Attitudes toward Mountains - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 456

In North America, it seems fairly clear that migration to and from the mountains de-
pended on favorable climatic conditions and the availability of food. There is evidence
that some groups utilized the mountains and the plains on an annual cycle according
to the resources available. In winter, they hunted antelope and bison on the plains; in
summer, they went to the mountains to hunt and gather (Adams 2010).
Mountains played and continue to play an important role in the religion and culture
of American Indians (Bernbaum 1997). Many mountains have Indian and Native Alaskan
names; among the most famous are Tacoma or Tacobet (Mount Rainier) and Denali
(Mount McKinley). The Hopi revere the San Francisco Peaks of Arizona as the abode
of the Katsinas, ancestral rain deities on whom they depend for their existence, while
the Navajo or Dine include these remnants of an ancient volcano as one of four sacred
mountains that enclose and protect the land where they dwell (Bernbaum 1997). Vol-
canic peaks in the Cascades, such as Mount Shasta and Mount Rainier, have inspired
many myths and legends (Clark 1953).
Only a few North American alpine archaeological remains have religious signific-
ance. One possible candidate is located above timberline at an altitude of 2,940 m
(9,640 ft) in the Big Horn Mountains of northern Wyoming. It consists of a crude circle
of stones 25 m (80 ft) in diameter with a central cairn 4 m (13 ft) across from which 28
spokes radiate to the rim (Eddy 1974). Early observers thought that the structure was a
medicine wheel constructed as a replica of the medicine lodge to allow the observance
of the Sun Dance ceremony in the mountains (Grinnell 1922). However, later research-
ers have posited that it was an early astronomical observatory, but with some mystical
and/or aesthetic connotations as well, since its astronomical purpose could just as eas-
ily have been served on the plains (Eddy 1974; Sliverman 1999).
Perhaps the most spectacular display the world has ever known of human settlement
in mountains is found in the Andes. Here, thousands of years before the birth of Christ,
at elevations up to 4,500 m (14,400 ft), there flourished civilizations that are still a won-
der to the modern world. The culmination of these cultures is reflected in the ruins of
Tiahuanaco and Machu Picchu (Fig. 9.1) and the Inca capital of Cuzco. Even today, it is
difficult to imagine the techniques involved in the building of their famous stone struc-
tures.
Although Andean peoples were initially hunter gatherers, food was reasonably plen-
tiful at the higher elevations, and the basis for the civilizations to come was agriculture.
Several plant species, including potatoes, corn, squash, and beans, were first domest-
icated in the highlands of Central and South America (Sauer 1936; Linares et al. 1975;
Iriarte and Vrydaghs 2009). The production of food, which released man from the con-
stant burden of hunting, allowed greater numbers of people to settle in a small area
and, eventually, to evolve the highly organized and complex cultures of Tiahuanaco and
the Inca.
What attitude did these people have toward the mountains that were their home?
We know that among their many deities were the sun, the moon, stars, and mountains.
Like the ziggurats of Near Eastern cultures, the stepped pyramids of civilizations such
as the ancient Maya and Aztec in Central America and Mexico were essentially man-
made mountains with temples of deities on their summits (Quaritch-Wales 1953). It was
usually on these artificial mountains that priests carried out sacrifices of foodstuffs, pre-
cious metals, animals, and humans. Pre-Columbian peoples in Central and South Amer-