While reading through the history and myths within the Inca culture, I found it interesting to connect it back to conversations had in class. Learning about the Inca’s creation story, it helped to further shape my thoughts on the importance the creation stories in cultures has on their relationship to the natural world. The Inca believed creation came from the earth itself, resulting in a close spiritual relationship with the earth. Like Montaigne in his “Of Cannibals” essay, it’s hard to not romanticize their lifestyle and portray them as noble savages. The way the Inca treat and interact with the world is admirable; they cause little harm to the world, and live a healthy lifestyle towards the earth.
The Incas believed there was nothing except the sky and a lake called Lake Titicaco. The creator was the god Viracocha, who lived with his wife at the bottom of the lake. They were lonely, so Viracocha used stones to create a group of human beings who would worship him. Viracocha also created their landscape from mud and stone that made up mountains, plains, and valleys. His first attempt at creating humans went poorly. Viracocha couldn’t see, so his people were ugly, stupid, and unable to worship him. He killed them all and tried again. This time he traveled to a nearby location, and created a palace from which he could take inspiration from. He created the sun in order to see, and created humans again, this time creating man and women, some of whom were pregnant.
Learning about another creation story allowed me to think deeply about religion and the meaning of religion. What I was able to see through my observation of different creation stories is that whether you believe in a certain religion or not, you are able to take life lessons from each story. For example, in the Incan creation story, you are taught to not give up on what you are trying to accomplish. Although this may be a cliche message, it is important that we learn and try to take the best out of every story, even if we don’t believe the events in the story actually happened.
From what I remember from WPII, the Inca were quite brutal in their rituals! So I find it to be very interesting that you compared the Inca's to the Indians that Montaigne spoke about. It made me rethink the Inca and how I was taught the information about them. Throughout history, there are many civilizations that had a false image due to the beliefs of others. The Romans had done it to the Celts, and of course, the Europeans to many of the Native American tribes. It is definitely a very interesting topic to look at!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting how you could connect what you read to what we have learned in class. I think that the Inca creation story is really interesting. I find it intriguing how his first attempt at creating humans went poorly and he created them as stupid and ugly. I liked the way you were able to connect with religion and how different people may associate with different religions. I think your topic is really interesting and somewhat similar to mine so I am excited to see where your research takes you!
ReplyDeleteI love how you are able to use a topic that you have previous knowledge on, that is very resourceful! I am very interested in this topic because the creation of many different cultures have always questioned my mind. I know religion is a huge factor in this, but that is not the whole picture. How and who created the Incas? Or does it work that way? I have never known, so I am excited to read and find out through your paper! Great research!!
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