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

138
Fragment from a Tunic Band
A Cult or Ritual Personage with Hallucinogenic Staffs
Tiwanaku style
AD 200-800
Camelid wool; tapestry weave
5¼" x 3¼"
The naturalism of this image is exceptional within the
repertoire of Tiwanaku mythic icons, which are noted for
their dense visual and symbolic intricacy. In addition, it supplies
essential insight into the ritual practices of this culture, offering a
rare glimpse of the role of “real" people such as shamans, priests
or other cult participants in Tiwanaku religion and ceremony.
The personage is presented in profile view, but with his torso
twisted forward in order to best exhibit the staffs he carries in
each hand. A puma emblem is either tattooed or painted on
his chest, or is part of the design of a patterned garment with a
tie-dyed border or sash. Ornamental strands (beads? feathers?)
dangle from the ritualist’s ear and neck, while a serpentine
crown with bird and plant ornamentation adds
a supernatural touch to the otherwise realistic
portrayal.
The most valuable information to be gleaned from
the image lies in the depiction of the two staffs,
which are decorated with the same concentric
(tie-dyed?) circles as the waistband. Each emblem
is capped with a distinctive magical plant symbol.
The motif adorning the top of the staff in front (as
well as the headdress) is a stylized representation
of the leaves and flowers of Anadenanthera
colubrina (widely known as vilca) (detail at left). Seeds extracted
from the giant pods of this tree were pulverized to produce
a psychoactive snuff that was fundamental to Tiwanaku ritual.
The pervasiveness and extent of this activity is evident from the
abundance of finely crafted snuff tables and paraphernalia that
has been unearthed throughout the Tiwanaku world.
The finial of the second staff (shown in back of
the figure) represents a flowering San Pedro cactus
(detail at right). The same motif is seen in the
corolla of the feline divinity portrayed in cat. 134,
and is engraved as well on the torso of the giant
ancestral effigy known as the Bennett Monolith
that was enshrined at Tiwanaku.
This explicit juxtaposition of the two plants
sacred to Andean ceremonialism is of enormous
significance—especially for determining the
meaning of the staff, which is a crucial emblem and
multivalent signifier in both Tiwanaku and Wari
iconography. The way the motifs are utilized here is further
evidence that the staff placed in the hand of the winged Wari
staff-bearer may not only designate a transcendent state or
status, but in certain contexts, could depict the actual cactus
itself.
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