THE PERUVIAN ANDES Part 2

The Andes form the Pacific face of South America, extending from Colombia in the north down to Tierre del Fuego at the southern most tip of the continent. In Peru the Andes consist of a series of parallel ranges, or high cordilleras. It was here, in the central Peruvian Andes, amidst rugged peaks and wide, high plateaus, (altiplano) that the Inca rulers built their ceremonial and administrative centers in places such as Cuzco, Sacsahuaman (the Temple of the Sun), Ollantaitambo, and Machu Picchu.

Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the Inca had invented clocks, aqueducts, fertilizer (from guano), agricultural terracing, and the use of metal alloys. However, they had not yet invented the wheel. This fact is all the more surprising when we realize that without the aid of the wheel they were able to construct monumental stone buildings by transporting huge stone monoliths and boulders from distant quarries up steep mountainsides. Prescott, author of the classic account of the Inca, The Conquest of Peru, wrote that the stones in the Temple of the Sun were "full thirty-eight feet long, by eighteen broad, and six feet thick." Even more impressive is the fact that these huge stones fit together like clockwork, with out the use of mortar.

The descendants of members of the original Inca are the Quechua-speaking Indians who continue to live in the altiplano. Although they have many modern conveniences today, such as radios, and in some cases, even electricity, television and telephones, in many Quechua communities basic subsistence is much like it was in the past. People continue to grow potatoes-a crop whose origin is in this region of South America-maize and squash-two other food crops that originated in the New World and were later dispered, through colonization, to other corners of the globe. They also raise sheep, llamas, and alpacas. These latter animals, with their long, thin legs and thick coats of hair, are well adapted to the cold and rugged climate of the Andes. They are valued not only for their fleece, which women spin into thread to be woven into warm blankets, jackets, and other items of clothing, but they also serve as beasts of burden, carrying heavy loads along narrow mountain paths. Finally, the flesh of llama and alpaca are sometimes used in religious ceremonies as animal sacrifices made to the gods, especially to the Pachamama, the female goddess of the earth and fertility.

Nancy Lutkehaus