ANDEAN RELIGION

Here we are thinking about those peoples conquered by THE INKAS from Ecuador in the North, over Peru and Bolivia at the center, to Northern Argentine and Chile in the South.
In the search for gold the Spaniards killed many andean people, specially the priests who could have been good informants. Because of the centralized nature of the INKA STATE, the Spaniards were mostly interested in the capital city CUSCO in southern Peru, rather than the rest of the cultures dominated by the Inka State.
The expansion of the EMPIRE on the Andean scene initiated some hundred years before the Spaniards
came to the continent, whereas the other cultures conquered were the descendants of Kingdoms and Empires with highly sophisticated RELIGIOUS systems and arts.
In the MOUNTAINS to the SOUTH-EAST of CUSCO, around LAKE TITICACA, originated THE
CULTURE TIAHUANACO. It flourished around 600 AD and later ITS RELIGION INFLUENCED
most of BOLIVIA and PERU deeply, by its WAY OF COMMERCE, CONQUEST and PRESTIGE.
Later, around 700AD, another CENTRE HUARI, to the WEST of CUSCO, near modern Ayacucho,
started to INFLUENCED MOST of the MIDDLE PERU. Its ORIGINAL LINKS were to the CULTURES of the SOUTH PERUVIAN COAST, especially that of THE VALLEY OF NASCA, but soon it became HEAVILY INFLUENCED BY TIAHUANACO. Tiahuanco and, specially Huari,
INFLUENCED ON THE PEOPLES THEY CONQUERED. It  meant a very RADICAL social upheaval and a complete break in their arts. This is best noticeable in the more IMPORTANT CULTURES FROM THE PERUVIAN COAST : MOCHE to the North and NASCA to the South.
MOCHE had used in its art as a symbolic expression of its BELIEFS a very realistic language in which
FIGURES and MOTIVES were MODELED or DRAWN on a flat surface, MOSTLY in TWO COLORS BLACK or BROWN on WHITE or CREAM, where GODS and MYTHICAL BEINGS
are REPRESENTED. After the absorption of this culture by the HUARI, the pottery changed to BLACK, which made it impossible to paint on it scenes of everyday life and of religious ideas. The culture of THIS PERIOD is best KNOWN as that of THE KINGDOM OF CHIMU and continued into INKA TIMES and even into early Spanish times.                                                continue...