu), nice and dark like the sky (chiyar siluschamaktanxistuwa), due to this weaving.

According to Elvira, the very dance on this occasion is performed in a pattern likethe stars, since the dancers make a zigzag figure as they toss the weavings to and fro,like a loom, but with the weavings. It is as if the dancers were braiding amongthemselves the guiding thread of the Goat-kids Pathway (the Pleiades), while at thesame time they were braiding together all the stars with their different colours (seefigure 12). Elvira commented thus:

Lets say like the stars because when the Pleiades come out, they come out as aline, dont they, just like a huge vein. . .. This vein is really clear, you see it likethis, huge like a great thread, isnt it? So, this vein would be the middle axis, withthe two rows of men and women, dont you think, and at the other side are thestars. . .. Then these stars start to braid with the aguayo weavings. The men throw

them here and the women throw them there, and its as if they were braiding allthe colours of the stars. . ..

Here, the dancers replicate the complex structures and colours of a weaving, bothcelestial and earthly, in which the threads of different colours go in all directions. Thetextile patterns in these dances even inspire the women in the months ahead to weaveentirely new and much more complex weaving structures, of eight warp groupings andmore, in the new weaving creations of the ayllu. In this way, weaving creativity derivesits inspiration directly from the sense of movement of the stars.

These kinds of cultural practices are at odds with Western theories of colour, whereinthe mixture of different colours of light is considered to result in a white tonality or wherethe mixture of coloured dyes results in a black tonality. In Qaqachaka, instead of such

universal theories of practice, there are two other possibilities. On the one hand, thewomen weavers hold a more individual sense of the colours pertaining to each person orfamily, for example according to the colouring of the threads (chimpu) they tie in the chinuknots during the marking ceremony. On the other, there exists the sense of the whole

F I G U R E 1 2 The dance of the stars.

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


905

910

915

920

925

930

935

940

945


22/31

repertoire of colours used by a community. In this more communal context, the weaversthink of the combined colours of the stars that come out from the Great Pathway or WhiteRiver that is the MilkyWay. In order toavoid scattering them, it is considered an obligationof community members to braid constantly all these colours in the threads of theirweavings, or in the mating dance ritual, and so combine constantly at a communal level allthe colours of the stars found in the night sky.

As their point of reference, the women focus on the middle colours, and then

define the darker colours (by adding more black) and the lighter colours (with theaddition of more white). As Elvira observed:

For example, black comes out of a dark coffee-brown colour (chumpi). Its thereverse. Because in the West theres not this sense of the intermediate. Its always oneextreme to the other, and the diffusion of those gives the middle tones. In the Andesits different; there are always three elements. There exists man and wife, say, butbetween them is the child (wawa). And if we were to talk about territory, they alwaysspeak about valleys, the head of the valleys and the highland (puna) . . . there are thosethree elements again, and there the three regions intertwine. Its always three, notsimply two, such as left and right (kupi chiqa). Its another theory of colour.

Another dominant idea is that each star shines with its own distinct colour and thatthe llama has to shine with its own colour, just the same. However, the notion ofshining or twinkling, as we say in the West, has an added dimension of sound. Weare in the realm of the sound of light described by Platt (1992), and others. TheAymara verb chipichipina is used to describe this characteristic twinkling, forexample of the Evening Star, as with twinkling eyes (Achach Warawara chipichipinxi).They say chipichipinxiw yasta mistuniw: Its twinkling, its already come out:

For example, some stars shine from the middle . . . some say that the Evening Star(Achach Wawawara) shines a brownish yellow (qillu paqu), no?, while others sayits white (janqu). So they imitate the stars, according to what they see whenthey drape the textiles, dont they? And the llama must shine just the same . . .

Other stars are said to run fast and at that moment they change their colour. Inanother moment it could turn a coffee-brown colour, for example, as it passes behindsome branches.

The precession of the black male llamas

Other astronomical practices are in the hands of the men of the ayllu. Traditionally animportant series of astronomical observations was made during the long journeys bythe llama herding men from places such as Qaqachaka in the highlands to the warmvalleys of Chuquisaca, in search of bartering products between the two distinct

ecological niches. The basic exchange was of salt from the altiplano for valley corn.During these journeys, the llama herders observed the Milky Way, or the Great

Pathway (Jacha Thakhi), as their frame of reference, sometimes calling it directly QarwaThakhi Llama Trail. Within the curved axis of the Milky Way, they observed the

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


950

955

960

965

970

975

980

985

990


23/31

Evening and Morning Stars (Achach Warawara), the Eyes of the Llama (Qarwa Layra), andthe groupings called the constellation or black lakes, especially the Male Llamas(Urqurara) and their celestial wallows (Waltana or Qhayana). They would also watchthe way the stars in the Milky Way spread outward (willxta jiwa), as these observationstold them about the direction of the route they should take and the fortune of the trip.

In the book River of Fleece, River of Song (Arnold and Yapita,2001), we describe thecommentaries of the llama herders and their wives as they set off on the journey, when

they observe the Black Llamas, especially the Mother Llama (Tayka Qarwa) feeding heryoung through a celestial umbilical cord. At this time of the year, they compare her peewith the salt from the salt flats where the llama herders go to fetch the salt to barter forvalley corn. The historical counterparts of these contemporary practices are found incertain chapters ofRitos y Tradiciones de Waruchiri (for example, Chapter 29) compiledin the sierra around Lima by the extirpator of idolatries, Father Arriaga, at thebeginning of the seventeenth century (c.1607).

On these journeys to the valleys, the llama herders had to sleep out during the coldnights of May and June, in the places called jara or jarasina, where they piled up thesacks containing the products for barter with their valley counterparts. When resting atnight, they would look up at the Great Pathway (Jacha Thakhi) of the Milky Way, andthe stars to all sides, and say:

Khajay thakhixa saraskarakisa, warawar injana.

[Walking those pathways, you go looking at the stars.]

They perceived their route as passing through the axis of the Great Pathway. Theywould seek out the position of the Evening Star (Achach Warawara) and other stars inrelation to this main axis (or middle pathway), where the Pleiades were found,because it told them about the happenings of the journey, and whether they wouldencounter a thief or not. According to Elvira:

. . . sometimes they say that the Grandfather Star would enter into the middle.

This means that they would encounter a thief, so they would have to takeprecautions at that moment . . . they had to guard their things. For example, theyput pots in their sleeping places (jara) to simulate the heads of sleeping men, right?Theres a tale where a thief would come and look at the pot and say: Hes there ontop, Ill kill him. Then he would take a stick and BANG . . . he would strike thepot but not kill the owner, no? [laughter]. And who had warned him about this? Itwas the star, wasnt it? And so there were things like this. Its always the EveningStar, Achach Warawara, which has to be further away from the grouping, from thatpile (qutu, the Pleiades) . . . it cannot go inside.

The metaphysics of star gazing

Watching the stars has an added metaphysical dimension, to do with recalling the stagesin a human lifetime or with the dead of the ayllu, as if the stars embodied the spirits of

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


995

1000

1005

1010

1015

1020

1025

1030

1035


24/31

the dead and also certain aspects of a persons spirituality (see figure 13). Regarding thedead, Elvira observed that:

The stars could be like the heads of the dead, couldnt they?, because the heads orskulls in the rite of sucking out health (salur waysuna) are looking upward, so,toward the moon or the stars, as if they were remembering something. . ..

Regarding the living, she was more sanguine:

I know that the stars give colours to the animals, but I dont know if they give lifeas well . . . or perhaps they do give life too.

To illustrate the relation between the stars and the stages of a human life, Elviraremembered how her maternal grandmother used to read the shadows traced by thestars in the form of a person walking at night and how the shadows cast by the stars andthe moon revealed the different lives or personalities of somebody:

Now we are going to walk to the place called Wila Utjana [Red Place] on such a

night. . .

and on that night there will be a full moon, my granny would say.Alright. And we would start walking. We would walk and walk, and she wouldmake me look at my shadow: the first, the second and the third . . . I think there aresix shadows in all, right? A person has six shadows. And she would say: This is

F I G U R E 1 3 The ancestral skulls that look toward the stars.

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


1040

1045

1050

1055

1060

1065

1070

1075

1080


25/31

each stage in life: the stage of childhood, of youth, maturity, such and such, and theone on the middle is to seek friends and boyfriends, so my granny told me. Andshe would have a star show you the different stages of your life. Some persons,though, may have only three or two stages. This means that they will only passthrough these two or three stages of life and then die.

For their part, specialist astronomers in rural communities such as Qaqachaka are still

charged with observing the stars for more philosophical reasons. These wise ones (yatiri)mustcommunicate with the stars, with the moon and the sun, as a part of their personallife trajectory in wisdom and curing. They puzzle about the stages of the full moon andthe dark of the moon, and in these moments, they always chew their coca leaves.Moreover, any person that has a healing hand is deemed to communicate with theheavenly bodies. In this context, the heavenly bodies are held to communicate directlywith the body of the person who knows how to heal, rendering their light to help in theacts of healing. Elvira explained how Sometimes red or white marks [lapha ] appear onthe body, roundish in form and sometimes incomplete, on the chest or else behind theneck, and these seem to be the eyes that heal. According to Elvira, When these thingsappear it means that the full moon has reached completion, and so a flower-markappears somewhere on the body, but one doesnt realize, or one doesnt know when it

appears, but it does appear, above all on the wise-ones [yatiri ]. At this moment, youcommunicate with the stars or with the moon. It is like the plant called phulurisa (Sp.

flores) or the other one called para piya (fontanella), which spill out their flowers to allsides. As Elvira says, At this moment, you can look at the stars and communicate withthem, and moreover you can chew your coca to have a good hand . . . for healing.

The drinking cup of the constellations and otherconclusions

By way of conclusion, it is necessary to compare the daily pragmatics of astronomicalpractices in an Andean ayllu such as Qaqachaka with what present-day intellectuals in

the region, for example the Peruvian architect Carlos Milla Villena, presume are theastronomical practices of the place.

There are many differences in the way that Carlos Milla Villena and the people ofQaqachaka practise their astronomical observations. One is the way in which MillaVillena attributes importance to the visual images of the heavenly bodies as lines tracedon the page, according to his contemporary architectural training, while he ignores theimportant body of narrations in oral tradition that accompanies them, and ignorescompletely any woven dimension to these practices. So, while Milla Villena draws thetrajectories of celestial movement as straight lines, like architectural drawings, thecommunity members of Qaqachaka are conscious of the more complex trajectories ofthe heavenly bodies. This is evident, for example, in the Dance of the Stars toward theend of the animal marking ritual, when the participants cast the coloured textiles from

one to another, replicating the more haphazard movement of the heavenly bodiesaccording to their own experience. As Elvira says, the braiding in this case is not instraight lines and besides the Great Pathway of the stars always goes in the form of acurve, its not straight either . . . which is why they say the River of Stars.

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


1085

1090

1095

1100

1105

1110

1115

1120

1125


26/31

Elvira also made a connection between the seasons of the year, astronomicalobservations and the figures the women weave in their textiles, as three-dimensionalstructures rather than straight lines. For example, in the rainy season, its difficult tosee the stars for the clouds in the night sky, and in these months its more common toweave the figures of the stars as surface-designs in the cloth, but these figures did notenter into the depth of the textile structure. However, at the end of the rainy season,by February, and especially in the dance at the ends of the animal marking ceremony,

the women are more attentive to changes in the very textile structure.Another story told by Elviraabout herchildhood emphasizes these differences.It has to

do with the custom of leaving two stone drinking cups, called qeros, at the sites ofthe greatwaterfalls called paxcha, as a kind of offering to the spirits of the dead (the jira mayku) thatare held to dwell there during the rainy season. In the past, these qeros were well lookedafter and animals were not allowed near them. Nowadays, however, even the goats areallowed to roam there, pee on the stones and damage the qeros. Elvira narrates once more:

At Carnival, my grandmother used to sing to the sound of a large guitar:

Achay sita, wiphay sita,qullqi lamparas tikita

Anatay sarka sasana. . .

[Tell me morning, tell me mists,Even the lamp adorned with silver,When the carnival spirits are going off . . .]

And my granny used to say that the jira mayku spirits are this, and the jira maykus dothat. She used to start to tell stories so, all about the jira maykus, really FAR OUT itwas a whole month in which you spoke about the jira maykus. And I would askmyself:

Why do they put sweets into the qeros? Because they always say that sweets

should be put there. And she would answer:

Because they are hungry, the jira maykus are hungry. But I insisted:

But why do you put them there, granny?

Ill tell you later, later, she said.

With luck, there was a clear night and the possibility of walking to the village, passingby the place of the great cascade. There, Elvira and her grandmother found the qerosand, besides, a group of jira mayku whirling spirits (see Arnold and Yapita, 2001).Elvira told how her grandmother had the custom of making an offering to this place,

as well as to the qeros, before observing the stars in the circling water there (seefigure 14).

One day, evening came upon us at the place called Qhusmi Uma (Shining Water).It was late and she said:

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


1130

1135

1140

1145

1150

1155

1160

1165

1170


27/31

Its late, and we cant pass that way because its the month of the jira maykus, andthey will attack us.My grandfather had already died by then. And she said:Well go to Qalawani.Qalawani is farther uphill. So, we returned to the Qalawani road and, all of a

sudden, the full moon came out. She said:No. . .. Its clear enough, we shall be able to see the road. So lets go on, there areonly a few clouds. I think we can get to Qaqachaka alright. And we walked on.And just then we turned away from the road, and she said:Lets look at the qeros. I want to know a little about the jira maykus. She had hersweets and her alcohol.And at the big cascade, as the water fell down, it shone, didn it? It shone with thestars, too much!Heck, it really twinkled and twinkled, and even rustled. It was shining, and I wastrembling; it was fearful. And the qeros, as it had rained that day, were full ofwater. And my grandmother began to look at the qero full of water, didnt she?And she said:

Oh, how nice it is, how nice [walik kusaniw khum walikiw].She was watching the stars in that water, in the qeros, both of them. Then, she wascommunicating at the same time with the jira maykus, and with the stars in theqeros, in the qeros where the stars were, and she said:

F I G U R E 1 4 One of two qero drinking cups, with reflections of the turning axis of the stars.

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


1175

1180

1185

1190

1195

1200

1205

1210

1215


28/31

Janiw chamsiku sumati, ya akar pagtananiw.

She began to get hold of the white sweets and put three of these in the qeros, andthen she began to watch again. So she herself was correcting the stars lets say,through her offerings of sweets. She was evidently reading from one side of themand then from the other. She read it, and then we left.

Therefore those qeros were not simply for the jira mayku spirits; they were also forreading the stars, and then the jira maykus could drink that water, couldnt they?Because she had paid them, she said, for she had placed the sweet offerings there.She had paid that qero and therefore, as she had paid with the sweets, the jiramaykus would not affect her and would let her see her drinking cups ofconstellations. Thats what she used to say.

The jira maykus are so called because of their constant turning, which is related by theQaqachakas to the great turning of the Milky Way over the course of the year. In theWest, this turning is often compared with that of a mill-stone, for example in the well-known text by Santillana and von Dechend (1969). In Qaqachaka, though, thismovement is compared with that of the jira mayku, and the inspiration of weavers in

their woven world. Elvira narrates:

My mother was talking about this turning of the stars, this turning that gives birth,lets say, to the spirits of the dead called jira maykus. These jira maykus are in the air,and they come to encourage the weavers, because that encouragement through theturning of the stars enters the heart of a weaver, and the weaver then expresses itin her cloth, doesnt she.

Thats why they sing in the feast of Santa Cruz at the beginning of May this verse inSpanish, which they say comes from over toward the neighbouring ayllu ofJukumani:

Ay Dios mo, ay Dios mo,He tejido con el giro de las estrellasCon el giro de las estrellas he tejido,Sabiendo todos los colores de los hilos.

[Oh my God, oh my God,Ive woven with the turning of the stars,With the turning of the stars, Ive wovenKnowing all the colours of the threads.]They say this song refers to the cascade of water called Qulimiri, where the waterswirls in the form of the stars.

Such homologies relate the turning movement of the Milky Way, that of the jiramaykus, the stars and even swirling water. Another sacred site, from where the animalsemerge according to the myths of Qaqachaka, is called Qasir Quta (Weeping Lake),which equally turns and turns and turns. As Elvira says:

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


1220

1225

1230

1235

1240

1245

1250

1255

1260


29/31

When the star is turning in the upper world, so the waters are turning below in thesame way, and the jira maykus are moving and they enter further in. Its like aspindle that goes in and out.

She concluded So, theres lots to do with weavings in all of this, but wed have todevelop a better theory to speak about it, wouldnt we [laughter].

Notes

1 Other chroniclers give alternative names for Venus, such as Hatun Ccollur, JachaWara wara, Pacari Coyllur, Auqilla, Pachahuarac or Chacha guarac, and Atungara (Bauerand Dearborn, 1998: 129, cited in Villarroel, 2004), also Chasca Coyllur or PacarinaCoyllur, according to Guaman Poma (c.1613), and Guarac, according to Polia (1999:Q3355). According to Antonio de la Calancha (1976: 833), Venus was said to haveQ3been born from the foam of the sea, like Viracocha. In Inka times, Venus wasevidently an important design in tocapus, having to do with expressing the wisdomof the wearer.

References

Arnold, D. Y. 1997a. Using ethnography to unravel different kinds of knowledge in theAndes. Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies 6 (1): 1997: 3350.

Arnold, D. Y. 1997b. Making men in her own image: Gender, text and textile inQaqachaka. In Creating Context in Andean Cultures, edited by Rosaleen Howard.Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 99131.

Arnold, D. Y. 1998. Song to the Alpaca. In Poetry Comes Up Where It Can: An Anthology,edited by Brian Swann. Poems from the Amicus Journal, 19902000. Salt Lake City:

The University of Utah Press.Arnold, D. Y. 2004. Midwife singers: Llama-human obstetrics in some songs to the animalsby Andean women. In Quechua Verbal Artistrys: the Inscription of Andean Voices, edited byG. Delgado, and J. Schechter, series No. 38. Bonn: BAS publications, 14579.

Arnold, D. Y. 2005. The social life of a communal chest: Hybrid characters and theimagined genealogies of written documents and their woven ancestors. In Repensandoel pasado, recuperando el futuro: Nuevos aportes interdisciplinarios para el estudio de la

America colonial/Remembering the past, retrieving the future: New interdisciplinary

contributions to the study of Colonial Latin America, edited by Veronica Salles. Bogota:Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, 92 131.

Arnold, D. Y., and Elvira Espejo. 2005. Las cabezas de la periferia, del centro y del mundointerior: una comparacion de la dinamica belica en la iconografa textil arqueologica

de Paracas-Topara y del ayllu Qaqachaka (Bolivia) contemporaneo. In Tejiendo suenosen el Cono Sur. Textiles andinos: pasado, presente y futuro, edited by Victoria SolanillaDemestre. Barcelona: Grup dEstudis Precolombins, Universitat Auto noma deBarcelona, 34864.

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


1265

1270

1275

1280

1285

1290

1295

1300

1305


30/31

Arnold, Denise Y., and Juan de Dios Yapita. 1997. La lucha por la dote en un ayllu andino.In Mas alla del silencio. Las fronteras de genero en los Andes, edited by D. Y. Arnold.La Paz: CIASE e ILCA, 34583.

Arnold, Denise Y., and Juan de Dios Yapita. 1998. Ro de vellon, ro del canto. Cantar a losanimales, una poetica andina de la creacion. La Paz: ILCA and UMSA.

Arnold, Denise Y., and Juan de Dios Yapita. 2001. River of Fleece, River of Song. Singing to theAnimals. An Andean Poetics of Creation. Bonn: BAS publications 35 and ILCA, La Paz.

Arnold, Denise Y., and Juan de Dios Yapita. 2006. The Metamorphosis of Heads: TextualStruggles, Education and Land in the Andes. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

Arnold, Denise Y., and Juan de Dios Yapita and others. 2000. El rincon de las cabezas. Luchastextuales, educacion y tierras en los Andes. La Paz: Instituto de Lengua y Cultura Aymaraand Universidad Mayor de SanAndres. [English version to be published in April 2006by University of Pittsburgh Press, as The Metamorphosis of Heads.].

Bauer, Brian S., and David S. P. Dearborn. 1998. Astronoma e Imperio en los Andes.Q4Berenguer, Jose, and Jose Luis Martnez. 1986. El ro Loa, el arte rupestre de Taira y el

mito de Yakana. Boletn del Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino No. 1. [Santiago deChile]: 79 99.

Dransart, Penelope. 1991. Fibre to fabric: The role of fibre in camelid economies inprehistoric and contemporary Chile. Doctoral thesis, Linacre College, University of

Oxford.Duviols, Pierre, and Cesar Itier. 1993. Estudio etnohistorico y lingustico de la Relacion de

Antiguedades deste Reyno del Piru, de Joan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamaygua.Cusco: Centro de Estudios Regionales Bartolome de las Casas and Institut FrancaisdEtudes Andins.

Earls, John, and Irene Silverblatt. 1976. La realidad f sica y social en la cosmologa andina.Actas del XLII Congres International del Americanistes 42 (4): 299327.

Frame, Mary. 1999. Chuquibamba: A highland style. Textile Museum Journal36 37 (19971998): 348.

Gaposhkin, Sergie. 1960. The visual Milky Way. In Vistas in Astonomy, edited by ArthurBeer. 28995.Q4

Guaman Poma de Ayala, Felipe. (c.1613) 1936. Nueva coronica y buen gobierno. Facsimile

edition. Paris: Institut dethnologie.Itier, Cesar. 1992. La tradicion oral quechua antigua en los procesos de idolatras de

Cajatambo. Bulletin de lInstitut Franccais dEtudes Andines 21 (3): 100951.Milla Villena, Carlos. 1992. Genesis de la cultura andina. Lima: Edit. Hamauttica.Platt, Tristan 1992. The sound of light: Speech, script and metaphor in the Southern Andes.

In Etnicidad, economa y simbolismo en los Andes. II Congreso Internacional de Etnohistoria,Coroico, edited by Arze et al. La Paz: Hisbol/IFEA/SBH-ASUR, 439 66.

Pucher, de Kroll. 1995. El auquenido y cosmogona amerasiana. Potos: Universidad deTomas Fras. Republished in La enigmatica etnoastronomaa andina. Tomo II (1995). LaPaz: Taipinquiri, 2318.

Santillana, Giorgio de, and Hertha von Dechend. Hamlets Mill, An Essay on Myth and theFrame of Time. 1969. David R. Godine, Publisher..

Urton, Gary. 1978. Beasts and geometry: some constellations of the Peruvian Quechuas.Anthropos 73: 32 40.

Urton, Gary. 1981. At the Crossroads of the Earth and the Sky: An Andean Cosmology. Austin:University of Texas Press.

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


1310

1315

1320

1325

1330

1335

1340

1345

1350


31/31

Villarroel Salguiero, Gloria. 2004. Sawutaxa warminakan arupawa, Relaciones de genero eidentidad en la comunidad de Chojnacota, Provincia Totora, Departamento deOruro. Tesis de Licenciatura. La Paz: UMSA.

Zuidema, R. T., and Gary Urton. 1976. La constelacion de la llama en los Andes peruanos.Allpanchis Phuturinqa [Cusco] IX: 59 119.

Denise Arnold is an Anglo-Bolivian anthropologist specialized in Andean anthropology

and literature. She holds postgraduate degrees in Architecture and Environmental

Studies, and a doctorate in Anthropology from University College London (1988). She has

been Leverhulme Research Fellow and ERSC Senior Research Fellow in England, and is

currently teaching at the Universidad PIEB and the Universidad Mayor de San Andres in

La Paz, Bolivia. She is visiting Full Professor at Birkbeck College London, and Director of

the Instituto de Lengua y Cultura Aymara in Bolivia. Among her recent publications are

The Nature of Indigenous Literatures in the Andes: Aymara, Quechua and Others,

Vol. III of Latin American Literatures: a Comparative History of Cultural Formations (edited

by Mario Valdes and Djelal Kadir, 2004, Oxford University Press); The Metamorphosis of

Heads: Textual Struggles, Education and Land in the Andes (Pittsburgh University Press,

2006); and Mujeres en los movimientos sociales en Bolivia, 20002003 (La Paz: CIDEM-ILCA,

2005).

Elvira Espejo is a painter, weaver and storyteller. Her first book of tales, Ahora les voy a

narrar, was a finalist in the Indigenous Literatures Competition organized by Casa de las

Americas in Cuba (1994) and was then published in Bolivia by Casa and UNICEF. She

studied Fine Arts at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes, in La Paz, and has

experience in multimedia. She has had several individual exhibitions of her work

including El arte del altiplano (2005) at the Cadeco Gallery, and has taught courses on

visual languages (Duke in the Andes), and on Andean textiles. She has recently

published some childrens books of her own tales ( Sawu parla, 2005; Atipasin parla, 2005),

and formed part of a team working on interactive DVDs of Aymara tales in the Instituto de

Lengua y Cultura Aymara, in La Paz, Bolivia.

CJLA 1781755/6/2006214799


1355

1360

1365

1370

1375

1380

1385

1390

1395

on drinking cups and constellations jlacs

Documents