The Antlers of a Trilemma: Rediscovering Andean Sacred Sites - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 59

of the river below and the vertical cliffs. Other nearby sites include 'Choquequirao',
'Sacsahuaman' or 'Ollantaytambo'. Many sites of earlier origins, such as the
Chachapuya site of Gran Pajatén, in the Rio Abiseo National Park, bring the notion
of sacred constructions and ceremonial uses of the challenging relief of the cloud
forest belt of the verdant Amazon. Even earlier, on the Pacifi c side of the northern
Supe and Casma valleys, the oldest urban complex discovered in the Caral pyramid,
calls the attention of researchers to the ancient tradition of adoration to mountain
sacred sites (Moseley 2001 ).
In Argentina, traditional gathering places for ceremonial or festive purposes,
such as in the 'Quebrada de Humahuaca' for carnival, retain the notion of holly
spaces. Umawaka has always been a crossroads for many groups since antiquity,
protected by the pukara of Tilkara and highlighted by the colored slopes of
Purmamarka. Further to the south, in the 'valles calchaquies' of the Tucumán
province, the 'Ruinas of Quilmes' stand as mute testament to the fl eeing of the
Kilmi, one group of the Diaguita people, to a restricted colony in an Indian reserva-
tion near Buenos Aires. Today, often branded by a popular beer name and the largest
middle-class neighborhood namesake, few people are aware that the descendants of
the Diaguita have (re)invigorated their identity and (re)claimed the ruins into a
Sacred City of Quilmes. A similar situation is illustrated on the other side of the
continental divide, where Kichwa communities in Tukunci and Likan Antay com-
munities in Chiu-chiu and Aiquina-turi respectively, are linked spirituality to sacred
sites. On the other side of the divide, the Chango people might refl ect the ancestral
tendency of petroglyph depictions that copy the larger geoglyphs of the Nazca cul-
ture with its lines; however, thousands of years earlier, ritualized mummifi cation
and the existence of sacralized places for ceremonial burial, such as in 'Chinchorro',
illustrate the Andean notion of sanctifi ed sites. Indeed, Latcham ( 1936 ) traces mum-
mifi cation through millennia from Chinchorro to the Inka .
Finally, the sacred dimension is also present in the Mapuche, who call themselves
the “people of the earth” and whose language Mapudungun is still spoken amongst
their communities; they continue to follow the medicine woman or Machi as spiri-
tual guide for their well-being. Rehue or sacred trees often indicate the vicinity of
the sacred dwelling ( ruca ) of the 'curandera'. Because of their long-standing con-
fl ict over land-rights, even from before the Inka conquest to the south, particularly
after the 'Araucanization' of Patagonia, Mapuche leaders ( lonko ) remain protago-
nists in the confl ict over indigenous land tenure rights.

5.6 Andean Hierophanies

The bottom line for us is that all of our territory is sacred in the sense that it is deeply, pow-
erfully imbued with spiritual reality. To take any particular location and call it “more
sacred” makes little sense within a worldview where our interactions are with all of our
environments, and all are sacred. (Randall Borman In Press )