Introduction

Consisting of seven sections, this module focuses on the captivating Quechua culture rooted in the remotest regions of the Peruvian Andes. The discussion of the evolutionary theories about the origin and development of Quechua culture has been supplemented with myths and legends from the oral tradition which have been enhanced with photographs, music, personal accounts and other media. The module also includes a selected bibliography which should prove quite useful to those who wish to further explore the subject.

Andean Quechua Culture

The legend of the Ñawpa Machus or ancient kinfolk

At the dawn of creation, before the powerful Inca, there lived on the Earth a lineage of little men called ñawpa machus. Back then, the little men lived in darkness, since their only source of light was the tenuous moonlight.

Moche iconic art (Northern Peru)

Upon the arrival of the Inca or Children of the sun, the ñawpa machus, who could not stand the brightness nor the heat of the sun, fled with their animals and their costly belongings and settled in the jungle, where the rays of the sun could not reach them. Nevertheless, as they made their escape, many of them where caught by the sunlight, which reduced them to ashes on the spot.

It is said that their scattered ashes turned into boulders and hills, where their malevolent souls dwell. Of course, not all the little men were annihilated; there were some that succeeded in hiding before the sunlight reached them by burrowing into the ground, holing themselves up inside hills or diving into the bottom of lakes-from whence they will return to rule the Earth once the Inca era comes to an end.

Compiled by Odi Gonzales

© 2001 The National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland.
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Last update: May 29, 2007.
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