THE HAND OF GOD IN SOCAIRE

We present preliminary results obtained from a spatio-temporal analysis of m ountain worship directions at the Atacama Indian community of Socaire, northern Chile (23 ◦ 35’28”S, 67 ◦ 52’36”W, 3,274 masl). These results can be linked to cultural, geographical, climatic, psychological and as tronomica...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Ricardo Moyano
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2016
Country:México
Institution:Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Repository:Redalyc-UNAM
OAI Identifier:oai:redalyc.org:57150516010
Online Access:https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=57150516010
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Física, Astronomía y Matemáticas
Archaeoastronomy
Description
Summary:We present preliminary results obtained from a spatio-temporal analysis of m ountain worship directions at the Atacama Indian community of Socaire, northern Chile (23 ◦ 35’28”S, 67 ◦ 52’36”W, 3,274 masl). These results can be linked to cultural, geographical, climatic, psychological and as tronomical information from ethno-archaeological data. We propose a “system of offering to mountains” tha t includes concepts such as ceque (straight line), mayllku or mallku (mountain lord or ancestor), and pacha (space and time), which is understood as the projection of a left human hand in the visible horizon (Tumisa, Lausa, C hiliques, Ipira and Mi ̃niques Mountains) (PAH-Triad). This system regulates annual activities such as pla nting (August 1st), harvesting (May 1st), cleansing of irrigation channels (October 24-26th), and the Cathol ic rituals and festivities of Saint Bartholomew (August 24th), Saint Barbara (December 4th), Christmas-Summer so lstice (December 25th), Carnival (between February and March), Holy Cross (May 3rd), and Saint John-W inter solstice (June 24th). More importantly: it gives a basis for Socaire ̃nos’ worldview including ca tegories of “above, here, and down”; “right and left”; “female and male”; “noon and midnight”; “north and south” ; “visible and non-visible”, along with the Andean concepts of center (ushnu); “two, three, four and five division”; and “huma nized landscape”.