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| Hanan Pacha | |
|---|---|
| Name | Hanan Pacha |
| Language | Quechua |
| Region | Andes |
| Associated culture | Inca Empire; Andean peoples |
| Equivalents | Upper World; Sky World |
Hanan Pacha
Hanan Pacha is a central cosmological realm in Andean cosmology, traditionally conceived as the "upper world" associated with the sky, celestial bodies, and high places. It appears in sources relating to the Inca Empire, Andean mythic systems, and colonial-era chronicles, linking figures such as Inti, Viracocha, Pachamama, Apu, and Mama Quilla to broader ritual landscapes like Cusco, the Qhapaq Ñan, and the highlands of Titicaca. Scholars of José de Acosta, Bernabé Cobo, Guaman Poma de Ayala, John Murra, and María Rostworowski have addressed its role within Andean social and ritual order.
The term derives from Quechua language roots: hanan meaning "upper" and pacha meaning "world", "time", or "space", forming a compound concept that intersects Aymara language usages and other Andean linguistic families such as Kichwa. Colonial lexicographers and chroniclers like Diego González Holguín and Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés recorded variants that reflect dialectal variation across regions including Cusco Region, Puno Region, and Bolivia. Comparative philological work by Rolena Adorno and César Itier situates hanan-pacha within pre-Columbian semantic fields alongside terms used in Moche and Wari administrative and ritual texts interpreted by archaeologists like John H. Rowe and Jean-Jacques Decoster.
In Andean cosmology, Hanan Pacha functions as one pole of a trilateral vertical cosmography, often counterposed with Kay Pacha and the subterranean realm linked to Uku Pacha, a scheme discussed by historians such as Guaman Poma de Ayala and analyzed by anthropologists including Catherine Allen and Mary E. Miller. Hanan Pacha encompasses celestial phenomena like the Milky Way, Pleiades, Inti (the sun), and Mama Quilla (the moon), and it structures social hierarchies in places like Cusco where ritual centers such as the Coricancha mediated access between terrestrial and celestial orders. Colonial officials and missionaries including Bartolomé de las Casas and Bernabé Cobo described how rulership ideologies of the Inca Empire leveraged hanan concepts to legitimize dynastic divisions and the sacralization of high places like Sacsayhuamán and the shrines of the Apu.
Mythic narratives situate major deities and personified forces within or emanating from Hanan Pacha: creator figures like Viracocha often transit between realms, while solar and lunar deities such as Inti and Mama Quilla preside over calendrical and agricultural cycles. Mountain spirits or apu—documented in colonial ethnographies and modern ethnography by José María Arguedas and Shamanic studies researchers—are linked to high places that function as portals to Hanan Pacha, connecting to ritual landscapes such as Ausangate and the islands of Titicaca. Heroic and origin myths recorded by Guaman Poma de Ayala and interpreted by María Rostworowski place ancestral founders and culture heroes in reciprocal exchange with sky beings, aligning genealogies of Inca rulers and local curacas with celestial endorsement.
Ritual practice directed toward Hanan Pacha appears in pilgrimage, offerings, and calendrical rites centered on solar and stellar events, as described in colonial chronicles by Bernabé Cobo and ethnographies by Ruth Behar and H. V. Livermore. Ceremonies at high-altitude shrines—such as capacocha sacrifices recorded in Spanish conquest accounts and archaeological investigations by John S. Eldridge and Rodrigo M. Guatarra—invoke Hanan-associated deities through offerings that include textiles, food, llama sacrifice, and child interment, situated at sites like Mount Llullaillaco and Sajama. Festivals tied to agricultural cycles and the Andean calendar—notably winter solstice and planting-season rites—mobilize ritual specialists such as yatiri, paqos, and noble intermediaries documented in the writings of Felipe Guaman Poma and modern scholars like Karen Spalding.
The conceptual pairings and tripartite cosmology of Hanan Pacha have been compared to vertical cosmologies in Mesoamerica and Amazon Basin societies by comparative anthropologists like Julio C. Tello and Alfred Métraux, and syncretic patterns emerged under colonial Christianity, as analyzed by Alfred L. Kroeber and Fernando Ortiz. Missionary efforts by figures such as Francisco de Vitoria and Antonio de Montesinos encountered local cosmologies that reinterpreted saints and Marian figures in relation to Hanan-associated sky symbolism, producing hybrid cults visible in artisan iconography, liturgical calendars, and pilgrimage routes linking Lima, Quito, and La Paz.
Contemporary Andean cultural practices, political discourses, and artistic expressions continue to reference Hanan Pacha through revival movements, indigenous rights campaigns, and heritage tourism studied by scholars like Martha Chase and Ximena Berríos. Festivals in Cusco, offerings at highland markets such as Pisac, and the resurgence of traditional medical practices by healers documented by Catherine Allen and Javier Flores demonstrate continuity and adaptation, while museum displays in institutions like the Museo Larco and Museo de la Nación showcase material correlates from prehispanic to colonial periods. Academic fields including ethnohistory, Andean archaeology, cultural anthropology, and religious studies continue to debate methodologies for interpreting Hanan-linked ritual spaces amid concerns raised by activists, scholars, and state heritage agencies such as UNESCO and national ministries in Peru and Bolivia.
Category:Andean mythology Category:Inca Empire