Cocamoma: The Witch of the Andes

[drew hempel]

I've always wanted to get more detail on the lost shamanic cultures under the Inca Empire and the book "Moon, Sun and Witches: Gender ideologies and class in Inca and Colonial Peru" by Irene Silverblatt (Princeton U Press, 1987) gives the answers.

Her basic argument, after analyzing all the details, is that before the Inca empire there were localized farming communities centered around the use of Coca for shamanism. Cocamama is the goddess of coca, daughter of the Goddess of Earth.

The men used foot-plows and then would go off to give ritual sacrifice through fasting and coca use while the women would give ritual sacrifice to the Goddess of Corn through fasting and coca use.

The Inca established their own imperial Goddess of the Moon and then created a hierarchy of other Goddesses for the women to follow.

Virgin sacrifice was a big deal for the Inca as well as controlling the reproductive power of women by setting them aside into virgin communities for use by the Inca male elite.

Everything was based on gender complimentary opposites -- women controlling farming and clothing and then whenever a man wanted to get married he had to officially become a foot-soldier for the Inca.

There were constant uprisings by the local peasants who focused more on their local gods and goddesses instead of the hierarchy of the Inca were gods represented a lineage of administrators and magistrates.

If men were caught having sex with any of the virgins then both were publically murdered.

The ultimate deity of the Inca, Viracocha, was neither male nor female.

Viracocha then incorportes the opposing forces of "sun, moon, day, night, sumer, winter"

Venus-Morning was a Male God while Venus-Evening was a Female Goddess.

The god of Thunder, Illapa, was male and the fertilized the Goddess of the Earth -- Pachamama.

Illapa controlled power and was in charge of the lineage of conquerors.

A man could vastly increase his status by having his daughter sacrificed to the Sun God.

All the graves were marked with the royal insignia of the Inca.

When the Spanish conquered the Inca all the underclass females were designated as witches when ever the females used herbal medicine or tried to do fasting. A common fast was five days long.

I couldn't help notice the connection between the Mamas of the Kogi -- the oldest intact Andean culture, located in Colombia -- and the Goddess of the Earth and coca both using the name Mama, Pachamama and Cocamama.

The Mamas of the Kogi are the shamans and at birth they live in a cave for nine years. The only contact they have with the outer world is with their mom and other Mamas (which are men and women).

After the nine year training is done then the Mamas can tune into the "other world" -- the astral realm -- and lead the Kogi community of farming.

All other men are able to marry only after taking coca and receiving initiation from a Mama.

[willoweyes]

Drew thanks for this synopsis.

I might have to revise some snap decisions.