Pacha (Inca mythology)

The pacha 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".

Definition
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".

Andean cosmological concept
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.

Progressive and cyclic development towards order
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.

The spatio-temporal development of the cosmos was divided into several fundamental stages in the development of the world: the pre-solar era, during which men lived in semi-darkness, which was closed by the event of the arrival of the sun, establishing the alternation between night and day; the solar era, divided into two periods by the advent of the great flood called Unu Pachacuti ("reversal of space-time, or return of time, by water"), a first period where the huacas ruled the Andean states, and a second during which the relations of opposition and complementarity were maintained between the llaqtas, urban spaces, and urqu, uninhabited lands of the mountains, the ancient huaca lords now personifying the natural spaces surrounding and defining the identity of the Andean socio-territorial and political entities; and then the Purum Pacha and the Inka Pacha, the first era being the pre-Incaic age supposedly uncultured and barbaric, and the second being the Incaic era, in which, following the conquests of the Inca Emperor Pachacuti ("world's turning" or "cataclysm") which mark a "sort of "return to square one", after exhaustion of the forces [camaquen] of the era which was ending" and which then became the old era associated with chaos, the Inca empire is charged of the civilizing and ordering mission of the post-diluvian world, notably in order to delay the end and the cyclical restarting of the world.

The chroniclers of the colonial period mentioned various pachas, of different number. According to Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, there were only two, while Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa wrote of three eras, and Felipe Guaman Pima de Ayala of five.

Three realms
According to various anthropologists, historians and linguists there existed two spatio-temporal "realms" or "worlds", called Pacha, in addition to "This Pacha". This postulat is based on Quechua compounds used in colonial sources for Christian concepts pointing to pre-Hispanic use for cosmological concepts. That is the case for hananc pacha or hanan pacha and of ucu pacha or ukhu pacha, which were used for "Christian heaven" and "Christian hell", respectively, since at least the first written Quechua text and first Quechua dictionaries.

These realms are not solely spatial, but simultaneously spatial and temporal. Although the universe would have been considered a unified system within Inca cosmology, the division between the worlds is a part of the dualism prominent in Inca beliefs, known as yanantin. This concept of duality considered everything which existed as having two opposed complementary characteristics ( feminine and masculine, hot and cold, positive and negative, dark and light,  order and chaos, etc.). This dualism between the upper pacha, dominated by the deity of rain, of the sky, of the atmospheric phenomena, of hail, of thunder, and of lightning, Illapa, and the lower pacha, presided by the creator deity Viracocha, institutor of irrigated agriculture, and deity of the subterranean ocean under earth's crust supplying lakes and springs with water, "thus cemented the relationship of opposition and complementarity existing between the inhabitants of each of the two mountain ecological (exploitation) levels".

Hanan Pacha
The compound hanan pacha (lit. "upper pacha"), used for "heaven" in colonial sources, is interpreted as the original name of a cosmological realm that would have included the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars, the planets, and constellations (of particular importance being the milky way). Its Aymara terminological counterpart would have been alax pacha. Hanan pacha would have been inhabited by both Inti, the masculine sun god, and Mama Killa, the feminine moon goddess. In addition to this, Illapa, the god of thunder and lightning, also would have existed in the hanan pacha realm. Attested colonial use of the compound would be a reinterpretarion of a preexisting concept.

Kay Pacha
Kay pacha (Quechua: "this pacha") or aka pacha (Aymara: "this pacha") would have been the perceptible world which people, animals, and plants all inhabit. Kay pacha may have often been impacted by the struggle between hanan pacha and ukhu pacha. This realm would have originally not had the subordination and inferior status in relation to the upper realm that it has in Christian conception.

Ukhu Pacha
In Quechua, ukhu pacha (lit. "inferior pacha") or rurin pacha, a term used for "hell" in colonial sources, would have originally been the inner world. Ukhu pacha would have been associated with the dead as well as with new life. The term would have had as its Aymara counterpart manqha pacha or manqhipacha. As the realm of new life, this dimension is associated with harvesting and Pachamama, the fertility goddess. As the realm associated with the dead, it may have been inhabited by supay. This latter word was used by missionaries to describe Satan, but is interpreted by many anthropologists as the pre-Hispanic name of demon-like creatures which would have tormented the living.

Human disruptions of the ukhu pacha may have been considered a sacred matter, and ceremonies and rituals were often associated with disturbances of the surface. In Inca custom, during the time of tilling for potato crops the disturbance of the soil was met with a host of sacred rituals. Similarly, rituals often brought food, drink (often alcoholic) and other comforts to cave openings for the spirits of ancestors.

When the Spanish conquered the area, rituals about ukhu pacha became crucial in missionary activity and mining operations. Kendall W. Brown contends that the dualistic nature and rituals surrounding openings to ukhu pacha may have made it easier to initially get indigenous laborers to work in the mines. However, at the same time, because mining was considered a perturbation of "subterranean life and the spirits that ruled it; they yielded to sacredness that did not belong to the familiar universe, a deeper and riskier sacredness." In order to insure that the perturbation did not cause evil in the miners or the world, indigenous populations made traditional offering to the supay. However, Catholic missionaries preached that the supay were purely evil and equated them with the devil and hell and thus prohibited offerings. Ritual surrounding ukhu pacha thus retained importance even after Spanish conquest.

Connections between pachas
Although the different realms would have been distinct, there would have been a variety of connections between them. Caves and springs would have served as connections between ukhu pacha and kay pacha, while rainbows and lightning would have served as connections between hanan pacha and kay pacha. In addition, human spirits after death could inhabit any of the levels. Some would remain in kay pacha until they had finished business, while others might move to the other two levels.

Cyclic development
According to other reconstructions, the most significant connection between the different levels was at cataclysmic events called pachakutiy ("world's turning" ). These would have been the instances when the different levels would all impact one another transforming the entire order of the world, and cause and contribute therefore to the cyclic and progressif development of the cosmos. These could come as a result of earthquakes, floods, or of other cataclysmic events.

Criticism
Various historians, anthropologists and linguists are critical of the existence of the concept of Pacha in pre-Colombian Andean thought, which is largely based on the indigenous chronicler Guaman Poma's 1616 chronicle. This chronicler, writing in a particular political context, thought, similarly to Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, that the Inca emperors prepared the Andes to receive Catholicism, comparing events from Andean cosmological development to Western history, notably using the word "flood" to describe Unu Pachacuti, and therefore comparing the destruction of the world by the creator deity Viracocha to the Bliblical flood.

The archeologist Pierre Duviols notes that Guaman Poma, adopting a Western way of thinking, used, along with other chroniclers, the concept of "ages", to describe supposed cycles, which was an important part of Ancient Greek thought. Main criticisms to the conception of pacha appeal to the lack of early colonial written sources in its favor. Other criticisms concern the notion of three realms in Inca cosmology. According to historian Juan Carlos Estenssoro, kay pacha is a missionary neologism, and, while other compounds may have been preexisting, the interpretation of pacha as "realm" could be attributed to Catholic missionaries. Furthermore, the Peruvian linguist Rodolfo Cerrón Palomino attributes the coining of the compounds entirely to Catholic missionaries' lexical planning. According to these criticisms, the spatial-temporal concept of pacha as "era", "stage" or "realm" would be an unjustified anachronistic attribution of Christian beliefs to Andean pre-Hispanic societies. However, many scholars, such as Nathan Wachtel and Juan de Ossio, defend the chronicle of Guaman Poma, and the conception of Pacha in pre-Hispanic times, Gregory Haimovich stating that parts of the work point to the existence of three realms in pre-Hispanic cosmology.