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| Wari' (Pakarina) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Pakarina (Wari') |
| Caption | Pakarina ceremonial figure |
| Culture | Wari |
| Period | Middle Horizon |
| Material | wood, textile, pigment |
| Dimensions | variable |
| Location | museums and collections in Peru, Bolivia, United States |
Wari' (Pakarina) The Pakarina is a distinctive wooden anthropomorphic and zoomorphic carved object associated with the Wari state and related Andean traditions. It appears in archaeological assemblages across the Ayacucho highlands, exhibiting connections with contemporary and successor cultures through iconography, funerary contexts, and ritual paraphernalia.
Scholars use "Pakarina" alongside regional Aymara and Quechua terms and colonial-era labels found in accounts by Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Almagro, and missionaries like Bartolomé de las Casas; modern curators in institutions such as the British Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Museo Larco, and Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology adopt standardized nomenclature. Comparative linguists reference terms in corpora from Quechua languages, Aymara language, and chronicles by Garcilaso de la Vega to trace semantic fields; ethnoarchaeologists link the name to ritual loci attested in fieldwork by researchers affiliated with University of California, Berkeley, University of Chicago, Yale University, University of Cambridge, and Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
Arising in the Middle Horizon alongside the Wari Empire and contemporary polities such as Tiwanaku and later interacting with Chimú and Inca Empire, the Pakarina belongs to material repertoires excavated at sites including Huari, Pikillaqta, Cerro Baúl, Marcavalle, and highland cemeteries documented by teams from National Geographic Society, Peabody Museum, and Peruvian ministries. Ethnographic analogies draw on traditions recorded among communities in Ayacucho Region, Cusco Region, Puno Region, and the Altiplano, and frameworks engage theories proposed by scholars at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Getty Research Institute, and the Field Museum. Its distribution and formal variation inform debates about state-sponsored ritual, craft specialization, and exchange networks examined in publications from American Antiquity, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, and monographs by authors associated with Cambridge University Press and Duke University Press.
Pakarina figures are interpreted within Andean cosmologies that feature concepts recorded in chronicles by Pedro Cieza de León, José de Acosta, and later anthropologists such as Julio C. Tello, Max Uhle, John Murra, and María Rostworowski. Their roles are compared to ritual items implicated in ancestor veneration, pilgrimage routes connecting shrines like Pachacamac, Mallku Qhawarina, and mountain cults tied to Apu worship noted in studies by Ina R. Walder, Craig Morris, and Terence G. Turner. Ceramic and textile parallels in iconography link Pakarina to motifs found in contexts discussed by Michael E. Moseley, Gustavo Gutiérrez and researchers publishing with Springer and Routledge. Interpretations consider rites described in colonial legal records such as cases from the Real Audiencia of Lima and edicts in archives at the Archivo General de la Nación (Peru).
Typically carved from lightweight woods found in Andean valleys, Pakarina exhibit polychrome pigments, textile wrappings, and sometimes metal attachments. Comparative collections in the Brooklyn Museum, Musée du quai Branly, Royal Ontario Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico) reveal size ranges, painted palettes, and organic residues analyzed in laboratories at Smithsonian Institution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, and University of York. Materials studies reference identification protocols from American Institute for Conservation and isotope analyses published by teams at University of Oxford and University of Barcelona.
Craft processes align with woodworking, pigment preparation, and textile techniques documented in workshops tied to sites like Huari and Marcavalle. Evidence from excavation reports by Hiram Bingham III, Erland Nordenskiöld, and field teams from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and Universidad Nacional de San Cristóbal de Huamanga point to apprenticeship models, specialized toolkits, and workshop debris akin to those described in studies by Anna C. Roosevelt, Richard L. Burger, and Claudio Marín. Comparative analyses draw on technologies discussed in conservation reports at The British Museum and experimental archaeology projects funded by National Science Foundation and Leverhulme Trust.
Archaeological contexts place Pakarina with human remains, grave goods, and offerings at sites excavated by teams from Peabody Museum, Museo Nacional de Antropología (Peru), and universities including Harvard University and University of Michigan. Their occurrence alongside textiles, ceramics, and metalwork parallels funerary assemblages cataloged at Museo de Sitio de Marcahuamachuco, Museo Regional de Ayacucho, and regional collections curated by INSAP. Ethnohistoric parallels are invoked from accounts recorded by Bernabé Cobo and analyzed in syntheses by Sylvia Sellers-García and John H. Rowe to argue for roles in mortuary procession, ancestor embodiment, and ritual performance during seasonal ceremonies synchronized with agricultural cycles observed by researchers at International Potato Center and CIP.
Iconographic repertoires on Pakarina combine anthropomorphic faces, feline and avian attributes, geometric patterns, and headdress motifs that echo textiles, ceramics, and mural programs from Huari, Tiwanaku, Chavín de Huántar, Nazca, and Moche traditions. Comparative iconography references corpora curated by Michael Moseley, John H. Rowe, Helaine Silverman, and exhibits held at Museo Larco, Museo de la Nación, and National Museum of the American Indian. Interpretive models engage symbolic frameworks proposed by scholars affiliated with Smithsonian Institution Press, Princeton University Press, and University of Arizona Press to read Pakarina as mediators of lineage identity, cosmological order, and political authority within Andean ritual landscapes.
Category:Andean_artifacts