Infusing New Media with Old Beliefs: Dealing with Death in Colonial Cusco

Persistent URL of this record https://hdl.handle.net/1887/21535

In Collections

This item can be found in the following collections:

Archaeology (MA/MSc)

Zantwyk, Heather Rose van (2013)

Infusing New Media with Old Beliefs: Dealing with Death in Colonial Cusco

Master thesis | Archaeology (MA/MSc)

Through the process of cultural ruination, the ancestral cult of the Inka was supposedly lost in exchange for Christian funerary practices. Though there is an outward façade of acculturation in relation to the treatment of death during the Colonial Era in Cusco, Peru, all was not lost. This particular study suggests that through the introduction of Western artistic media, the colonial Inka were able to maintain aspects of their pre-Hispanic belief system. Specifically, this thesis argues that there are distinct parallels between the way the Inka mummies and the practice dynastic portrait paintings that was adopted during the late 16th century.