The Archaeology of Wak'as: Explorations of the Sacred in the Pre-Columbian Andes

In this edited volume, Andean wak'as--idols, statues, sacred places, images, and oratories--play a central role in understanding Andean social philosophies, cosmologies, materialities, temporalities, and constructions of personhood. Top Andean scholars from a variety of disciplines cross regional, theoretical, and material boundaries in their chapters, offering innovative methods and theoretical frameworks for interpreting the cultural particulars of Andean ontologies and notions of the sacred.

Wak'as were understood as agentive, nonhuman persons within many Andean communities and were fundamental to conceptions of place, alimentation, fertility, identity, and memory and the political construction of ecology and life cycles. The ethnohistoric record indicates that wak'as were thought to speak, hear, and communicate, both among themselves and with humans. In their capacity as nonhuman persons, they shared familial relations with members of the community, for instance, young women were wed to local wak'as made of stone and wak'as had sons and daughters who were identified as the mummified remains of the community's revered ancestors.

Integrating linguistic, ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and archaeological data, The Archaeology of Wak'as advances our understanding of the nature and culture of wak'as and contributes to the larger theoretical discussions on the meaning and role of-"the sacred" in ancient contexts.

Author: Tamara L. Bray
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Published: 04/01/2019
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 1.10d
ISBN13: 9781607327318
ISBN10: 1607327317
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Archaeology
- History | Latin America | South America

About the Author
Tamara L. Bray is professor of anthropology and director of the Gordon L. Grosscup Museum of Anthropology at Wayne State University. She was named a Michigan Distinguished Professor of the Year in 2013.