Inca Rites
-Religious ceremonies were publicly celebrated in Cuzco.
-Inca religion emphasized ritual and organization rather than mysticism or spirituality.
-Religious rites focused chiefly on ensuring the food supply and curing disease. Divination was also of considerable importance.
-The sacrifices were made to nourish and placate the gods, and offerings were selected from plants, birds, shells, the blood of animals--particularly Ilamas--and men and culture maize, coca, pepper, corn beer, cloth, statuettes.
-People prayed and made sacrifices. They would do this at caves, rocks, or springs where they thought spirits lived. They asked the spirits for help. They left offerings for the spirits, too.
-Rich people left gold jewelry or beautiful clothes.
-Poor people left a little beer or a few eyelashes. Sometimes people sacrificed llamas or guinea pigs.
-In June the Incas celebrated winter solstice. On the shortest and darkest day of the year, the Inca asked the sun not to go farther away. In December the Incas held the first festival of the year. They ate, drank, and danced. They also ate maize and drank llama blood.
-The center of the ceremonial place was the usnu, a small edifice on which the Inca sat enthroned and that was pierced at its base by underground canals leading to the temples of Viracocha, the Sun, and Illapa. In the usnu Sun was given "drink," which acted to placate and balance the powers of the lower and upper worlds. The usnu may also have served as an astronomical observatory.
-The golden statues of Viracocha, the Sun, and Illapa, the silver statue of the Moon, and the mummies of dead sovereigns, or their replicas, were set out on ceremonial occasions .
-Inca religion emphasized ritual and organization rather than mysticism or spirituality.
-Religious rites focused chiefly on ensuring the food supply and curing disease. Divination was also of considerable importance.
-The sacrifices were made to nourish and placate the gods, and offerings were selected from plants, birds, shells, the blood of animals--particularly Ilamas--and men and culture maize, coca, pepper, corn beer, cloth, statuettes.
-People prayed and made sacrifices. They would do this at caves, rocks, or springs where they thought spirits lived. They asked the spirits for help. They left offerings for the spirits, too.
-Rich people left gold jewelry or beautiful clothes.
-Poor people left a little beer or a few eyelashes. Sometimes people sacrificed llamas or guinea pigs.
-In June the Incas celebrated winter solstice. On the shortest and darkest day of the year, the Inca asked the sun not to go farther away. In December the Incas held the first festival of the year. They ate, drank, and danced. They also ate maize and drank llama blood.
-The center of the ceremonial place was the usnu, a small edifice on which the Inca sat enthroned and that was pierced at its base by underground canals leading to the temples of Viracocha, the Sun, and Illapa. In the usnu Sun was given "drink," which acted to placate and balance the powers of the lower and upper worlds. The usnu may also have served as an astronomical observatory.
-The golden statues of Viracocha, the Sun, and Illapa, the silver statue of the Moon, and the mummies of dead sovereigns, or their replicas, were set out on ceremonial occasions .