Chavín: How Do We Understand Thee? An Inquiry into the Jaguar and the San Pedro Cactus
Sara Castro‐klarén
Revista de estudios hispánicos 2021 DOI: 10.1353/rvs.2021.0041 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mescaline |
| Keywords | Iconography Architecture Civilization Cactus Rock art Mainstream Anthropology Art history Archaeology Theology |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Argues that without deploying Inca categories such as huaca, ayllu, and tinku, Chavín de Huántar would remain unintelligible. |
Abstract
This essay surveys the archeological understanding of Chavín de Huántar (900 BC-AD 0) conducting an inquiry into the means of intelligibility offered by archeology and finding that without the deployment of Inca civilization categories of huaca, ayllu, tinku, and others, Chavín would remain shrouded in darkness. Here, I delve into the problematic question of the consumption of the mescaline cactus San Pedro with regard to the art and meaning of Chavín. This article brings up five key problems pertaining to our understanding of Chavín. First, was Chavín a huaca/oracle? What is the link between monumental architecture and "religion?" How is religious authority acquired and deployed in the Andes? How do we interpret Chavín's art and architecture without deploying Inca cosmology? Of what does Chavín's iconography speak?
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mescaline, most cited first.
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|---|---|---|---|
| Schizophrenia: A New Approach. II. Result of a Year's Research | 1954 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Thought insertion as a self-disturbance: An integration of predictive coding and phenomenological approaches | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Entactogens: How the Name for a Novel Class of Psychoactive Agents Originated | 2022 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Steric and Electronic Relationships among Some Hallucinogenic Compounds | 1970 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| EFFECT OF DRUGS One individual | 1952 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | n = 1 |