Shamans, Supernaturals & Animal Spirits: Mythic Figures From the Ancient Andes

Tiwanaku and Pukara Cultures
Tiwanaku, Pukara, Wari: three ceremonial sites located in
the central and southern highlands were fundamental
to the artistic florescence that occurred in the ancient
Andes during the first millennium BC. Each is identified with
the development of a textile aesthetic that served as a spectacular
medium for religious iconography and the cultivation of
cultural influence, as well as political or military force, across an
enormous region.
Situated at opposite ends of the Lake Titicaca Basin, Tiwanaku
and Pukara seemingly represent southern and northern
branches of a very early regional tradition that emerged around
this massive high-altitude sea, and which gave rise to an archaic
art style named Yaya-Mama.
The Pukara culture (circa 200 BC-AD 200) is both slightly
earlier and more enigmatic than that of Tiwanaku (circa AD
200-1100). While the two cultures overlap in time as well as
geographically, it appears that Pukara’s luster began waning just as
Tiwanaku’s preeminence and ritual prestige were consolidating,
a process that culminated around AD 400-500.
Only vestiges of Pukara's monumental architecture survive
today. But scatterings of figured carvings, metalwork and stone
or pottery vessels found in the vicinity of Lake Titicaca indicate
that Pukara was the genesis of core visual and cosmological
themes reworked by Tiwanaku and Wari artists. Indeed, if not
the matrix culture, Pukara may represent the link between
those two divergent highland traditions.
In contrast, the urban grandeur and scope of Tiwanaku excited
the admiration of the Inkas, Spanish conquistadors and 19thcentury
European explorers alike for many centuries after its
abandonment. Dominated by giant ritual pyramids known as
the Akapana and Puma Punku, and a series of sunken courts,
plazas, and palace compounds framed with impressive portals
and fine stone facades, this magnificent complex was designed
for large public ceremonies.
Cult rites and communal feasts were most likely focused upon
celestial and calendrical events or ancestral and mountain
worship. The consumption of sacred botanicals (by dignitaries
and shamans, at least) during these ceremonies is now accepted
fact.
The wealth and power of Tiwanaku’s ruling elite (dynastic
lords, royal families, a priestly caste?) were mirrored by the rich
complexity of the architecture. A pantheon of mythological icons
embellished the surfaces of temples and palaces. Supernatural
personages and ancestral effigies portrayed on stone studded the
vast precincts. This mythical population is key to envisioning
the Tiwanaku cosmos and interpreting Tiwanaku's artistic and
symbolic legacy.
Several works of sculpture are especially significant to the
consideration of textile imagery during this epoch. Among
the most celebrated and revelatory of these monuments, the
Sun Gateway or Portal presents a radiant deity posed on a
stepped dais. Flanked by a retinue of winged attendants with
bird and human heads, this cosmic being adopts a posture and
insignia strongly reminiscent of the staff-bearing divinity of the
antecedent Chavín culture.
While the staff is undeniably one the most important symbols
in the Andean repertoire, its myriad connotations have yet to
be fully catalogued—but they far surpass the usual predictable
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