Postmortem/postpartum : the intersection between fertility and Mochican ancestral power

With no written record, the religious beliefs of the Pre-Columbian Mochica civilization are much of a mystery. This paper attempts to decipher the position of the deceased Mochicans, also known as ancestors, within the society as a whole. It discusses the ways in which we can use multiple sources of information, archaeological, iconographic, ethnohistoric and ethnographic to learn about the various aspects of Mochican culture. Specifically I will use these methods for collecting data to examine at how the Mochica viewed their deceased and to argue that part of the Mochica religious system granted their dead a supernatural ability to control human and agricultural fertility. This power would give Mochican ancestors a significant place within the society.

Pottery from the Aleutian Islands / George I. Quimby, Curator of Exhibits, Department of Anthropology.

v.36:no.1(1945)

Historic Ingalik settlements along the Yukon, Innoko, and Anvik Rivers, Alaska / James W. VanStone, Curator, North American Archaeology and Ethnology, Field Museum of Natural History.

v.72(1979)

A seriation of the late prehistoric Santa Maria culture of northwestern Argentina / Ronald L. Weber, Field Museum of Natural History.

v.68:no.2(1968)

An early archaeological example of tattooing from northwestern Alaska / James W. VanStone, Curator, North American Archaeology and Ethnology, Field Museum of Natural History, and Charles V. Lucier, Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game.

v.66:no.1(1974)

Early Intermediate and Middle Horizon ceramic styles of the Cuzco Valley / Brian S. Bauer, Bradford M. Jones.

n.s. no.34(2003)

Killke and Killke-related pottery from Cuzco, Peru, in the Field Museum of Natural History / Brian S. Bauer, Charles Stanish.

n.s. no.15(1990)

Three Etruscan painted sarcophagi / by F.B. Tarbell -- ; Berthold Laufer --

v.6:no.4(1917)

An osteological study of Nasca trophy heads collected by A.L. Kroeber during the Marshall Field Expeditions to Peru / Sloan R. Williams, Kathleen Forgey, Elizabeth Klarich.

n.s. no.33(2001)

Ethnological and biogeographical significance of pottery sherds from Nissan Island, Papua New Guinea / Susan Kaplan, Bryn Mawr College.

v.66:no.3(1976)

Villages before aggregation : the Merrigan Site (LA 110971), a developmental period hamlet, El Rancho, New Mexico / Winifred Creamer, Jonathan Haas.

n.s. no.35(2003)

An analysis of Santa María urn painting and its cultural implications / Ronald L. Weber.

n.s. no.2(1981)

The Simms Collection of Plains Cree material culture from southeastern Saskatchewan / James W. VanStone, Curator, North American Archaeology and Ethnology, Dept. of Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History.

n.s. no.6(1983)

Excavations in the upper Little Colorado drainage, eastern Arizona / [by] Paul S. Martin [and] John B. Rinaldo.

v.51:no.1(1960)