Q'ero

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Village of the Q'ero in the Andes

Q'ero (in 3-vowel notation of Quechua : Q'iru ) is a Quechua community or ethnic group in the province of Paucartambo in the department of Cusco in Peru . She became known through an ethnological expedition by Oscar Nuñez del Prado from the University of San Antonio Abad in Cusco in 1955 , as a result of which the Inkarrí myth was published for the first time .

Location of the parish, history

Oscar Nuñez del Prado met a group of Q'ero Indians during the Festival of the Virgin of Carmen in Paucartambo in 1949 and led the first western expedition to their area 6 years later (1955). Until the 1960s there was a hacienda in Q'ero , where the Q'eros lived like serfs among large landowners (hacendados) . Thanks to the efforts of Núñez del Prado, they were freed from this system in 1963 when the local hacienda was expropriated as part of the land reform and the land was returned to the Q'eros. The large landowners were already expelled here before the great land reform under Juan Velasco Alvarado .

The remote villages of Q'eros are located at over 4,400 m altitude in the snow-capped Vilcanota mountain range, the highest in south-eastern Peru. However, the earth gives only a little, and the Q'ero Indians live in the simplest conditions, mostly in only one-room, approximately 20 m² houses made of natural stone and clay with roofs made of hard grass. The country stretches over several climate zones , from under 1,800 m to around 4,700 m. Depending on the climatic zone, z. B. maize or potatoes are grown, whereby the fields are dug up with human muscle power by means of step graves ( Chaki Taklla ). Llamas , alpacas and sheep are kept at the top , their wool is spun and processed into textiles with traditional looms.

The population of Q'ero was around 600 around the year 2000. In 2013, the Q'ero nation numbered around 2,000 people, who are spread over 14 villages. The two villages Hatun Q'ero and Hapu Q'ero are at an altitude of over 4,000 m and are about a day's walk away from each other. The lower-lying areas of the community are only inhabited seasonally for cultivating the fields; Small huts made of mud and twigs (Chuklla) serve as temporary dwellings .

mythology

Q'ero is one of the villages in which strong elements of the Andean religion, fused with Christian views, have held ( syncretism ). Priests - keepers of wisdom - or paqu (paqo) of various degrees ( altumisayuq , pampamisayuq ) are still respected. In addition to mother earth ( Pachamama ), the mountain spirits ( Apu ), including the Apu Ausangate (Apu Awsanqati) and other local deities, are respected.

The Q'ero Indians trace their origins back to Inkarrí , the legendary first Inca , whose descendants they call themselves. According to tradition, their ancestors were the only ones who were able to save themselves from the Spaniards , who killed all the Incas and devastated one valley after the other when they conquered the remote Andean valleys. According to tales of the ancient Q'eros, a squad of Spanish soldiers tried to conquer the land of the Q'ero nation during the Conquista . The priests (paqu) asked the local mountain spirits (Apu) for help, whereupon large boulders detached themselves from the mountain walls and killed the Spanish troops at Wiraquchapampa . The term Wiraqucha is traditionally used by the indigenous people of the Andes for whites or Spaniards, so that the place name Wiraquchapampa can be interpreted as the "plane of the [slain] Spaniards".

In the mythology of the Q'ero Indians, there have been two great ages, which are replaced by great turning points (pachakutiy) , while a new age is still ahead. In the first age (Ñawpa Pacha) , the time of the first humans (Ñawpa Machu) , there was only the moon ( Mama Killa ) . With the first turn of the ages the sun appeared ( Inti , also called Wayna Qhapaq , young ruler) and dried up the Ñawpa Machu . Remnants of these first people can still be found as mummies in the burial towers ( chullpa ) above Q'ero. The Inca Inkarrí was the son of the sun and father of the Incas, thus also the ancestor of the Q'ero Indians. When Inkarrí threw his golden staff into the air, it got stuck vertically in the earth. Exactly there he founded the city of Qusqu ( Cusco ), as it had been prophesied to him. In all previous throws of the stick at other locations, the stick had never stuck straight. The present age (Kay Pacha) began with the arrival of the Spaniards and the violent death of Inkarrí that after the mythical place Paytiti caught was. Often the Inca period is counted as part of Kay Pacha , which is also the age of the sun (Inti) . This time will end with another pachakutiy when Inkarrí returns and turns everything into gold and silver (Taripay Pacha) . The sun will burn the world with the bad people, while the good will go to heaven (Hanaq Pacha) . The return of the Inkarrí should take place soon; as a sign of its gradual growth z. B. seen the expulsion of the Hacendados , who are said to have been very cruel.

In the cosmology of the Q'ero Indians, we live in a universe of "living energy" ( Kawsay Pacha ) . This universe is divided into three parts: Hanaq Pacha (the upper world), Kay Pacha (this world) and Ukhu Pacha (the lower world or "inner world"). A distinction is also made between “fine energies” (sami) and “heavy energies” (hucha) . The upper world is a place where predominantly “fine” energies predominate and which is inhabited by fleeting beings. The middle world is our material world, which is inhabited by us humans, animals and plants, but also by all kinds of spiritual beings, such as B. the Apus . The middle world consists of both “heavy” and “fine” energies. Finally, the lower world is predominantly permeated by “heavy” energies and houses beings who are not regarded as malicious, but nevertheless as creepy and cunning. Like pre-Columbian Andean cultures, the mythology of the Q'ero Indians does not divide the world into “good” and “bad”. The beings of the lower world are just not as developed from their level of consciousness as we humans and therefore have different moral concepts. With the Christianization of the Andean population the old terms have been assigned new meanings: From Hanaq Pacha was heaven , from Ukhu Pacha the hell out sami happiness and blessings from hucha sin . However, the remoteness of Q'ero contributed to preserving original Andean ideas to this day more than in other regions.

Both through work and spiritual practices, the Q'ero are strongly connected to nature. With the help of healing and sacrificial ceremonies, so-called despachos , gifts are offered to Mother Earth (Pachamama) and the mountain spirits (Apu) . As in other Quechua communities, the Ayni tradition shapes everyday life. In a "give and take" one helps one another, both among people as well as between people and nature.

language

In Q'ero, all age groups speak Quechua (variety: Qusqu-Qullaw ), the indigenous language that emerged from the Inca language. Some of the syntax has also been taken from Spanish . Spanish is taught at school, so many of the younger ones, especially in Hapu Q'ero, can speak some Spanish too.

reception

The Q'eros are living witnesses of a bygone Inca culture and keepers of the ancient tradition. Based on research by Jorge Flores Ochoa, Manuel Castillo Farfán, Juan Núñez del Prado and others who were open to the Q'ero, a great deal is known about this indigenous community today. The Peruvian Minister of Culture described the Q'ero as “national, living cultural heritage”.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Müller, Helga Müller-Herbon: Middle Children - the Q'ero Indians. 1st edition, Göttingen 1986, ISBN 978-3-88977-049-3 , p. 72.