The Creation - A Tiahuanaco/Aymara Myth (Bolivia)

1. The Creation - A Tiahuanaco/Aymara Myth (Bolivia) Alisa Granada, Annika Nosal, Eleni Kent, Sevan Dulgarian, Katie Luczai

2. Basic Details of Story • Lord Con Ticci Viracocha created Earth and the heavens, as well as the first people. When they displeased him, he flooded the Earth and started over again. • First, he created nature and animals. • Then he created humans out of stone and divided them into groups and communities with the help of his companions. • Taught them how to live on the land.

3. Humans' relationship to the gods: -Lord Con Ticci Viracocha originally created a "race of gigantic human beings who lived upon the earth in the darkness of eternal night", yet was angered by the behavior of the race and turned them to stone and created a great flood to wipe out everything. - He organized the new humans into groups with their own allotted languages, types of food, etc. -Viracocha became a teacher to humans, but when a group attacked him, he taught them a lesson. -After his work was done, he and his followers walked across the ocean and withdrew from mankind.

4. The origin and nature of control and power. Lord Con Ticci Viracocha set the moon and sun on their paths, and used punishment to hold control over the humans: • "Punished first human beings by turning them into stone...created a great flood" • "One group of people emerged armed with rocks... and attacked [Viracocha]. He "punished them by causing fire to fall from the heavens" • "These people constructed a great stone figure of Viracocha. They established a place of worship...Their descendants continue to present offerings of gold and silver"

5. The nature of the world and how it works. • Viracocha created people in all phases of life; divided all of the humans into communities with their own distinct ways of life • Taught people how to live on the land and treat each other with kindness and respect • Showing his power and control, Viracocha punished those whose disturbed the peace in the world teaching them to obey him

6. The two sexes' relationship to one another. • Creation of woman first. • Marriage is not mentioned, but rather, Viracocha created pregnant women and women "in the process of caring for young children." • Importance of women and children in Bolivian culture • Men are present, but less emphasized

7. Elements of Culture in the story • Viracocha is both a creator and a civilizer, shaping order out of chaos and teaching his humans to respect their god. • Community is also emphasized by the way in which humanity is divided into groups. • Humans are seen as the creation into which Viracocha put the most effort, having already tried and failed once, and waiting until he was finished with all other life to make them.

8. Connections to Art and Music • When Viracocha first created the different groups of humans, he gifted to them certain aspects of their cultures, including "the songs [each group] would sing." • Later, when Viracocha awed the people living at Tiahuanaco with his power, they made a great stone statue of their creator and established a place of worship upon the site.

9. Something to discuss: Although Viracocha is portrayed as a powerful prince and creator-god, he is not perfect. Instead, through the course of the legend, it is evident that he has learned and changed in light of his experiences. -In what kind of culture would it be more important to have an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-perfect god? What kind of culture would prefer a creator with human-like flaws, one that learns from mistakes?