Pacha (Inca mythology)

The pacha (Quechua pronunciation: [pætʃæ]) is an Andean cosmological concept associating the physical world and space with time, and corresponding with the concept of space-time.

The literal meaning of the word in Quechua is "place". Pacha can have various meanings in different contexts, and has been associated with the different stages and levels in the progressive development of the cosmos towards discontinuity and differentiation of forms, and attributed as encoding an Inca concept for dividing the different spheres of the cosmos akin to 'realm' or 'reality'. This latter interpretation, disputed by some scholars since such realm names may have been the product of missionaries' lexical innovation (and, thus, of Christian influence), is considered to refer to "real, concrete places, and not ethereal otherworlds".

In contemporary Quechuan languages, pacha means "place, land, soil, region, time period". The use of the word for both spatial and temporal reference has been reconstructed, with the same meaning, to proto-Quechuan *pacha. There is no etymological link between pacha and the proto-Quechua terms *paʈʂak ("one hundred"), or *paʈʂa ("belly"), nor the southern Quechua term p'acha ("clothes"). Whether the word is used with reference to its spatial or temporal meaning is depending on context, as in pacha chaka ("earth bridge") or in ñawpa pacha, which means "the ancient times" (literally "the times of the ancestors").

In Classical Quechua, the word seems to have meant "world" or "universe" when not associated with other words. It was often present in important proper names in Andean pre-Hispanic cultures such as the theonym ⟨Pachacamac⟩ pacha kama-q ("universe's supporter, world's creator", or "the one who animates the soil") or ⟨Pachacuti⟩ pacha kuti-y ("world's turning").

In Pre-columbian times, the term pacha designated a specific cultural concept, which is difficult to translate into European languages. Anthropologist Catherine J. Allen translates pacha as "world-moment", and scholar Eusebio Manga Qespi has stated that pacha can be translated as "spacetime".

In the pre-Columbian Andean world, the conception of time was associated with space, both collectively called pacha (earth, soil), which was in continual development toward order and toward "functional differentiation and discontinuity of forms, factors of complementarity rather than rivalry, therefore of peace and productivity". However, rather than representing a state of constant change or progress it represented a "punctuated equilibrium" and order, interrupted by moments of radical change.

The cosmos did not have exclusively spiritual realities, since "material and spiritual [things] belonged to the same sphere of existence and experience". In accordance with the Andean concepts of duality, complementarity and opposition, space-time was conceived in connection to certain events, social relationships, vitality (camaquen), social being, certain huacas (constellations, ancestors, and deities personified in the landscape). There existed various geographic spatio-temporel divisions, with strong political and ideological connotations, in Cuzco and in the Inca Empire, showing the social status and position of groups and places, and influencing the administrative organization of the Andean chiefdoms.

The Inca history of the development of the world was linear, similar to historical narratives, and cyclic, the creation of the world perpetually and symbolically recreating itself.