Chimu Indians the Fifteenth-Century Spanish Travelers Who

¶ … Chimu Indians

The fifteenth-century Spanish travelers who embarked on voyages of discovery and conquest in the Americas expected to encounter primitive savage races. Instead, they found advanced civilizations with intricately designed cities, complex social hierarchies and accurate methods of calculating calendars. But despite this evidence, the Spaniards used the differences between the two sets of cultural beliefs and practices as proof of the inferiority of the Andean civilizations. Because of this backwardness, the Spanish believed that colonization was needed to bring "civilization" to the new world. Susan Ramirez described this Eurocentrism as a "disregard of others' cultures and identities" (Ramirez, 10-11).

This paper applies Ramirez's critique of Eurocentrism by looking at the civilization of the Chimu, a powerful coastal kingdom in Northern Peru. By looking at the Chimu religion and social structure - as evidenced in their ceramic art and in their architecture - this paper posits that the Chimu were a people with a rich and complex civilization even before the Spanish conquerors arrived.

By the time of the Spanish conquest, various aspects of the Chimu culture were still evident among the resettled Chimu and the former Chimu territories along the coast of Peru. In fact, many of the coastal territories continued to use the Chimu language yunca, a term which eventually became identified with the Chimu descendents (Mason 102).

The Chimu had no written language and their cultural practices included sodomy and ritual sacrifice, customs that the Inca and the Spaniards found abhorrent. According to Ramirez's formulation, these differences in values and worldviews left the Spaniards blind to the Chimu's mastery of gold and silver artisanship and the engineering skill that went into the complex irrigation programs that watered Chimu urban dwellings.

Chimu background

The Chimus were the immediate predecessors of the Incas. Their civilization lasted from circa 1100 AD to 1400 and flourished along Peru's northern coast. The Chimu state was characterized by conquest and expansion periods during the late 13th and early 14th centuries. At its height, the Chimu Empire stretched across 620 square miles (Crow 24).

Chimu conquest led to their domination over neighboring states such as Chancay. In the mid-15th century, however, a quest for expansion to the south led to conflicts with the Inca Empire. The Chimu were overwhelmed by the Inca in a yearlong war beginning 1475. The entire Chimu state was then absorbed. The nobility and skilled artisans were resettled in the city of Cuzco to serve their new Inca rulers (von Hagen 162).

The Chimu were well-known for an elaborate irrigation system that brought in a great amount of water into an otherwise arid land. This irrigation system gave rise to an agricultural system and allowed the Chimu to build and congregate in large urban centers. One irrigation canal, for example, stretched for 20 miles to bring water to the capital city of Chan. This irrigation system, however, also proved to be their Achilles heel. To weaken their enemies, the Incas destroyed the canals, depriving Chimu states of water (von Hagen 119).

Aside from agriculture, the Chimu were also craftspeople who produced textiles, silver, gold and copper objects. Their as ceramics and pottery, while not artistically accomplished as other Andean civilizations, depicts many scenes from Chimu daily life (Mason 103). Because the Chimu did not have a written language, much of the scholarship on their religion and social structures are inferred from the artifacts and architecture that they left behind.

Chimu religion

The October 2002 discovery of 200 mummified remains of fishermen in Huarmey, Peru confirms that the Chimu practiced ritual sacrifices. The fishermen were members of a fertile seaside valley conquered by the Chimu in 1350. The sacrificial victims were stabbed in a mass killing then offered as tribute to the sea god Ni (Ryan, "Peru find 200 fishers...").

The archeological find confirms that the Chimu were part of a long religious tradition that included human sacrifice. Archeologists believe that as the Chimu Empire prospered, there was a corresponding increase in the scale and frequency of these human sacrifices (Ryan).

The discovery of the mass killings also confirms earlier evidence of human sacrifices when the skeletons of several young women were found inside the tombs of nobility. Such finds, however grisly, show that the Chimu had the concept of an afterlife and sought to curry favor with the gods through an ultimate sacrifice.

Unlike the Incas, the Chimu were moon-worshippers, a trait common to the coastal-dwelling peoples (Leicht 63). Religion often grows out of a need to explain the unknown. Following this need, the Chimu anthromorphized objects in nature for veneration.

The moon was a natural choice for worship, since as a coastal people, the Chimu readily observed the moon's phases and its influence on the tides. In addition, the Chimu believed that the stars were gods as well. The Chimu were dependent on water, giving rise to the god Ni and a host of other sea-spawned creatures which needed to be kept appeased. Every unexplained phenomenon was attributed to a god (von Hagen 105-106).

Like many ancient peoples, the Chimu practiced a form of totemism, believing that every object in nature - from rocks to trees to animals - possessed both sentience and a soul. In contrast to the Judeo-Christian notion giving humans dominion over the world, the Chimu saw themselves as part of the sphere of animals (von Hagen 106).

In labeling the Chimu and the yunca as primitive because of their religious beliefs, the Spanish conquerors and missionaries ignored several important parallels between the Chimu and Judeo-Christian beliefs.

First, the elaborate Chimu burial rituals, at least for rulers and nobility, implied a belief in life after death. The Chimu believed that their dead should carry with them the possessions - pots, cups, weapons - that they would need in the afterlife. The dead were also wrapped in shrouds signifying their rank in life (Leicht 74). These practices facilitate the continuity of life, a belief that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Christian concept of the immortal soul.

Like the Incas, the Chimu also believed in the Hauqui, a friendly shadow which provided people with friendship and good counsel (von Hagen 106). Again, this belief in friendly spirits is akin to the Christian concepts of guardian angels, a fact that the Spaniards, in their Eurocentrism, failed to recognize.

Social Organization

Early Spanish chroniclers of pre-conquest Peru described the ten main tribes, further subdivided into groups of a thousand under the command of a native chieftain. These subgroups were further divided into hundreds and tens. The cornerstone of this military and tribal organizations was the Ayllu, an Indian word for the family group or clan (Leicht 79).

The pre-Inca Chimus were a clan-based people. Like the ancient Romans, they had patriarchal clan names which were handed down from father to son. Each clan within a Chimu kingdom was allotted its own domicile and communal farm. The various clans venerated their own deities and celebrated their religious feasts. Like the Spaniards, the Chimus also observed bans on consanguinity ties. Marriage between two people from the same Ayllu was strictly forbidden (Leicht 81).

Many of the laws governing Chimu societies seemed harsh by the standards of the Spanish colonizers. Theft, for example, could be punishable by death. Chimu pottery shows people with amputated hands and feet, also a punishment for petty robbery. In addition, the robber loses all clan rights and is condemned to a life of slavery (von Hagen 93). Though severe, the punishment serves the interests of the clan. Because Chimu life is communal, theft is unnecessary, an aberration that destabilizes clan life. It is therefore dealt with in harsh terms.

On the other hand, and to the Spaniards' consternation, sexual intercourse between unmarried Chimu was completely acceptable. This practice continued in the former Chimu coastal territories after the Inca conquest and depicted in several Chimu pottery and ceramic wares. Spanish missionaries, in particular, sought to end sexual practices such as fornication and sodomy but were unsuccessful (Leicht 93-94).

Again, a different worldview as described by Ramirez would paint this behavior as evidence of "lower morals." However, it should be noted that the Chimu dealt harshly with adulterers. Fornication was harmless but adultery and its potential for conflict were deemed harmful to the clan.

Thus, people who commit adultery were thrown over cliffs and plunged into the sea (Leicht 94).

The Chimu kingdoms functioned as theocracies, where the dead rulers were venerated as demigods in an elaborate form of ancestor worship. Therefore, defiling a ruler's grave or temple is blasphemy, perceived as an attack on the whole clan. A person deemed blasphemous was therefore buried alive among the bones of previous offenders, protecting the rest of the clan against their actions (Leicht 94).

These punishments appeared harsh, but they mirrored the barbarity of hangings, wheel racks and horse quartering practiced in Europe well into the 18th century. Also, the Chimu practiced a form of socialized justice, where offenses which could be pardoned in common citizens were inexcusable when committed by chieftains. Any chieftain found guilty of theft would be immediately put to death (Leicht 94).

This higher standard was also applied to physicians who, by virtue of their healing craft, were venerated in Chimu society. The physicians or Oquetlupucs, were richly rewarded for curing the sick. However, should a patient die due to a physician's carelessness, the Oquetlupuc was bound to the corpse. The dead patient was then buried, while the physician was left aboveground, to be devoured by vultures (Leicht 92).

These laws governing social interaction all point to the importance Chimu society placed on the clan. This clan-based organization translated to the larger Chimu groupings, as seen in the capital city of Chan.

Chan Chan

To paraphrase Plato, Chan is the Chimu clan writ large against the sky. Much of today's scholarship on Chimu life is inferred from the remains of Chan, the largest city in South America before the arrival of the Spanish. The city was built between the 9th and the 15th centuries. It covered nine square miles and served as the seat of power of the Chimu Empire (Mason 101).

Chan Chan served as the seat of the Chimu Empire's craft gold and silver craft production, making it the wealthiest city in addition to the largest. By the late 15th century, however, the Inca conquerors had plundered Chan Chan's wealth and relocated its artisans to Cuzco. Spaniards led by Francisco Pizarro further plundered Chan in 1470. Grave robbers continued to dig for treasures well into the 19th century (Leicht 166).

The remaining adobe walls and structures of Chan, however, reveal valuable insight into Chimu social organization. Archeologists have learned that the great city is composed of nine rectangular palace complexes, called ciudadelas.

Each ciudadela contained temples, cemeteries, food and supply reservoirs and symmetrically arranged rooms (Kubler 402). They served as the living quarters of the reigning Chimu king. Upon the ruler's death, the ciudadela became the burial place and also served as a shrine, where citizens venerated the departed ruler's soul.

Archeologists theorize that the architectural layout of Chan mirrors the social caste system that governs Chimu society. The Chimu instituted a strict social hierarchy, since the nobility and the common citizens were believed to have descended from different gods (Leicht 62).

This division was reflected in the way living quarters were arranged in Chan.

The center of Chan, however, was the reigning royal palace, which housed not only the king but also other members of the high nobility. Various nobles held office in building around the palace grounds, overseeing the collected tributes and managing the production of goods in the barrios.

The current ciudadela was the focal point of Chan Chan's political, administrative and religious power. In addition, the ciudadela in Chan was also the central storehouse for tributes paid by other kingdoms and conquered territories of the Chimu Empire.

In addition to the living and administrative quarters, the ciudadelas also had ceremonial squares which were open to the public. These areas were later converted to burial platforms after the king's death. In addition, the public areas also housed smaller offices termed audiencias, where members of the nobility conducted business with the public. These scenes are often depicted in Chimu pottery. Archeologists posit that these audiences were a requirement for people who needed access to the food or other supplies kept in the palace storehouses. These audiencias may also have served as small temples, judging by the sacred imagery decorating the walls (Leicht 163-165).

Upon the king's death, his ciudadela was converted into a royal mausoleum. His wealth, including precious gold and silver, were stored inside the ciudadela, along with the bodies of hundreds of sacrificed young women. Both practices were meant to curry favor with the gods on behalf of the nobleman, and to ensure that the dead king has his wealth and the necessary tools for use in the afterlife. A cult was established to care for the dead king's mausoleum and shrine. Upon his death, the ruler assumed a divine status. (McIlveen, "A catacomb of palace...") His replacement king, meanwhile, will continue to rule from the new ciudadela.