The Capac Hucha of the Inca Emperors

     

     On the last blog post, we talked about human sacrificing in general. This week we are going to focus on our main interest, which is the Capac Hucha of the Inca emperors.  This practice included the human sacrificing of children to the mountain gods.  In order to fully understand all the elements of this topic and refrain from personal cultural bias, we really wanted to get a better sense of who the Incan people were.  So we decided to do some research.

       Our main source of knowledge on the Incas through standard chronicles, written by Spanish settlers who wanted to tell their “compatriots about the riches and marvels of a world that was new to them.” (Niles, 1). These chronicles cover a good deal of the vast expanse that was the Inca empire.  This included descriptions of the remarkable armies and treasuries of the Inca Kings, in which they had collected a large portion of gold and silver.  The narratives also converse about many military encounters and victories that were celebrated.  Ceremonies of marriages, funerals and different festivals and rituals are also documented. That of human sacrifice, specifically that of the Capac Hucha ritual was documented and by looking at these chronicles as well as the archaeological evidence presented in the modern-day Inca empire, scholars can gather a good understanding of the cultural meaning behind the ceremony.

        The Capac Hucha was considered one of the most honored dedications to the gods the Incas could give.  By presenting the human body, elaborately dressed and decorated as an offering, the Incas were showing their appreciation and respect by bestowing their deities with the most valuable thing they could: a human life.  According to written records by Father Bernabe Cobo, the Incas dedicated human offerings to the sun god Inti, to the weather god Illapa, and to the creator Viracocha.  This could vary to include local deities depending on the region where the shrines were erected.  

            “They made sacrifices to the Sun so that he would make the plants grow to the Thunder, so that he would make it rain and not hail or freeze, and to the rest of the special gods and second causes. First they would speak with Viracocha and afterwards they would speak with the special gods. And in their sacrifices to all the universal huacas they would plead for the health of the Inca.” Father Bernabe Cobo.

What is Human Sacrifice?

 

 

Who ????

What ?????

When ??????

Where did this happen?????

So what’s all this talk about Human Sacrifice??

Well, Let me tell you about it!

What is Human Sacrifice?

Human Sacrifice is a ritualistic practice that often has religious connotations.  It is a custom that has traces throughout history and is not specific to only one area in the world. Instead, scholars find that the ritual of human sacrifice has been present in many different cultures, though the ceremony and beliefs following the practice are different.

Human Sacrificing is a topic that most individuals who are not exposed to, do not know much about. The very thought of killing another human being can quickly come off as exceedingly distant as well as evil. However, we must not be quick to judge the topic at hand. Instead we must look into this societal tradition with open eyes and find out information about how, when, or why human sacrifice is practiced. Figuring out this information is vital as human sacrifice is indeed a practice that has roots in several parts of the world. Since it is not autonomous to one particular environment, it provides a platform through which many different cultures around the world can be compared and through which such an interesting phenomenon can be analyzed.  Through this, many different cultures around the world are bound together. It is here that we can see the different religions and beliefs that cultures have on human sacrificing, for religion plays a large role in these ceremonies.

Religious Aspect

Though the world of the sacred is big in any type of ceremony that most societies perform, sacrifice is especially important in that it is done specifically with religious undertones in place. According to religious beliefs, sacrifice is similar to praying because it is a method of communication. The word sacrifice means, “to make holy”. Therefore those who are performing the sacrifice are doing so in the name of their religion. Those who sacrifice goods, tools or animals are doing so to please some form of higher society, most often different religious deities. These sacrifices or offerings are preformed to gain the favor of the gods. This is because rituals are often seen as a platform of communication between the mortal and immortal world and therefore regarded as an important way in which a society can function. Individuals who engaged in these sacrifices were considered bold for daring to approach the gods who created, sustained, and destroyed life.

“According to ancient rites of sacrifice, the sacrificial animal or human should be of high value.”

By sacrificing an individual with high value it showed how vested the individual was to the god.  If an offering was of low value it would have been deemed as disrespectful. A low offering would be considered an ill or substandard being. Within Old Testament tradition, Abel obeyed the ancient tradition when he sacrificed the firstborn of his herds to God. Over 5,000 years ago, Bulls were sacred to Egyptians, being associated with Taurus, a god with both animal and human features. For Egyptians, the sacrifice of a bull was the gift of a demigod to the gods. In the years immediately preceding the emergence of Christianity some mystery cults switched from bull to human sacrifices, using the same ceremonies where the victim was first honored as a god, then put to bloody death. Osiris, the legendary Egyptian ruler who, murdered, became the god of fertility, cast a long shadow over these proceedings.

Sacrificing yourself put you in a higher category within society because you were chosen and therefore distinguished from the rest. The purpose of sacrificial offerings is to show your appreciation and respect for the society as well as the deities you worship.