|
The
Chavín Cult
From
around 1200 BC to 200 AD - the Formative
Era - agriculture and village life became established. Ceramics
were invented, and a slow disintegration of regional isolation began.
This last factor was due mainly to the widespread dispersal of a
religious movement, the Chavín
Cult. Remarkable in that it seems to have spread without
the use of military force, the cult was based on a conceptualisation of
nature spirits, and an all-powerful feline creator god. This widespread
feline image rapidly exerted its influence over the northern half of
Peru and initiated a period of inter-relations between fertile basins in
the Andes and some of the coastal valleys.
How
and where the cult originated is uncertain, though it seems probable
that it began in the eastern jungles, possibly spreading to the Andes (and
eventually the coast) along the upper Río Marañon. There may well have
been a significant movement of people and trade goods between these
areas and the rainforest regions, too, as evidenced by the many jungle-bird
feathers incorporated into capes and head-dresses found on the coast.
More recent theories, however, suggest that the flow may have been in
the opposite direction and that it started on the coast. The stone and
adobe temples, for instance, in the Sechin
area, pre-date the Chavín era, yet seem to be culturally linked.
The
Chavín Cult was responsible for excellent progress in the work of stone
carving and metallurgy (copper,
gold and silver) and, significantly, for a ubiquity of temples and
pyramids which grew up as cultural centres where the gods could be
worshipped. The most important known centre was the temple complex at Chavín
de Huantar (Departamento de Ancash), though a similar one was built
at Kotosh near Huánuco; its
influence seems to have spread over the northern highlands and coast
from Chiclayo down as far as the Paracas
Peninsula (where it had a particularly strong impact).
There were significant local variations in the expressions of the Chavín Cult: elaborate
metallurgy in the far north; adobe buildings on stone platforms in the
river valleys; excellent ceramics from Chicama;
and the extravagant stone engravings from Chavín
itself. In the mountains life must have been very hard, based on
subsistence agriculture and pilgrimages to the sacred shrines - most
of which probably originated around ideas formulated by an emergent
caste of powerful priest-chiefs. On the coast there was an extra
resource - seafood - to augment the meagre agricultural yields.
Towards
the end of the Chavín phase, an experimental period saw new centres
attempting to establish themselves as independent powers with their own
personalities. This gave birth to Gallinazo
settlements in the Viru Valley;
the Paracas Culture on the south coast (with its beautiful and
highly advanced textile technology based around a cult of the dead); and
the early years of Tiahuanaco
development in the Lake Titicaca
region. These three cultural upsurges laid the necessary foundations
for the flourishing civilisations of the subsequent Classical Era.
|
EDEAQ - Escuela de Español Ari Quipay
Calle La Merced 125 (2nd floor)
Arequipa - Peru
e-mail: contact@edeaq.com
Phone (Monday to Friday: 07:30 h to 14:00 h and 17:30 h to 21:00 h)
+51 54 27 25 17 or +51 54 95 956 82 17 or +51 54 95 934 26 60 or +51 54 95 999 29 95
Phone (Saturday / Sunday: 09:00 h to 14:00 h and 18:30 h to 21:00 h)
+51 54 27 25 17 or +51 54 95 956 82 17 or +51 54 95 934 26 60 or +51 54 95 999 29 95
|