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Back in Lima I return to the National Library to seek a deeper understanding of the pre-Hispanic world. That morning in Calango, when, unable to sleep, I had looked out of the window before dawn to see the Pleiades rising above the horizon, I realised that I was conceptually half blind for the task I had set myself: there could be whole worlds that I was not seeing, and I did not know where to look. I decided to start with the sky.
It is difficult to appreciate the beauty of a sky full of stars, when living in a city lit up at night or under perpetual cloud. Lima is both. It is even more difficult to comprehend the importance of stars to the historic peoples of coastal and highland Peru, from the perspective of a semi-industrial, colonial, hierarchical, proto-society. Lima is all of those.
Antonio de la Calancha wrote that the sacred rock in Calango was called Coyllur Sayana in Quechua, or Llumisca Lantacuara in the people’s own language, perhaps a form of Aymara, and that these might mean “where the Star fell”, or “the skin of the Star”. The U-shaped mounds, three and four thousand year old structures in the river valleys close to Lima, and the huacas, the hundreds of flat-topped mounds scattered across the city, mostly point or align somewhere to the east of north. These hint at important relationships with the night sky with thousands of years of continuity. But the loss of life from disease and wars, in the first fifty years after the invasion, and the later systematic destruction of indigenous culture through “extirpation”, means that it is difficult now to conceive what relationship there might be between sacred sites such as the Cochineros stones, and seasonal markers in the sky. The chroniclers of the invasion give us just a few tantalising clues.
Nevertheless, in the Amazon there are peoples who, when threatened by the invasion, were able to retreat further into the forests and retain much of their culture. Perhaps here we can gain some insight into an Andean vision of man in the universe, as seen in the heavens.
The Amuesha or Yanesha, living in lands on the eastern slopes of the Peruvian Andes, were at the crossroads of the pre-hispanic highland civilisations and the cultural traditions of the South American lowlands. Today there are 8000 native speakers, living between 1600 metres and 200 metres above sea level, in the provinces of Junin, Pasco and Huanuco. They are located on the other side of the Andes from Lima, from Huarochiri. They may be related to those people of legend who were thrown out by Paria Caca and his sons, from the heights of the Sierra, and driven eastwards and down into the forests.
“And five days after his prophecy, Paria Caca did begin fighting Huallallo Caruincho. Paria Caca, since he was five persons, began to rain down from five directions. That rain was yellow rain and red rain. Then, flashing as lightning, he blazed out from five directions.
“From early in the moring to the setting of the sun Huallallo Caruincho flamed up in the form of a giant fire reaching almost to the heavens, never letting himself be extinguished…
“… And Paria Caca kept flashing lightning bolts at him, never letting him rest. Finally Huallallo Caruincho fled toward the low country, the Antis…. Another of Paria Caca’s offspring chased after him. He stays at the pass down to the lowlands, the Antis, today. “Lest Huallallo Caruincho return” as he says.”
This brother of Paria Caca is known as Paria Carco, and, the Manuscript tells us, “Paria Carco remains there to this day in the form of a snow capped peak.”
Peruvian anthropologist Santos Granero lived with the Yanesha. He describes a rich astronomical knowledge, cross-linked with events they observed in the natural world and the seasons, and their annual cycle of dances and songs. Despite academic titles such as Beinghood and people-making in native Amazonia: A constructional approach with a perspectival coda, his observations are fascinating.
The Amuesha link the position of a star at a particular time of the year with the migratory habits of birds, the flowering and fruiting of wild or domesticated trees, or the different stages of the biological cycle of wild animals. They have a detailed knowledge of the natural processes around them, and integrate this with other ideas to form their view of the world.
For instance, the Amuesha associate the different positions of Chemuellem — the red Antares of the constellation of Scorpius — with the arrival of the vermilion flycatchers, the ripening of the red peach palm fruit, the burning of new clearings, the maize growing cycle, and the end of their performance of ‘wet season music’. All refer to the same natural process: the start, the height, and the termination of the dry season.
So the change from the wet to the dry season can be seen in terms of the position in the sky of Chemuellem (Antares) and Oncoy (the Pleiades) at dawn, or in terms of the appearance of shellmem and mat, two varieties of swallows.
The Yanesha creation is characterized by the rivalry between Yato’ Yos, the celestial supreme divinity, and Yato’Coros, his evil brother; a second era dominated by Yompor Rret, an evil solar divinity ; and the present era ruled by Yompor Ror, Our Father the Sun, and his twin sister and wife Yachor Arrorr, Our Mother the Moon.
The birth of the sun and the moon began an era of normal childbirths ; before then, women gave birth to monkeys, rotten wood, lizards. But the beginning of childbirth started the age of illness and death. The Yanesha lost their immortality and received in exchange the pains and sorrows of the human condition.
When Ror and Arror, the Sun and Moon, ascended to heaven there were many other divinities living on earth. Yompor A’penerr told the Yanesha people that if they wanted to become immortal they should join him in singing and dancing, but they were too cold and tired.
Finally, Yompor A’penerr said “you shall be forgotten for ever. You shall never become like one of us”, and he rose to become ‘the land where death reigns’, the Milky Way.
Others followed. Yomрог Pencoll played his transverse flute (pencoll) and became Orion’s belt. The three stars represent the three fingerholes of his flute. Oncoy started playing drum music. He and his group of drum players became the Pleiades. Oncoy’s tapir’s jaw (a hunters charm) became the V-shaped Hyades.
Cochllema who carried with him his short knife (cochell) became the tail of Scorpius. Tse’m, the vulture, can be seen with his arched wings as Cassiopeia. Contor, the condor, and his brother Epuesquer can be seen close to each other.
Corsoch is the Southern Cross, visible above the Small Magellanic Cloud. A larger cross formed by four stars can be seen above the Large Magellanic Cloud. These two bright shadows topped by crosses are known by the Yanesha as the ‘cemeteries’.
The Milky Way sang and danced his way into the heavens, joined by flute players and drummers. At certain times of the year the Yanesha sing the men’s vocal music, etsenets. A group of dancers forms a line that undulates and moves across the the dancing area, in a manner that seems to mirror the movement of the Milky Way. The Yanesha assert that A’penerr and his followers can still be seen dancing eternally to etsenets sacred music.
The year and the seasons can be seen in the skies, in stars or constellations whose position in the sky changes with an annual cycle. Each constellation moves with the sun. Dawn, when the sun’s light begins to appear in the sky, is forty minutes before sunrise, while dusk, that fading of the sky, is forty minutes after sunset. The time between dusk and dawn, when the constellations can be seen moving across the sky, occupies a little less than twelve hours. This means that a minimum of two constellations is required to track the night skies: any one will be hidden six months of the year, as it is in the visible sky at the same time as the sun.
Four of the Yanuesha constellations have special significance : Oncoy (Pleiades), Pencoll (Orion’s belt), Chemuellem (Antares) and Charem (Canopus). The positions of these are watched by the Amuesha to determine the beginning and end of the seasons, and the time for performance of their ritual festivals.
It appears that the paired constellations of The Pleiades and Antares provide the celestial clock for the Yanesha. These two mark out the year, and are used to guide their sowing of beans and peanuts in March, and maize from April onwards. The ripening of the peach palm in December is linked to the six months period to grow maize.
The Yanesha performs three forms of music, with their related dances and costumes, at specific times of the year. The po’nesharetenets are performed in December, joined by the ellenets music, which both continue to the full moon in February. After that, the heleshenets are performed for a further month. Like other seasonal activities such as planting and harvesting of crops, blossoming and fruiting of trees, hunting of game birds, these dances can be related to the celestial clock. The movement of the stars is in harmony with all the processes that take place around – flowers, birds, music, colours and more.
Although the Yanesha are a lowland forest people with different crops and agricultural cycles, there are similarities between their annual cycle of activities, and that of the people of the high Andes around Cuzco, and of Huarochiri. All have three important periods of the year, linked to the stars and to their farming, recognised with a particular set of music, dance and costumes.
To understand the markings on the stones of Cochineros, I have to accept that a swallow is not just a swallow, a llama is more than a llama, and tupus, crosses, concentric circles, and undulating lines may all have several simultaneous meanings or references.
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3 December 2018. Two time president Alan Garcia`s request for political asylum in Uruguay because of “political persecution” is rejected. He has been in hiding in the Uruguay Embassy in Lima since late November, after he returned from his home in Madrid for a court hearing and was forbidden leave the country. In 1992, after his first Presidential term, he had sought asylum in the Columbian embassy and then fled the country, only returning when the statute of limitations freed him from accusations of corruption in the handling of public money.
9 December 2018. The constitutional referendum takes place the same day as the local and regional elections. Vizcarra asks people not to support the two chamber proposal he had made, as Congress has tacked on to it a reduction of the powers of the president to dissolve Congress. The public votes Yes-Yes-Yes-No as Vizcarra requests, with greater that 85% approval.
December 31 2018. A few hours before midnight, the Fiscal of the Nation Pedro Chavarry announces he is removing Fiscals Domingo Perez and Vela from their Lava Joto investigations. The following day marches are organized in Trujillo, Cajamarca, Arequipa, Chimbote and Cusco under banners such as “Fuera Chavarry – Rata Maldita!” I join the gathering crowd in Lima’s Plaza San Martin late in the afternoon and follow the march to the Public Ministry, where the two fiscals have arranged a press conference at 8.30 pm.
Marches in the city centre are usually treated with indifference, but this time the passing taxi drivers and the private cars sound their horns in support. Even the police, in heavy body armour and carrying guns, seem supportive.
The next day, January 2nd, Chavarry announces the Fiscal’s reinstatement.
23 January 2019. Alberto Fujimori is taken from hospital where he has spent the last three months, and returned to jail. A government medical panel has found there was no reason for him to stay in hospital.