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PERU
What’s New in Peru?
By Jheri St. James
The
Inca Empire in the western region of South America occupied
what is now Peru, parts of Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina.
It extended some 3,000 miles from north to south, stretching
back between 150 and 250 miles from the narrow Pacific coastal
plain into the high Andes. The name “Inca” refers
to the people of the empire and is also the title of the ruler.
Communications were maintained along brilliantly engineered
and extensive roads, carried over the sheer Andean gorges by
fiber cable suspension bridges. Trained relay runners carried
messages 150 miles a day and the army had quick access to trouble
spots. Restive subject tribes were resettled near Cuzco, the
capital of the Incan Empire. Detailed surveys of new conquests
were recorded by quipo, a mnemonic device using knotted cords,
but writing, like draft animals and wheeled transport, was
unknown; so too was monetary currency. Taxation and tribute
were levied in the form of labor services. In other respects
the culture was highly advanced. At sites such as Machu Picchu
(discovered in 1911), Inca architects raised some of the world’s
finest stone structures; precious metals from government-controlled
mines were worked by skilled goldsmiths and bronze was also
used; ceramic and textile design was outstanding. Agriculture
was based on elaborate irrigation and hillside terracing. Why
was the city built in a remote mountain location? What was
its precise function? How did it remain a secret during 300
years of Spanish rule? The Incas, who claimed to be direct
descendants of the sun, represented the final, splendid phase
of a 3000-year-old culture.
 
The
Spanish domination of the Incas began with the arrival of Francisco
Pizarro (1532), who executed the Incan emperor and conquered
their cities. At first, Pizzaro was held in awe by the natives
as a White God. But within months, lured by the wealth of gold,
Inca cities were ransacked and razed and on the ruins of ancient
temples rose elaborate churches. Spanish rule, based in Lima,
continued until the revolution led by Simon Bolivar and Jose
de San Martin from 1920 to 1924, when Spanish forces were defeated.
Attempts
to redress inequalities or retrench privilege have dominated
Peru’s politics since its independence and throughout
the 20th century. After a dozen years of military rule, Peru
returned to democratic leadership in 1980, but still experienced
economic problems and the growth of a violent insurgency. President
Alberto Fujimori’s election in 1990 ushered in a decade
that saw a dramatic turnaround in the economy and significant
progress in curtailing guerrilla activity. Nevertheless, the
president’s increasing reliance on authoritarian measures
and an economic slump in the late 1990’s generated mounting
dissatisfaction with his regime. Fujimori won reelection to
a third term in the spring of 2000, but international pressure
and corruption scandals led to his ouster by Congress in November
of that year. A caretaker government oversaw new elections
in the spring of 2001, which ushered in Alejandro Toledo as
the new head of government; his presidency has been hampered
by allegations of corruption.
What’s
new in Peru? Most of our soil here at Common Ground 191 comes
from countries with vast histories of warfare—domination,
revolution and bloodshed—the story on most of the terra
firma of our planet. Fortunately, 70 percent is composed of
water, so the conflicts of mankind do not dominate the entire
globe, yet. And of course, below this surface conflict lies
Common Ground, the place where peace always exists, that quiet
place below the turmoil, a new concept perhaps for some.
Peru,
the third largest country in South America, is bordered on
the north by Ecuador and Colombia; on the east by Brazil and
Bolivia; on the south by Chile; and on the west by the Pacific
Ocean. The 1,400-mile long coastal strip, a central mountain
region, and the eastern Amazonian plains are the country’s
main regions. The coastal zone is mainly desert, but the sands
are very fertile when irrigated and the region supports agriculture
and contains about 35% of the population. Most of Peru’s
important cities are also located on the coast. The mountainous
region consists of parallel ranges of the Andes with intervening
deep valleys and mountain bases. Among the lofty peaks in this
part of Peru is Huascaran (22,500 ft.). Straddling the border
with Bolivia is Lake Titicaca at 12,500 ft. above sea level,
the highest navigable body of water in the world. The lush
eastern slopes of the Andes with their heavy rainfall give
way to the dense tropical forests of the eastern plans draining
into the Amazon River, the world’s second-longest river
(3,900 miles).
The
Amazon rises in Andean Peru near the Pacific Ocean and flows
east through the world’s largest equatorial rain forest
to the Atlantic Ocean. It is also the world’s largest
river in volume and drainage area. Its basin drains 40% of
South America, and it has hundreds of tributaries. The rainforests
around the Amazon River are known as the “green lungs” of
South America, and deforestation continues to be the tuberculosis
of human history. We are losing Earth’s greatest biological
treasures just as we are beginning to appreciate their true
value. Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth’s land
surface; now they cover a mere 6%. Most medicine men and shamans
remaining in the rainforests today are 70 years old or more.
Each time a rainforest medicine man dies, it is as if a library
has burned down. When a medicine man dies without passing his
arts on to the next generation, the tribe and the world loses
thousands of years of irreplaceable knowledge about medicinal
plants.
What’s
new in Peru? Deforestation? Hardly. Destruction of the rainforests
is a global activity, hardly singular to Peru. But a real solution
to saving the rainforest is to make its inhabitants see the
forest and the trees by creating a consumer demand and consumer
markets for sustainable rainforest products, markets that are
larger and louder than today’s tropical timber market,
markets that will put as much money in their pockets and government
coffers as the timber companies do, markets that will give
them the economic incentive to protect their sustainable resources
for long-term profits, rather than short-term gain. This new
approach can make a real difference. If every person on the
planet helps create this consumer market and demand for sustainable
rainforest products and resources and demands sustainable harvesting
of these resources using local communities and indigenous tribes,
we can all be part of the solution, and the rainforests of
the world and their people can be saved (see www.rain-tree.com).
At
least 80 percent of the developed world’s diet originated
in the tropical rainforest. Its bountiful gifts to the world
include: fruits—avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, lemons,
grapefruit, bananas, guavas, pineapples, mangos and tomatoes;
vegetables—corn, potatoes, rice, winter squash and yams;
spices—black pepper, cayenne, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves,
ginger, sugar cane, tumeric, coffee, vanilla; and nuts—Brazil
nuts and cashews. The beauty, majesty and timelessness of a
primary rainforest are indescribable. It is impossible to capture
on film, to describe in words, or to explain to those who have
never had the awe-inspiring experience of standing in the heart
of a primary rainforest. Rainforests have evolved over millions
of years to become the incredibly complex environments they
are today.
A
single rainforest reserve in Peru is home to more species of
birds than are found in the entire United States. The number
of species of fish in the Amazon exceeds the number found in
the entire Atlantic Ocean. Scientists have a better understanding
of how many stars there are in the galaxy than they have of
how many species there are on Earth. Estimates vary from two
million to 100 million species, with a best estimate of somewhere
near 10 million; only 1.4 million of these species have actually
been named. Today, rainforests occupy only two percent of the
entire earth’s surface and six percent of the world’s
land surface, yet these remaining lush rainforests support
over half of our planet’s wild plants and trees and one-half
of the world’s wildlife.
“The
worst thing that can happen during the 1980s is not energy
depletion, economic collapses, limited nuclear war, or conquest
by a totalitarian government. As terrible as these catastrophes
would be for us, they can be repaired within a few generations.
The one process ongoing in the 1980s that will take millions
of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity
by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly that
our descendants are least likely to forgive us for” (Edward
O. Wilson, Pulitzer Prize winning Harvard biologist).
*
* *
Our
collector in Peru was Elizabeth Vexelman, who lives in Lima.
Her soil came from Huaca Huallamarca, an historical site. In
ancient Peru, a Huaca could be a river, a tree or a mountain
to whom magical powers were conferred in the belief that therein
dwelled some divinity or ancestor. In the area of the coast,
that designation was specifically used to name some scaled
pyramids. Thanks to scholars and locals, the Huacas have been
left as archaeological vestiges that stand out in the middle
of developed Lima. In the heart of the district of San Isidro
stands the archaeological complex of Huallamarca. Hualla in
the quechua tongue means “uneven” and marca stands
for “village,” because this complex structure is
sustained over spiraled ramps. In 1999, several pieces of pottery
were unearthed, possibly indicating a nearby burial ground.
Many young archeologists are working in all the important Huacas
of Lima.
The Huaca Huallamarca or Pan de Azucar (Sugar Bread)
is an adobe scaled pyramid with an impressive access ramp. The
pyramidal shaped ceremonial center of pre-Incan times contains
an artifact museum. The tombs found in the Huaca Huallamarca
embrace a very long time period, from the 3rd century A.D. to
the coming of the Incas during the 15th century. Apparently,
Huallamarca was a ceremonial center whose access was possibly
restricted to a religious elite, in view of the fact that the
uncovered floors show little wear from use. During the historical
period called the Intermedia Temprano the dead were buried laying
on their backs on mattresses of reeds. Towards the 6th century
A.D. the corpses were put in a fetal position and wrapped in
fine fabrics. During the last stages of the Horizonte Medio,
the dead were wrapped in fardos or bundles with a false head
above, a sort of mask made of painted fabric or wood. Here are
some example of funerary and other art typical of Peruvian Huacas.
But what’s new in Peru? We have examined
ancient history, artifacts of lost civilizations, and the timeless
rainforests. Rather current was the discovery in the 1930’s,
during the first commercial trans-Andean air flights, of giant
ground drawings that cover 400 square miles of southern Peru’s
desert coast. Aviators in those flights saw for the first time
in human history these ancient, acre-sized tracings of hummingbirds,
foxes and condors; a 100 foot man with odd eyes, his raised arms
beckoning, dozens of spirals, zigzags, triangles and trapezoids
and 1,000 miles of long, straight lines crisscross a dry wasteland
that bears an uncanny resemblance to the surface of Mars. Are
they roads, star pointers, gigantic maps? If the people who lived
here 2,000 years ago had only a simple technology, how did they
manage to construct such precise figures? Did they have a plan?
If so, who ordained it?
At Nazca, theories abound about
the lines: some speculate that they represented a solar calendar,
astronomic
observatory, alien landing strip or totems that were invisible
until air flight became a reality. A German mathematician, the
late Dr. Maria Reiche, discovered that the giant figure of a
monkey coincided exactly with the constellation of Ursa Major.
Perhaps the drawings helped the Nascans determine the seasons
of the year. Some believe that these were pre-Inca configurations
made in 800 B.C., and that there are secret underground waterways
associated with them. Some of the pottery found in these areas
has the shape of UFO’s.
What’s new in Peru? Today, esoteric groups
congregate in many areas of this unique country—Machu Picchu,
Cuzco, Nazca, Lake Titicaca—to chant mantras, to talk about
cults and cosmic energy and discuss books such as The Celestine
Prophecy, a novel set in Peru that stirred interest in spiritual
culture. At the full moon, granite stones of the Peruvian ruins
glow. The magic, the myths, the questions are as new today as
when they were first asked, and there seem to be no answers,
new or old.
Elizabeth Vexelman says, “When Gary asked
for volunteers, I just thought I will go to collect a couple
of pounds, and that’s it. But then when the carton arrived,
I realized he would prefer soil from an historical, significant
place.” Her contribution came from the Huaca Huallamarca
historical site. Elizabeth is married to Elias Farhi and is mother
to two children Deborah, 5, and Nicole 3. She has a degree in
public relations and used to work for AT&T. Now she is an
entrepreneur together with her husband, but works as a consultant
in PR every now and then. We say thank you to Elizabeth for her
efforts on behalf of Common Ground 191.
This is new: a lady takes the time
and thought to collect some significant soil from this magical
country of
Peru, ship it back to Laguna Beach, California, and writes to
us about herself and her contribution. New ideas are forming
every day for solutions to Peru’s rainforest challenges.
And of course Common Ground 191 is new—a completely new
concept in art—using world soils as the medium. That’s
what’s new in Peru.
   
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