Magic in pre -Columbian cultures
Introduction
Magic appeared simultaneously to the desire to influence supernatural phenomena. With the passage of time, an animistic system was inserted. Pre -Hispanic theology was pantheist and polytheistic, that is, the spirituality of the surrounding natural environment assumed. In that context, they linked cataclys and diseases with the power of their apus (mountain spirits)
The magical-religious conception was the main characteristic of pre-Columbian medicine. The gods had the ability to damage or improve the lives of citizens. The disease according to their beliefs came from these divinities that could damage, possess the individual, penetrate objects, take out the soul, etc.
Developing
Magic, witchcraft and sorcery are words that are necessary to define them;Thus, magic refers to the system of beliefs and ritual practices that act at a distance and that influence natural phenomena;Instead sorcery and witchcraft are powers to damage or do other people.
Pre -Hispanic Andean also related their diseases to the buse of the sorcerers (laikas) prompted by their enemies;Hypocromic lesions of the skin (Khara), anorexia, cocaxia and sexual impotence were attributed to these subjects. Guamán Poma de Ayala has described in detail these practices of sorcerers who harmed using toxic or poisonous substances (Oscar Frisancho Velarde, 2012).
Andean sorcerers prepare flame dolls to those who added some personal effect of their victims (hairs, nails, blood or remains of clothing);In their rites they invoked the bed or upani (soul) of their victims and at the same time punctuated the dolls that represented them with cacti spines. On some opportunities they burned the doll to burn their soul or to send them more misfortunes.
The Nahuas believed in three mood principles: the tonalli, the Teyolía and the íhiyotl, located in the brain, heart and the liver, respectively. The soul that came out of fright was Tonalli, a component of a hot nature that was intimately linked to individual destination;The Teyolía an element considered as the ultimate source of life and director of emotion, action, movement, memory and individual energy, which could be oppressed, turned or devoured, and the íhiyotl, a cold and ethereal entity that, beingAssociated with emotions, it could become harmful to the transgression of moral norms.
There was also Nahualli, a tangible and zoomorphic being that was intimately linked to the life, personality and destiny of the human being.
conclusion
In Mexico it was assumed that the tlacatecolotl or owl man could be transformed into any malefic animal. In addition, by burning wood figures, it caused the breakdown of its victims. Likewise, they were Nahuatl shamans the Teyolloquani ‘Comecorazones and the Teyolopachoanime oppresce hearts.
Finally, the most popular object among pre -Columbian cultures: masks:. Created by the man himself, he had different interpretations: one more face, that was the shield before the unknown;a magical weapon to face the dangers;A new personality carrying forces to face the supernatural, or the mirror that reflects the unconscious of him and that fascinating and scary world at the same time, born of his imagination before the anguish of the limitations themselves.
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