The Life Force Materialized in the Andean Religion

Abstract

Focusing on evidence from Titicaca basin, this chapter discuss how we are trying to comprehend the worldview of its past residents. This interaction with the landscape became part of a relationship that could not be escaped. Part of this relationship was played out in their constructed spaces where they gathered to interact, which included the sharing of food. These gathering spaces were the core of these early settlements, manifested in their architecture and displayed in the material. These exchanges embodied the animation of the world, as did the symbolic images they carved on the land and in stone, steadily crafting their society over 1500 years. Around 200 BC a shift occurred in society where social power was harnessed differently, in association with different performances, gifting, and labor.