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Thepacha (Quechua pronunciation:[pætʃæ]) is anAndean cosmological concept associating the physical world andspace withtime,[1] and corresponding with the concept of space-time.[2][3]
The literal meaning of the word inQuechua is "place".Pacha can have various meanings in different contexts, and has been associated with the different stages and levels in the progressive development of the cosmos towards discontinuity and differentiation of forms,[1] and attributed as encoding anInca concept for dividing the different spheres of thecosmos akin to 'realm' or 'reality'. This latter interpretation, disputed by some scholars since such realm names may have been the product of missionaries' lexical innovation (and, thus, ofChristian influence), is considered to refer to "real, concrete places, and not ethereal otherworlds".[4]
In contemporaryQuechuan languages,pacha means "place, land, soil, region, time period".[5][6][7] The use of the word for both spatial and temporal reference has been reconstructed, with the same meaning, toproto-Quechuan *pacha.[8][9] There is noetymological link betweenpacha and the proto-Quechua terms *paʈʂak ("one hundred"),[8] or *paʈʂa ("belly"),[10] nor thesouthern Quechua termp'acha ("clothes").[5][11] Whether the word is used with reference to its spatial or temporal meaning is depending on context, as inpacha chaka ("earth bridge")[6] or inñawpa pacha, which means "the ancient times" (literally "the times of the ancestors").[12]
InClassical Quechua, the word seems to have meant "world" or "universe" when not associated with other words. It was often present in importantproper names in Andean pre-Hispanic cultures such as thetheonym⟨Pachacamac⟩pacha kama-q ("universe's supporter, world's creator",[13] or "the one who animates the soil"[14]) or⟨Pachacuti⟩pacha kuti-y ("world's turning").[15]
InPre-columbian times, the termpacha designated a specific culturalconcept, which is difficult to translate into European languages. Anthropologist Catherine J. Allen translatespacha as "world-moment",[16] and scholar Eusebio Manga Qespi has stated thatpacha can be translated as "spacetime".[17]
In thepre-Columbian Andean world, the conception oftime was associated withspace, both collectively calledpacha (earth, soil), which was in continual development toward order and toward "functional differentiation and discontinuity of forms, factors of complementarity rather thanrivalry, therefore ofpeace andproductivity".[1] However, rather than representing a state of constant change or progress it represented a "punctuated equilibrium" and order, interrupted by moments of radical change.[18]
The cosmos did not have exclusively spiritual realities, since "material and spiritual [things] belonged to the same sphere of existence and experience".[4] In accordance with the Andean concepts of duality, complementarity and opposition, space-time was conceived in connection to certain events, social relationships, vitality (camaquen), social being, certainhuacas (constellations,ancestors, anddeities personified in the landscape).[2][14] There existed various geographic spatio-temporel divisions, with strong political and ideological connotations, inCuzco and in theInca Empire, showing the social status and position of groups and places, and influencing the administrative organization of the Andean chiefdoms.[3][19][18]
The Inca history of the development of the world was linear, similar tohistorical narratives, and cyclic, the creation of the world perpetually and symbolically recreating itself.[3]
The spatio-temporal development of the cosmos was divided into several fundamental stages in the development of the world: the pre-solar era, during which men lived in semi-darkness, which was closed by the event of the arrival of the sun, establishing the alternation betweennight andday; the solar era, divided into two periods by the advent of the great flood calledUnu Pachacuti ("reversal of space-time, or return of time, by water"), a first period where thehuacas ruled the Andean states, and a second during which the relations of opposition and complementarity were maintained between thellaqtas, urban spaces, andurqu, uninhabited lands of the mountains, the ancienthuaca lords now personifying the natural spaces surrounding and defining the identity of the Andean socio-territorial and political entities; and then thePurum Pacha and theInka Pacha, the first era being the pre-Incaic age supposedly uncultured and barbaric, and the second being the Incaic era, in which, following the conquests of the Inca EmperorPachacuti ("world's turning" or "cataclysm") which mark a "sort of "return to square one", after exhaustion of the forces [camaquen] of the era which was ending" and which then became the old era associated with chaos, theInca empire is charged of the civilizing and ordering mission of the post-diluvian world,[1] notably in order to delay the end and the cyclical restarting of the world.
The chroniclers of thecolonial period mentioned variouspachas, of different number. According toInca Garcilaso de la Vega, there were only two, whilePedro Sarmiento de Gamboa wrote of three eras, andFelipe Guaman Pima de Ayala of five.[20]
According to various anthropologists, historians and linguists there existed two spatio-temporal "realms" or "worlds", calledPacha, in addition to "This Pacha".[17][16] This postulat is based on Quechuacompounds used in colonial sources forChristianconcepts pointing to pre-Hispanic use forcosmological concepts. That is the case forhananc pacha orhanan pacha and ofucu pacha orukhu pacha, which were used for "Christian heaven" and "Christian hell", respectively, since at least the first written Quechua text[21] and first Quechua dictionaries.[22][23]
These realms are not solely spatial, but simultaneouslyspatial andtemporal.[24] Although the universe would have been considered a unified system within Incacosmology,[citation needed] the division between the worlds is a part of thedualism prominent in Inca beliefs, known asyanantin. This concept of duality considered everything which existed as having two opposed complementary characteristics ( feminine and masculine, hot and cold, positive and negative, dark and light, order and chaos, etc.).[25] This dualism between the upperpacha, dominated by the deity of rain, of the sky, of the atmospheric phenomena, of hail, of thunder, and of lightning,Illapa, and the lowerpacha, presided by the creator deityViracocha, institutor ofirrigated agriculture, and deity of the subterranean ocean under earth's crust supplying lakes and springs with water, "thus cemented the relationship of opposition and complementarity existing between the inhabitants of each of the two mountain ecological (exploitation) levels".[26]
The compoundhanan pacha (lit. "upperpacha"),[27] used for "heaven" in colonial sources, is interpreted as the original name of a cosmological realm that would have included thesky, thesun, themoon, thestars, theplanets, andconstellations (of particular importance being themilky way). ItsAymara terminological counterpart would have beenalax pacha.[28][29]Hanan pacha would have been inhabited by bothInti, the masculine sun god, andMama Killa, the feminine moon goddess.[24] In addition to this,Illapa, the god of thunder and lightning, also would have existed in thehanan pacha realm.[24] Attested colonial use of the compound would be a reinterpretarion of a preexisting concept.[30]
Kay pacha (Quechua: "thispacha") oraka pacha (Aymara: "thispacha")[28] would have been the perceptible world which people, animals, and plants all inhabit.Kay pacha may have often been impacted by the struggle betweenhanan pacha andukhu pacha.[24] This realm would have originally not had the subordination and inferior status in relation to the upper realm that it has in Christian conception.[31]
In Quechua,ukhu pacha (lit. "inferiorpacha")[32] orrurin pacha[citation needed], a term used for "hell" in colonial sources, would have originally been the inner world.Ukhu pacha would have been associated with the dead as well as with new life.[29] The term would have had as itsAymara counterpartmanqha pacha ormanqhipacha.[28] As the realm of new life, this dimension is associated with harvesting andPachamama, the fertility goddess.[33] As the realm associated with the dead, it may have been inhabited bysupay. This latter word was used by missionaries to describeSatan, but is interpreted by many anthropologists as the pre-Hispanic name of demon-like creatures which would have tormented the living.[33]
Human disruptions of theukhu pacha may have been considered a sacred matter, and ceremonies and rituals were often associated with disturbances of the surface.[citation needed] InInca custom, during the time of tilling for potato crops the disturbance of the soil was met with a host of sacred rituals.[34] Similarly, rituals often brought food, drink (often alcoholic) and other comforts to cave openings for the spirits of ancestors.[33]
When the Spanish conquered the area, rituals aboutukhu pacha became crucial in missionary activity and mining operations. Kendall W. Brown contends that the dualistic nature and rituals surrounding openings toukhu pacha may have made it easier to initially get indigenous laborers to work in the mines.[35] However, at the same time, because mining was considered a perturbation of "subterranean life and the spirits that ruled it; they yielded to sacredness that did not belong to the familiar universe, a deeper and riskier sacredness."[35] In order to insure that the perturbation did not cause evil in the miners or the world, indigenous populations made traditional offering to thesupay. However, Catholic missionaries preached that thesupay were purely evil and equated them with the devil and hell and thus prohibited offerings.[35] Ritual surroundingukhu pacha thus retained importance even after Spanish conquest.
Although the different realms would have been distinct, there would have been a variety of connections between them. Caves and springs would have served as connections betweenukhu pacha andkay pacha, while rainbows and lightning would have served as connections betweenhanan pacha andkay pacha.[29] In addition, human spirits after death could inhabit any of the levels. Some would remain inkay pacha until they had finished business, while others might move to the other two levels.[30]
According to other reconstructions, the most significant connection between the different levels was at cataclysmic events calledpachakutiy ("world's turning"[15]). These would have been the instances when the different levels would all impact one another transforming the entire order of the world, and cause and contribute therefore to the cyclic and progressif development of the cosmos. These could come as a result of earthquakes, floods, or of other cataclysmic events.[24]
Various historians, anthropologists and linguists are critical of the existence of the concept ofPacha in pre-Colombian Andean thought, which is largely based on the indigenous chroniclerGuaman Poma's1616 chronicle. This chronicler, writing in a particular political context, thought, similarly toInca Garcilaso de la Vega, that the Inca emperors prepared the Andes to receiveCatholicism, comparing events from Andean cosmological development toWestern history, notably using the word "flood" to describeUnu Pachacuti, and therefore comparing the destruction of the world by the creator deityViracocha to theBliblical flood.[36]
The archeologist Pierre Duviols notes that Guaman Poma, adopting aWestern way of thinking, used, along with other chroniclers, the concept of "ages", to describe supposed cycles, which was an important part ofAncient Greek thought. Main criticisms to the conception ofpacha appeal to the lack of early colonial written sources in its favor.[36] Other criticisms concern the notion of three realms in Inca cosmology. According to historian Juan Carlos Estenssoro,kay pacha is a missionaryneologism, and, while other compounds may have been preexisting, the interpretation ofpacha as "realm" could be attributed to Catholic missionaries.[37] Furthermore, the Peruvian linguistRodolfo Cerrón Palomino attributes the coining of the compounds entirely to Catholic missionaries'lexical planning.[38] According to these criticisms, the spatial-temporal concept ofpacha as "era", "stage" or "realm" would be an unjustifiedanachronistic attribution ofChristian beliefs to Andean pre-Hispanic societies. However, many scholars, such as Nathan Wachtel and Juan de Ossio, defend the chronicle of Guaman Poma, and the conception ofPacha in pre-Hispanic times,[36] Gregory Haimovich stating that parts of the work point to the existence of three realms in pre-Hispanic cosmology.[31]