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Q'ero
Q'ero (spelled Q'iru in the official three-vowel Quechua orthography) is a Quechua-speaking community or ethnic group dwelling in the province of Paucartambo, in the Cusco Region of Peru.
The Q'ero became more widely known due to the 1955 ethnological expedition of Dr. Oscar Nuñez del Prado of the San Antonio Abad National University in Cusco, after which the myth of the Inkarrí was published for the first time. Nuñez del Prado first met the Q'ero at a festival in the town of Paucartambo, about 120 km away.
The Q'ero live in one of the most remote places in the Peruvian Andes. Nevertheless, they were incorporated into the Yabar hacienda, located outside of Paucartambo. With the assistance of advocates from outside of the communities, the hacienda's owners were banished in 1963, and since then the whole area has belonged to the Q'ero. The ground is not very fertile, and the Q'ero live in modest dwellings. They often live in one-room houses not larger than 20 m2, made of clay and natural stone with roofs of hard grass. The area stretches over several climates, with elevations from under 1800 m to over 4500 m. Depending on the climatic zone, maize (corn) and potatoes may be grown, while in high areas llamas are kept. Fields are plowed with a type of foot-plow (chaki taklla).
According to the 10-year census taken by the private U.S. Vanishing Cultures Foundation Inc, there are six major Q'ero villages, which are home for 600 people and approximately 6000 llamas and alpacas. The travel-time on the mountain trails between villages ranges from only an hour up to a full three-days of travel.[citation needed] The two villages Hatun Q'ero and Hapu Q'ero are located above 4000 m in elevation and about a day's walk away from each other. The lower areas of the community are inhabited seasonally, in order to till the fields; accordingly, the housing there consists of temporary huts made of clay and branches (chuklla).
Over the past ten years, dozens of Peruvian and international NGOs have engaged with the Q'ero in efforts to improve education, health, access to potable water and electricity, and to preserve their cultural heritage. The success of these projects varies.
The Q'ero practice an active tradition of oral literature, with stories being passed down from generation to generation. Some Cusco anthropologists and spiritual pilgrims believe that the Q'ero are the direct descendants of the Inca. According to Q'ero mythology, their ancestors defended themselves from invading Spanish conquistadores with the aid of local mountain deities (apus) that devastated the Spanish Army near Wiraquchapampa by creating an earthquake and subsequent rockslide that buried the Spanish invaders.
The Q'ero do not practice any particular religion, though they are highly spiritual. Their beliefs are not dogmatic like those of many organized religions. Some of the Q'ero have been converted to Christianity by a wide variety of missionaries that have visited their homeland. Some may argue that their beliefs are syncretic, consisting of the traditional spiritual beliefs of Andean peoples with a small mixture of Christianity. The Q’ero have both mystical and shamanic traditions. They call their spiritual leaders paqos, a term that may be translated as 'priest' or 'practitioner'. A major distinction between mystics and shamans is that shamans enter a trance state which is induced by either a medicinal plant, dancing, drumming, meditation, or some other type of transformational activity that allows the practitioner to transcend into a trance-like state in order to heal or diagnose disease. Among the Q'ero, there are two main levels of paqos: altumisayuq and pampamisayuq. The Q'ero worship the "Cosmic Mother", Pachamama, which may mean the entire universe or, as some would say, Mother Nature, in addition to other mountain spirits, called apus, e.g. Ausangate (Apu Awsanqati), Salkantai (Apu Salkantai).
Current research on shamanic practices is conducted by anthropologist Anna Przytomska from Adam Mickiewicz University, who has written that the relationship between apus and humans is based on two main schemes: predation and reciprocity.[citation needed]
Q'ero
Q'ero (spelled Q'iru in the official three-vowel Quechua orthography) is a Quechua-speaking community or ethnic group dwelling in the province of Paucartambo, in the Cusco Region of Peru.
The Q'ero became more widely known due to the 1955 ethnological expedition of Dr. Oscar Nuñez del Prado of the San Antonio Abad National University in Cusco, after which the myth of the Inkarrí was published for the first time. Nuñez del Prado first met the Q'ero at a festival in the town of Paucartambo, about 120 km away.
The Q'ero live in one of the most remote places in the Peruvian Andes. Nevertheless, they were incorporated into the Yabar hacienda, located outside of Paucartambo. With the assistance of advocates from outside of the communities, the hacienda's owners were banished in 1963, and since then the whole area has belonged to the Q'ero. The ground is not very fertile, and the Q'ero live in modest dwellings. They often live in one-room houses not larger than 20 m2, made of clay and natural stone with roofs of hard grass. The area stretches over several climates, with elevations from under 1800 m to over 4500 m. Depending on the climatic zone, maize (corn) and potatoes may be grown, while in high areas llamas are kept. Fields are plowed with a type of foot-plow (chaki taklla).
According to the 10-year census taken by the private U.S. Vanishing Cultures Foundation Inc, there are six major Q'ero villages, which are home for 600 people and approximately 6000 llamas and alpacas. The travel-time on the mountain trails between villages ranges from only an hour up to a full three-days of travel.[citation needed] The two villages Hatun Q'ero and Hapu Q'ero are located above 4000 m in elevation and about a day's walk away from each other. The lower areas of the community are inhabited seasonally, in order to till the fields; accordingly, the housing there consists of temporary huts made of clay and branches (chuklla).
Over the past ten years, dozens of Peruvian and international NGOs have engaged with the Q'ero in efforts to improve education, health, access to potable water and electricity, and to preserve their cultural heritage. The success of these projects varies.
The Q'ero practice an active tradition of oral literature, with stories being passed down from generation to generation. Some Cusco anthropologists and spiritual pilgrims believe that the Q'ero are the direct descendants of the Inca. According to Q'ero mythology, their ancestors defended themselves from invading Spanish conquistadores with the aid of local mountain deities (apus) that devastated the Spanish Army near Wiraquchapampa by creating an earthquake and subsequent rockslide that buried the Spanish invaders.
The Q'ero do not practice any particular religion, though they are highly spiritual. Their beliefs are not dogmatic like those of many organized religions. Some of the Q'ero have been converted to Christianity by a wide variety of missionaries that have visited their homeland. Some may argue that their beliefs are syncretic, consisting of the traditional spiritual beliefs of Andean peoples with a small mixture of Christianity. The Q’ero have both mystical and shamanic traditions. They call their spiritual leaders paqos, a term that may be translated as 'priest' or 'practitioner'. A major distinction between mystics and shamans is that shamans enter a trance state which is induced by either a medicinal plant, dancing, drumming, meditation, or some other type of transformational activity that allows the practitioner to transcend into a trance-like state in order to heal or diagnose disease. Among the Q'ero, there are two main levels of paqos: altumisayuq and pampamisayuq. The Q'ero worship the "Cosmic Mother", Pachamama, which may mean the entire universe or, as some would say, Mother Nature, in addition to other mountain spirits, called apus, e.g. Ausangate (Apu Awsanqati), Salkantai (Apu Salkantai).
Current research on shamanic practices is conducted by anthropologist Anna Przytomska from Adam Mickiewicz University, who has written that the relationship between apus and humans is based on two main schemes: predation and reciprocity.[citation needed]