Politics of the Sun

Háskóli Íslands Hugvísindasvið Mála- og menningardeild

Politics of the Sun

The Pre-Colonized Sun Goddess and the Sun Empire-Building

MA degree in Inter-American Studies

Andrea Pilar Valencia Rivero Kt.: 151188-4009

Supervisor: Hólmfríður Garðarsdóttir

Október 2020

Abstract

The present thesis, Politics of the Sun, is an exploratory, cross-cultural journey of comparative mythology towards understanding the foundations of power-centred ideologies which have chosen the figure of the sun and constructed symbolisms around it, through the European and American continents. It delves into the civilizatory processes taking place from the so-called matriarchal times into the merging of conceptions that would produce patriarchal mythology, such as the solar power-centred mythology, to pursue an answer to how a non-hierarchical communal system would be deliberately transformed into the hierarchical, power-hungry capitalist system of today.

Table of Contents

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………… 2

Chapter I: From the Roman Sol or Greek Helios Sun God back to the times of the Sun Goddess……………………………………………………………………………………….. 4

1.1. Origins: A Recent Discussion on Rewriting History…………………………………….. 4 1.2. From Minoan to Mycenaean Civilization or from Matriarchy to Patriarchy……………..6 1.3. The All-Seeing Sun Goddess in Matriarchal Times………………………………...... 10

Chapter II: Power Ideologies in the figure of the Sun………………………………………. 20

2.1. A leap into Turkic Siberia for a comparative deconstruction of rituals………………… 20 2.2. How Social Relations are forged within a Kinship Clan System………………………. 24 2.3. Towards the Deconstruction of Patriarchal Symbolism in Mythology………………… 28 2.4. From everyday gender constructions in Greek and Roman Societies to the formulation of an Academic Conceptualization for “Woman”……………………………………………... 32

Chapter III: Kingship versus Kinship: The Rise of a System………………………………. 37

3.1. A Shamanic Power Construction Theory from Turkic Siberia………………………… 38 3.2. Kinship System in Pre-Inca and Mundurucú Societies………………………………… 41

Chapter IV: Politics of the Sun in the Inca Civilization…………………………...………... 43

4.1. Privatization of Nature and the Arise of Capitalism…………………………………...... 44 4.2. Forging the Power-Shaped Figure of the Sun……………………………...…………... 46 4.3. Structuring Power: Gods of Heaven and Goddesses of Earth…………...……………... 48 4.4. Possible effects of the structuration of the social and cultural imaginary through a power- centred ideological system……………………………………………………………..……. 52

Conclusions…………………………………………………………………...……………... 57

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………...…………. 59

Politics of the Sun

Introduction

To answer the question of how power has been inscribed into worldwide known symbols and words, it becomes relevant to keep in mind that images, symbols and words have been promoted to establish certain social codes and order, from a place of power that can decide on their meaning. The process of analysing myths or the construction of words serves as a contribution to understanding the conflicts carried out within the symbols we have perpetuated to the present day in a linear concept of development. It is yet very easy to get enraptured in the building up of imaginary connections that cannot possibly be proved or could never be assembled into any factual certainties. But it is this search of certainty that has led cultures to build up strong, continuous and, in many cases, devastating conceptions of the world. The iconographic depiction of the sun of the Roman Empire took shape in the 1st century B.C. and remained unmovable until the 4th century A.D.; Sol – the Roman name for sun – became symbolised with the image of a young beardless male charioteer. Either his whole body was ignited with fire or his head was crowned with sunrays. He was not to be depicted in any other way. This ideologically constructed image, as well as a wide range of symbolic images that populated the visual imagery of the Romans, was expected to evoke associations and establish archetypes: “Roman artists worked within a framework of fixed conventions that spanned many generations over centuries, and Roman viewers viewed with the existence of those conventions in mind” (Hijmans, 2009, p. 46). As a result, history as we know it is for the most part the mainstream version of the past, which has always advocated for the side of the champions, of the blood battle victors: the reason why it has been written to begin with. This has also been the case of mythological tales and how they have worked on inscribing the value of power in the symbols and words that populate our visual and social imaginary. Consequently, myths, such as the sun-related mythology, are the first forms of unwritten or written history available. They become the primary source adapted by religions to promote images of a world in service of power, to construct and control an idea of development for a certain civilization to function: History making (which includes history denying) is a cultural invention; and in stratified, class-ridden societies, versions of the organization of the past, like other ideological constructions, are brewed in political cauldrons. As social relations are politicized, history tends to be “made” by those who dominate – by chiefs, noblemen, and kings (Diamond, as cited in Silverblatt, 1987, p. xxi).

This thesis intends to prove that the dominating side of history has been at work behind the construction of solar mythologies, with the aim of propagating a long-term symbolical ideology that ensured them power over these societies. Bringing this general debate into a Latin American context, as well as to many other contexts of colonization, it remains a further reading against the grain to question historical data which has been mainly written by the hands of colonizers, and further discover how processes of attaching ideology or the merging of ideologies have occurred, as in the case of what has been recorded of the sun-centred Empire of the Incas: The Spanish could understand the world they conquered only through the categories and perceptions that their culture provided. The chroniclers’ prejudices, however, were more pervasive … Basic assumptions of how the universe worked, of the nature of humanity and society, along with deeply rooted senses of personhood, responsibility, social hierarchy, social justice, and history, were trapped in Spanish accounts of the Inca world. The Hispanification of Inca history, mirroring the dynamics of colonial politics, was bound in the colonization process itself (Silverblatt, 1987, pp. xxii-xxiii). Now to further discuss the central theme of this study, that is the Politics of the Sun, allow me to emphasize that Postcolonial theory aims to analyse the representation and the historical experiences and subjectivities of victims, individuals and nations, and of colonial powers. Additionally, the Intersectional analysis has, “since the beginning, been posed more as a nodal point than as a closed system – a gathering place for open-ended investigations of the overlapping and conflicting dynamics of race, gender, class, sexuality, nation, and other inequalities” (Lykke, as cited in Cho, et al., 2013, p. 788). Both of these theoretical approaches will complement and guide this research. However, its main resources will include Etymological and Semiotic analysis, along with Comparative Mythology. Therefore, and to clarify, this MA thesis sets out to examine how power ideologies are represented in the mythological figure of the Sun through the European and American continents by tracing a cross-cultural comparative analysis of creation myths and symbols in ancient Greek/Roman, Shamanic Siberia/Inuit and Native American cultures. Furthermore, it aims to draw the origins of the meanings used to symbolize power in the process of creating civilizations, and constructing hierarchies of class, gender, and race.

CHAPTER I

FROM THE ROMAN SOL OR GREEK HELIOS SUN GOD BACK TO THE TIMES OF THE SUN GODDESS

1.1. Origins: A Recent Discussion on Rewriting History

To better grasp the order of the symbolic construction of cross-cultural sun entities, it is appropriate to start by asking how and when did the Greeks and Romans, as being the ones running the “greatest civilization” upon which our present is still grounded, start venerating the sun. There has been an ongoing academic debate on whether the sun was an important God in Ancient Rome or not. The iconic image depicted and universalized in Rome was imported from the Greek Sun God Helios, and its name changed to Sol. Notwithstanding the reports in ancient sources1 that claim unanimously of the existence of a sun cult, from the very beginning of Rome as civilization and throughout its history, modern scholars appear to have distorted these ancient sources, asserting in unison throughout the nineteenth and up to the twentieth centuries, statements such as the following: If the sun was a God at all in a given culture, the assumption was that he must have been a great God. Hence, the fact that he was clearly not a major God in either Greece or early Rome – in Greek mythology Helios was actually a Titan rather than a God, and cults for Helios were sporadic and relatively late – is then taken to indicate that solar cult was not native to these cultures. […] The sun was a God in traditional Roman and Greek religion, but never an important one. He did gain importance in late antiquity, but never to the level of supreme deity (Hijmans, 2009, pp. 1-2). The widespread belief that the sun would have been a minor God in Roman tradition has been questioned by Steven Hijmans, who argues that the sun cult might have been downsized as a foreign cult – specifically a cult of oriental origin, which would make it appear “inferior and unworthy” of the Great Roman Empire. Following this line, the “decadence theory” affirms that the decline of the Roman Empire is the result of corruptive oriental influences (Réville as cited in Hijmans, 2009, pp. 14-15). According to Hijmans, who has conducted the most extensive archivist research on the Roman Sol in recent years, not only did modern historians disagree with ancient historians who had undoubtedly collected the earliest, and therefore, most

1 Hijmans has compiled this ancient documentation on the sun cult in his work: Hijmans, S. E. (2009). Sol: The sun in the art and religions of Rome. [S.l.], which he specifically cites in Chapter I, pp. 2-3.

authentic sources of this ancient cult; but they attempted to erase the sun cult from Roman history: Religious historians in the nineteenth century systematically attempted to exclude solar and astral elements from what they considered truly Roman religion. This made the Republican Sol a problem, but a minor one, solved by presenting him as perhaps Greek rather than Roman, and certainly of minimal importance. Indeed, his cult was played down to the point where it was said to have disappeared completely early in the empire (Hijmans, 2009, p. 13). The prejudice against oriental morals extended to race, within the context of the nineteenth- century justification of West-European imperialism. This would have resulted in widely corrupted modern and recent studies of the Roman/Greek sun deity. Hijmans points out to blatant weaknesses and ideological biases found in these historical sources: This review of older scholarship and its underlying ideology and preconceptions has shown how little factual evidence there was for the long dominant views on the origins of the Roman imperial sun god […] Scholars have increasingly challenged the idea that an all-pervasive "orientalization" of religion took place in the Roman Empire. No one would deny that Eastern cults had a certain degree of influence throughout the Empire. But that Sol was not an oriental deity fits in with the general reevaluation of Roman religious developments currently underway […] I have been at such pains to emphasize not just the lack of evidence but in particular the profoundly ideological nature of that paradigm precisely because the implications of that aspect are not, or at least not sufficiently, acknowledged in these recent studies (Hijmans, 2009, p. 23). Indeed what would be more concerning than a possible deliberate distortion of history, is the ideological impact it has had in the cultural, social and political imaginary. Nevertheless, it should be observed that mythology has made use of more concealed methods for marketing ideology and therefore, possibly much more influential and far-reaching than history. Amongst the many contributions to the relation of mythology to ideology, Dumézil (1898-1986) stated that mythology reflected and transmitted ideology and that it was possible to detect this ideology and hence, use mythology to explain social structures; additionally, Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009) proposed that universal laws must govern human thought, in order to explain the similarity among myths throughout the world. In this sense, following a general analysis of the Greek and Roman mythical stories – which have been the most influential in the construction of narratives worldwide – it is possible to perceive how the threads that have woven history have connected it to a linear mythological narration, where the main characters or heroes have a very distinctive gender.

1.2. From Minoan to Mycenaean Civilization or from Matriarchy to Patriarchy

How would it be possible to discover and study the ancient word or concept for “woman” if this word has been recorded as having originated in the 8th century, while the word “female” was originated in the 12th century? Furthermore, how would it be possible to study this word or concept in any of the hundreds or thousands of Native American languages or the many more thousands of colonized languages around the world, if there are no existing etymological studies of the words used to name woman or man; if there even existed words to differentiate man from woman, or to differentiate gender or sex, in the cultures whose histories were written in colonizing languages, from different perspectives and understandings of the already ideologically constructed Indo-European words that separated the masculine from the feminine. As a starting point, an etymological analysis of these words reveals that they have been constructed to consign women to a status that is inferior to that of men. The word woman derives from late Old English wimman or wiman, an alteration of wifman, which had the meaning of “woman” and “female servant”, and is a composition of the words wif and man. While wif, which would later turn into wife and comes from the Proto-Germanic wiban of uncertain origin, used to be a neuter word that designated a “woman”, “female”, or “lady”; man was used to designate a human being of either sex. So wifman was a term constructed to separate or exclude woman from the older man that had formerly unified both sexes. Meanwhile, the word female is originated in the Old French femelle, derived from the Latin femella meaning “young female” or “girl,” which itself is the diminutive of femina, with the meaning “woman” or “a female.” The literal meaning of femina, as recorded by the Online Etymology Dictionary, would have been “she who suckles,” defining the female in reference to her role of nursing a suckling infant (Online Etymology Dictionary, 2020). Additionally, the Spanish word mujer, Portuguese mulher or Italian moglie, are derived from Latin mulier or mulieris, which is believed to derive or parallel the Latin adjective mollis, meaning “soft” and “weak” (García, 2018, pp. 10-11); as opposed to the characteristics of masculine, word derived from the Latin masculinus and masculus, meaning “having the appropriate qualities of the male sex, physically or mentally: Manly, virile, powerful” (Online Etymology Dictionary, 2020). Human beings have been determined by words, words that have been used to create stories and histories. The most popular structure of legends and tales, also found in most Hollywood films is the recurrent monomyth of the hero's journey, which presents a hero who goes on an adventure, and in a decisive crisis wins a victory, and then returns home changed or

transformed. According to Joseph Campbell, when the hero has overcome all of the trials and challenges, his ultimate triumph culminates with the mystical marriage with the Queen Goddess of the world. From this point of view, the woman is represented as a trophy that the man has now the power to possess, for this marriage “represents the hero’s total mastery of life, for the woman is life and the hero its knower and master” (Campbell, 1989, p. 111). Furthermore, woman symbolizes maternity, fertility, protection, and life itself. Nevertheless: […] it is hard for us today to imagine what it must have been like to have a goddess and her earth mysteries at the center of cultural and spiritual life. More than two thousand years of Judeo-Christian culture have accustomed us to thinking of everything divine as masculine and somehow belonging “up there” in the heavens. As a result we have almost forgotten what it is to regard the earth we walk upon as sacred, as truly our mother, and as the dwelling place of both goddesses and gods (Woolger & Woolger, 1989, p. 278). In the common universal imaginary, woman has been associated with the natural, savage world of Mother Earth and man with the sky-level-thinking bright and intellectual world, the Sun God that rules the universe, the father sky that decides over every form of life and fertilizes a female earth, which is there to procreate and be conquered. But how did mythology turn out this way? Who started attributing these characteristics to the idea of woman? Who attributed themselves the power to name things, or to name and classify and overpower some over others? Woolger and Woolger (1989) hint to an intentional manipulation: “Greek Gods and Goddesses were long ago robbed of their original spiritual power and transcendent meaning and were reduced to literary stereotypes and the subjects of courtly art and theater” (p. 14). Furthermore, they point to a systemic transformation that would impact various aspects of society: “At those times in human history when the Great Mother was worshipped, human beings were very much in harmony with themselves and with the life force” (p. 15). This is referred to as the “theory of the Great Goddess,” who is said to have been represented throughout the world in matriarchal times. This theory is primarily based on vast archaeological findings throughout Europe, of figurines consistently depicting the feminine figure along with elements of animals and nature. Nevertheless, the interpretation of the symbolism in these archaeological artefacts has been questioned as inconsistent and nonfactual: The mother-Goddess hypothesis rests most heavily […] on the art and ritual equipment found in the tombs themselves. Carvings and relief sculpture on tomb walls, pottery and figurines are generally held to constitute the main evidence. […] As for the idols, it has been too readily assumed that we know their function and their sex. In the past, anthropomorphic intentions have been inferred for whole groups, largely on the basis of evidence provided by one or two individual members of these groups (Fleming, 1969, pp. 249-251).

The archaeologist Marija Gimbutas formulated the “Kurgan” hypothesis in 1956. She postulates that a Proto-Indo-European patriarchal culture invaded Europe about 5000 years ago and replaced the earlier matriarchal culture. The invaders would be “a very different Neolithic culture with the domesticated horse and lethal weapons emerged in the Volga basin of South Russia and after the middle of the 5th millennium even west of the Black Sea” (Gimbutas, 1989, p. xx). The basic features of this culture would be patriarchy, patrilineality, small-scale agriculture, and animal husbandry. The horse is said to have been domesticated by them, who also used an early type of chariot, while their armament consisted of bow and arrows, spears, and daggers. These northern tribes would repeatedly invade the Old European matriarchal culture from around 4300 to 2800 B.C., changing their more peaceful nature: Old Europe and Anatolia, as well as Minoan Crete, were a gylany. A balanced, nonpatriarchal and nonmatriarchal social system is reflected by religion, mythologies, and folklore, by studies of the social structure of Old European and Minoan cultures, and is supported by the continuity of the elements of a matrilineal system in ancient Greece, Etruria, Rome, the Basque, and other countries of Europe (Gimbutas, 1989, p. xx). In The Language of the Goddess (1989), Gimbutas proposes an archeo-mythological study, where the main sources are motifs of Bronze Age Cyprus, Crete, Thera, Sardinia, Sicily, and Malta. Her repertoire of sources goes from Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic, Copper and Bronze ages. Gimbutas believes it is possible to analyse the symbols and decipher the meanings of these archaeological artefacts as they are so vast, repetitive and widely spread: Marija Gimbutas has been able, not only to prepare a fundamental glossary of pictorial motifs as keys to the mythology of that otherwise undocumented era, but also to establish on the basis of these interpreted signs the main lines and themes of a religion in veneration, both of the universe as a living body of a Goddess-Mother Creator, and of all the living things within it as partaking of her divinity (Campbell in Gimbutas, 1989, p. xiii). Gimbutas focuses on the period of the beginning of early agriculture in Europe, some nine to eight thousand years ago: “Historic records, myths, and rituals show that much of this great artistic culture pervaded ancient Greece, Etruria, and other parts of Europe” (Gimbutas, 1989, p. xvii). The vestiges in the form of figurines, pots, and carvings of female shapes along with the demonstrated symbolical importance of their usage are so extensive that this has been considered to be proof of a “religion” of the Great Goddess. Although the construction of the term God or Goddess and the idea of religion appeared several thousands of years later. These words summon a position of great power and hierarchy that might not have existed at all, or at least not anywhere near the sense it has taken in present religions.

It should be added that the word “goddess” originated in the middle of the 14th century, derived from “god” and the feminine suffix –ess or –esse; whereas the word “god” derives from the Proto-Germanic guthan of uncertain origin. It could be traced from the Proto-Indo- European ghut- meaning "that which is invoked", or from gheu(e)- "to call, invoke." It has also been traced to the Proto-Indo-European ghu-to- meaning "poured," and from the root gheu- "to pour, pour a libation," source of the Greek khein "to pour," and of the phrase khute gaia, which means "poured earth," and refers to a burial mound. Noticeably, the male god was “originally a neuter noun in Germanic, [but] the gender shifted to masculine after the coming of Christianity” (Online Etymology Dictionary, 2020). The Goddess figures have been classified in anthropomorphic or human-animal hybrids, such as the Bird Goddess, the Birth-Giving Goddess, the Snake Goddess, the Bird of Prey Goddess, and the Fish Goddess, among other animals or fertility-related activities. Furthermore, the Earth Mother is depicted in all European folklore. Although it seems to be associated with fertility, a pregnant woman figure placing her hands on the abdomen appears already in the Palaeolithic – that is prior to the dawn of agriculture or Early Neolithic. While previous scholar research already suggested that: “The whole of Neolithic Europe, to judge from surviving artifacts and myths, had a remarkably homogeneous system of religious ideas, based on the worship of the many-titled Mother-Goddess, who was also known in Syria and Libya” (Graves, 1979, p. 13); Gimbutas stated, based on first-hand archaeological studies, that given the similarity in the types of rituals carried out for fertility and childbirth: Greek Artemis Eilethyia, Thracian Bendis, Venetic Rehtia, and Roman Diana, as well as the living Fate in European folk beliefs – particularly the Baltic Laima and the Irish Brigit – are unquestionable descendants of the prehistoric Life-giving Goddess. This Goddess has nothing to do with the Indo-European pantheon of Gods. She must have survived the process of Indo-Europeanization and was carried over to our times from generation to generation by the grandmothers and mothers of countless families […] She was the guardian of the well-being of the family and from Paleolithic times must have been considered to be the ancestress and progenetrix of the family or clan […] That she was a household deity as early as the Upper Paleolithic is suggested by findings in Mal’ta, central Siberia, where Bird Goddess figurines have been found along the inside edges of the circular mammoth-bone dwellings (Gimbutas, 1989, p. 111). Gimbutas continues to emphasize the relation of the “Live-Giving Goddess" with mountains, stones, waters, forests, and animals, and the whole of nature. Additionally, she identifies 21 different types of figurines portraying the Goddess, from which the two most significant are a Pregnant Goddess figurine which is usually located “near the oven or other area of grain preparation and under the floor,” and a Bird Goddess which “is characteristically

found inside house shrines. The earliest evidence for this distribution comes from the Achilleion mound, c. 6400-5600 B.C.” (Gimbutas, 1989, p. 141). Furthermore, one of the most important hints of the predominance of a Goddess figure rests in the fact that: “Male figurines constitute only 2 to 3 percent of all Old European figurines, and consequently any detailed reconstruction of their cult role is hardly possible” (Gimbutas, 1989, p. 175). The later mythological representation of the Great Goddess in different cultures, such as Isis (Egypt), Atana Potinija (Crete), Gaia (Greece), Astarte (Canaan), Inanna or Cybele (Sumer, Asia Minor), Ishtar (Babylon), serves to explain the transition from matriarchal to patriarchal times, and the new antagonistic divine figures that replaced her and represented a much more violent society. Gimbutas (1989) observes that: “The main theme of Goddess symbolism is the mystery of birth and death and the renewal of life, not only human but all life on earth and indeed in the whole cosmos” (p. xix), while Woolger and Woolger (1989) affirm that “[the Goddess] encompassed all the possibilities of being: life, death, power, youth, age, wisdom, as well as the masculine and the feminine” (p. 21), and E. O. James sustained that “she was the embodiment of creative power in all its fullness” (James as cited in Woolger & Woolger, 1989, p. 15). The journey into reconstructing the sources that explain the theory of Great Goddess in the work of Gimbutas serves as great insight into the evolution of language, into new ways of translating meaning and learning how meaning gets built up. It intertwines an understanding of the world where all its components are symbolically interconnected in a holistic, circular space and time.

1.3. The All-Seeing Sun Goddess in Matriarchal Times

Within the prodigious compilation of pre-historical sources carried away by Marija Gimbutas, there are different ranges in the figurines representing the Ancient Goddess that point to a connexion with a solar belief system. However, it would be hard to identify these depictions as a projection of a solar-related power ideology, as these objects, carvings and vessels were usually found in communal sites and hearths, and were probably used as protective amulets. Sun symbolism is especially present in figures classified as portraying the Bird Goddess and Snake Goddess. Among the sources where the Goddess is represented as an anthropomorphic bird, this figure presents bird’s claws instead of hands, and a pose of one arm raised and one pointing down, a very familiar shape which is related to an ancient sun symbol. This particular pose has been found in many areas of Europe, on Neolithic and later pottery

and plaques. Furthermore, this symbolism has been interpreted to be associated to some sort of regeneration ritual: Such representations in relief, centrally placed on large vases, are known from the earliest Neolithic levels of southeastern Hungary and central Bulgaria […]. In the later Neolithic of Sardinia such figures engraved on clay plaques appear in connection with eyes, suns, and branches (Gimbutas, 1989, p. 17).

The figures 1 and 2 are engravings in Karanovo vases (Azmak, central Bulgaria; c. 5800 B.C.), their animal birdlike features are suggested in the vertical lines instead of mouths and the presence of three fingers. Additionally the “V” shape denotes a pubic triangle usually present as the designating mark of the Bird Goddess. In the following figure (3) there are more details that indicate a relation to the Bird Goddess, such as the bird-hand shapes located close to branch-like shapes, from where the bird claws would hang on to; and the “head radiating like the sun suggests that the gesture symbolizes regeneration and the Goddess who promotes or imparts it is Bird Goddess. In addition, the sun or eye symbol is shown next to the head” (Ozieri culture, Sardinia; c. 4000 - 3800 B.C.) (Gimbutas, 1989, p. 17).

Another representational style of the Bird Goddess figure with distinctive sun symbolism takes on owl-shaped features. Furthermore, the eye motif also appears in the form of a radiating sun, as an eye or eyes in the shape of suns. The position of the eyes in this case would symbolize them as radiant and divine all-seeing eyes, which tells of a special association to the sun as a powerful entity. The following series of carvings present this eye/sun symbolism and have been associated to spring and summer fertility rites.

The figures 1 and 2 are from ceramics found in Los Millares (Almeria, Spain; c. 3000 B.C.). They are considered as an abstract drawing of the Goddess, whom is represented by the triangular vulva sign below. These radiant eyes motif is extended throughout Europe and Asia, and has resulted in studies such as The Eye Goddess by O.G.S. Crawford (1957). The following figures are an example of very similar carvings on Irish stones (n° 3: Dowth, County Mead, Ireland; c. 3200 B.C.), and on a vase dating to Neolithic Denmark (n° 4: Suino, Kjong, Hammer herred. Copenhagen Nat. Museum, c. 3000 B.C.) (Gimbutas, 1989, p. 57).

3 4 Furthermore, the sun motif also appears associated to snakes, such as snake coils curling in the shape of eyes, or divine solar eyes. Given the indisputable connection of the Goddess to the snake, snake symbolism will be further discussed in the second chapter. The following figures serve as an example of these serpentine eyes in drawings or carvings, found in different sites in (a) Malta (end 4th – early 3rd mill. B.C.), (b) County Meath, Ireland (c. 3500-3200 B.C.), (c) Sicily (3000-2500 B.C.), and (d) Romania (3800-3600 B.C.) (Gimbutas, 1989, pp. 58-62).

(a) (b)

(c)

(d)

On the etymological side, there have been established connections between eyes and sun: In Old Irish súil is “eye,” while in other languages it means “sun” (cf. Lithuanian and Latvian saule, “sun”: see Hamp 1975). Furthermore, there was a Goddess named Sulis (quite likely the same noun as súil) equated with Minerva in Roman Britain. She was a patronness of the art of healing honored at thermal springs at Bath, Aquae Sulis (Jackson 1970: 68). Her epithet was Suleviae (in plural form), “twin-sunned.” A semantic transfer, “eye”  “sun” in this divine epithet is quite clear. The magic regenerating eyes of this Goddess were seen as suns (Gimbutas, 1989, p. 59). To further enhance the importance of these visual representations, critics have recognised additional links between the Great Goddess and sun symbolism, from collections of storytelling preserved in written records: Her role as a commander of the atmospheric changes and controller of growth of moon, sun, and fire can be reconstructed from the recorded activities of the Basque Mari, Irish Morrígan, German Frau Holle, Lithuanian and Latvian Ragana, and Russian Baba Yaga (Polish Jędza). All of them create clouds, tempestuous winds, pulling them out of caves or abysses. They shed showers, fog, and hailstorms. They can be seen as a sphere or a stick of fire in the sky. The Basque Mari appears as a sickle or half-moon emitting flames or as a woman whose head is encircled by the moon. Ragana is known to cause eclipses of the sun and to control the growth of the moon (Gimbutas, 1989, pp. 209-210). In addition, there is a very striking report of the existence of a prayer reported in the 12th century, which should undoubtedly have its origins in ancient times: An English herbal of the 12th century (ms. In British Museum, Harley 1585: 12v-13r; cited by Hull 1928: 24; also by Graves 1972: 73), includes a prayer to the Goddess. The prayer addresses the Deity with these words: “Divine Goddess Mother Nature, who generatest all things and bringest forth anew the sun which thou has given to the nations; Guardian of sky and sea and of all Gods and powers: through thy influence all nature is hushed and sinks to sleep…. Again, when it pleases thee, thou sendest forth the glad daylight and nurturest life with thine eternal surety; and when the spirit of man passes, to thee it returns. Thou indeed art rightly named Great Mother of the Gods….” She is here the same Regeneratrix – Ana, Ankou, Holle, also addressed as “Mother of the Gods.” Surely this prayer embodies a memory of a once omnipotent Goddess who had the power to regenerate the sun. German Holle regenerates the sun, and she is herself the sun, addressed as “The Mother of all Life” and “The Great Healer” (Rüttner- Cova, as cited in Gimbutas, 1989, p. 211). Gimbutas refers here to the Goddess type that has been named as the “Goddess of Death and Regeneration or Regeneratrix,” for the motifs in the figurines representing this image have been interpreted to symbolize a regeneration function. This image has been preserved to this day, but distorted into the caricature of “the witch”; furthermore, the reports on these so-called

witches during the Inquisition times, describes them as very powerful beings who carry the characteristics of the Goddess of Regeneration. The following is a cautionary advice by a local man reported to have been hoaxed by witches, recounted to a soldier arriving in Navarra, Spain in 1522: Sir, they command the sun and it obeys them, they change the stars in their courses, and they take away the light from the moon and restore it again at their will. They cause clouds to form in the air, and make it possible to tread on them, and they travel about the country. They cause fire to grow cold and water to burn. They turn themselves into young girls and in the twinkling of an eye into old women, or sticks, stones or beasts. If a man pleases them they have the power to enjoy him at will; and to make him more willing they can change him into various animals dulling his senses and his better nature. They have such power by reason of their arts that they have only to command and men must obey or lose their lives. For they like to move freely by day and night along roads and valley and over mountains about their business, which is to cast spells, gather herbs and stones and make pacts and agreements (Baroja, 1975, p. 149). It is believed that the origin of the word “witch” could be “wit”, “to know”, “wise one” or “wisewoman.” Although their powers were initially assumed to be paramount, for they were believed to consult the oracle, the sun, moon, wind, and stars, the official discourse would gradually take away their powers: “At first Christianity merely claimed that its power was superior to that of the old religion; then it asserted that women only used these powers for evil ends; lastly, it denied that they possessed any sacred powers in the first place” (Condren, 1989, p. 81). The true power of these so-called witches would lie in their knowledge in healing, derived from being in tune with the natural processes, and in the independence of their work, which had no hierarchies. It should be noted that this so-called witchcraft was possibly linked to ancient shamanic and religious practices found cross-culturally throughout the world, from the arising of hunting and gathering societies2. Moreover, according to Condren (1989), “the power of the “wise women” was intimately related to sexuality, and if the priests were to move in on their territory, control of fertility would have to be wrested from them.” (p. 84). Further residues of the Goddess can be found in fairy tales such as Grimm’s German tales, which are said to have been very influenced by prehistoric motifs of the “Winter Goddess”, Frau Holla (also known as Holle, Hell, Hella, etc.). Gimbutas suggests that the significance of her name was deliberately manipulated and altered:

2 Winkelman cites the following references for the study of shamanism as a universal practice in Winkelman, M. (1984). A Cross-cultural Study of Magico-Religious Practitioners: p.250: Eliade, M. (1964). Shamanism: archaic techniques of ecstasy. NY: Pantheon Books; Halifax, J. (1979). Shamanic voices. NY: E. P. Dutton; and Hultkrantz, A. (1978). “Ecological and phenomenological aspects of shamanism,” in Shamanism in Siberia. Budapest: Akademiai Kiado.

She is a snow-and weather-making woman. At the same time she regenerates nature. She is a woman who brings out the sun. Once a year she appears as a dove, a blessing ensuring fertility. As a frog, Holla brings the red apple, symbol of life, back to earth from the well into which it fell at harvest. Her realm is the inner depth of mountains and caves (Holla, the name of the Goddess, and Höhle, the name for “cave” are certainly related. Hell in its present meaning is a doing of Christian missionaries). To Holla, as the Mother of the Dead, sacrifices were made in the form of baking a bread called Hollenzopf, “Holla’s braid,” at Christmas time. Holler, Holunder, “elder tree,” was the sacred tree of the Goddess having healing powers. Under this tree lived the dead. The same Goddess still plays a prominent role in beliefs of other Europeans as the Baltic Ragana, Russian Baba Yaga, Polish Jędza, Serbian Mora, Morava, Basque Mari, Irish Morrígan. This powerful Goddess was not wiped out from the mythical world (Gimbutas, 1989, pp. 319-320). A leap forward of around five thousand years later into the patriarchal era appears to have enhanced and distorted the authority of the Ancient Goddess, for her powers which had been previously exalted and sought after, were now greatly feared. Alongside the sun, the moon has also been connected to the figure of the Goddess from ancient times. The moon and the lunar cycles have been engraved along figures and symbols of the Goddess in passage graves and underground chambers, an association which suggests a connection to the regenerative role of the Goddess in the cycles of birth, death, and rebirth. These lunar cycles also appear represented by snake coils: We learn that both a sphere and a snake coil may represent the full moon […] The wavy lines of a winding serpent appear to measure time; each turn is a counting unit of the lunar calendar […] Such peculiarly winding serpents are encountered not only on Irish megalithic stones, but are also engraved on antler artifacts of the northern European Mesolithic and on the 5th millennium B.C. ceramics of east-central Europe […] [W]e should not forget that [time reckoning symbols] are associated with funeral monuments and the belief in regeneration from death, and that they are made of dynamically winding and coiling snakes. The serpent’s life force is at the heart of this symbolism. It influences the renewal of Nature by moving time from the point of death to life, from dark moon to full moon, from winter to spring (Gimbutas, 1989, pp. 285-288). The following are some examples of moon symbolism, where there appear distinctive representations of lunar cycles, alongside serpentine shapes, carved in ceramics or tomb walls, which have been found in different sites in (a) Romania (4500-4300 B.C.), (b) Moldavia (4400- 4200 B.C.), (c) Nezvisko (c. 4000 B.C.), (d) Brittany (c. 3000 B.C.), (e) Sardinia (c. 4000 B.C.), and (f) Ireland (2nd half of 4th mill. B.C.) (Gimbutas, 1989, pp. 283-286).

(a) (b) (c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

These symbolic representations of the moon cycles in key places such as especially, tomb walls, reveal an understanding of life cycles of birth and death as natural processes. Perhaps man was not much concerned about overpowering nature or overcoming diseases for which there were no definite cures yet. While the representation of the Ancient Goddess as a figurine placed inside a communal living dwelling would have carried out a spiritual function as “guardian of a family,” or as symbol of a mother deity in the family or clan, as has been mentioned before; this figure also had a symbolical connection to the sun, although not present in every instance where the Great Goddess was depicted. Hence it would be hard to speculate or point to the existence of a power structure based either on the sun or moon symbolism, as the ones effectively constructed in later civilizations, or on a dominant power associated to one of the many different functions comprehended in the Goddess figure: It seems more appropriate to view all of these Goddess images as aspects of the one Great Goddess with her core functions – life-giving, death-wielding, regeneration and renewal. The obvious analogy would be to Nature itself; through the multiplicity of phenomena and continuing cycles of which it is made, one recognizes the fundamental and underlying unity of Nature (Gimbutas, 1989, p. 316).

In times when the Goddess existed, people perceived the world as a whole, as a unit where every shape and aspect of nature could potentially constitute a framework of symbols instilling meaning into their lives, where good or evil did not have a defined place. Gimbutas argues that the Goddess should not be called “fertility Goddess” or “Mother Goddess”, as fertility was not her primary function, but rather that of regeneration. She also sustains the absence of a major masculine figure, as well as the absence of a punishing behaviour from the God or Goddess: The Goddesses were mainly life creators, not Venuses or beauties, and most definitely not wives of male Gods […] My archeological research does no confirm the hypothetical existence of the primordial parents and their division into the Great Father and Great Mother figures or the further division of the Great Mother figure into a Good and Terrible Mother. There is no trace of a father figure in any of the Paleolithic periods. The life-creating power seems to have been of the Great Goddess alone. […] In her death aspect she is the same Fate who gives life […]. She does this because she controls the length of the life cycle. The Death Wielder does not punish men for evil doing or anything of the kind; she only fulfils her necessary duty. […] There was no division into the Lady of Plants and the Lady of Beasts; no deity ruled over the plants or animals separately. The power of the Life Creatrix and Regeneratrix was in animals, plants, water, mountains, and stones (Gimbutas, 1989, pp. 316-317).

It would be appropriate to return now to the main topic of this thesis and look once again for traces that could point to the construction of a solar power ideology. The accounts where a Goddess is portrayed as an entity with the power to command the sun, the moon and the stars,

take place in the Middle Ages, alongside the conception of the witch. Nevertheless, albeit the characterisation of the witch, the description of this Goddess figure in relation to the sun as someone with the power to “regenerate the sun”, “make the sun anew” and “send daylight and life,” is portraying her as a life-giving divinity and not one to be feared as a result of this power; even while at this same period of time, the monotheistic religions with almighty, all-seeing and supremely feared Gods had already taken full form. To summarize this chapter, the invasion of Proto-Indo-European patriarchal tribes imposed throughout Europe around 5000 years ago, would signify the dethronement of the Goddess and the clash of two worlds, which would gradually constitute a hybrid culture consisting of mixed and growingly contradictive but intertwined symbolical systems. In the specific case of the Minoan civilization that thrived in the island of Crete, now Greece, circa 3000 B.C, in addition to the archaeological remnants of women-shaped figurines to account for the characteristics of this ancient society, there exist artistic remnants such as frescoes where women watch and engage in bull-leaping in Knossos, there are also reports that recount of priestesses who took precedence over male figures, and the documentation that Cretan immigrants traced their descent matrilineally: a Lycian – the people who descended partially from Cretans – would say first his name then his mother’s, then his grandmother’s and great-grandmother’s and so on: “And if a free woman has a child by a slave, the child is considered legitimate, whereas the children of a free man, however distinguished he may be, and a foreign wife or mistress, have no citizen rights at all” (Herodotus, as cited in O’Faolain & Martines, 1973, p. 3). It is worth focusing here on the Minoan case, for the mythological tales that would give rise to the Mycenae civilization and later Greek civilization, are believed to have taken shape from the Minoan civilization and the conquest of their symbols and system of beliefs: Parthenogenetic Goddesses creating from themselves without the help of male insemination gradually changed into brides, wives, and daughters and were eroticized, linked with the principle of sexual love, as a response to a patriarchal and patrilinear system. For example, Greek Hera became the wife of Zeus. Furthermore, Zeus had to “seduce” (with a nod toward historical accuracy, we might prefer the term “rape”) hundreds of other Goddesses and nymphs to establish himself. Everywhere in Europe, the Earth Mother lost her ability to give birth to plant life without intercourse with the Thunder God or God of the Shining Sky in his spring aspect (Gimbutas, 1989, p. 318). Long before systematic religions took control, a conservative patriarchal power status was building its foundations with the aid of mythmaking propaganda, through a structure of power and oppression.

CHAPTER II

POWER IDEOLOGIES IN THE FIGURE OF THE SUN

2.1. A leap into Turkic Siberia for a comparative deconstruction of rituals

To expand the understanding of the existence of power ideologies around the figure of the sun, and how, when and where they could have taken shape, it is essential to look into the traditions and rituals taking place around this subject, and draw a cross-cultural comparative analysis for potential similarities. A recount of the feast in honour of the Irish and Scottish Goddess Brigit shows a striking resemblance to a specific ceremony carried out by Siberian shamans. While this specific ritual is not directly related to the sun, it tells of a relationship towards the earth with a religious significance. There are numerous accounts3 as the following ritual, recorded to have still taken place during the late 20th century Ireland, and considered to date back as far as the Neolithic. During this festival in honour of Brigit, Imbolc, “milk was poured as an offering on the ground,” followed by a series of acts as the presentation of gifts, baking of special cakes, and the making of Brigit dolls. Furthermore, during the annual pilgrimages made to Brigit, it was observed that: The faithful make circuits of the stones and leave ribbons or strips of cloth from their clothing on nearby bushes, trees, or grass as offerings. “The rag or ribbon, taken from the clothing, is considered to be the depository of the spiritual or bodily ailments of the suppliant. Rags are not merely offerings, or votive, they are riddances” (Wood-Martin as cited in Gimbutas, 1989, p. 111). Meanwhile, over 6000 kilometres almost directly to the east of Ireland, in Turkic Siberia is where storyteller and folklorist Kira Van Deusen has collected folktales and first-hand cultural accounts of Siberian shamanic traditions for decades. He describes a ritual (Van Deusen, 2004, p. 17) when, on every trip to the West, people would stop at a special tree called tel yiash – where two kinds of trees or several trunks grow from a single root –, and they would tie strips of cloth to the branches and leave offerings of candy, tobacco and money at the base of the trunk after circling the tree in the direction of the sun, considered to be the direction of life. Furthermore, it is believed that “every clan (seok or söök) has a soul located in a certain

3 The following are references cited in Gimbutas, M. (1989). The language of the goddess. London: Thames & Hudson: 110- 111: McNeill, F. Marian (1957-68). The Silver Bough. Glasgow: W. Maclellan; Ó Súilleabháin, S. (1977). Irish folk custom and belief. Cork: Mercier Press for the Cultural Relations Committee of Ireland Wood-Martin, W. G. (1902). Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland, a Folklore Sketch: A Handbook of Irish Pre-Christian Traditions. 2 vols. London: Longmans, Green and Co.

kind of tree. It is forbidden for clan members to cut that tree or to make things from the wood” (Van Deusen, 2004, p. 55). The inhabitants of Turkic Siberia live in Tuva and Khakassia, regions of Russia which are considered to be the original homeland of all Turks. Their languages are related to Turkish, and Turkic languages are part of the Altai family, which includes Mongolian, the Tungus family of Siberian languages, Japanese and Korean. According to the Tuvan researcher Kenin-Lopsan, Turkic Siberia has safeguarded the myth of an earth goddess called Umai, which means placenta or womb in Turkic languages: Umai is known for her wisdom. As mother of the earth, the figure of Umai may date back at least as far as the paleolithic period, when female figurines were produced along the Lena River (Nahodil 1968, 460). […] The elderly people of our region are very faithful to the cult of the earth. Every morning my grandmother made a sacrifice to the earth, sprinkling fresh tea with her nine-eyed spoon. She turned to the high mountains Taigalar and to all the forests and rivers. She prayed with these words: “Mother earth, I ask you to give us happiness. Mother earth, I ask you to give us success. Mother earth, I ask you to protect my native village” (Kenin-Lopsan as cited in Van Deusen, 2004, p. 49). According to Van Deusen (2004), steppe dwellers in Tuva had always paid a lot of attention to the sky, and probably executed more rituals directed to the sky than the people living on the mountains or the forest, although rituals were usually directed proportionately to the four worlds of the sky, earth, fire, and lower worlds: “But under the ancient Turks (from the sixth to the eighth century) this reverence for the sky took the form of a state religion, [… and priests] took over many of the functions of shamans” (p. 44). A similar process of colonization to the one that would take place in Europe by the Proto-Indo-European patriarchal tribes, is affirmed to have occurred here, with the colonization of Pre-Turkic ethnic groups who had carried a pastoral and more egalitarian lifestyle by a more dominant and patriarchal minority elite. Although both groups are considered as Turks, a name that gathers the many vastly differing ethnic groups, Pre-Turkic times have been preserved through epics and storytelling: “Women warriors are remembered and praised in what folklorists call the earliest form of the epic (which recalls pre-Turkic times, when the Indo-Iranians and Scythians left mummies of female warriors and priestesses)” (Van Deusen, 2004, p. 44). The Khakass word yzykh or Tuvan ydyk comprise a series of meanings that signify something sacred, including animals that are set aside not to be slaughtered or worked, and are considered as protectors or benefactors who are able to communicate with the spirits of nature. In similar correspondence to the rituals taking place around the hearth where Goddesses figurines were placed in matriarchal times, as discussed in the previous chapter, Van Deusen

reports on rituals taking place in Tuvan households, where the hearth was placed in the middle of the round yurt. This location would be representing the position of the mother: “Anyone who has ever lived with a wood stove understands how fire comes to occupy a central place in the home, which Tuvans say is analogous to the position of the mother in the family” (Anzhiganova, as cited in Van Deusen, 2004, p. 59). In the Turkic world, the sun is conceived as female and the moon as male. Furthermore, the fire of the household was associated with the sun, as an exemplification of the female role: “The sun provides light and warmth to the earth in the same way that the fire does to the home. The Altai believe that children (their sus4 souls) are sent to earth by Umai along the sun’s rays” (Sagalaev, as cited in Van Deusen, 2004, p. 59). Kenin-Lopsan comments on the connection of the male to the moon in this rhetoric: “During the day the sun is always in the sky, just as a woman is almost always in the yurt. But at night the moon is not always visible, just as the man may often be away from home hunting or with the herds” (Kenin-Lopsan, as cited in Van Deusen, 2004, p. 60). Additionally to the ritual and prayer to the mother earth described earlier, Kenin-Lopsan recalls a daily ritual and prayer to the mother sun that took place with the first rays of sunlight: My grandmother always got up before sunrise. When the dawn began, my grandmother brewed the morning tea. She poured it into a wooden bucket and took the tos-karak (literally nine-eyes, a wooden spoon with nine indentations) in her hands. She sprinkled fresh tea first into the fire and then, going out of the yurt, she turned to the sun, making a sacrifice of tea. Quietly she spoke these prayerful words in the rhythm of the sprinkling of the tea with the nine-eyed spoon: “I thank you, fire deity, for you are sacred. I thank you, sun-mother, for you are sacred” (Kenin-Lopsan, as cited in Van Deusen, 2004, p. 60). The fact that the sun was appealed to on a daily basis as well as the earth, in an apparently equal distribution of prayers, would account for an equal distribution of power among the deities, or even a lack of a power-driven authority or political system. Moreover, this ritual devotion to the sun and earth is related here to the pouring of tea, sprinkled over the fire, the yurt, or the earth. Similarly to the ritual of pouring milk in honour the Irish Brigit, described at the beginning of this chapter, the act of pouring of beverages on the earth is a ritual found in different cultures throughout the world, including South American indigenous traditions. Here take place venerations rites still to this day, where mother earth or Pachamama, in the indigenous Quechua language, is offered food and drink: “She is offered chicha, an alcoholic

4 “Sus is a sun’s ray that carries the child’s soul” (Van Deusen, 2004, p. 54).

beverage that is made with fermented [corn]. In veneration to Pachamama one offers the first bite of food, the first sip of drink, and the first fruit of the harvest” (Martín, 2014, p. xv). Furthermore and to conclude this section, it becomes relevant to point out that tree adoration is also considered to be a universal practice5, for the similarities that can be found in cross- cultural rituals could recall either a common past or shared knowledge, or common roots in the construction and understanding of a world previous to the install of power ideological systems. In the case of tree rituals, Wood-Martin (1902) exposes they were placed in the same level of importance as the sun or water adoration rituals: Tree worship is usually, if not indeed always, linked with, but overshadowed by, other cults, such as the adoration of the sun, of water, of animals, or of stones, all enshrining or symbolising a divine principle; but no other ritual, save perhaps that of water, has been so widely distributed, or has left behind such prominent marks to guide our footsteps in the murky twilight of primitive thought. […] At some very early period of the world’s at present unwritten history, the worship of trees appears to have been almost universal (p. 152). In The Golden Bough, Frazer describes a series of tree rites that have taken place throughout Europe, during spring and midsummer festivals, such as Whitsuntide in Russia where villagers dress a tree in woman’s clothes, dance and sing with it for two consecutive days until they throw it into the water on the third day. There is also a festival in Bohemia, Czech Republic, where villagers cut down a pine-tree to adorn it and later burn it on Midsummer Eve. The burning of a tree is also practiced in some parts of the Pyrenees, in Angoulême (France), in Cornwall (England), and in Dublin among others. These rites resemble the Boeotian festival celebrated in Ancient Greece, which was especially similar to the Russian festival, for a tree was cut down and dressed as a bride to symbolize “the revival of vegetation in spring [and] the marriage of the powers of vegetation” (Frazer, 2012, p. 99). Additionally, in South America, the yunza or unsha is a tree ritual practiced throughout Peru and performed at the end of Carnival, where villagers decorate a tree with gifts and adornments: “Locally popular music styles are played, and members of the community perform a circle dance around the tree. Periodically, a man and woman dance in the center of the circle and then use an axe to chop at the tree” (Vásquez Rodríguez, as cited in Feldman, 2009, p. 3). This ritual is said to represent the sexual union between man (tree) and woman (earth), as the tree falls down to the earth. Although there is evidence in Pre-Inca ceramics and textiles showing people

5 It should be observed the existence of research linking the Siberian shamanic tree ritual to the Christmas tree, such as Safonova, T. & Sántha, I. (2012). The shaman tree and the everyday life of the Evenki: A photographic analysis. 20: pp. 55- 108.

holding hands around a tree (“La yunza de trapo,” 2017), a syncretism or merging of cultures would have influenced and changed this ritual after the Spanish conquest.

2.2. How Social Relations are forged within a Kinship Clan System

Now to immerse the discussion further into the Native American context, it is viable to suggest a connection, and compare cultural and political systems of beliefs, between shamanic Siberians and Amazonian tribes, an association which will be further developed in the following chapter. This topic is relevant to this study due to the similarities in their systems of organization, and particularly since the ethnographical study of the Mundurucú tribal society in the Amazon of Brazil, carried by Yolanda and Robert Murphy from 1952 to 1953, takes place at a time when the Mundurucú still practiced nomadism and carried a very simple way of life that did not take part yet in the Brazilian economic system. Therefore, this would consist of very recent research based on first-hand recollections and observations that describe social relations key to understanding the forging of, or existence of possible power structures within the community. The Amazon native societies sustain themselves from horticulture, hunting, fishing, and collecting of wild foods. Whereas this specific study has taken place almost seventy years ago, some of their rituals or how they conceive their relation to nature can be extended to probably all of the Amazonian tribes, still existing or not. The most distinctive structure, at first sight, seems to be constituted by their conception of gender relations. The Mundurucú engaged in communal activities divided by sex, although not self-excluding. Men would usually take care of the heavy work, such as garden clearing and hunting, but most of the work – which consumed a longer time – in planting, harvesting and procession of foods would be executed by women. The Mundurucú were said to be the fiercest tribe in the central Amazon, in times of warfare prior to the study, times which are recounted as “the good old days” when men engage in storytelling. What appears remarkable is that only male activities, warfare and hunting, are linked to religious rituals: The essential men activity is hunting. The men think of themselves as hunters, not as gardeners or fishermen, the religion is oriented toward hunting, and the spirit world is closely associated with the species of game […] On a good day, a herd of fifty or so pigs can be ambushed and surrounded by the hunters and their dogs, and four or five animals may be killed. The Indians refrain from taking more game than can be eaten by the village, for it is considered a grievous offense against the spirit mothers of the animals to commit slaughter or to kill an animal only for its hide. […] The Mundurucú believe in the existence of a host of spirits, but those of the game animals are paramount. Each species of game is said to have a spirit “mother” who exercises

protection over the animals and insures their increase […] There is also a spirit mother of all game animals (Murphy & Murphy, 1974, pp. 62-63, 81-82). It is important to note here that although the “guardian spirits” of the animals are “mothers”, similarly to the representation of the Ancient Goddess in animal shapes which was said to protect and rule over animals, this Mundurucú spirit mother instils a certain fear. Additionally, gender differentiation appears to be linked to social status, for men are the ones taking care of the religious rituals and carrying out the most important activities. Nevertheless, the economic situation of all Mundurucú is egalitarian, as there did not exist class differentiation and ‘money’ was not involved in the sustenance of the community: The cardinal principle of Mundurucú economic life is that people must cooperate and share. It would perhaps be an idealization to say that the rule is “from each according to his ability and to each according to his need,” but this is indeed the stated value. There is, on the other hand, strong public pressure to work, and the laggard, either female or male, finds herself or himself in the unhappy position of being an object of scorn and ridicule […]. Sharing goes on even when there is no manifest need for it […]. One of the worst things that a Mundurucú can say about one of his more “civilized” fellows is that he sells food to his own brothers (Murphy & Murphy, 1974, pp. 66-67).

What is most interesting to take in from this ethnographical study is how social relations are forged in a society that lacks class stratification, a government system, and many other criteria used to differentiate people, such as professions, wealth and power, religions, or ethnicity. Lacking all these cultural elaborations, with only sex and age as differential characteristics, kinship takes on a fundamental role in Mundurucú society to understand how people choose some relatives over others to structure their society, but still maintaining egalitarian ties within the whole: “Every Mundurucú believes himself to be linked by bonds of kinship with every other Mundurucú” (Murphy & Murphy, 1974, p. 71). Mundurucú society is divided into patrilineal clans, but kinship does not divide them in practice, for newly married couples are usually taking residence in the bride’s family village. In this way, the matrilocal residence virtually “cuts” the patrilineal clanship, resulting in the forging of stronger communal ties based on cooperation and proximity within a village, in contrast to those formed within a clanship: Clan brotherhood is inevitably diluted by these crosscutting obligations. Any single clan will have its male members scattered throughout Mundurucú country […]. By the same reasoning, the scattering of clansmen gives every Mundurucú ties with other villages, strengthening the solidarity of the tribe at the expense, perhaps, of the kinship units […]. Kinship is indeed smoothly and diffusely spread throughout the society [...]. Clans are never arrayed against clans, for this would destroy village ties. And villages do not oppose other villages, for this would pit fellow clansmen against each other. This is one

of the sources of the remarkable surface peacefulness of Mundurucú social relations (Murphy & Murphy, 1974, pp. 77-78). Although there are distinctions of prestige, there are no wealth differences. It is not accepted of anyone to openly exercise power or strike a superior pose. Decisions are guided by a chief but made through conversation within the community. But while the anthropologists find that the status of women is considered inferior to that of men, an idea they have been able to find in the values of the Mundurucú people, expressed through elaborate symbolism; they observe that women did not agree with these ideas and did not play a submissive role. Thus in order to deepen the understanding of how power is conferred in this case, analysing the symbolism that points to gender differences is key to their building of power ideologies, whether existent or not. One Mundurucú myth which contains the whole explanation to their gender roles, tells of how the sacred musical instrument kärokö, a type of cylindrical trumpet, was discovered. One day, some women caught some fish from a secret lake and the fish turned into these kärokö trumpets; so the women decided to hide them away in order to play them only for themselves, inside the forest, until one day they were discovered by the men. The men then demanded to be given the trumpets, as they were at that time the ones doing most of the work hunting and providing food. Women had to give in but before doing so, they forced all of the men to have sexual intercourse with them. The story tells that back in ancient times, women were believed to have dominated over men: “The men could not refuse, just as the women today cannot refuse the desires of the men” (Murphy & Murphy, 1974, p. 89). The myth is telling of an ancient matriarchal time when Mundurucú women ruled over Mundurucú men, but the ethnographers believe that, added to their observations, this opposition of the sexes was free of the Western notion of women as “genetically inferior”: We could not find a shred of evidence to indicate that men think that women are inherently, biologically, and irredeemably inferior or submissive. Indeed, the whole key to the myth is that women once did exercise dominance, and that they had to be overthrown in a primal revolution. Women, as people, are not inferior, for otherwise the rebellion of the males would have been unnecessary. Only their status is inferior, and this is so only because the men managed to shear them of their power in the remote past (Murphy & Murphy, 1974, p. 91). Finally, an additional Mundurucú myth tells of the existence of a powerful solar entity, but the symbolism in this case appears rather confusing. It is the story of two friends called Wakurumpö and Karuetaouibö (Murphy & Murphy, 1974, pp. 96-99). While the first was a normal-looking man, the second was very ugly. He was so ugly that his wife refused to eat the game he hunted and had intercourse with another man. One day while hunting, he sat

by the stream of a river, refusing to return to his village and to his miserable life. The sun and his wife notice him and descend to talk to him, after learning his problems the sun asks his wife to have intercourse with him. But Karuetaouibö’s penis was too soft to enter or produce semen. Therefore, the sun decides to heal him by placing him inside his wife’s womb, from where he is reborn after three days into a beautiful man. When he returns, the entire village is amazed by his beauty, to a point where even men publicly desire Karuetaouibö saying he’s so beautiful they wished they were women to have an opportunity with him. His normal-looking friend Wakurumpö approaches him and insists until Karuetaouibö lets him know the secret to his new beauty. Wakurumpö then goes to the stream and pretends to have the same issues, but the sun notices that he is able to have normal intercourse and punishes his lie by rebirthing him into a very ugly man. Years later, after both of them have passed away in warfare, they ascend to the sky, for their rebirth from the womb of the sun’s wife had turned them into “children of the sun.” They are both said to be the sun, in different states: Karuetaouibö is a beautiful sun when it is very shiny and Wakurumpö is an ugly sun when it’s dark and cloudy, trying to hide his ugliness. There is a number of striking yet confusing symbolism in this story. There is a figure of a father sun, nevertheless the reach of his powers is not entirely decipherable. He has the power to resurrect man, and is somehow related to virility. Furthermore beauty appears to be measured by the degree of virility, at least in the case of men. Nevertheless the act of rebirthing or resurrecting after three days recalls the death and resurrection of the biblical Jesus, and it additionally recalls his birth, for his mother Mary was supposed to have conceived him through God, or with the help of the sun in this case. This myth could therefore consist of a misinterpretation or merging of different versions of a creation story, where certain men but not all of mankind are signalled as children of the sun. The fact that the men of the community publically desired Karuetaouibö could be an interpretation of how Mundurucú interpreted the figure of Jesus or God. Within a society that lacked power stratification, they measured his power, understood as “beauty”, in relation to the power of his male reproductive organ. To conclude, it cannot be affirmed that the sun figure in Mundurucú mythology represented some dominant divinity that guided their society, and its representation as a father or male should be put in question for there are no signs that could reveal the originality of this story. While at the time of the research, the Mundurucú did not take part in the economic system yet, they had in practice been forced into the educational system and Christianisation process. What can be affirmed from the interpretation of the previous myth, joint to the ethnographical research is that, whereas there existed an open animosity between men and women and a

division of gender roles, this did not take the form of a constructed power ideology to dominate over and submit the other. On the contrary, this process can be observed quite clearly through the phases undergone in snake symbolism.

2.3. Towards the Deconstruction of Patriarchal Symbolism in Mythology

To further elaborate on the transition from a matriarchal to a patriarchal societal system, the changes that have taken place in snake symbolism have been a produce of this transformation, given the striking differences present in the representation of the snake figure: The snake was something primordial and mysterious, coming from the depths of the waters where life begins. Its seasonal renewal in sloughing off its old skin and hibernating made it a symbol of the continuity of life and of the link with the underworld. […] A vertically winding snake symbolized ascending life force, viewed as a column of life rising from caves and tombs, and was an interchangeable symbol with the tree of life and spinal cord. Similarly, snake coils exuded regenerative force as the moist eyes of the Owl Goddess and as the sun (Gimbutas, 1989, p. 121). This collection of ancient values represented in the snake is quite different to the most popular symbolism associated with the snake in the present time, where the snake has turned to be a synonym of “evil,” a notion that would not take shape either until the emergence of religions in the patriarchal era. The figure of the snake symbolised the cycles and passages of life, and has been shaped with a feminine human form in many of the figurines of the titled “Snake Goddess,” one of the forms taken by the Ancient Great Goddess. She is said to have represented life, creation, fertility, immortality, infinity, reincarnation, and wisdom, among others: “The symbol of the Serpent was the one most widely used to represent or adorn the Goddess of the ancient Near East or to depict, or mediate, the relationship between Goddesses and human culture” (Condren, 1989, p. 8). To give account for the ancient sources, the following figures present snake symbolism found in ceramics or carvings, discovered in different sites in (a) Sesklo, Greece (5000-4500 B.C.), (b) Aegean islands, Crete (6000-5500 B.C.), (c) Kato lerapetra, Crete (6000-5500 B.C.), (d) Sesklo, Greece (6300-5800 B.C.), (e) Romania (4800-4600 B.C.), (f) Anatolia, Turkey (6000-5500 B.C.), (g) Yugoslavia (4500 B.C.), (h) Bulgaria (4500 B.C.) and Turkmenia (3000 B.C.), (i) Crete (2100-1800 B.C.), (j) Crete (1600-1500 B.C.), and (k) Germany (370-320 B.C.) and Meigle, Scotland (late Roman period) (Gimbutas, 1989, pp. 125-132).

(a) (b)

(e) (f)

(g) (h)

(i)

(j)

(k)

The global extension and recurrence of this symbolism through time and space, tells of common prehistorical roots, which visibly differ from what is found in later Indo-European and Near Eastern mythologies, when the serpent turns to symbolize something evil and devilish: “The warrior Gods exult in killing serpents and dragons: Vedic Indra kills the serpent Vrtra, Norse Thor kills Midgard, Marduk of Babylon kills the monster Tiamat, and so on” (Gimbutas, 1989, p. 121). And of course, this storyline takes a leap into the most infamous snake in history with the creation story of Adam and Eve, which has been interpreted as the foundation myth of patriarchy. Its origins have been traced from Greek/Roman mythology to Eastern mythologies that go as far back as the Sumerian civilization. Here, in the first written versions of this tale6, Eve appeared in the form of a serpent. The name Eve was written as “hawwah”, meaning “the mother of all living” and also meaning “serpent” in many Semitic languages: In Sumerian mythology, the Goddess Ninhursag was the Goddess of creation. Known as Nintu, she was the lady who gave birth. One of her common images was that of a Serpent. As a symbol of life, the Serpent had connections with both the sun and the moon and was even said to cause the sun to rise. In the “Book of Gates” in the tomb of Rameses VI there is a figure of a winged Serpent named “The Leader.” Over its head is written, She Who Causes to Rise Before Re. It is She who Leads the Great God in the Gate of the Eastern Horizon (Condren, 1989, p. 8). The opposition to the serpent in the Biblical creation story and in many other passages where the serpent symbol is overthrown would tell of a representation of political changes taking place, for serpent symbolism abounded in the region where Christianity takes shape: The form of religion that the Serpent represented was a major threat to the new religion of Israel or, indeed, to the future of Western civilization. If Israel was to grow as a nation-state, with all the entailed political and military trappings, Goddess religions would have to be overthrown. Allegiance would have to be to one God, Yahweh, and the central symbolism of the new religion would be based on Promise and History rather than on the life and Cyclical Regeneration represented by the Serpent (Condren, 1989, p. 11). To further analyse the circumstances when the alteration of this ancient symbol took place, it should be observed that, when the serpent symbolism and polytheism was in vogue, Israel had a decentralized government system through tribal assemblies. But political interests put into war waging drove to the election of a King, a figure that would allow to have a better control over the population:

6 Condren cites the following reference for a comprehensive study on the origins on the Genesis story: Williams, A.J. (1977). “The Relationship of Genesis 3:20 to the Serpent,” ZAW 89, no.3: 357-74.

Their God had to be much more abstract and not tied down to localities or particular tribes. If Israel was to become a mighty nation, it needed to be united under the worship of one God. […] The early Hebrews were one of the first people to make the break away from the polytheistic religions based on the cycle of nature to a more abstract form of religion based upon historical experience. […] The Serpent religions had portrayed their Gods as both good and evil, symbolizing the essential ambiguity and tragedy of existence. But the God of the Israelites […] to earn the unquestioning allegiance of his followers, […] had to represent pure goodness (Condren, 1989, pp. 14-15). Along with snake symbolism would rise the tendency to portray women as devil, and later as witches, added to the growing symbolic constructions that have separated humans in two opposite genders. Nevertheless, it is not possible to discern, even from the substantial emblematic presence of the female figure in Ancient times, if there could have existed some sort of oppression instituted by women who would take precedence over men. There were undoubtedly no city states to wage war over others as part of an established system of government and power-seeking institutions; nevertheless the great symbolical universe that is femaleness, intrinsically linked to nature and any and every idea of life, might have exerted weight over a maleness which could not find much symbolical meaning and purpose within nature, and would consequently suffer from an inferiority complex: “Behind man’s insistence on male superiority, there is an age old envy of women who are sure of their motherhood, while man can be sure of his fatherhood only by restricting the female” (Doyle, as cited in Condren, 1989, p. 40). As a result, a certain male obsession that has driven to the writing history in order to guard their side of the story, the heroic tales that might secure them a position of power, and a national pride or a sense of self-identity and self-importance that would keep a society bonded together, and controlled: “The cult of the dead martyrs and heroes often provides a justification for action when all rationality is otherwise lacking and is thus one of the primary mythmaking machineries of patriarchy” (Condren, 1989, p. xxv).

2.4. From everyday gender constructions in Greek and Roman Societies to the formulation of an Academic Conceptualization for “Woman”

An almighty Goddess or Goddesses whose attributions were linked to all aspects of living, most likely constructed instinctively under the logic that joins every piece of the puzzle constituting nature; might have provoked the state of affairs that would consciously seek to

conceive the overriding iconographic symbolism of the Roman Sol as retaliation, and the later idea of a supreme male God: A monotheistic God destroyed the bisexual character of the old Gods. […] this monotheistic God had to create alone without a sexual partner… whatever God willed to be, came into existence. He was not at the mercy of passion, the caprices of womanhood, or mere sexuality. […] Already in the polytheistic religions this process had begun with the appearance of the male Gods. In the Babylonian creation myth, Marduck, in his efforts for supremacy, first slaughters the Goddess Tiamat and cuts her in half to create heaven and earth. His real test for kingship, however, comes when he is required to create “by word alone,” that is to say, out of his mind. Similarly, in Greek mythology, Zeus gives birth to Athena from his head. In Egyptian mythology the creator God is Ptah, who simply pronounced the “name of all things.” The stoic philosophers later went on to call creative reason logos spermatikós (Condren, 1989, p. 16).

Greece

From Ancient Greece to Medieval times, it appears to be of great concern or even obsession, to conceptualize and define the role of women within a patriarchal society. In Sparta, circa 700 B.C., the lawgiver Lycurgus set rules to control the behaviour of men and women. Spartan men lived separated from women, prepared for a disciplined soldier’s life awaiting for war, inside a brotherhood system; while women – that is to say free women – lived in luxury and comfort: Their essential role was to have children, thus they were to be taken care of and guarded as private property (O’Faolain & Martines, 1973, pp. 6-7). A caste system had been set in Athens, distinguishing citizens, noncitizens, and slaves. Women were not citizens and were in charge of a guardian who was usually their father. The guardian could decide their marriage, divorce, and remarriage. This figure existed to limit the power of the husband: “That improvement has occurred is shown by the fact that the old customs are exceedingly simple and barbarous. For the ancient Hellenes went about armed and bought their brides from each other” (Aristotle, 1984, p. 2013). Husband and wife were separated in different sections of the house they shared. The Gynaeceum was the name given to the women’s quarters, generally the innermost apartment, and the Andron was the men’s quarters. Respectable women were to stay inside the house and never emerge except in funerals and festivals. On the contrary, in Rome women had a main role in the social life of the household, and the influence of Egypt and Rome from the third to the first centuries B.C. is believed to have influenced and improved women’s living conditions in Greece: “In Egypt, women exercise professions, pay taxes, have some legal capacity, husband’s infidelities are considered to be as grave as the wife’s […]. The spread of the

Egyptian cult of the Goddess Isis is credited with having helped to raise women’s status” (O’Faolain & Martines, 1973, p. 29). Nevertheless, in the classical age of Sparta around 500 B.C., while throughout Greece parents attempted to control the chastity of their daughters as a means of regulating the succession of property, the military formation would have influenced the independency of women. Merlin Stone attributes this situation to a strong veneration of the Goddess Artemis: According to both Euripides and Plutarch, young Spartan women were not to be found at home but in the gymnasia where they tossed off their restrictive clothing and wrestled naked with their male contemporaries. Women of Sparta appear to have had total sexual freedom, and though monogamy was said to be the official marriage rule, it was mentioned in several classical accounts that it was not taken very seriously. Plutarch reported that in Sparta the infidelity of women was even somewhat glorified, while Nicholas of Damascus, perhaps as the result of some personal experience, tells us that a Spartan woman was entitled to have herself made pregnant by the handsomest man she could find, whether native or foreigner (Stone, 1976, p. 53).

Rome

Roman society was patriarchal from the start. Each head of clan had the function of magistrate, priest, and owner of everything and everyone within it. His religious function conceded him a power regarded as divine. In early Rome, guardianship of a girl passed from father to the husband or the head of her husband’s family through the institution “Manus”, which referred to “holding someone in one’s hand (in manu)” (O’Faolain & Martines, 1973, p. 41), which conferred total control of a husband over his wife and children: “Woman is a violent and uncontrolled animal […]. If you allow them to achieve complete equality with men, do you think they will be easier to live with? Not at all. Once they have achieved equality, they will be your masters” (Marcus Porcius Cato, as cited in O’Faolain & Martines, 1973, p. 39). Whereas education was denied to Greek women, it was available to women of all strata in Rome, rich and poor. They were also included in religious celebrations. Women could play a role as priestesses if they were married to a priest. Men and women also engaged in specific separated cults where the opposite sex was excluded: “The Christian practice of keeping women away from the altar was to be a departure from Roman custom” (O’Faolain & Martines, 1973, p. 71). Additionally, the institution of the Vestal Virgins took place in Roman culture. These were women – and virgins – who had the occupation of protecting the “sacred fire”; they should never let this fire be extinguished, as it symbolized the unity of the Roman state, and their virginal status somehow symbolized the protection of the status quo of Rome. Their role appears to be very similar to that of the later Christian nuns:

Their virginity was paradoxically a source of the fruitfulness of the institution of the state itself. The virgins symbolized the collective, they were not at the behest of any one man, and their willingness to deny their bodies imparted to the women a powerful aura that reflected on the state officiaries and provided them with the symbolic authority to rule. The chastity of the women was so important that should any one of them defile their virginity she would be buried alive and her lover scourged to death. In addition, should any serious political crisis arise in Rome, the vestal virgins would immediately be suspected of having indulged in sexual activity (Condren, 1989, p. 69). To further analyse the development of a gender ideology that would seek to magnify the male in detriment of the female persona, it should be pointed out the insistence of numerous studies seeking to conceptualize the nature woman from pre-Christian times up to the Middle Ages: “The call to give woman a separate definition persisted, indeed haunts us still even with the veil of theological terminology torn away. That the problem was formulated at all – as if women somehow had a destiny different from men – is itself revealing” (O’Faolain & Martines, 1973, p. 130). Hippocrates (460 - c. 375 B.C.) attributes both to men and women the capacity of producing male and female seed. If they would both produce a stronger type of seed, a male would be formed. Aristotle states male are hotter in nature and female are colder and weaker, then he somehow concludes that their hotter nature is what makes men more active and hence the principal contributors to the generation of life. Down to the 16th century, it was believed that men were created on the right side, women on the left side, and hermaphrodites in the middle, as proposed by Galen. But Galen’s thesis on women having testicles as well as men was not pleasing: Woman is a most arrogant and extremely intractable animal; and she would be worse if she came to realize that she is no less perfect and no less fit to wear breeches than man…. I believe that is why nature, while endowing her with what is necessary for our procreation, did so in such a way as to keep her from perceiving and ascertaining her sufficient perfection. On the contrary… to check woman’s continual desire to dominate, nature arranged things so that every time she thinks of her supposed lack, she may be humbled and shamed (Borgarucci, as cited in O’Faolain & Martines, 1973, pp. 121-22). I would have preferred to omit this chapter [on female testicles], that women might not become all the more arrogant by knowing that they also, like men, have testicles, and that they not only suffer the pain of having to nourish the child within their bodies… but also that they too put something of their own into it (de Valverde, as cited in O’Faolain & Martines, 1973, p. 122).

In summary, therefore, in the construction of history, the decision-making of what goes through to constitute part of it, has been decisively manipulated to ensure the domination of

certain groups over others, which have not taken part in writing their own history. Thus history needs to be deconstructed and questioned, in order to put in evidence the fear of loss of power that has influenced myth-making and history-making: “People on the upper tiers of hierarchy are more at ease if their inferiors seem inferior by nature. It is therefore not surprising that when scientists came to study the female of their own species, they should have looked at once for evidence of her inferiority” (O’Faolain & Martines, 1973, p. 118). Through the compilation of original historical written sources, from Pre-Historic Greece to twentieth-century Europe, O’Faolain and Martines (1973) assert the following: Very rarely, before the sixteenth century, do we pick up the faint, uncertain whimpers of complaint. What we pick up instead is the voice of the male, a voice often tremulous with anxieties that go back at least to the makers of the Eve myth and probably beyond, to memories of matriarchies and female aspirations after power. These memories seem to have persisted less in female rebellion than in male suspicion of it. The wife who was financially and legally dependent on her husband – for long periods he had the right to kill her if she proved adulterous – had everything to gain by reassuring him of her submission (pp. xv – xvi).

CHAPTER III

KINGSHIP VERSUS KINSHIP: THE RISE OF A SYSTEM

Having described some of the principal characteristics of Greek and Roman society to attest for the way they fabricated a power structure based on gender ideologies, it is possible to find a similar process that would replace the Israeli tribal organization based on a matriarchal kinship or clanship, by a powerful patriarchal kingship system. As in the case of Romans, Israeli men were separated from women when preparing for war, making way for the construction and strengthening of a male world, a real brotherhood: “The sacred ties that bound the people together through their common mothers were now being superseded by a social organization based on the King with the power to summon the people to war” (Condren, 1989, p. 22). It was the increase of war waging around them and the rising necessity of conquering territories, which would trigger a systematic change commanded by an elite minority. It should be pointed out that documentation of this previously existing clanship system in the early Hebrews describes that in this nomadic desert lifestyle, it was preferred to marry inside the family and form incestuous relationships in order to guarantee the perpetuity of the clan and keep their economic resources to themselves: “The first books of the Old Testament indicate that bride purchase and marriage between near relatives were basic to the customs of the early Hebrews’ values centered on the protection of property and perpetuation of the clan” (O’Faolain & Martines, 1973, p. 86). It would be relevant to ask or study if this specific clanship system was originated by a craving for economic accumulation, or if an earlier system had been distorted by the addition of money to the equation, for the protection of property tells of values related to a more patriarchal system. Nonetheless, Condren points to the Israeli case to summarize key points in the transformation from a matrifocal to a patrifocal society, and the social and political differences of a matriarchy based on a clan system, from a patriarchy where authority would be built over a sole governor or king, representing the new monotheistic God. Taking extra steps in the construction of a power ideology than the Roman Empire, this almighty and omnipotent God would gain unlimited power and potential, influencing and changing the world to this day. It becomes relevant to mention the process taking place in Israel, for they are considered one of the first people that would replace the polytheistic religions based on deities of nature, for “a more abstract form of religion based upon historical experience” (Condren, 1989, p. 15). Additionally, Mary Condren has studied the process undertaken by the ancient matriarchal

religion of Pre-Christian Ireland, where the relationship to the mother was considered sacred within a clan, and siblings of the same mother were never to fight against one another. All the children born to a tribe were taken care of by the whole tribe, rather than being the responsibility of a single parent: “This was a particularly ideal situation where property was minimally involved, since the woman would not be sleeping only with one man and any child born to her would automatically have a clan to which to relate” (Condren, 1989, p. 27). Furthermore, under this matrilineal system, “all children born to a woman would automatically become members of the clan, [therefore] the nature of an “illegitimate” birth was unknown” (Condren, 1989, p. 85). Nevertheless, Condren observes that a transformation would take place in Ireland after the invasion of the Celts in the Iron Age (circa 800 to 400 B.C.), when the Irish would turn to trace their ancestry patrilineally, through their fathers. From this point on, there would slowly take shape new elite forms of power, commanded by kings, warriors, and priests anointed by a ruling finger, to become heads of a new type of society, whose values differed greatly from the tribal societies organized by kinship into clan systems. Additionally, with the development of patriarchy would abound many folktales of ancient Irish Goddesses being gang-raped. Once patriarchal forms became established, sexuality became problematic. If a father was to take responsibility for raising a child and the child would in turn inherit the father’s property, the father would make every effort to ensure that he was, in fact, the biological father. The only way he could do this was to control the sexual behaviour of his wife. Since even limited sexual freedom on the part of women would obscure the lines of inheritance from men, the church’s rules on sexuality helped to keep women under control (Condren, 1989, p. 86). The edification of a God that would guide, or more precisely, command their path to a sought glory, would join forces with the power-seeking ideology of Capitalism, although the roots of this system can already be perceived five thousand years ago, with the emergence of patriarchy and with the construction of power ideologies, such as the solar-related power ideologies, as described in the previous chapters.

3.1. A Shamanic Power Construction Theory from Turkic Siberia

For a further analysis of the kinship system taking place in Turkic Siberia, and to draw additional connections and find a common point to where a power ideology system takes form in a South American context, it is relevant to return now to the shamanic organisational system for additional material.

It should be noted that as a means to explain the presence of shamanic practices across the world, it is considered the existence of an ancient common ancestor group, from where different groups would have diverged presumably from 20,000 to 50,000 years ago or more: [O]ne must ask why a shamanic complex should maintain such similarity across time and societies […]. Even if the present distribution of shamanism can be attributed to an original common source, it would not have persisted if it were based merely upon a system of belief and not also upon some other objective features which made it an adaptive response (Winkelman, 1984, p. 251). The word shaman can be found as far back as the 1690s, to describe a "priest of the Ural- Altaic peoples" (Online Etymology Dictionary), and is acknowledged to have originated from the Tungus word saman, a language of an indigenous people of central and south-eastern Siberia. This word would be later applied to native healers in North America. Van Deusen (2004) points to the genderless origins of this word: In most Turkic languages, the terms for shamans are variations of the words kam (male) and udagan (female). Some say that women were the first shamans, since the gift in early times was closely connected with fire rituals, carried out by women in honour of the Goddesses of the hearth and the sun. In the Altai language family names for female shamans are very similar – variations of the word udagan, which some linguists link to the word for fire (Tuvan ot) – while male shamans have different names, kam in Turkic, boo or zaarin in Mongolian, and sama in the Tungus languages, from which we get the word shaman. Some of these […] [have] come to refer to both male and female shamans (p. xiv). Shamanism is classified as a religious practice, but it is not ascribed to any organized, dogmatic practice, rather than encompass a way of life. Shamanic ceremonies involve interactions and sharing of collective energy, even a sort of stage performance. Van Deusen (2004) observes that: Among Turkic peoples the art of the epic singer is very close to that of the shaman. […] [M]usic was not traditionally a concert activity, designed to entertain or enlighten other humans, but was instead a complex part of a human being’s relationship with all of nature, both internal and external, physical and spiritual. Some music was never designed to be heard by other people, but was performed alone in the steppe or the taiga, resonating with rocks, trees and water, holding conversation with spirits (pp. xv, 105). But this musical practice differs from the tradition of epic storytelling. According to Van Deusen, there existed competitions for telling stories, where the storyteller’s ability would reflect the power of his words (Van Deusen, 2004, p. 90). One major type of storytelling describes the process of becoming a shaman, a structure that resembles the monomyth of the hero’s journey, for the shaman would overcome many difficulties through the story.

Interestingly, in the same manner as that of the Mundurucú tribe, storytelling appears to have been exclusively a male activity: One major social difference between shamans and epic tellers is that shamans are often women, while in most of Turkic and Mongolian Siberia the epic tellers are always men. Naturally women tell stories, although they are usually shorter than those told by men. It is just the long tales with music that are forbidden. Possibly women told epics in the distant past as they have in other areas of Siberia and the far east (Chadwick 1969, 128, 218), but within living memory the singing of tales has been the province of men. The shift may have taken place with the rise of a more patriarchal social structure during the time of the ancient Turks (Van Deusen, 2004, p. 90).

Furthermore, Diakonova observes that: Some scholars think that women were already shamans before these linguistic groups separated, while men may have taken up the practice later. In addition, when men set out to do shamanic work they sometimes wore a woman’s style of clothing, with representations of breasts. They described having sexual relations with female spirits who gave them strength, while women shamans were more spiritually independent (Diakonova as cited in Van Deusen, 2004, p. xv). In the nineteenth century, the ethnographer and turkologist V. V. Radlov, who was the first to write about Turkic peoples, describes how shamans were highly respected but, because of their connections with spirits and the underworld, or to the souls of the deceased; they were also feared. In addition, the Soviet etnographer Y. A. Shibaeva (1978) notes that when a powerful shaman was to perform a ceremony in a village, everyone would come because they feared his spirit could be able to find them at home, and eat them: “thus virtually the entire community was present at ceremonies” (Van Deusen, 2004, p. 180). It was also believed that “the story itself is alive, they say, and will be angry if the telling is not finished or well performed” (Van Deusen, 2004, p. xvii). Shamans were perhaps people endowed with more abilities than most, with especial knowledge of healing or maybe with above-average creativity, but still affected by a human necessity of recognition, a thirst for more once they indulged in their fame. While it appears that shamans would have exerted some power over others, the pressure to share these stories in the sense of sharing knowledge should be vital as a communal source for their sustainability as a society. Furthermore, the lack of dogmatic beliefs would be key to their peaceful cohabitation: A salient quality of shamanic philosophy is its flexibility in externals while the heart of the world view remains intact […]. But while Buddhism coexisted and intermingled with Shamanic traditions, Christianity required exclusive reverence for its own God with no

allowance for shamanic or other ritual, thus creating a dualistic framework with ideas of absolute good and evil that were lacking in shamanistic philosophy (Van Deusen, 2004, p. 8). The shamanic practice would evidently clash with a dogmatic religion or beliefs, and with the rise of a system that lacked an environmental ethic. Unfortunately, priests have gradually replaced shamanic practices, transforming the foundation of this ancient shamanic philosophy and role for “the control of social power in sedentary agricultural societies, [and giving rise to] the emergence of priest practitioners, whose roles involve the exercise of social and political power, [roles which] are frequently held by the heads of kinship groups” (Winkelman, 1984, p. 277).

3.2. Kinship System in Pre-Inca and Mundurucú Societies

Furthering the discussion and to emphasize more on the American continent, it becomes especially relevant to add the experience of the solar-ideology built empire of The Incas. But before the constitution and expansion of the Inca Empire – which will be later developed –, the Pre-Inca Andean cultures of South America developed an organization around ties of kinship, similar to the Mundurucú tribal society. The Andean region consisted of an assortment of cultures, with peoples speaking different languages and either engaging in conflicts or forming ties of cooperation and trade7. Within these communities or ayllus, Andean men and women were all kin and all had access to the community’s lands, herds and resources. Furthermore, it has been affirmed that they conceived their ties of kinship as designed by parallel lines of descent, where women would have conceived themselves as the descendants, through their mothers, of a line of women as well as men of a line of men. Moreover, “women perceived that it was through relations with women that they could make use of their environment’s riches”

7 Silverblatt cites the following references for a more comprehensive study of the different peoples and cultures that inhabited the South American Andes in Silverblatt, I. (1987). Moon, sun, and witches: gender ideologies and class in Inca and colonial Peru. Princeton University Press: pp. 3-4: Duviols, P. (1973). “Huari y Llacuaz: Agricultores y pastores. Un dualismo pre-hispánico de oposición y complementariedad.” Revista del Museo Nacional 39: 153-93; Huertas, L. (1969). “La religión de una sociedad rural andina: Cajatambo en el siglo XVII.” Tesis para Bachiller, Facultad de Letras, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima; Lavallée, D. (1973). “Estructura y organización del habitat en los Andes centrales durante el período Intermedio Tardío.” Revista del Museo Nacional 39: 91-116; Murra, J. (1968). “An Aymara Kingdom in 1567.” Ethnohistory 15: 115-51; Rostworowski, M. (1977). Etnia y sociedad: Ensayos sobre la costa central prehispánica. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos; Rostworowski, M. (1978). Señores indígenas de Lima y Canta. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos; Rowe, J. (1948). “The Kingdom of Chimor.” Acta Americana 15: 26-59, Salomon, F. (1980). Los señores étnicos de Quito en la época de los Incas. Otavalo, Ecuador: Instituto Otavaleño de Antropología; Silverblatt, I., & Earls, J. (1977). “Apuntes sobre unas unidades politico-económicas pre-colombinas de Victor Fajardo.” Revista del Archivo Histórico de Ayacucho, no. 1: 16-21; Spalding, K. (1984). Huarochirí: An Andean Society under Inca and Spanish Rule. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press; and Stern, S. (1982). Peru’s Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest: Huamanga to 1640. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

(Silverblatt, 1987, p. 5). As in the case of the Amazonian Mundurucú, the position of men and women appeared to have been egalitarian but ruled by a different kinship system. It would impossible to know to what extent Western or foreign ideologies have influenced these cultures, how much of each side has become intermingled, and how much of what we know today was once original. In the case of the Amazonian Mundurucú tribe, although they had been forced into the educational and religious system, they had maintained their beliefs and social imaginary. This is visible, for example, in how they adjusted their own version of Adam and Eve’s creation story. In this story, the creator Karusakaibö is said to have pulled men from the underworld and created women out of clay: “He gave one to each man. He had, however, made one too many, and, to make a husband for the extra woman, he took one of her ribs when she slept and made it into a man. Their names are Adjun and Eva.” (Murphy & Murphy, 1974, p. 104). It follows that Mundurucú people could not agree with the Christian version and corrected one where man would be born of a woman. Additionally, the Khakass of Turkic Siberia also adapted their own versions of Adam and Eve (Van Deusen, 2004), where Eve is not pointed out as guilty of having eaten forbidden fruit. As a need to show their Khakass deity, God Ulgen, as a gentle God, one of the modified versions tells how God chooses to divide berries – instead of apples –, more fairly so she would not have to steal them. A second version explains the prohibition posed by the God, where he forbids to eat the berries growing in the direction of the sunset, as this symbolized the direction of death; but he asks them to eat from the direction of life, from where the sun rises. These kinship-based societies could not easily agree with the way the imposed new history pretended to change their social and cultural values, and their interpretation of life.

CHAPTER IV

POLITICS OF THE SUN IN THE INCA CIVILIZATION

It has been developed so far how power ideologies linked to the construction of civilizations have influenced and created distorted relations of gender and class. Now it would be relevant to discuss the most powerful solar ideology taking place in the American continent, for it developed from the 13th century until the middle of the 16th century in the western part of South America, comprehending Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. The Spanish conquest has made available extensive data on the organizational and cultural system of the Incas, as well as accounts of an earlier but still present kinship system within the construction of the empire’s ideology. According to Silverblatt, the Incas constructed class relations that altered the already existing gender interpretations, creating division inside the Andean communities: “Gender could be a metaphor for both complementarity and hierarchy in the Andes. Not surprisingly, the Incas picked gender ideologies both to mask their control over others and to create relations of domination” (Silverblatt, 1987, p. xxviii). The natural world was conceived through an ideology where power was predefined by unmovable divinities, represented on earth by their direct human descendants. The degree of closeness to these divinities would define the position held by the population from birth. A very organized classification of people by class and gender worked on dividing their functions and constructed relations of power to ensure the sustainability of the Inca Empire: “Andean peoples interpreted the workings of nature through an ideology of gender complementarity […]. They expressed rank and ordered internal community divisions” (Silverblatt, 1987, p. xxviii). Therefore, hierarchies based on kinship were formed, contrary to the organization of Amazonian Mundurucú people, at the time that gender-shaped relations were modified by a new class ideology. Different activities symbolized complementarity and a certain extent of gender equality: Marriage ceremonies would consist in the exchange of gifts between the bridegroom and the bride8, the division of labour consisted in complementary tasks where men and women took on appropriate activities for their age and gender, although never exclusive or banned to one gender9; furthermore, their daily work adopted a certain ceremonial procedure that symbolized the interplay of man and woman in the creation of life:

8 Silverblatt cites the following reference: Cobo, B. (1964). Historia del Nuevo Mundo [1653]. 2 Vols. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Españoles: Vol II: p. 248 9 Silverblatt cites the following reference: Murra, J. V. (1956). “The Economic Organization of the Inca State.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago.

[T]he pairing of women with the making of cloth and men with plowing and bearing arms was a critical part of the construction of Andean personhood. Women and men carried the tools of their sex with them to their graves: “The women have their spindles and skeins of spun cotton, the men their tacllas or hoes to work the fields, or the weapons they used in war” (Arriaga, as cited in Silverblatt, 1987, p. 14). Surreptitiously, the gender norms and values that defined their relationship to the nature around them were being eroded by the building up of power in need to take control of the means of production: Only married men were subject to labor duties for the state; the Incas implicitly recognized male and female labor as forming a unity necessary for the reproduction of social existence – a unity that was made up of equals. […] In building their empire, the Incas froze certain attributes of gender – attributes that had been part of the construction of maleness and femaleness – to facilitate imperial governance. What they chose to highlight, however, had profound implications for what men and women could become (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 15).

4.1. Privatization of Nature and the Arise of Capitalism

The class ideology proposed by the Incas would privatize the natural resources. The new order would have to be respected religiously to ensure the sources of wealth (lands and herds), with the added capitalist practice that would build an empire: Through the apparently generous and egalitarian distribution of land, for which this has even been labelled as a socialist system (Baudin, 1961), the Incas maintained an indirect rule whilst collecting part of the ayllus’ produce. Whereas there existed certain state of equality, there were also in play the hierarchies necessary to maintain and expand the Empire. The role of men in war and the conquest of new territories entitled them as agents of power: judges, captains, governors, imperial architects, etc.10 A higher-ranked group of pre-existing local ethnic leaders in the ayllus, called curacas is believed to have established a drastic social stratification with the Inca expansion: “It is most likely that where a hereditary tendency was developing, the position itself was embedded in the emergence of more powerful descent groups within the ethnic community as a whole” (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 16) 11. This tells of a similar process to that developed in other kinship-

10 Silverblatt cites the following references: Cieza, P. (1959). The Incas of Pedro Cieza de León [1553]. Translated by Harriet de Onís and edited by Wolfgang von Hagen. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press: pp. 162, 165-75; Cobo, B. (1964). Historia del Nuevo Mundo [1653]. 2 Vols. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Españoles: Vol II: pp. 126, 148; Guaman Poma, F. (1956-66). La nueva crónica y buen gobierno [1613?]. Translation into modern Spanish by Luís Bustíos Gálvez. 3 vols. Lima: Editorial Cultura: Vol I: pp. 266-72; Murúa, M. (1946). Historia del origen y genealogía real de los Incas [1590]. Edited by Constantino Bayle. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo: pp. 206, 209, 212, 217. 11 Silverblatt cites the following references: Spalding 1967: 195; Hernández Príncipe, R. (1923). “Mitología andina” [1621]. Inca 1: pp. 50-55; Ávila, F. (1966). Dioses y hombres de Huarochirí [1598?] Translation into modern Spanish by José María Arguedas. Lima: Museo Nacional de Historia y el Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.

based societies mentioned earlier – with the exception of Mundurucú society – where kinship would slowly become the anvil over which social stratification would be erected, and some people, namely relatives, would be chosen over others in a growingly capitalist or power-driven society. In the case of a possible gender differentiation that took place with the building of the Inca Empire, there is no definite information on the level of gender equality existing for most of the historical records have not taken women into account for said interviews. Although there is evidence of the existence of female leaders in the government of these communities or ayllus, it is not clear whether the Incas would later establish men in these positions or if the Spanish did not recognize female authority when dealing with conquered groups, and dealt exclusively with male curacas: “Spaniards did not expect to find women presiding over their own religious organizations. Self-fulfilling prophesies saw to it that descriptions of cults to female ancestors or to Goddesses are very scarce” (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 36). A clear example of the downplay of the role of Andean women in Spanish records, is the misinterpretation of their active labour role even during pregnancy and childrearing, as a sign of submission and enslavement: […] and among these people, women were so subjected and worked so in the service of their husbands. [...] They did not just perform domestic tasks, but also [labored] in the fields, in the cultivation of their lands, in building houses, and carrying burdens when their husbands were going away, in peace or war; and more than once I heard that while women were carrying these burdens, they would feel labor pains, and giving birth, they would go to a place where there was water and they would wash the baby and themselves, and putting the baby on top of the load they were carrying, they would continue walking as before they gave birth. In sum, there was nothing their husbands did, where their wives did not help (Cobo, as cited in Silverblatt, 1987, p. 10). What however becomes evident is that the Incas did construct gender ideologies attaching them to social everyday activities that would translate into more permanent cultural meanings of what men and women were supposed to be, and where political power and conquest was indeed placed in the hands of men: From the attributes of manhood that they could have picked to mark the mature male liable for tribute duties, the Incas chose just one: the ability to bear arms. “Soldier” (aucacamayoq) was the title given to commoner men when, as married adults, they were inscribed in imperial census rolls. The equivalent category for women was “soldier’s wife” (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 15).

4.2. Forging the Power-Shaped Figure of the Sun

The Pre-Inca Andean world was, as far as we can know, already –although not radically – divided by the dimension of gender within the organization of the ayllu communities, where the meaning of existence was interpreted and symbolized in the creation of life through the idea of a parallel gendered organization of the world around them. [But] the Incas orchestrated gender ideologies with new meanings as they dominated the Andean countryside. By manipulating modes of thought and ways of perceiving the world that were anchored in common structures of social life, the Incas transformed symbols of gender parallelism to fit new relations of power and economy. As the Incas dominated Andean politics, so did they dominate cultural systems of meanings through which gender was interpreted. While they used structures of gender parallelism to bind ayllus into their dominion, the Incas strove to impose their interpretations of gender on tribute ayllus under their rule (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 40). Using the existent structures and divinities – where it is believed that previously the sky divinities had been as important as the earth divinities – the Incas capitalised power over the figure of a male Sun God, which was chosen to preside over the new Empire while women were distributed under the rule of a female Moon Goddess. Nevertheless, it has been pointed out that this Sun God would not have necessarily dominated over the Moon Goddess, however most of these recounts would have been lost due to the tendency of Spanish chroniclers to interview men: “The reason why Indian men do not take women very much into account when they record their histories is an old tradition. Not even the Inca paid much attention to the worship of the Moon, since women were in charge of the cult to her…” (Hernández Príncipe, as cited in Silverblatt, 1987, p. 40). Notwithstanding this distribution of power, if it would have indeed introduced a hierarchy of gender attached to the meanings attributed to the Sun and the Moon, the Andean universe seems to have constituted a gylany, a nonpatriarchal and nonmatriarchal social system, as in the times of the Ancient Great Goddess: Although the domains of these divinities were viewed as interdependent and mutually defining, the nature of the relationship between them was always contextually determined. Andean dialectical logic would not accept the attribution of intrinsic or absolute qualities to perceived constituents of the social natural, or supernatural universe (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 21). The norms of reciprocity summed up in the concept of ayni, which dictated interpersonal relations where people were socially and morally obliged to help each other, as well as the relation with the supernatural, which should be balanced by offering products of the harvest

acquired from the earth, returned to her through ritual offerings, for the sustenance of a holistic circle of life. In this sense, the instance of offering beverages to the earth, as mentioned in earlier chapters, has been replicated in shamanic and matriarchal societies throughout the world, as well as in rituals still prevailing today as testimony of past times: “It was a common thing among the Indians to adore the fertile earth […] which they called Pachamama, offering her chicha by spilling it on the ground, as well as coca and other things so that she would provide for them” (Murúa as cited in Silverblatt, 1987, p. 24). It should be added that there did not exist a notion of evil in Andean societies, but rather “a dialectical vision of the universe in which opposing forces were viewed as reciprocal and complementary, necessary for the reproduction of society as a whole” (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 173), represented in the idea of “ayni” that guarded the balance of the universe, and in the gender complementarity and reciprocity relations which balanced social existence: “Andean division of labor had women put seeds in the earth as men broke the soil with their foot plows” (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 29). In this sense, many of the original conceptions of Andean philosophy would be distorted when translating Spanish conceptions of the world, such as the case of the Quechua word supay, translated as “the devil” in Spanish and discarding the original meaning: “Supay in its original form was morally neutral; it could refer to a spirit that was capable of causing harm or one that could be beneficial” (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 178). Nevertheless, the recounts of encounters with the supay by the natives gave him different forms and disguises which were not the standard image of the (European) devil: he would be a Spaniard, a snake, a shadow, a mysterious man with Golden hair, among others. Another word which meaning was misshapen is the Quechua word apu, translated as God in Spanish, which referred to mountain gods or male gods related to conquest: “The word Apu connotes power. Colonized Indians explicitly recognized those humans (or divinities) who exercised power over their lives by calling them Apu” (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 183). It is interesting to notice here that this original idea of “power” was linked to male Andean divinities. Finally, a very interesting word that tells of a dialectical conception of the Andean universe is the Quechua word amaru, translated as serpent. It did indeed represented serpents but also comprised many other symbolisms: The serpent has deep roots in the configuration of Andean symbolic thought, […] one of its principal connotations is that of relation or alliance. This connotation can be extended to the amaru’s representation of a force that erupts when relations of balance and equilibrium are not maintained in the social and natural universe (Earls and Silverblatt 1976a) […] Although the snake with its destructive powers – capable of toppling mountains and consuming people – was an entity that inspired fear in the Andes, it was at the same time incorporated into the pantheon of deities to which

devotion was shown. […] The amaru in Andean thought has close associations with revolt and revolution. The last descendant of the Inca dynasty to head the resistance to the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century was named Tupac Amaru; the leader of the indigenous revolt against colonialism that shook the Andes in the 1780s also assumed that name (Silverblatt, 1987, pp. 192-194).

4.3. Structuring Power: Gods of Heaven and Goddesses of Earth

To return to our main topic and summarize, the Inca building of a religious power structure would follow the Andean gender structure: The male God figures would descend from the Sun father, such as the God of thunder, rain, and conquest Illapa; and the Goddess beings would be descendants of the Moon, such as Pachamama or Mother Earth. Usually, women would be devoted to the female Goddesses and men would be devoted to the male Gods. Nevertheless, it has been maintained that Pachamama was worshipped by men and women alike12, for her fertilizing powers required a male complement: “Andean peoples paired gender symbols with cosmological forces as they interpreted the world around them” (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 29). This non-gendered ritual then could probably constitute an indication of earlier rituals rather than the deity structure proposed by the Incas. Another greater entity that collides with this solar power ideology is Wiracocha. Above the Sun and the Moon, rose Wiracocha which according to Pachacuti Yamqui, a native commentator on Inca society, constituted an androgynous divinity, of dual male and female sexuality13, both father and mother of the Sun and the Moon. There exists further evidence of the prevalence of the notion of genderlessness in the Andean world prior to the Incas: The concept of an androgynous originator is an old one in the Andes. The Tello obelisk (Lathrap 1971) and Rowe’s “smiling God” (1967: 103), both of the Chavin Period in the Andean prehistory, contain hermaphroditic elements. Other hermaphroditic deities were often described as huacas with a male figure and a female figure carved on either side. The iscay (two) guaris, which were discovered by the extirpators of idolatry in local communities, are good examples (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 44).

12 Silverblatt cites the following references: Cobo, B. (1964). Historia del Nuevo Mundo [1653]. 2 Vols. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Españoles: Vol II: pp. 161, 167; Murúa, M. (1946). Historia del origen y genealogía real de los Incas [1590]. Edited by Constantino Bayle. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo: p. 278; Polo, J. (1917). “Instrucción contra las ceremonias y ritos que usan los indios conforme al tiempo de su infidelidad” [1567]. In Colección de libros y documentos referentes a la historia del Perú, edited by H. Urteaga and C.A. Romero, ser. 1, no. 3, pp: 191-93. 13 Silverblatt cites the following references: Pachacuti Yamqui, J. (1950). “Relación de antigüedades deste reyno del Perú” [1613]. In Tres relaciones de antigüedades peruanas: p. 226; La Fone, S. (1950). “El culto de Tonapa.” In Tres relaciones de antigüedades peruanas, p. 306; Zuidema, R. T. (1972), “The Inca Kingship System: A New Theoretical View.” Paper presented at the Symposium on Andean Kinship and Marriage, 71st Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Toronto; Zuidema, R.T. & Quispe, U. (1968). “A Visit to God: A Religious Experience in the Peruvian Community of Choque Huarcaya.” Bijdragen 124: 22-39.

Furthermore, throughout the American continent, it can be found a cosmogony based on a dual concept where the masculine and the feminine are not opposed but complementary; that is to say, that the creator god is a dual, bisexual god. In the Aztec civilization, there existed the idea of a dual creation deity, both masculine and feminine, with the name of Omeyocan or Omeoteotl, a term that means “place of duality” or “God of Two”. According to Henry Nicholson (1971), this was a God/Goddess whose power of creation was based on the “dualistic, primordial and generative sex, personified in a deity, often conceived as a male being, Ometecuhtli, Tonacatecuhtly [...] and at the same time feminine, Omeciahuatl, Tonacacihuatl” (p. 411). Meanwhile, in the Maya Civilization, according to López Austin: The Mesoamerican thought did not accept the possibility of pure beings, everything that exists, even the gods, was a mixture of the essences of the masculine and the female and it was the predominance of one of them that determined the classification and degree of belonging of each of the two taxonomic fields. There was a reciprocal generation or complementation of opposites; life led to death and death to life. Existence was a cycle and the alternation of the two great forces was possible (López Austin, 1998, pp. 6-8). To further delve into this concept while introducing and summarizing one last case taking place in the American continent, it is relevant to mention that Karla Jessen Williamson developed the concept of genderlessness, as an alternative to “gender equality,” for she proposes that the notions of gender and power had not been linked and there did not exist a hierarchy or the male over the female or vice versa in pre-colonized contexts such as the case of the Inuit people in Greenland previous to the Danish colonization. Therefore, genderlessness would be rooted in a different reality to the one taking place in most parts of Europe, and where gender or power inequalities had not existed. (Arnfred & Pedersen, 2015, pp. 282-283). Jessen uses storytelling and etymology as primary sources. From the analysis of folk stories which talk about sex in a direct way, or relate sex to magic and rituals, it is concluded that “Inuit see sex as something natural, necessary, pleasant and strengthening” (Arnfred & Pedersen, 2015, p. 290), and Polygamy and wife-husband exchange was widespread. Additionally, from the etymological study of the notions used to define creation, earth, animals, and humans in Inuit language, it can be affirmed that Inuit culture was gender-free: The Inuit believe that nuna [the land] and animals not only possess immortal soul and awareness […] but that their soul and awareness are equal to those of a human being. […] The life of human beings on nuna is possible because of the courtesy extended by nuna and the animals (Jessen as cited in Arnfred & Pedersen, 2015, p. 286).

Now to return to the society of current interest, it appears that the Incas would have distorted the original Andean conception of a genderless universe where there were no dominant powers, in order to justify their exercise of power and their right “to be victorious over other Andean peoples, … [for] the Moon might be the mother of all womankind, and the Sun the father of all mankind, but some humans were closer kin to the Gods than others” (Cobo, as cited in Silverblatt, 1987, p. 45). Further evidence on the non-hierarchical societal structure in the Pre- Inca imaginary is the practice of veneration and respect towards every form of life, for an ear of corn or a potato which appeared to be “especially beautiful” or bigger, or presented an unusual colour or shape were revered for being “different”: […] and at harvest time, if Indians saw potatoes that had a different form from the rest, or ears of maize or other crops with a different shape from the others, they had the custom of adoring them and making many ceremonies to venerate them, drinking and dancing, viewing these as signs of good fortune [for the increase of production] (Murúa, as cited in Silverblatt, 1987, p. 25). Additionally, there are first-hand recollections of these rituals. In May, there took place a ritual in veneration of the Mother Corn or Saramama where in every house people would install a shrine made with the biggest maize from their fields: “They hold it in great esteem and they say it is the Mother of Corn of their fields and that by virtue of her, corn is given and preserved (Polo de Ondegardo, as cited in Silverblatt, 1987, p. 25). Another ritual to Saramama would take place regularly, when after every harvest the best ears of corn and misasara (the name for corn of irregular colours such as brown, violet, white, and other), or airiguasara (the name given to corn of two colours, such as half white and half brown), would be burned as an offering to the fields, praying for the increase of their production. These rituals would include every other type of food: “Just as “special” ears of maize were venerated as Mothers of Corn, so were unusual potatoes, coca leaves, quinoa plants…” (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 27). It becomes relevant to further develop these rituals, for they tell of not one power figure of fertility but a holistic consciousness and intermingled beliefs, where living beings were respected and revered as magical for the simple fact of producing life, irrespective of what position they occupied within a yet non-existent hierarchical system. Additionally, they venerated clay and metals of the earth such as silver or gold, for they were used not only to create tools but to recreate miniature models shaped in figurines representing their deities: They chose the most beautiful fruit and kept it, and in its likeness they made others of different stones or of gold or silver, like an ear of corn or a potato, […] and in like manner with all minerals, gold, silver, and mercury, which they discovered many, many years ago. They selected the most beautiful stones composed of these metals and they

kept them and they still keep them and they reverence them, calling them the Mothers of these minerals. And before going to work [in the mines], on the day they are to work, they reverence and drink to that stone, calling it the Mother of that mineral on which they will labor (Albornoz, as cited in Silverblatt, 1987, p. 27). The usage of these figurines is very similar to the one of the figurines made in representation of the Great Ancient Goddess and placed likewise in house shrines. These figurines were called conopas: “Conopas were miniatures or models that could generate the items they represented” Silverblatt, 1987, p. 28). Furthermore, they also share a common female nature, for they are called mamas or mothers, as a manifestation of their power to replicate life, in parallel to the power of creation of Mother Earth. This restructuration of the natural genealogical order and remaking of history created and legitimized hierarchies and class relations, but further hid inequalities and economic exploitation. Nevertheless, there would take place a series of rebellions from the tribute-paying communities,14 who questioned the power structure of this scheme. The different Andean deities were proclaimed to be descendants of either the sun or the moon, creating an intricate order dominated by the imperial ideology. In this sense, Mamacocha or the mother of the lakes, and Pachamama or the mother earth would become descendants of the moon, for instance, due to their feminine nature: The Incas were shrewd. Peoples in kin-based communities imaged Pachamama as the guardian of the powers of fertility which allowed them to reproduce their existence. By reverencing her, the Incas were changing the nature of her powers. Ayllu procreation and ayllu well-being, which used to be in the hands of a Goddess whose source of support was localized, were now tied to the welfare of the empire’s upper class. […] Although the Incas may have legitimized an aspect of community religious belief by venerating Earth Mother, that legitimization was conferred at a price. By worshipping her at festivals that representatives from conquered provinces were obliged to attend, the Incas ensured that the Pachamama’s new message was not ignored (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 49). Furthermore, the Incas would link the progeny of these venerated deities to human imperial power figures in Cuzco, alienating the meanings constructed around the existence of Andean people, from themselves: “Ayllus […] were symbolically shorn of their ability to autonomously

14 Silverblatt cites the following references: Mena, C. (1968). “La conquista del Perú, llamada la Nueva Castilla” [1534]. In Biblioteca peruana, ser. 1, vol. 1, pp. 133-70. Lima: Editores Técnicos Asociados; Trujillo, D. (1968). “Relación del descubrimiento del reyno del Perú” [1590]. In Biblioteca peruana, ser. 1, vol. 2, pp. 9-104; Pizarro, P. (1968). “Relación del descubrimiento y conquista de los reinos del Peru” [1571]. In Biblioteca peruana, ser. 1, vol. 1, pp. 439-586; Sancho de la Hoz, P. (1968). “Relación para SM de lo sucedido en la conquista y pacificación de estas provincias de la Nueva Castillas y de la calidad de la tierra” [1543]. In Biblioteca peruana, ser. 1, vol. 1, pp. 275-344.

reproduce their existence. Inca conquest, of course, made Inca ideology a political reality” (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 50).

4.4. Possible effects of the structuration of the social and cultural imaginary through a power-centred ideological system

While an already existing structure based on kinship organization in Pre-Incan ayllus made the way for the building of a more dominant and more hierarchical system, the subjugation of the ayllu‘s deities would undermine their communal as well as individual strengths: “The Moon, the creator of women – who counters the Sun, who created men – had stolen many of the Pachamama’s powers. […] Women living in subjugated enclaves, were becoming convinced of the Moon’s generative powers and her dominion over their sex” (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 51). Furthermore, whereas the relation between the Inca and the Coya – name given to the Inca Queen –, appears to be rather egalitarian for “when Inca kings had to leave the capital in order to lead their armies in battle, queens ruled in their absence […] If the Inca’s privy council […] could not reach an accord, the matter was turned over to the queen” (Murúa, as cited in Silverblatt, p. 59); on the other side, the gender gap was abysmal for the women situated on lower ranks of this hierarchy, for the Inca and Coya could exchange or distribute them in marriage to strategic powerful men within the empire: [The Coya] had shrines, baths, and gardens, both for herself and for her ñustas, who were like ladies-in-waiting, of which there were more than two hundred. She was responsible for marrying them to lords who achieved honourable offices under the Inca. It was truly marvelous when the great queen walked about; she was served, in every way, with the majesty shown toward the Inca (Murúa, as cited in Silverblatt, 1987, p. 60).

It should be added the existence of an institution of “wives of the Sun” called acllas, who were virgin women with a role similar to the Roman vestal virgins. They were considered to be the most beautiful throughout the Empire but although chroniclers say that this organization was hierarchical and that “Andean notions of physical perfection as well as social rank of the aclla’s family determined her status, […] those who were considered to be the embodiment of physical and moral perfection, were offered as sacrifices [to the Sun]” (Silverblatt, 1987, pp. 82-83), while the rest acted as secondary wives or concubines of the Inca or other men in power. In the principal temple of the Sun, in Cuzco, the acllas offered food to the Sun as opposed to the widespread ritual offering to the mother earth (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 84). As part of the

elaborate solar power ideology represented in rituals, the following is a description of the Inca fabricating a very dramatic and formidable use of the symbolism of the figure of the sun: During the offerings that were made at the rising of the sun, … [when] the sun’s rays penetrated the Windows [of Coricancha], lighting up the entire temple …the Inca would position himself in the middle, kneeling, directing his hands and face toward the sun or the image of the Sun, and he would pray, […] The Incas had another shrine where offerings were made to the Moon, called Pumap chupan … where sacrifices were made in honor of the Moon, the God of women. And the Coya entered this shrine to render offerings [and praying] [Guaman Poma, as cited in Silverblatt, 1987, p. 54).

Additionally, the Coricancha or “Temple of the Sun” – but literally meaning “Temple of Gold” – is considered by Silverblatt “a cosmological image pregnant with politics. In what must be one of the most obvious ideological ploys to justify power” (Silverblatt 1987, p. 45). Garcilaso laments the impossibility to describe its splendour: The grandeur of the [Temple of the Sun] was so incredible that I would not dare to describe it, if it were not for the fact that all the Spanish historians of Peru have already done so. But neither what they have said nor what I will say will ever be able to capture the significance of what it was. […] The image of the Sun was so large it filled the front of the temple from wall to wall (Garcilaso, as cited by Silverblatt, 1987, p. xvii).

It is relevant to observe once again, the hypothesis that the sun and the moon did not constitute original deities within the Andean cosmology. The main mythological tales that present the sun as the main deity are not creation stories, but rather stories of how specific men and women who were already the “children of the Sun”, were commanded by the sun Inti to set up the Inca Empire. Furthermore, in the oldest manuscript with a collection of storytelling on the Andean deities, dating to the sixteenth century, the sun does not appear as a relevant god and the presence of the Incas is secondary to the vast assortment of regional gods and to the non-binary main god Wiracocha. The manuscript hints of an ideological imposition: […] in the villages located in the highlands, in all of them starting from the Titicaca, the Sun was worshipped, and people would say: “Thus I was commanded by the Inca” and that in the villages and lands located in the lowlands, saying “Thus I was commanded by the Inca, they would adore Pachacámac. These two huacas we have named were venerated much more than the rest” (Arguedas, 1975, p. 99).

Silverblatt adds regarding the possible imposition of lunar cults: It is often difficult to assess the impact of the Inca conquest on the belief systems of conquered peoples, and the colonial accounts of lunar cults might reflect pre-Inca worship of this deity. However, when the same community, as is the case below, has a non-Inca origin myth as well as a Cuzqueñan version, the Inca imposition of a lunar cult seems all the more probable (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 51).

The main god that is ever-present in the abovementioned manuscript is Wiracocha, considered the main deity throughout the Inca territory, taking different forms and names, and present in the different Andean cultures. It was a deity that represented absolute power, prior to the existence of the universe, of changeable sex and bipolar nature; it was further said to represent everything created in past and present times, and everything that is yet unknown and can be created in the future (Rivara, 2000). Furthermore, his daughter Chaupiñamca was a goddess who presents a very different image to the feminine conceptualisation in Inca times, for she is said to have dominated over all of the male gods. She represented fertility and decided on her sexuality: "They say that this woman, in ancient times, walked with a human figure and had (sexual relations) with all the huacas [gods], she did not have consideration for any man and would not choose any of them” (Arguedas, 1975, p. 45). But finally, she would meet the mountain god Runacoto: “On a certain occasion, Chaupiñamca had relations with Runacoto and he satisfied her a lot with her big virile member. And that's why she preferred him above all the huacas and lived with him forever” (Arguedas, 1975, pp. 45-46). While the Inca elite enjoyed a private preparation in schools where they were taught skills and techniques of government, people on lower ranks received an education based solely on the skills they would need for their respective tasks (Silverblatt, 1987, pp. 62-63), yet still promoting pro-Empire and pro-Cusco sentiments through a politic of gift-giving: The Incas set the imperial wheels of asymmetric obligation in motion by generous giveaways. Clinging to norms of generosity in order to hide relations of class exploitation behind a cloak of chiefly prerogative, the lords of Cuzco nudged those subjugated by them into the Inca-dominated networks of power (Silverblatt, 1987, p. 61). The already existing gender and class division would fuse with their Spanish ideological counterpart, and exacerbate differences with an added race divisionism, as new hierarchies based on the mixed-race types were being constructed. Additionally, the class divisionism would intensify with ideological practices, such as the Spanish association of physical labour with inferior status: The Inca himself began the planting season by ritually sowing sacred fields in Cuzco. Native peoples harboured their own opinions about the Spanish. The part-Indian chronicler Guaman Poma was disgusted by the decadence of Spanish aristocratic ideals. He condemned all Spanish women and men as lazy and immoral, precisely because they would not work even when they were physically capable of doing so (Guaman Poma, as cited in Silverblatt, 1987, p. 10).

In regards to the possible influence exerted by a power-centred constructed ideology, alien to the ancient communal imaginaries, and the transformation from a matriarchal to a patriarchal system, Woolger and Woolger have summarized the feminine psychology around the archetypal images of six of the major Greek goddesses, concerned with understanding the repercussions of the loss of the image of the Great Ancient Goddess in the human psyche. This approach in psychology proposes the study of ancient myths for the aid of psychology, and the use of Goddess archetypes to represent emotional patterns that should all merge as part of oneself rather than clash against each other: “…each of the Greek forms of the goddess emanated originally from the Great Mother Goddess of more ancient times” (Woolger & Woolger, 1989, p. 42). According to this theory, many conflicts have arisen from the imposition of patriarchal values. Jungian theory maintains that “by worshipping the father principle alone and suppressing or belittling the feminine, we have done serious damage to our individual and collective psychic health” (Woolger & Woolger, 1989, p. 17). The authors consider ancient myths to be “highly sophisticated psychology” symbolising “forces or energies that are constantly exerting powerful influences upon our psychological processes” (Woolger & Woolger, 1989, pp. 10-11). The marriage of Hera to Zeus is believed to represent the invasion and domination of the Proto-Indo-European patriarchal tribes over the ancient matriarchal civilization. Jane Ellen Harrison analyses the evolution and social context of early Greek Religion. She interprets the social structure through the relationship between Hera and Zeus: [Zeus] is the projection of Northern fatherhood. He, or rather his fatherhood, came down from the north with some tribe or tribes, whose social system was patrilinear. Hera was indigenous and represents a matrilinear system; she reigned alone at Argos, at Samos, her temple at Olympia is distinct from and earlier than that of Zeus. Her first husband, or rather consort, was Herakles. The conquering Northerners pass from Dodona to Thessaly. Zeus drops off his real shadow-wife, Dione, at Dodona, in passing from Thessaly to Olympia, and at Olympia, after the fashion of conquering chieftain, married Hera, a daughter of the land. In Olympos Hera seems merely the jealous and quarrelsome wife. In reality she reflects the turbulent native princess, coerced, but never subdued, by an alien conqueror (Harrison as cited in Woolger & Woolger, 1989, p. 182). From this point on, the existence of different “departmental goddesses”, as labelled by Harrison, would tell of a process where the nature of the Ancient Goddess would be divided into opposing personality traits:

Each of the departmental goddesses is now cut off from the original Mother, and they are from this point onward divided against themselves… Individualized goddesses are tolerable to the extent that they function separately and even compete with other. So,

for example, Aphrodite’s character trait of promiscuity is set against Hera’s patronage of matrimony (Woolger & Woolger, 1989, pp. 23-24). Additionally, it is considered that the creation of the figure of the Virgin Mary was required in order to transmit the devotion of the Ancient Mother Goddess, which had lost all representation with the advent of Christianism. Jung once described a neurotic person as one-side, by which he meant someone who overemphasizes one side of his personality to avoid dealing with the other, less agreeable side. What is true of individual neurotics is also true of whole cultures. This is where archetypal and feminist thinking converge. They are in agreement that our whole culture […] is sick. It is sick because it is out of harmony with itself. […] What is missing us the feminine dimension in our spiritual and psychological lives […]. We have lost our inner connection to that momentous power that used to be called the Great Mother of us all. (Woolger & Woolger, 1989, pp. 14-15).

CONCLUSIONS

To understand the foundations and conceptions that have given rise to the complicated and perhaps problematic society of today, it becomes necessary to turn to mythological stories and folktales, for while the prejudices and preconceptions that have been built into words can be attributed to religious times, the historical foundation of language – that is Indo-European languages – is found in the Greco Roman world. Further back, these explanations can be confirmed in the processes that promoted a gradual transformation from a communal system of organization based on kinship, to an elitist and individualized system of power. Indications of this transition are understood to be the surge of competition within kinship/shamanic societies founded in a proof of knowledge or strength. Based on ancient archaeological vestiges, the sun symbolized a seasonal renewal, one of the threads in the production of food and life, along with many other elements of nature, which are all linked to the figure of the Great Goddess, and representative of a holistic idea of life: The question of mortality was of profound concern but the deep perception of the periodicity of nature based on the cycles of the moon and the female body led to the creation of a strong belief in the immediate regeneration of life at the crisis of death and regeneration. And this was the key to the hymn of life reflected in this art. […] The Goddess in all her manifestations was a symbol of the unity of all life in Nature. […] This [ancient] culture took keen delight in the natural wonders of this world. Its people did not produce lethal weapons or build forts in inaccessible places, as their successor did, even when they were acquainted with metallurgy. […] Their culture was a culture of art. (Gimbutas, 1989, p. 321) Nevertheless, the conceptualization of words, stories and dogmatic histories changed this ancient holistic universe. As Joseph Campbell has observed: “Myths are other people’s religions” and from the moment these stories took shape, the feminine instinct that was once an important part of all aspects of life was now divided against itself. Consequently, and as a result of the conflicts and oppositions between Goddesses created from the imposition of patriarchal values, as has been clearly reflected in Greek mythology as well as in Native American mythologies, the Great Mother Goddess “was never her true self again” (Woolger and Woolger, 1989, p. 28). As this study has demonstrated, cultural meanings inscribed to the sun have shaped the creation of ideologies with an ever growing need to impose patriarchal values and words, arriving on the pages of new conceptions of the world. Religions linked to this solar-centred power ideology, such as “Christianity would strip these gods off the power for the erection of one all-powerful god: a father. In doing so, it has reinforced and further authorized the

patriarchal domination that was already well under way among the Greeks and Hebrews” (Woolger & Woolger, 1989, p. 14). Similar ideological processes of colonization have taken place in the Americas as well as Europe. Previous to the Spanish conquest, the Incas had shaped a power ideology centred on the mighty sun, and constructed symbolical hierarchies where some humans would be magically chosen by the powers of nature and anointed as the “children of the sun” with the right to rule. The difficulty, when analysing myths and storytelling, is that many aspects can be built on suppositions and perceptions, while simultaneously it appears possible to find connections and valid information to support them. Throughout these links, that can be traced to different contexts that have undergone similar processes, there exist common ancient knowledges that somehow have survived. These knowledges are still with us, maybe due to their attempts to find their way back: “…in our collective social structures or in our individual psyches, [it is] time for the divide-and-rule setup that so suited the patriarchal Greece to be abandoned” (Woolger & Woolger, 1989, p. 29). In storytelling or myths, it is possible to interpret a version of a story that did not represent a constituted history and possibly enhanced creativity to the service of an open, non-hierarchical and non-gendered society. However, in the industrialized version of history we live in, today we have reduced our lives to a hero’s journey, dividing our goals from the ancient communal goals, those of a society. In this present, humans keep getting diverted from humanity. Therefore, without questioning the structures, the meanings, our lives are the living representation of a simple structure, predominantly patriarchal and capitalistic.

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