Manuscript used to eradicate Andean thought is now key to revitalizing it
'It has the mythological narratives of one of the least acknowledged original civilizations,’ says professor
*Originally published on Feb. 6, 2023.
The Huarochirí Manuscript is one of the few surviving records of Quechua worldviews from the Andean region of South America in the early modern era.
"The Huarochirí Manuscript is the most important document that we have about the Andean culture that existed before colonization," said Jorge Sanchez-Perez, an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Alberta.
"It is the equivalent to a Bible. It has the mythological narratives of one of the least acknowledged original civilizations of the world … It tells us how people saw the world. And by world, I don't mean planet. I mean reality."
Compiled in the late 16th or early 17th century, the manuscript was once used by the Catholic Church to identify and eradicate "idolatries."
But today, for scholars like Sanchez-Perez, the manuscript is a tool for reconstructing and revitalizing Andean metaphysics.
"Any tool can be a tool for construction or for destruction. It depends on how it's used," he told IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed.
The following excerpt has been edited for length. To hear the full conversation, click 'play' above.
Nahlah: When you were growing up in Peru, how much did you know about this manuscript?
Jorge: Zero. Absolutely nothing. It's not really well known, not even in Peru, where it comes from. I sometimes joke that [in Peru] it is easier to learn about The Critique of Pure Reason by [Immanuel] Kant than it is to learn about the Huarochirí Manuscript.
And why is that?
It's a sad reality, because the goal of the manuscript was to be used as a tool for the eradication of Andean thought in order for it to be replaced with Christian worldviews brought by the Spanish conquerors. And they did an excellent job.
And excellent job in eradicating.
Sadly, yes, they were efficient at that.
Can you talk about how much this document owes its existence to the vengeful actions of one particular Catholic priest?
Sure. We can talk about Francisco de Ávila. He was a priest in the late 1500s and early 1600s. He was an orphan adopted by Spanish parents. And apparently he was a really smart guy.
Let's face it, the Catholic Church had really good training for its practitioners, for the members of the clergy, and he was well trained in different philosophical views. By the end of the 1500s, early 1600s, he assumed the role of eradicator of idolatry in the central region of Peru.
He clearly understood that in order to properly eliminate something, you have to know it. Based on that, he ordered the compilation of the idolatries, or the set of beliefs that people in the Andean region of Huarochirí — Peru, known as Huarochirí — held.
Let's talk about a few of the concepts that are contained within the manuscript, starting with the idea of pacha. What does that mean?
Oof! So this is a concept that can have a vast array of meanings. Why? Because it's so fundamental. But if I have to narrow it down somehow, I would say that it could be translated as something like time and space, but also a point in time and space. So it's about reality as a whole. But you can refer to pacha within a particular context to make further sense of the relationship that you are aiming at describing at the moment.
For example, I can talk about different pachas. There are many pachas, many realities, but they are all connected in a meaningful way. If we assume that reality is a set of relationships where everything is connected to each other, then we can start thinking that we are part of those relationships … And once you accept that reality is a complex set of relationships, then your perception of time also changes.
So how does it change?
Well, many Andean cultures will tell you that the past is in front of you and the future is behind you. Why? Because the past is that which you can see directly. In a sense, you're living in the past because that's the thing that you'll keep on seeing. The future is behind you because you don't really see it, even though you know it's there. But again, if we go back to the point that everything is related, then just because you don't perceive the future doesn't mean that it's not there and it's not there now.
If we talk about the obligations that we may have towards future generations, one of the main concerns that we may find in Western academic debates is, 'Why should we be considering the well-being of people that do not exist yet?' Well, in something like this tradition, you might say, 'They do exist. You just cannot perceive them.'
In chapter three of the manuscript, there's a remarkable conversation between a llama and a human. Can you tell me about that story and what it tells us about human-animal relationships?
Yeah, this is a story that I use with my students about issues surrounding epistemology. But let me just say it like this: If you see a bunch of animals running away from a direction, what would you do?
Run along with them.
Run along with them. They know something you don't.
We have a shepherd who saw his llama being sad. And the shepherd, arrogant as he was, got mad at llama and said, 'You stupid animal, you have the best grass here. And yet you still complain? Why are you sad?' And at that point, the llama basically debased itself in a way, and it started talking in human language and said something like, 'I'm sad because you are too ignorant to realize that you're in danger. We're having a massive flood that's going to kill everything here, and you're still not realizing the danger in which you are right now.' And they escaped to the peak of the mountain where the animals had already been waiting for the catastrophe to happen.
Again, we're talking about relationships. So human-animal relationships are not necessarily those of domination. The world is not there to be subordinated to us, as some interpretations of the Christian tradition have led us to believe in some world. Because the world is this complex set of relationships and you're just part of that. And that includes our relationship with animals. And sometimes It would be wise to pay attention to animals because their relationships allow them to gather information that you may not have access to.
There seems to be a big historical irony in this whole story. You know, this manuscript that was once used to try to eradicate actual world views. Now it can be used to resurrect and revitalize those worldviews. What do you make of that apparent irony?
I wondered the same thing. Because the tool meant for the destruction of an Andean worldview is now our best tool to restore it. And yes, we can say that thanks to that tool, a lot of it was destroyed … But this is a tool so well made, that had to be made to understand what he was trying to destroy, that it is giving us the lessons to recover it. And yeah, the irony is there. And this time with this tool, we might do more.
Any tool can be a tool for construction or for destruction. It depends on how it's used, and in whose hands it's in.
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*This episode was produced by Pauline Holdsworth. Readings in Quechua by Jermani Ojeda-Ludena.
