The Inca religion were a pastoral kind. They believed that people had special connections with the supernatural world. The Creator God, Viracocha, was above everything and had the biggest power. He was believed to be the supreme God of creation, history, and eternity, who personally ruled the World and intervened regularly with human affairs.
The Incas distinguished themselves from the predecessors cultures by ruling their empire through a religious and administrative apparatus that respected and accepted the local customs of conquered people, rather than by might alone. That improvements in infrastructure, and religious tolerance gave them enough power to succeed as a culture and placing themselves as the head of an empire that unified a humongous amount of people from different cultures, living in the highlands, forest, and lowlands of the Andes.
The Incas strongly believed in the afterlife. It was believed that a transcedental realm existed in which an essential part or essence of an individual's identity continued to exist after the death of the physical vessel or body. The essential aspect of the individual that survived after death was the most important one because it conferred the personal identity of the individual during his life time in the world of the living.
The Incas encompassed the belief that there was no separation between the spiritual and the material world and souls existed not only in humans, but also in animals, plants, rocks, geographic features such as mountains, rivers, or other entities of the natural environment, including thunder and wind.
The Incas were able to understand the difference between the energies of persons and things, as the vital principle of the phenomena of life, and the diseases were traced to spiritual causes.
They Incas cared deeply for their dead, out of respect, loyalty, and continuity of the family lineage, whom they embalmed, mummified and placed into tombs, and looked after them. These included a sense of continuity between this life and the next and the mummification was a way to preserve the corpse of the deceased to ensure the continuity of its life. That is why tombs were treated as houses in the Hereafter and so they were carefully constructed and decorated.
After the death of the Inca, the priests class would come to his resting place and talk to the dead ruler. The supreme priest had he ability to communicate with the souls of the dead rulers through shamanic ways and believed that they possessed the ability to influence the fortune of living, and they often acted as messengers between the worlds. This type of communication was done during the time in which the soul of the death person was expecting to journey until reach his final destination.
The shamanic practice involved the practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with the frequencies of the spiritual world and channeled these transcendental energies into this world in a controlled way. They had access to, and influence in, the world of the benevolent and malevolent spirits. These entities included deities, demons, spirits, and ghosts, and were of varying importance, according to the powers they had and the position they occupied in the unseen world.
The Incas were very aware of the existence of these entities and the power that they had over the living world. To enjoy a fruitful life all the forces had to be maintained in balance in order to maintain peace in all the levels of existency.
The belief in a Hereafter in the pre-Inca cultures in the Andes goes back a long time since the first settlers appeared in the Andes and held an unique way of living. They represented the scenes of their everyday life in the textiles, ornaments, ceramics and other artifacts left in the elaborated tombs of their leaders.
The body of their leaders were treated as if they were alive given the fact that their source of power were still bound to them and there were laws applied between worlds in relation to the reception of that specific power over the hands of the leaders chosen to be invested with it.
Even to the peasant, the continuity of life in the unseen world was a major concern because they knew that everything had a role to fulfill in the world of the living and that role secured the continuity of life in an energy form in the eternal world.
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Thursday, November 10, 2016
THE NATURAL INSTINCT OF THE ANDEAN CONDOR.
The Andean Condor is one of the most magnificent birds of the world and a symbol of power and health. They also represent a strong connection with its land of origin or birth, because they do not migrate at all.
The Andean Condor is associated with the Sun deity and is the ruler of the Upper World. Condors rest at night and fly by day. They draw the dawn and the sun across the sky and because of that the bird is considered the messenger of the heavens and the carrier of our dreams and prayers, since the Condor flies much higher than any other winged animal. The bird holds a very powerful position in the spirit world and that is the main reason why the bird has such a span of life averaging between 50 and 80 years, roughly the average span of a human being.
The Andean Condor teaches us about the ancient mysteries of life and death, about communion with the spirits and how to soar above our limitations. They have an uncanny ability to sense death, so they are sometimes seen as angels of death, circling around when life is about to end. The bird help us to understand the concept of transformation of that which is dead and no longer alive still have the chance to give energy through its food to the guardian of souls and continue its mission of regeneration.
Condors by nature are carrion eaters (dead animal carcasses). The bird prefer the carcasses of large dead animals like deer, cattle, and sheep. However, they are also known to eat the carcasses of smaller animals like rodents and rabbits.
The Andean Condor lack the strong talons and beaks of Hawks and Eagles, and depend on finding carcasses for food. In fact Condors hardly ever kill for food. They have never been known to attack a living animal. They eat what they find (benevolence) from an animal that was already killed by a predator. They commonly gorge themselves when feeding on a carcass and may go days without eating. Their keen eyesight helps them to locate food. They sometimes travel up to 140 miles per day in search of a meal. They are also keen observers of other scavengers. They are the best natural cleaners of the ecosystem.
The Andean Condor live in the highest peaks (6,9862m) of the rocky, regions of the mountains, including canyons, and gorges. They most often nest in caves. Instead of having many young and expecting only a few able to survive, Condors typically lay one egg and because of that gift that nature give them, they in return provide an extensive amount of parental care.
Like human hair, feathers contain mostly carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen -the essential building blocks of life. Feathers have an ancient symbolic meaning, they are linked to the air element, and freedom, and attributed to a kind of transformation that is strong, swift, and potent. The feathers are used by an Andean shaman on the energetic body of an individual, in smooth, long strokes from the head to the feet, in order to clear the surrounding energy around it. The healing energy is invoked from any of the cardinal directions towards the body.
The prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor says that when the Eagle representing the mental aspect of the World, and the Condor representing the heart of the earth, fly together again (North and the South are no longer at odds), we will again live in harmony and recreate paradise on Earth.
The Andean Condor is associated with the Sun deity and is the ruler of the Upper World. Condors rest at night and fly by day. They draw the dawn and the sun across the sky and because of that the bird is considered the messenger of the heavens and the carrier of our dreams and prayers, since the Condor flies much higher than any other winged animal. The bird holds a very powerful position in the spirit world and that is the main reason why the bird has such a span of life averaging between 50 and 80 years, roughly the average span of a human being.
The Andean Condor teaches us about the ancient mysteries of life and death, about communion with the spirits and how to soar above our limitations. They have an uncanny ability to sense death, so they are sometimes seen as angels of death, circling around when life is about to end. The bird help us to understand the concept of transformation of that which is dead and no longer alive still have the chance to give energy through its food to the guardian of souls and continue its mission of regeneration.
Condors by nature are carrion eaters (dead animal carcasses). The bird prefer the carcasses of large dead animals like deer, cattle, and sheep. However, they are also known to eat the carcasses of smaller animals like rodents and rabbits.
The Andean Condor lack the strong talons and beaks of Hawks and Eagles, and depend on finding carcasses for food. In fact Condors hardly ever kill for food. They have never been known to attack a living animal. They eat what they find (benevolence) from an animal that was already killed by a predator. They commonly gorge themselves when feeding on a carcass and may go days without eating. Their keen eyesight helps them to locate food. They sometimes travel up to 140 miles per day in search of a meal. They are also keen observers of other scavengers. They are the best natural cleaners of the ecosystem.
The Andean Condor live in the highest peaks (6,9862m) of the rocky, regions of the mountains, including canyons, and gorges. They most often nest in caves. Instead of having many young and expecting only a few able to survive, Condors typically lay one egg and because of that gift that nature give them, they in return provide an extensive amount of parental care.
Like human hair, feathers contain mostly carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen -the essential building blocks of life. Feathers have an ancient symbolic meaning, they are linked to the air element, and freedom, and attributed to a kind of transformation that is strong, swift, and potent. The feathers are used by an Andean shaman on the energetic body of an individual, in smooth, long strokes from the head to the feet, in order to clear the surrounding energy around it. The healing energy is invoked from any of the cardinal directions towards the body.
The prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor says that when the Eagle representing the mental aspect of the World, and the Condor representing the heart of the earth, fly together again (North and the South are no longer at odds), we will again live in harmony and recreate paradise on Earth.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
PIURA REGION AND ITS ANCIENT SETTLERS.
Piura is a coastal region in NorthWestern Peru. The region's capital is Piura and its largest port cities, Paita and Talara, are also among the most important in Peru. The area is known for its tropical and dry beaches.
The most important culture that developed in the region was 'Vicus' which stood out for its ceramic and delicate work in gold. The Tallanes or Yungas, however, were the first settlers, who migrated from the mountains. During a period that is still vague, they lived in 'behetrias', which were simple settlements without a head or an organization. Later they were assimilated by the Mochicas and, centuries later by the Incas, during the rule of Tupac Inca Yupanqui.
The Yungas or Tallanes, expert potters, were the inhabitants of the warm or temperate climate on the slopes of the Andes, in a narrow band of forest along the Eastern slope of the Andes Mountains. The terrain, formed by valleys, fluvial mountain trails and streams, is extremely rugged and varied, contributing to the ecological diversity. The use of the 'taclla', a farming tool was the first characteristic of this first etnic group that settled on the Plains of North-Western Peru. Narihuala (17km South of Piura) is considered the capital of the Tallan Nation and is the most important architectural evidence of a great monument, both in its size and the prominent platform of 2 pyramids. The Narihuala Temple was built as a sanctuary in the honor of the Tacllan god 'Walac'. Later the Tacllan territory was invaded by the Mochica and Chimu. Tacllan in North-Western Peru today is the name of an agricultural tool with a running board.
Huaca El Loro (Shrine named 'The Parrot"), within a forest of carob trees, in the Pomac Historical Sanctuary, near Chiclayo, Peru is a Tallan archaeological site, where a 1,000-year-old mummy of a nobleman wearing a distinctive headdress, a large gold, silver and copper facemask adorned with 25-cms-wide eyes, and a chest plate and surrounded by gold and silver ornaments, buried in a lavish tom, was discovered, alongside with three other bodies. This man was probably the leader of a group that was integrated into Sican society.
The Sican culture is one of the several groups of goldsmiths who predated the Inca and flourished in Peru's Lambayeque region. They are known for their lost-wax casting in gold ornament production, and the production of arsenical copper, which is the closest material to bronze found in prehistoric archaeology. The Sican were descendants of the Moche, and were involved in long-distance trade for emeralds and amber. Although geographically within the same area of Northern Peru, Sican flourished long after the Moche civilization and the famous Lord of Sipan.
The history of the Sican can be divided into 3 distinct periods: Early from 750-900 AC, Middle from 900-1100AC, and Late from 1100-1375AC. The Tallan nobleman buried at the Huaca dates back to Middle Sican age, which is known for its elite funeral traditions. Toms were typically packed with treasures, and were dug as much as 10 meters deep before being refilled with sand.
Piura is the land of a unique 'algarrobo trees', a variety of mesquite similar to the carob tree, and it is the region with the most equatorial tropical dry forest in the whole Pacific.
These eco-regions carry a unique variety of orchids, birds, reptiles, plants, and mammals. Piura is known for the best and oldest lime-lemons in South America as well as South America's finest mango. Piura also produces bananas, coconuts, rice and other fruits as local income. With Lambayeque, it is the original home of 'Pima cotton'. Fishing is blessed by two ocean currents.
Piura is a host to a stunning 'mestizo culture' since all races mix here. The population are characterized by their witty minds, melancholy music, and welcoming personalities, Like all Peruvians, they are heavy drinkers of 'chicha de jora', 'pisco', or beer and all of them have a tendency towards creativity and art as their source of income.
The most important culture that developed in the region was 'Vicus' which stood out for its ceramic and delicate work in gold. The Tallanes or Yungas, however, were the first settlers, who migrated from the mountains. During a period that is still vague, they lived in 'behetrias', which were simple settlements without a head or an organization. Later they were assimilated by the Mochicas and, centuries later by the Incas, during the rule of Tupac Inca Yupanqui.
The Yungas or Tallanes, expert potters, were the inhabitants of the warm or temperate climate on the slopes of the Andes, in a narrow band of forest along the Eastern slope of the Andes Mountains. The terrain, formed by valleys, fluvial mountain trails and streams, is extremely rugged and varied, contributing to the ecological diversity. The use of the 'taclla', a farming tool was the first characteristic of this first etnic group that settled on the Plains of North-Western Peru. Narihuala (17km South of Piura) is considered the capital of the Tallan Nation and is the most important architectural evidence of a great monument, both in its size and the prominent platform of 2 pyramids. The Narihuala Temple was built as a sanctuary in the honor of the Tacllan god 'Walac'. Later the Tacllan territory was invaded by the Mochica and Chimu. Tacllan in North-Western Peru today is the name of an agricultural tool with a running board.
Huaca El Loro (Shrine named 'The Parrot"), within a forest of carob trees, in the Pomac Historical Sanctuary, near Chiclayo, Peru is a Tallan archaeological site, where a 1,000-year-old mummy of a nobleman wearing a distinctive headdress, a large gold, silver and copper facemask adorned with 25-cms-wide eyes, and a chest plate and surrounded by gold and silver ornaments, buried in a lavish tom, was discovered, alongside with three other bodies. This man was probably the leader of a group that was integrated into Sican society.
The Sican culture is one of the several groups of goldsmiths who predated the Inca and flourished in Peru's Lambayeque region. They are known for their lost-wax casting in gold ornament production, and the production of arsenical copper, which is the closest material to bronze found in prehistoric archaeology. The Sican were descendants of the Moche, and were involved in long-distance trade for emeralds and amber. Although geographically within the same area of Northern Peru, Sican flourished long after the Moche civilization and the famous Lord of Sipan.
The history of the Sican can be divided into 3 distinct periods: Early from 750-900 AC, Middle from 900-1100AC, and Late from 1100-1375AC. The Tallan nobleman buried at the Huaca dates back to Middle Sican age, which is known for its elite funeral traditions. Toms were typically packed with treasures, and were dug as much as 10 meters deep before being refilled with sand.
Piura is the land of a unique 'algarrobo trees', a variety of mesquite similar to the carob tree, and it is the region with the most equatorial tropical dry forest in the whole Pacific.
These eco-regions carry a unique variety of orchids, birds, reptiles, plants, and mammals. Piura is known for the best and oldest lime-lemons in South America as well as South America's finest mango. Piura also produces bananas, coconuts, rice and other fruits as local income. With Lambayeque, it is the original home of 'Pima cotton'. Fishing is blessed by two ocean currents.
Piura is a host to a stunning 'mestizo culture' since all races mix here. The population are characterized by their witty minds, melancholy music, and welcoming personalities, Like all Peruvians, they are heavy drinkers of 'chicha de jora', 'pisco', or beer and all of them have a tendency towards creativity and art as their source of income.
Saturday, October 22, 2016
THE EXTRAORDINARY ANDEAN SHAMAN.
The extraordinary category of people who have come to be known as an Andean shaman is a person chosen by the spirits to mediate between the human and the spiritual realms. It is the most ancient spiritual practice of all in the Andean world, because it entails no natural dogma, it is about experiencing and knowing. It is a path of the heart that opens and enfolds all that exist in the natural world. A spiritual journey of beauty and balance.
The Andean shaman, typically through a trance state during a ritual, gain access to altered states of consciousness in order to perceive, interact with and influence in, the benevolent or malevolent spirits in the spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into the world of the living, in order to achieve healing or negotiate life and death of the individual or a community.
The Andean shaman is considered a man of high degree; that is, men who have taken a spiritual degree in the secret life beyond the material world, a step which implies discipline, mental training, courage and perseverance. He is a man of respected and often standing personality and is of immense social significance. The psychological health of the group largely depends on faith in his trained power. Many of these powers have specialized in the working of the human mind, and in the influence of mind on the body and mind on mind.
The more attuned the shaman is to the ways of old ancient practices, far greater power he is entitled to wield, because he is in closer touch with the spirits.
A shaman's ability to achieve a proper lasting healing, be in the physical or psychological, depends primarily on his personal motivation or intention to heal. He must be alert and focused, persistent, caring or loving, courageous and flexible. He has to asses the patient's cognitive skills, that is the ability to think subjectively and objectively, as well as the understanding of the emotional responses to the experience on both sides. He assesses the patient's spirit and the ability to recognize and understand the symbolic messages received from the spiritual realms that are trying to guide the patient along the spiritual path.
The energy forces of the spirit world are understood as similar to the 4 cardinal points. The shaman of the North would check to see that all is well with his Southern relatives, and make sure the relatives of the South are full filling their part of the time-honored cosmic deal of holding up the universal energy forces by living according to law.
The Andean shaman avoid to live inside a world of continual and unrelenting distraction, separated from the natural world, and ever changing life-styles in which the minds are never still. For people that live inside this type of life-style, a shaman is a primitive tribal doctor who sing and dance around a patient doing all sorts of weird things. The life-style of an Andean shaman is far from being primitive and therefore useless in our modern world, instead it is immersed in a time-tested meditative journey in order to listen and experience important spiritual lessons and truths. A shaman needs to be familiar with the powers that are most influencing his own life as birth totems. But as well as totems, which are characteristics of the soul and from the universal forces that come at the time of birth, he can, by studying the characteristics or powers of other beings, gain understanding and use of other powers which are often referred to as spirit guides, spirit helpers or angels. The knowledge that comes through this journey is not limited and superficial, because shamanism itself does come from a very ancient and old school of knowledge in which a selective progress is mandatory, regardless culture, race, or ethnicity.
We, as human beings, are part of nature. We need to learn again to reconnect ourselves with it and be aware of the symbolic messages that we receive from the spirit world and then discern what the message is trying to say. There are many symbols that are common, and therefore a good shaman who is very alert to his own human spirit can be of great help in translating these cryptic messages.
We are made up of all the same elements that plants, birds, animals, and minerals are made of in this planet. The characteristics or powers of all bird, plant, herb, animals and mineral beings must be clearly known to all of us. It is experienced differently for different individuals and the understanding behind all of these would fill a complete spiritual encyclopedia. This understanding has a lot to do with the understanding of Andean Mythology, it's functions and physics.
The Andean shaman, typically through a trance state during a ritual, gain access to altered states of consciousness in order to perceive, interact with and influence in, the benevolent or malevolent spirits in the spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into the world of the living, in order to achieve healing or negotiate life and death of the individual or a community.
The Andean shaman is considered a man of high degree; that is, men who have taken a spiritual degree in the secret life beyond the material world, a step which implies discipline, mental training, courage and perseverance. He is a man of respected and often standing personality and is of immense social significance. The psychological health of the group largely depends on faith in his trained power. Many of these powers have specialized in the working of the human mind, and in the influence of mind on the body and mind on mind.
The more attuned the shaman is to the ways of old ancient practices, far greater power he is entitled to wield, because he is in closer touch with the spirits.
A shaman's ability to achieve a proper lasting healing, be in the physical or psychological, depends primarily on his personal motivation or intention to heal. He must be alert and focused, persistent, caring or loving, courageous and flexible. He has to asses the patient's cognitive skills, that is the ability to think subjectively and objectively, as well as the understanding of the emotional responses to the experience on both sides. He assesses the patient's spirit and the ability to recognize and understand the symbolic messages received from the spiritual realms that are trying to guide the patient along the spiritual path.
The energy forces of the spirit world are understood as similar to the 4 cardinal points. The shaman of the North would check to see that all is well with his Southern relatives, and make sure the relatives of the South are full filling their part of the time-honored cosmic deal of holding up the universal energy forces by living according to law.
The Andean shaman avoid to live inside a world of continual and unrelenting distraction, separated from the natural world, and ever changing life-styles in which the minds are never still. For people that live inside this type of life-style, a shaman is a primitive tribal doctor who sing and dance around a patient doing all sorts of weird things. The life-style of an Andean shaman is far from being primitive and therefore useless in our modern world, instead it is immersed in a time-tested meditative journey in order to listen and experience important spiritual lessons and truths. A shaman needs to be familiar with the powers that are most influencing his own life as birth totems. But as well as totems, which are characteristics of the soul and from the universal forces that come at the time of birth, he can, by studying the characteristics or powers of other beings, gain understanding and use of other powers which are often referred to as spirit guides, spirit helpers or angels. The knowledge that comes through this journey is not limited and superficial, because shamanism itself does come from a very ancient and old school of knowledge in which a selective progress is mandatory, regardless culture, race, or ethnicity.
We, as human beings, are part of nature. We need to learn again to reconnect ourselves with it and be aware of the symbolic messages that we receive from the spirit world and then discern what the message is trying to say. There are many symbols that are common, and therefore a good shaman who is very alert to his own human spirit can be of great help in translating these cryptic messages.
We are made up of all the same elements that plants, birds, animals, and minerals are made of in this planet. The characteristics or powers of all bird, plant, herb, animals and mineral beings must be clearly known to all of us. It is experienced differently for different individuals and the understanding behind all of these would fill a complete spiritual encyclopedia. This understanding has a lot to do with the understanding of Andean Mythology, it's functions and physics.
Saturday, October 15, 2016
THE HIGH-ALTITUDE ADAPTATION OF THE ANDEAN HIGHLANDERS.
For thousands of years, high-altitude populations have inhabited plateaus in the Andean Mountains.
The first humans that lived on the highlands of the Andes arrived there for more or less than 12,000 years. High-altitude adaptation in animals and humans has been an instance of evolutionary process.
Since the time of the European arrival, which started in the early 1,500s, considerable genetic admixture has occurred with the Andeans, resulting in the introduction of 5% to 30% of European genes into the contemporary Andean gene pool.
At high altitudes barometric pressure is reduced and less oxygen is inhaled. As a result, the arterial oxygen content, being a measure of the oxygen carrying capacity, determined by hemoglobin concentration and oxygen saturation, is found higher in the Andean highlanders, compared to the sea-level population. That is, more oxygen per blood volume. This confers an ability to carry more oxygen in each red blood cell, making a more effective transport of oxygen in their body, while their breathing is essentially at the same rate.
The Andean highlanders are known to have their reproduction levels at a normal rate, without any effect in the giving birth or the risk for early pregnancy loss, which are common to hypoxic stress.
They have developmentally acquired enlarged residual lung volume and its associated increase in alveolar area, which are supplemented with increased tissue thickness. Though the physical growth in body size is delayed, growth in lung volumes is accelerated.
High-altitude environments can be debilitating to sea-level individuals exposed to elevations above 3,000m/9,843ft for periods ranging from several hours to days. Moderate symptoms induces substantial alterations in physiological and psychological parameters within a few hours. Immediately upon ascent to high altitude, there is a decreased blood oxygenation, which reduces the oxygen supply throughout the periphery and in the brain. With time the body compensates, at least in part, for the lack of oxygen, with a variety of responses.
High altitude then produces substantial impairments in a number of cognitive performances. Changes in psychomotor performance, mental skills, reaction time, vigilance, memory, and logical reasoning have all been measured at altitudes above 3,000m/9,843ft. Observed behaviors suggest that the initial mood experienced at altitude is euphoria, followed by depression. Individuals may also become quarrelsome, irritable, anxious, and apathetic.
Although disturbances in emotional control have been noticed since the time the first Europeans arrived to the highlands, there are few studies assessing mood changes at altitude.
In 1543, the anatomist Andreas Vesalius was the first to distinguish clearly between White Matter and the Gray Matter that overlay regions of the cerebral cortex. In the 19th century, the physician Jean Martin Charcot advanced in the understanding of White Matter's role with his studies of multiple sclerosis, a disease of young adults characterized by primary damage to the White Matter of the central nervous system. At the turn of the 20th century, the ascendancy of Sigmund Freud turned biomedical thinking toward psychoanalytic explanations of behavior, and for more than 50 years all of the brain- white and gray matter alike- was neglected. In 1965, Norman Geschwind, M.D., proposed that one mechanism underlying dysfunctional brain-behavior relationship rests on cerebral disconnection. He also advanced the view that the dense connectivity of the brain underlay its mental operations. Central to this concept was the idea that an intricate web of white matter pathways course exists within and between the brain's hemispheres.
The cerebral hemispheres work together to store memories, make judgments, form thoughts and learn new information. The left hemisphere of the brain controls writing, speech, comprehension and arithmetic. It is dominant in language and hand use in around 92 percent of people.
The distinct fissures of the brain made it be seen as divided into lobes. Both the left and the right hemispheres have 4 lobes: frontal, temporal, occipital and parietal. They have complex relationships, and they do not function alone. The frontal lobe is responsible for controlling speech, which involves writing and speaking. It also controls personality, behavior and emotions; problem solving, judgment and planning; intelligence, self awareness and concentration, and body movement.
On the other hand, the right hemisphere plays an important role in spacial processing and interpreting visual information.
Exercise promotes a greater demand for oxygen, so exposure to high altitude affects directly the neurotransmitter levels in the brain inducing a number of neurological and behavioral disturbances affecting the mood states of the individual. Cognitive performance is more vulnerable than psychomotor performance, then complex tasks are typically more affected than simple tasks. It manifests itself in increased errors, slowing of performance, or combination of these factors. Impairments occur in a graded manner.
Because human cognitive function is sensitive to changes in oxygen availability, exposure to high altitude should produce a continuum of effects as altitude level and duration increase.
Interestingly, some studies have reported that some of the changes in performance after exposures to extreme altitudes persist for up to a year after return to lower altitudes.
The first humans that lived on the highlands of the Andes arrived there for more or less than 12,000 years. High-altitude adaptation in animals and humans has been an instance of evolutionary process.
Since the time of the European arrival, which started in the early 1,500s, considerable genetic admixture has occurred with the Andeans, resulting in the introduction of 5% to 30% of European genes into the contemporary Andean gene pool.
At high altitudes barometric pressure is reduced and less oxygen is inhaled. As a result, the arterial oxygen content, being a measure of the oxygen carrying capacity, determined by hemoglobin concentration and oxygen saturation, is found higher in the Andean highlanders, compared to the sea-level population. That is, more oxygen per blood volume. This confers an ability to carry more oxygen in each red blood cell, making a more effective transport of oxygen in their body, while their breathing is essentially at the same rate.
The Andean highlanders are known to have their reproduction levels at a normal rate, without any effect in the giving birth or the risk for early pregnancy loss, which are common to hypoxic stress.
They have developmentally acquired enlarged residual lung volume and its associated increase in alveolar area, which are supplemented with increased tissue thickness. Though the physical growth in body size is delayed, growth in lung volumes is accelerated.
High-altitude environments can be debilitating to sea-level individuals exposed to elevations above 3,000m/9,843ft for periods ranging from several hours to days. Moderate symptoms induces substantial alterations in physiological and psychological parameters within a few hours. Immediately upon ascent to high altitude, there is a decreased blood oxygenation, which reduces the oxygen supply throughout the periphery and in the brain. With time the body compensates, at least in part, for the lack of oxygen, with a variety of responses.
High altitude then produces substantial impairments in a number of cognitive performances. Changes in psychomotor performance, mental skills, reaction time, vigilance, memory, and logical reasoning have all been measured at altitudes above 3,000m/9,843ft. Observed behaviors suggest that the initial mood experienced at altitude is euphoria, followed by depression. Individuals may also become quarrelsome, irritable, anxious, and apathetic.
Although disturbances in emotional control have been noticed since the time the first Europeans arrived to the highlands, there are few studies assessing mood changes at altitude.
In 1543, the anatomist Andreas Vesalius was the first to distinguish clearly between White Matter and the Gray Matter that overlay regions of the cerebral cortex. In the 19th century, the physician Jean Martin Charcot advanced in the understanding of White Matter's role with his studies of multiple sclerosis, a disease of young adults characterized by primary damage to the White Matter of the central nervous system. At the turn of the 20th century, the ascendancy of Sigmund Freud turned biomedical thinking toward psychoanalytic explanations of behavior, and for more than 50 years all of the brain- white and gray matter alike- was neglected. In 1965, Norman Geschwind, M.D., proposed that one mechanism underlying dysfunctional brain-behavior relationship rests on cerebral disconnection. He also advanced the view that the dense connectivity of the brain underlay its mental operations. Central to this concept was the idea that an intricate web of white matter pathways course exists within and between the brain's hemispheres.
The cerebral hemispheres work together to store memories, make judgments, form thoughts and learn new information. The left hemisphere of the brain controls writing, speech, comprehension and arithmetic. It is dominant in language and hand use in around 92 percent of people.
The distinct fissures of the brain made it be seen as divided into lobes. Both the left and the right hemispheres have 4 lobes: frontal, temporal, occipital and parietal. They have complex relationships, and they do not function alone. The frontal lobe is responsible for controlling speech, which involves writing and speaking. It also controls personality, behavior and emotions; problem solving, judgment and planning; intelligence, self awareness and concentration, and body movement.
On the other hand, the right hemisphere plays an important role in spacial processing and interpreting visual information.
Exercise promotes a greater demand for oxygen, so exposure to high altitude affects directly the neurotransmitter levels in the brain inducing a number of neurological and behavioral disturbances affecting the mood states of the individual. Cognitive performance is more vulnerable than psychomotor performance, then complex tasks are typically more affected than simple tasks. It manifests itself in increased errors, slowing of performance, or combination of these factors. Impairments occur in a graded manner.
Because human cognitive function is sensitive to changes in oxygen availability, exposure to high altitude should produce a continuum of effects as altitude level and duration increase.
Interestingly, some studies have reported that some of the changes in performance after exposures to extreme altitudes persist for up to a year after return to lower altitudes.
Saturday, September 10, 2016
THE IMPERIAL WAY OF THE INCAS.
Of the big civilizations of the New World, the Maya, one of the first in Middle America, had to cut its way out of the jungle. The Aztecs had to conquer their way through Mexico. Far to the South, other mighty civilization, the Andean, thrust upward through some of the world's most forbidding terrain: the towering mountains and desert coast of Andean Peru.
The Inca Empire, which crowned these early civilizations of the Southern half of the globe, ruled from a capital 11,152ft/3,400m in the clouds, near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes, Peru.
The Andean civilization centered far more than that of Middle America on the material techniques of life: - Planning big cities and irrigation works, - Building highways and a network of communications, and - Perfecting the domestic arts of weaving and pottery making.
The Inca passion for organization in every field extended even to their art work. The best in Andean art was produced by the Andean peoples who preceded the Incas and they simply absorbed and perfected the technique.
Civilization around the world traces their origins to the time when men settled down and started cultivating rather than hunting their food. The early people of South America showed a versatile talent for domesticating plants, many of them unknown in the Old World. Some 5,000 years ago they were already cultivating squash, peppers, gourds, beans, and cotton on the Coast of Peru.
By the time of the European invasion, these early people of South America were already better farmers that their Europeans contemporaries. They had domesticated the potato, the corn, the tomato, the yam, and the lima beans. They found a source of wool by taming the llama and the alpaca. They terraced the mountainsides and built vast irrigation systems.
Since very ancient time Pre-Inca civilizations of the Central Andes occupied an area, at over 4,000 m of elevation, which today is regarded as marginal for many basic crops. The ancient People of the Andes were able to build a dense population that supported both a city life and a highly organized social and economic society as evidenced from archaeological findings. Part of it lie in the type of agricultural technology employed, together with the choice of food plants, which together ensured both quantity and quality of sustenance. A strong economic base was in existence from at least 2000 years before the present time.
The extensive agricultural cultivation and irrigation system still work today and produce just like they did long time ago. The vast majority of these agricultural terraces are built on the sides of mountains and hills, and required hard work for creation, but ensured food production over a long period of time. The reason for creating stepped agricultural fields are various. For example, the Sacred Valley region, in which the Vilcanota River, the main artery of life, flows surrounded by abrupt mountains that are over 4000 m high, the sun's rays don't reach deep enough in the Valley, which remain cooler in their bottoms. Then the mountain sides ensure more intense sunlight for longer time during the day. In some parts there is little space in the Valleys, so the usage of steps actually increases the area available for agriculture.
The benefits of the steeped technology included defense against landslide and floods. In this way the water did not accumulate and run down over the towns below. The rocks used for creating the steps strengthened the sides of the mountains, that protecting what was in the Valleys from possible mudslide during heavy rainfall. Higher grounds protected the plantations from disasters.
The Vilcanota River is terrifying when its affluent and intense rain increase its volume. During the glorious period of the Inca Empire, the Sacre valley of the Vilcanota River was one of the most agriculturally productive region of the world. When Europeans waited for the rain to come, the incas were controlling the irrigation of the terraces by diverting small quantities of water from mountain rivers, making a sort of balance in the ecosystem of the land. The threat of drought was practically eliminated.
Up to this point in history, no culture in the world had spread a civilization over a similar terrain conditions like the whole of Peru's arid Coasts and High Mountains.
The Inca Empire, which crowned these early civilizations of the Southern half of the globe, ruled from a capital 11,152ft/3,400m in the clouds, near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes, Peru.
The Andean civilization centered far more than that of Middle America on the material techniques of life: - Planning big cities and irrigation works, - Building highways and a network of communications, and - Perfecting the domestic arts of weaving and pottery making.
The Inca passion for organization in every field extended even to their art work. The best in Andean art was produced by the Andean peoples who preceded the Incas and they simply absorbed and perfected the technique.
Civilization around the world traces their origins to the time when men settled down and started cultivating rather than hunting their food. The early people of South America showed a versatile talent for domesticating plants, many of them unknown in the Old World. Some 5,000 years ago they were already cultivating squash, peppers, gourds, beans, and cotton on the Coast of Peru.
By the time of the European invasion, these early people of South America were already better farmers that their Europeans contemporaries. They had domesticated the potato, the corn, the tomato, the yam, and the lima beans. They found a source of wool by taming the llama and the alpaca. They terraced the mountainsides and built vast irrigation systems.
Since very ancient time Pre-Inca civilizations of the Central Andes occupied an area, at over 4,000 m of elevation, which today is regarded as marginal for many basic crops. The ancient People of the Andes were able to build a dense population that supported both a city life and a highly organized social and economic society as evidenced from archaeological findings. Part of it lie in the type of agricultural technology employed, together with the choice of food plants, which together ensured both quantity and quality of sustenance. A strong economic base was in existence from at least 2000 years before the present time.
The extensive agricultural cultivation and irrigation system still work today and produce just like they did long time ago. The vast majority of these agricultural terraces are built on the sides of mountains and hills, and required hard work for creation, but ensured food production over a long period of time. The reason for creating stepped agricultural fields are various. For example, the Sacred Valley region, in which the Vilcanota River, the main artery of life, flows surrounded by abrupt mountains that are over 4000 m high, the sun's rays don't reach deep enough in the Valley, which remain cooler in their bottoms. Then the mountain sides ensure more intense sunlight for longer time during the day. In some parts there is little space in the Valleys, so the usage of steps actually increases the area available for agriculture.
The benefits of the steeped technology included defense against landslide and floods. In this way the water did not accumulate and run down over the towns below. The rocks used for creating the steps strengthened the sides of the mountains, that protecting what was in the Valleys from possible mudslide during heavy rainfall. Higher grounds protected the plantations from disasters.
The Vilcanota River is terrifying when its affluent and intense rain increase its volume. During the glorious period of the Inca Empire, the Sacre valley of the Vilcanota River was one of the most agriculturally productive region of the world. When Europeans waited for the rain to come, the incas were controlling the irrigation of the terraces by diverting small quantities of water from mountain rivers, making a sort of balance in the ecosystem of the land. The threat of drought was practically eliminated.
Up to this point in history, no culture in the world had spread a civilization over a similar terrain conditions like the whole of Peru's arid Coasts and High Mountains.
THE PARACAS PEOPLE OF PERU.
Paracas is a desert peninsula located within the Pisco Province in the Ica region, on the Southern Coast of Peru.
The Paracas culture was an Andean society between approximately 1000 to 100 BC, with an extensive knowledge of irrigation and water management and significant contributions in the textiles arts. Most information about the ancient lives of Paracas people comes from excavations at the large seaside territory of the site on the peninsula.
It is here where Peruvian archaeologist, Julio C. Tello (1880-1947), discovered 429 mummies bundles from two clusters in the subterranean structure (necropolis) at Wari Kayan, during excavations in 1927-8 on the Northern side of the Red Mountain (Cerro Colorado) area of the Paracas Peninsula.
It was a massive and elaborated graveyard containing tombs filled with the remains of individuals with the largest elongated skulls found anywhere in the world. The mummified bodies were swaddled in colorful fabrics, some of which were richly embroidered with wool to create elaborated patterns, which are among the best South American textiles ever found. The individuals were then placed in baskets in a sitting position, and interred facing North; as with all South American mummies. Their preservation is due to natural desiccation. Almost 400 embroidered cloths were recovered. All the burials were of males and the quality of their grave gifts suggests that they were of high status.
The men interred in the graveyard had conical, and so unusual elongated skulls. The cranial volume were measured and they were up to 25% larger and 60% heavier than conventional human skulls, containing only one parietal plate, rather than two.
The parietal bones are two bones in the human skull which, joined together at a fibrous joint, form the sides and roof of the cranium. Each bone is roughly quadrilateral in form, and has two surfaces, four borders, and four angles. The external surface of the parietal bone is convex, and marked near the center by an eminence which indicates the point where ossification commenced. The parietal bone is ossified in membrane from a single center, which appears at the parietal eminence about 8th week of fetal life. Ossification gradually extends in a radial manner from the center toward the margins of the bone; the angles are consequently the parts last formed, and it is here that the fontanelles exist.
A 19th century doctor Johann Jacob Von Tschudi claimed that the parietal bone found on the skulls was an evidence of a very ancient race of people inhabiting the land. The skulls had two abnormal holes and only one parietal plate instead of two. The little holes appeared to be a common human variation allowing the passage of veins connecting the venous system inside the skull to that on the outside.
DNA tests for the skulls were performed and they had concluded that the individuals were not fully humans, because other examples of cranial deformation did not alter the size, wight or cranial volume, as seen in the Paracas skulls. Although, the test did not confirm they were from one of our earlier ancestors instead. But there is a little more to say about of these Paracas skulls. The fact is the remains were found almost a century ago, but since the 1850's the idea of the elongated skulls has been around for a very while.
David Forbes wrote and submitted a research paper, "On Aymara People of Bolivia and Peru" to the Ethnological Society of London in 1870. In it he describes not only his examinations of the skulls, but those of his predecessors Mariano Eduardo de Rivero & Ustariz and Johan Von Tschudi who also had investigated the elongated skulls as early as the 1850's. Undoubtedly, the People of the Andes knew about them long before the Europeans put their feet in South American Lands.
The average cranial capacity of the skulls from the necropolis is about 1600 cc. Normal human cranial capacity varies widely, with 1350 cc. being the modern average.
The human skull has 3 bones (plates) that comprise the spherical shape of the skull. They are the frontal lobe, the parietal bone (left and right) and the occipital bone. The main difference in elongated skulls is that they have 2 major skull bones, the frontal and the back plates.
The Peruvian archaeologists, Julio C. Tello had previously excavated at Chavin of Huantar and recognized that there were cultural afinities between its products and those found at Wari Kayan and suggested that the Paracas People was related to the largely Chavin Culture. Comparisons have also been made between the later Paracas textiles and those of the Nazca Culture, suggesting another relationship. The pottery was largely plain and thin walled; and very similar to ceramics found in the Canete and Chincha Valleys, to the North of Paracas.
A Paracas Necropolis settlement has been found at White Sand (Arena Blanca), in the Coastal Plain below the Red Mountain (Cerro Colorado). It covers an area of some 5 hectares, divided into 20 separate districts, with buildings made from cobbles in dried mud. Its inhabitants had cultivated plants, while cotton nets may be evidence for fishing. Further settlements are known in the Ica Valley to the South.
The Ica Valley of Peru is one of the driest places in the world. Ground water is provided by the Ica River, rising in the Mountains of Huancavelica. The Mountain People there is already lacking water because of the British and American mining pollution and depleted ice caps which feeds the River. Much of the water supply is diverted to the British funded asparagus farms in the Ica Valley, as a result wells are drying up and water rate prices are astronomical high, forcing farmers to sell their farms to the asparagus trade. Supplies are severely rationed, yet one giant asparagus farm can use much water as the entire city of Ica every day.
Greed as an inordinate or insatiable longing, especially for wealth, status, and power did not exist in this region of Peru. The ancient individuals interred in the land graveyard came from a time when the world were completely different than the one we live today, and there is a common belief that they will return and do justice to people of all kinds and the land entrusted to them.
The Paracas culture was an Andean society between approximately 1000 to 100 BC, with an extensive knowledge of irrigation and water management and significant contributions in the textiles arts. Most information about the ancient lives of Paracas people comes from excavations at the large seaside territory of the site on the peninsula.
It is here where Peruvian archaeologist, Julio C. Tello (1880-1947), discovered 429 mummies bundles from two clusters in the subterranean structure (necropolis) at Wari Kayan, during excavations in 1927-8 on the Northern side of the Red Mountain (Cerro Colorado) area of the Paracas Peninsula.
It was a massive and elaborated graveyard containing tombs filled with the remains of individuals with the largest elongated skulls found anywhere in the world. The mummified bodies were swaddled in colorful fabrics, some of which were richly embroidered with wool to create elaborated patterns, which are among the best South American textiles ever found. The individuals were then placed in baskets in a sitting position, and interred facing North; as with all South American mummies. Their preservation is due to natural desiccation. Almost 400 embroidered cloths were recovered. All the burials were of males and the quality of their grave gifts suggests that they were of high status.
The men interred in the graveyard had conical, and so unusual elongated skulls. The cranial volume were measured and they were up to 25% larger and 60% heavier than conventional human skulls, containing only one parietal plate, rather than two.
The parietal bones are two bones in the human skull which, joined together at a fibrous joint, form the sides and roof of the cranium. Each bone is roughly quadrilateral in form, and has two surfaces, four borders, and four angles. The external surface of the parietal bone is convex, and marked near the center by an eminence which indicates the point where ossification commenced. The parietal bone is ossified in membrane from a single center, which appears at the parietal eminence about 8th week of fetal life. Ossification gradually extends in a radial manner from the center toward the margins of the bone; the angles are consequently the parts last formed, and it is here that the fontanelles exist.
A 19th century doctor Johann Jacob Von Tschudi claimed that the parietal bone found on the skulls was an evidence of a very ancient race of people inhabiting the land. The skulls had two abnormal holes and only one parietal plate instead of two. The little holes appeared to be a common human variation allowing the passage of veins connecting the venous system inside the skull to that on the outside.
DNA tests for the skulls were performed and they had concluded that the individuals were not fully humans, because other examples of cranial deformation did not alter the size, wight or cranial volume, as seen in the Paracas skulls. Although, the test did not confirm they were from one of our earlier ancestors instead. But there is a little more to say about of these Paracas skulls. The fact is the remains were found almost a century ago, but since the 1850's the idea of the elongated skulls has been around for a very while.
David Forbes wrote and submitted a research paper, "On Aymara People of Bolivia and Peru" to the Ethnological Society of London in 1870. In it he describes not only his examinations of the skulls, but those of his predecessors Mariano Eduardo de Rivero & Ustariz and Johan Von Tschudi who also had investigated the elongated skulls as early as the 1850's. Undoubtedly, the People of the Andes knew about them long before the Europeans put their feet in South American Lands.
The average cranial capacity of the skulls from the necropolis is about 1600 cc. Normal human cranial capacity varies widely, with 1350 cc. being the modern average.
The human skull has 3 bones (plates) that comprise the spherical shape of the skull. They are the frontal lobe, the parietal bone (left and right) and the occipital bone. The main difference in elongated skulls is that they have 2 major skull bones, the frontal and the back plates.
The Peruvian archaeologists, Julio C. Tello had previously excavated at Chavin of Huantar and recognized that there were cultural afinities between its products and those found at Wari Kayan and suggested that the Paracas People was related to the largely Chavin Culture. Comparisons have also been made between the later Paracas textiles and those of the Nazca Culture, suggesting another relationship. The pottery was largely plain and thin walled; and very similar to ceramics found in the Canete and Chincha Valleys, to the North of Paracas.
A Paracas Necropolis settlement has been found at White Sand (Arena Blanca), in the Coastal Plain below the Red Mountain (Cerro Colorado). It covers an area of some 5 hectares, divided into 20 separate districts, with buildings made from cobbles in dried mud. Its inhabitants had cultivated plants, while cotton nets may be evidence for fishing. Further settlements are known in the Ica Valley to the South.
The Ica Valley of Peru is one of the driest places in the world. Ground water is provided by the Ica River, rising in the Mountains of Huancavelica. The Mountain People there is already lacking water because of the British and American mining pollution and depleted ice caps which feeds the River. Much of the water supply is diverted to the British funded asparagus farms in the Ica Valley, as a result wells are drying up and water rate prices are astronomical high, forcing farmers to sell their farms to the asparagus trade. Supplies are severely rationed, yet one giant asparagus farm can use much water as the entire city of Ica every day.
Greed as an inordinate or insatiable longing, especially for wealth, status, and power did not exist in this region of Peru. The ancient individuals interred in the land graveyard came from a time when the world were completely different than the one we live today, and there is a common belief that they will return and do justice to people of all kinds and the land entrusted to them.
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