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

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Three Miniature Pouches
Inka culture, South Coast
AD 1470-1532
Cotton, camelid wool; brocade
(fringe in one example)
3½" x 4½" (each)
Conceivably, these miniscule pouches might have held llipta,
the balls compounded of lime and ash that are chewed
with coca leaf to release its mildly euphoric compounds. But
it is more likely that they belong to the Andean tradition of
miniature weavings and objects produced solely as devotional
or symbolic offerings.
Two of the bags display imagery similar to that of the standardsized
chuspa shown in cat. 306. The anomalous example (bottom
left) features a single stylized figure that is more related to
antecedent south coast textile styles than to the imperial Inka
one. Indeed, this bag’s trompe-l'oeil treatment of visual space
is rooted in the much earlier Paracas-Nasca aesthetic. Small
dots and scroll motifs inserted in key spots in the background
suggest profile heads under the arms of the standing figure and
a frontal face between his legs.
In comparison to the more formal, refined execution of cat.
306, these linear motifs are all rendered in a spirit of quirky
inventiveness. The idiosyncratic figures share the spontaneous
expressive line of imagery created in rock art and earth
drawings. The quadrupeds (llamas? foxes?) acquire spiraling
tails (bottom bag), as do the torsos of several human figures.
This geometric motif was similarly omnipresent in Nasca and
Sihuas styles.
Gesture is clearly significant in pre-Columbian figuration,
although what exactly is being communicated is not
understood. All but one of the figures depicted in these puches
hold both hands rigidly downward, three fingers spread. The
sole exception (far right) adopts the exact pose displayed by one
of the most ancient cult icons in the Andes—the Lanzón deity
from the ceremonial center of Chavín de Huántar. This upand-down
hand signal has been interpreted as a statement of
cosmic balance.1 That it would reappear more than 2000 years
later in a distant region is an extraordinary and inexplicable
leap across time and space, but it suggests the longevity of
Andean ritual practices and the continuity of artistic and
symbolic thought.
1 Richard Burger, Chavín and The Origins of Andean Civilization (1992): 136.
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