Unity of Origin and Beliefs

The Augustinian priests recorded a considerable amount of information on the beliefs of the inhabitants of Huamachuco (San Pedro 1992 [1560]). The information recorded includes an origin myth and lists of huacas scattered throughout the province. I have recently analyzed that information (J. Topic 1992) and will draw on the results of the analysis here.

The origin myth is perhaps the single most important piece of ynformation and deserves a brief retelling:

Ataguju is described as the supreme deity and depicted as an aloof creator god. Guamansuri, along with a number of other characters, was created by Ataguju and sent to Huamachuco. He found Huamachuco already inhabited by Guachemines. The Guachemines made Guamansuri work their fields for them. The Guachemines had a sister named Cautaguan who they sequestered. One day though, Guamansuri seduced her and made her pregnant. The Guachemines immediately knew that Guamansuri was at fault and they captured him, burned him, and ground his body to dust. The dust rose up to the sky to Ataguju.

After a few days, Cautaguan gave birth to two eggs and died. The two eggs were placed in a dung heap and two boys hatched from them. These boys were raised by an aunt. One child was called the great lord Catequil and his brother was called Piguerao.

Catequil resuscitated his mother who gave him two slings which Guamansuri had left for him. With these slings, Catequil killed many of the Guachemines and drove the others out of the province. Then he asked Ataguju to create Indians to inhabit and work the land that had been vacated. Ataguju told him to go to a hill called Guacat and dig the Indians out of the ground there (San Pedro 1992 [1560]: 172-174).

This creation myth clearly indicates a unified origin place for the inhabitants of the province of Huamachuco, though not a single founding ancestor. Moreover, it allows us to place some sort of territorial boundary around that province (cf. Urton 1990). Toponyms relating to the myth can still be found on mod-em topographic maps (Figure 1). Cerro Huacate, the pacarina of Huamachuco, is located at the extreme southern end of the province near the confluence of the Tablachaca River with the Santa River. ⁽³⁾

The shrine and oracle of Catequil was located at San Jose Porcon, near the center of the province. A river named after Catequil's mother is about halfway between the oracle and the pacarina. There are several hills and quebradas along the north and northeastern frontiers of the province that still bear the toponym "guachemin"; these probably conmemorate the places where the guachemines were driven out of the province.

Interestingly, the quebradas named "guachemin" all descend abruptly to the hot chaupiyungas zone. Alfredo Torero (1989: 228-29) points out that guachemin may be equivalent to guaxme (fisherman) of Domingo de Santo Tomas (1560:5. v.), and that Guaman Poma calls coastal fishermen uachimis and uachime yunga. Thus, the creation myth also defines the territory of Huamachuco as ecol-ogically sierra and the people as ethnically serranos and contrasts them to people adapted to life along the seacoast. Four other huacas listed in the account reinforce this ecological and ethnic classification: Nomadoy, Pomacama, Vipillo, and Quimgachugo (Figure 1). Albomoz (1967 [ca.1582])⁽⁴⁾ also mentions the first two and states that they are the principal huacas of Llampa and Guacapongo, two of the four indigenous guarangas (Inca administrative groups of about a thousand households) in the province of Huamachuco. These two huacas seem to have been located at low elevations in deep river valleys just above the chaupiyungas zone. The other two huacas can be identified with the highest peaks within the territories of each of these two guarangas. Together, each pair of huacas define the upper and lower elevational extremes of the territories of their guarangas (Topic 1992:74).

The ecological information in the myth is related to the replacement of the original population with a new population. In this case, and in other similar cases (Calancha 1976 [1638]:933-34; Taylor 1987: Chapter 8), the claim to the territory is based on the destruction of the original population and/or the forced removal of the previous inhabitants to a different ecological zone. This type of origin myth draws sharp distinctions between the occupants of adjacent ecological zones, who are depicted as enemies.

Now in late prehispanic times, the impor-tance of Catequil as an oracle was acknowl-edged throughout the Inca empire and this stature causes some confusion amongst the historical sources about the origin and history of the deity. There is also confusion about the events surrounding the destruction of the shrine of Catequil by the Inca. Although Catequil is described by the Augustinians (San Pedro 1992 [1560]:173-74) as ". . . el ydolo mas temydo y honrado q. avia en todo El peru adorado y reverenciado desde quito hasta El cuzco . . .",:' the creation myth demonstrates a special association with Huamachuco. Sarmiento (1907 [15 72]: 165-6) refers, in passing, to Catequil as the huaca of Cajamarca and Huamachuco, but later (p. 176), while describing its destruction by Atahualpa, he refers to it as the oracle and huaca of Huamachuco. Albomoz (1967 [ca. 15 82]: 31) lists Catequil⁽⁶⁾ under the heading "Provincia de Guamachuco y Caxamarca" and affirms that it was one of the most important in the whole empire but says specifically that it is "guaca . . . de los indios guamachucos." Despite Cieza's asser-tion that Cajamarca and Huamachuco wor-shipped the same gods, there is no evidence that Catequil was particularly important in Cajamarca before the cult was spread by the Inca.

On the other hand, Arriaga (1968 [1621]:203) and Calancha (1976 [1638]: 1062-63) say that Catequil was especially worshipped throughout the province of Conchucos as well as in the province of Huamachuco (Figure 2). They relate the presence of Catequil in Conchucos to the destruction of the shrine at Porcon and this relationship is the only means of dating the presence of Catequil in Conchucos. Interestingly, there are two versions of the story of the destruction of the shrine at Porcon, one based on witnesses from Hua-machuco and the other based on witnesses from Conchucos.

In the Huamachuco version, Atahualpa destroys the shrine just as the Spanish arrive in Peru and make their way to Cajamarca (San Pedro 1992 [1560]; Betanzos 1987 [1557]; Sarmiento 1907 [1572]); in this version the pieces of the idol were eventually found by the Augustinians, who ground them up and threw the powder into the river.

In the Conchucos version, it is the son of Topa Inca who destroys the shrine at Porcon. Arriaga (1968 [1621]) makes Huascar the son of Topa Inca, while Calancha (1974-82 [1638]) corrects the genealogy so that Huayna Capac is the protagonist. Huayna Capac (the son of Topa Inca) set fire to the shrine in Por-con but the priests were able to rescue the idol and bring it to Cabana and Tauca where they built a new temple for it. There is some question whether this idol was eventually found and destroyed by Fray Francisco Cano or whether it was hidden by the natives.

There are interesting contradictions here. On the one hand, both stories agree that Catequil originated in Huamachuco. On the other hand, the Conchucos version has Catequil arriving in Cabana before the shrine in Porcon would have been destroyed, according to the Huamachuco version. The chronology of the Conchucos version is not particularly credible because it was probably Huayna Capac who was responsible for spreading the cult of Catequil to Ecuador. 7 Moreover, the Hua-machuco version specifies that the idol was shattered by Atahualpa, while in the Conchucos version the idol is rescued and moved without being fragmented. Finally, it is certain that the Augustinians in Huamachuco saw pieces of an idol that was claimed to be Catequil in the middle of the 16th century; if these were, in fact, fragments of the idol from Por-con, the unbroken idol in Cabana at the begin-ning of the 17th century must have been a different piece.

I suggest the following interpretation of the contradictions. I suspect that Catequil, as well as being an oracle, was a deity related to thunder (San Pedro 1992 [1560] f. 6v⁸; Silva Santisteban 1986a:23) and that, in this guise, he was worshipped widely throughout Conchucos and Huamachuco. Catequil, as oracle, developed later in the province of Huamachuco from this celestial deity. Here he was also incorporated into the creation myth as a culture hero and had his shrine at Porcon. It is noteworthy that the Conchucos version does not talk of Catequil functioning there as an oracle nor is there the claim that the idol, once moved to Cabana, enjoyed a widespread reputation. The confusion in the historical sources is caused, in part, by Spanish attempts to reconcile the particular oracle at Huamachuco with a more general celestial deity.

As we will see below, the confusion is also compounded by the Inca and colonial administrative grouping of Huamachuco with Caja-marca. This leads Albomoz (1967 [ca. 1582]:31) to list Catequil, and the other Guamachuco huacas, under the heading "Provincia de Guamachuco y Caxamarca" and then, immediately list the huacas of Cajamarca under a separate heading "Caxamalca." In the same way, Sarmiento (1907 [1572]:165-6 and 176) refers to "cataquilla" as the huaca of Cajamarca and Huamachuco and later, more spe-cifically, as the huaca of Huamachuco.

The most likely chronological implications of these dynamic associations of Catequil with different places and groups of people is that Catequil has his greatest antiquity as a widespread sky deity in Conchucos and Huamachuco. He was later, perhaps in the Late Intermediate Period, established as an oracle at San Jose Porcon. During the Late Horizon, he was firmly associated with Huamachuco, where Inca kings came to consult him and to destroy him. By the time of the destruction of the shrine of Catequil, on the eve of the Spanish conquest, his cult was widespread in the north; and by 1560, if not before, Catequil had become identified as a culture hero relating to the creation myth for people occupying the Incaic and early Colonial provynce and encomienda of Huamachuco.

Notas

3).- Albomoz (1967 [ca. 1582]) says that the pacarina of Huamachuco was called Guaracayoc. Guaracayoc (Quechua) may be translated as a person [adept] with a sling and may be a title of Catequil; the Augustinians list Guaracayoc as one of the nine principal huacas of Huamachuco, but do not provide further comment (J. Topic 1992).

4).- Albomoz (1967 [ca. 1582]), Arriaga (1968 [1621]), Betanzos (1987 [1551]), and Calancha (1974-81 [1638]) also provide other information about the huacas of Huamachuco which sometimes complements and sometimes conflicts with the information provided by the Augustinian priests. The Augustinian account, however, is the most complete source and the only one based on extended and early observations in Huamachuco. For further discussions of this information see J. Topic 1992 and 1994 and Topic and Topic 1993.

5).- The most feared and honored idol that there was in all Peru, adored and revered from Quito to Cuzco. He writes the name of the oracle as "Apocatiquillay" and places it near Uruchalla. For the probable locations of two different tambos (way stations) called Uruchal, see Topic and Topic 1993, figure 2.1. The two tambos are northwest and southeast of San Jose Porcon, where the Augustinians say the shrine was located.

The spread of the cult of Catequil to Ecuador is the subject of ongoing research and is peripheral to this discussion. At the very least, however, there is one ac-count (Sarmiento 1907 [1572]:165) which states that Huayna Capac had the huaca "Cataquilla" or "Cate-quilla" of Huamachuco and Cajamarca with him in Quito. 8 San Pedro (1992 [1560]: f. 6v): . . . q.s grande El Calami.o q. tienen a cataquil y el temor/ porq. dizen q.s el q. haze los rayos y truenos y Relampagos los q.ales/ haze tirando con su honda ... [The respect and the fear they have for Cataquil is great because they say it is he who makes the lightning bolts; and thunder, and flashes of lightning. These he makes by throwing them with his sling.]

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