Death and the Transformations of Matter: decomposing, drying and burning

Death and the Transformations of Matter: decomposing, drying and burning

  It has been argued that in the context of Andean rituals, communication must be exerted through specific “mediating substances” -cooked food, alcohol and coca- offered in particular, pre-determined ways: by blowing, pouring, or sprinkling; by burning and by force-feeding (Allen 1982:191). In particular, according to traditional Andean knowledge, the transformation of substances through physical or chemical process such as burning or drying brings to front many interesting implications to the realms of death and burial. Among present day communities, dead bodies are argued to imply distinct risks to the living depending if they are in a mummified, dry-bone or rotting-flesh state (Allen 1982:192, Pærregaard 1987, Salomon 1995). Following Bastien’s proposal that solids are symbolically associated with males and liquids with females, Allen (1982:192) has argued that a ‘correct’ process of decomposition of a dead body entails the putrefying flesh (a fluid substance) to be absorbed by the Mother Earth (female) while the dry bones (a solid substance) shall remain as the materialization of the benevolent ancestors (male). A further distinction revolves around how and to what extent this process is attained:

  “While the Machus are bones desiccated beneath a punishing sun, the Kukuchis are described as putrid flesh, with never a mention of bones. In contrast, the benevolent Machula Aulanchis are dry bones whose flesh has been properly absorbed by the earth. They exert a fertilizing, seminal influence. When the bones, as Machus, try to get their “While the Machus are bones desiccated beneath a punishing sun, the Kukuchis are described as putrid flesh, with never a mention of bones. In contrast, the benevolent Machula Aulanchis are dry bones whose flesh has been properly absorbed by the earth. They exert a fertilizing, seminal influence. When the bones, as Machus, try to get their

  The ‘proper’ separation of flesh from bones that assures the dead will turn into a benevolent (though ritual demanding) ancestor is thus accomplished by the Mother Earth’s absorption of the flesh and all rotting matter (Allen1988:63). By contrast, if the bones become desiccated by exposure to the sun -as it is argued to have happened in mythical times- the resulting bones are perceived as particularly polluting and harmful (e.g. Allen 1988:55, Salomon 2002). Salomon (2002:478) describes the perception of these ‘sun-dried’ ancient bones (or ‘gentiles’) as one of the most dangerous and charged archaeological remains as perceived by contemporary Andean communities, their casual encounter encompassing marked uneasiness and demanding diverse ritual gestures. But perhaps the worse situation is that of those who cannot free themselves from the ‘green, rotten, smelly’ flesh after death, an outcome frequently expected for sinners of various types (Allen 1982:187).

  According to Metraux (1930:144), the journey of the dead to the afterlife cannot

  be accomplished until all soft matter has decomposed. The fear to the rotten cadaver has been well described by Pærregaard (1987:32) as he himself sensed the extreme tension and preoccupation experienced by Andean villagers during an exhumation and the subsequent relief when people corroborated that only bone remains were left in the opened coffin. Attaining a desiccated state (whether as mummy or dry bone) seems to have been a crucial process as it is during this period that the soul of the deceased is thought to escape (Salomon 1995:340). In Bolivia, the strangulation of a dying person was performed to prevent the soul from decomposing with the body (Paredes, cited in

  Tschopik 1951:216). Interestingly, among some Andean communities, those people who are approaching death as well as the recent dead (i.e. the decomposing dead) are conceptually analogous and different from the “immutable” nature of old, dried bones (Salomon 1995:328).

  The numerous associations of rotting matter, flesh, fat and in general wet substances to the realms of death and souls is complex and multisided (e.g. Tschopik 1951, Bastien 1978, Gose 1986). What seems to be a shared Andean perception is that the different states of decomposing human matter and the process by which these states are attained are of primary importance in terms of their the influence effected upon the living: whether as mummies, dry bones or rotting flesh, the dead continue to exert an influence over the human welfare (Allen 1982:192). From an archaeological point of view, these distinctions have clear implications to the analysis of the structures of burial and their associated effects upon decomposing human matter. After death occurs, it follows a time were the process of structural separation of soul, flesh and bones needs to

  be properly accomplished through certain prescribed ritual acts (Pærregaard 1987:25, Salomon 1995:329). Indeed, some of these ritual gestures may have implied the building of particular structures. In this line of thought, chullpas have been argued to be ‘drying structures’ specifically designed to allow the preservation of the bodies in a mummified state (Sillar 1996). In other occasions, the expected outcome was that of obtaining bare bones “cleansed of flesh” (Allen 1988:62).

  Such associations between death and wet (fluid) and dried (desiccated) substances is all pervasive in Andean thought and have implications in a wide range of contexts that can only be separated with analytical purposes. Another manifestation of these perceptions attains the fundamental role of the dead as providers of water and their

  opposing but necessary connection to heat and burning (e.g. Bastien 1978, Harris 1982, Gose 1994). In this context, particularly interesting is the paradoxical association of burning and death in one side, and the almost inexistence of cremation practices, in the other. In relation to this, Peter Gose has argued that cremation has not been widely practiced in the Andes because “it violates the idea that the dead should be dried out in the underworld, to provide the living with water” (Gose 1994:130). Again, a particular mode of decomposition of the body ( to dry out in the ‘underworld’) has clear outcomes in terms of the necessary role of the dead in the lives of Andean communities, as it is only by these means that water will return to the living. According to Gose (1994:129), it is likely that the opposition of fire and water connotes as an implicit reference to the reduction process experienced by the soul of the deceased. So too Harris has sustained that water is antithetical to souls, for what their encounter might be particularly harmful during the rainy season (Harris 1982:59). Also, the exposed bones of the dead are thought to be the cause of draughts (Tschopik 1968:167) and as they are considered unable to cross water flows without help, water is seen as an effective means of separation between the living and the dead (Harris 1982:55). Interestingly, some places conceptually connected with dead coincide with naturally dried areas such as Mount Qoropuna, located in the arid western slope of the Peruvian Andes (Gose 1994:129). Without mediating any inconsistencies, desiccated human flesh is thought to be a good remedy for particular illnesses, alternatively the person might be cured by drinking the water in which the deceased’s clothes were washed (Tschopik 1951).

  The associations of death and burnt matter are also intricate and prolific. Almost every account of funerary rituals during historical and present times describe the burning of the possessions of the deceased (objects and food) and the ‘opposed’ activity of

  washing of the clothes of the dead as two of the main ritual performances during mourning (e.g. Tschopik 1951, Carter 1968, Gose 1994). Ambrosetti argues that the fire is the vehicle commonly used to establish a communication with the souls in the Andean regions (Ambrosetti 1967:140) and the burning of offerings is one particular manner through which this contact is accomplished (e.g. Bastien 1978:147, but see Allen 1988:164). Fire is the medium through which food as well as personal belongings are passed to the spiritual realms (Carter 1968:244, Gose 1994:143). The extirpators of idolatries recorded that if the fire sparkled, it was interpreted as a signal of the ancestors being hungry and different foods were thus thrown into it (Arriaga, cited in Fernández Juárez 2006:167). From other sources we learn that the food offered and eaten during these rituals has to be well-cooked and sometimes following specific rules (Bastien 1995:369). For example, maize may be cooked together with the cobs so that the grains remain “hard and dry inside” (Gose 1994:143-144). Furthermore, the soups eaten by the dead are said to be made of ashes (Arguedas, cited in Gose 1994:278). Pertaining to the inversion process of death, while the food offered to the dead must be baked and cooked (see Allen 1988:164) the living eat their food without salt or pepper (Guaman Poma de Ayala 1615: 292, 298, Salomon 1995:330) that is, without ‘metaphorical’ heat. Furthermore, the abstinence of eating chili pepper by the living is clearly opposed to the belief that the dead cultivate chili pepper in their fields making of this land of the dead a place of ‘heat’ (see Harris 1982:52, 62).

  Placing fires in the proximities of the cadaver and by opposition the abstinence of lighting fires in the household was also conceived as an effective means of warding off the spirits of the dead (e.g. Cobo, cited in Rowe 1946:286, Karsten 1932:194, Paerregaard 1987:25, Salomon 1995:331). Among some contemporary Andean

  communities the dead are buried with a candle (a burning charcoal?) to illuminate the “nighttime trip” through the underground rivers of the mountains (Bastien 1978:174). Ashes, as one material outcome of fire, have too a principal role in the rituals associated with death as for example, they were commonly scattered at the doorway of the houses the night of the mourning to detect the footprints of the deceased’s ‘spirit’ which was expected to return (Bandelier 1910:8, Carter 1968:242, Salomon 1995:330). These were also frequently examined to determine the causes of sickness or future deaths (Tschopik 1951:202, 214). As it will be discussed, the various conceptual associations between death, heat and dryness and the material outcomes of the action of fire -ashes and charcoals- posit attractive implications in the analysis of various evidences registered in NW Argentina.

  This chapter has dealt with several important topics. The symbolic and social implications of enclosure and confinement of the dead have been revised and their material outcomes discussed as potential evidences to be traced in the archaeological record of Andean societies. The meaningful associations forwarded by the materiality of earth, stones and clay in the Andean thought have been explored to built on the possible meanings of these materials as repositories of the dead. Finally, diverse connotations of the processes of drying and burning in the context of death and burial have been reviewed. Focusing on these indigenous perceptions, the following chapter will explore these topics with regards to selected examples of ancient funerary rites in NW Argentina.