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5 - Alterity, Authority, and Ancestors

Exploring Monkey Images in Moche Iconography of North Coast Peru

from Part I - The Americas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2022

By
Aleksa K. Alaica
Edited by
Bernardo Urbani ,
Dionisios Youlatos  and
Andrzej T. Antczak
Bernardo Urbani
Affiliation:
Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research
Dionisios Youlatos
Affiliation:
Aristotle University, Thessaloniki
Andrzej T. Antczak
Affiliation:
Universiteit Leiden
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Summary

Nonhuman primates in the Andes region of South America have been excavated in burial contexts and are commonly depicted in ceramic art. Monkey images in Moche iconography are well-known but few systematic analyses have been conducted to approximate their role and meaning in sociopolitical and ritual activities. This chapter investigates variation in nonhuman primate depictions from the Moche culture to determine the elite use of monkey images for their symbolic value and ritual significance in the arid desert north coast region of present-day Peru. By examining their shared features, their association with key Amazonian plant species and their use in legitimizing authority, I contextualize Moche monkey depictions as key agents of alterity because of their nonlocal origin. I argue that the association of nonhuman primates with headdresses, serving vessels, and funerary rituals indicate that monkeys were perceived as nonlocal affines in Moche society that wielded considerable power in political and ceremonial practices. In Moche iconography, monkeys were not simply aesthetic additives but formed part of a selected group of nonhuman beings with social agency that derived from their nonlocal, Amazonian origin and their relationship to potent ritual substances. Monkeys, resembling their human relatives, were recognized to have ancestral roles that legitimized authority for elites involved in ceremonial activities related to sacrifice, fertility, and renewal.

Keywords:

Monkeys, Amazon, Interregional interaction, Desert coast, Ritual, ulluchu; ishpingo

Type
Chapter
Information
World Archaeoprimatology
Interconnections of Humans and Nonhuman Primates in the Past
 , pp. 132 - 152
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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