Túcume is a pre-Hispanic site in Peru , south of the La Leche River on a plain around La Raya Mountain. It covers an area of over 540 acres (220 ha) and encompassing 26 major pyramids and mounds. The area is referred to as Purgatorio ( purgatory ) by local people.
112-455: The site was a major regional center, maybe even the capital of the successive occupations of the area by the Lambayeque / Sican (800-1350 AD), Chimú (1350–1450 AD) and Inca (1450–1532 AD). Local shaman healers ( curanderos ) invoke power of Tucume and La Raya Mountain in their rituals, and local people fear these sites. The vast plains of Túcume are part of the Lambayeque region ,
224-423: A dog cone after he gets stitches in his arm. The PBS Kids animated series Let's Go Luna! centers on an anthropomorphic female Moon who speaks, sings, and dances. She comes down out of the sky to serve as a tutor of international culture to the three main characters: a boy frog and wombat and a girl butterfly, who are supposed to be preschool children traveling a world populated by anthropomorphic animals with
336-402: A one hit wonder on a popular 1990s sitcom Horsin' Around , living off the show's residuals in present time. Multiple main characters of the series are other animals who possess human body form and other human-like traits and identity as well; Mr. Peanutbutter , a humanoid dog lives a mostly human life—he speaks American English , walks upright , owns a house , drives a car , is in
448-405: A romantic relationship with a human woman (in this series, as animals and humans are seen as equal , relationships like this are not seen as bestiality but seen as regular human sexuality ), Diane , and has a successful career in television—however also exhibits dog traits —he sleeps in a human-size dog bed , gets arrested for having a drag race with the mailman and is once forced to wear
560-497: A change in religious ideology and cosmology that expressed the Sican culture. Most importantly, the late Early Sican period saw the accumulation of these changes in art style and iconography, coupled with other changes in organization, by which the Sican constructed monumental adobe structures, developed large-scale copper alloy smelting and metalworking , and developed the elaborate funerary tradition that would come to characterize
672-714: A circus run by their parents. The French-Belgian animated series Mush-Mush & the Mushables takes place in a world inhabited by Mushables, which are anthropomorphic fungi, along with other critters such as beetles , snails , and frogs . Sonic the Hedgehog , a video game franchise debuting in 1991, features a speedy blue hedgehog as the main protagonist. This series' characters are almost all anthropomorphic animals such as foxes, cats, and other hedgehogs who are able to speak and walk on their hind legs like normal humans. As with most anthropomorphisms of animals, clothing
784-426: A greater size than the original, Oldenburg created his sculptures out of soft materials. The anthropomorphic qualities of the sculptures were mainly in their sagging and malleable exterior which mirrored the not-so-idealistic forms of the human body. In "Soft Light Switches" Oldenburg creates a household light switch out of vinyl. The two identical switches, in a dulled orange, insinuate nipples. The soft vinyl references
896-401: A normal dog in other ways; for example, he cannot resist chasing a ball and barks at the mailman, believing him to be a threat. In a similar case, BoJack Horseman , an American Netflix adult animated black comedy series, takes place in an alternate world where humans and anthropomorphic animals live side by side, and centers around the life of BoJack Horseman ; a humanoid horse who was
1008-490: A stage", Fer interprets the artists in Eccentric Abstraction to a new form of anthropomorphism. She puts forth the thoughts of Surrealist writer Roger Caillois , who speaks of the "spacial lure of the subject, the way in which the subject could inhabit their surroundings." Caillous uses the example of an insect who "through camouflage does so in order to become invisible... and loses its distinctness." For Fer,
1120-402: A sub-culture known as furry fandom , which promotes and creates stories and artwork involving anthropomorphic animals, and the examination and interpretation of humanity through anthropomorphism. This can often be shortened in searches as "anthro", used by some as an alternative term to "furry". Anthropomorphic characters have also been a staple of the comic book genre. The most prominent one
1232-494: A thin sheet of low-karat gold alloy , was used to wrap ceramic vessels for the lower elites, while the upper elites had high karat gold alloys. Common laborers only had arsenical copper objects. The precious metal objects then clearly demonstrate a hierarchy within the society (Shimada 2000, p. 56). No evidence of metalworking at the large sites has been uncovered, such as the Middle Sican capital Sican or elsewhere in
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#17327803959341344-449: A way to symbolize their relationship to the divine. The sheer size and grandeur of the monumental mounds built above the elite tombs would have been awe-inspiring to Sicán citizens and a symbol the divine nature of the figures buried below. (Shimada et al. 2004) Colorful murals with religious iconography decorated ceremonial precincts in the temples of the mounds, establishing the sanctity of the ritual space, and reaffirming this connection of
1456-503: A yellow sea sponge , living in the underwater town of Bikini Bottom with his anthropomorphic marine life friends. Cartoon Network 's animated series The Amazing World of Gumball (2011–2019) are about anthropomorphic animals and inanimate objects. All of the characters in Hasbro Studios ' TV series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (2010–2019) are anthropomorphic fantasy creatures, with most of them being ponies living in
1568-468: Is a human activity and to attribute it to nature misconstrues it as humanlike. Modern criticisms followed Bacon's ideas such as critiques of Baruch Spinoza and David Hume . The latter, for instance, embedded his arguments in his wider criticism of human religions and specifically demonstrated in what he cited as their "inconsistence" where, on one hand, the Deity is painted in the most sublime colors but, on
1680-536: Is built on 220 hectares around the La Raya Mountain. Túcume is seen as the reorganization and reunification of the Sican elite and Sican population as a whole until the fall of the Sican to the Chimú. Anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification
1792-562: Is characterized by the establishment of religious cities with monumental temples. The religious capital city and cultural center of the Middle Sicán is referenced as the Sicán Precinct. (Bruhns 1994, p. 293). This T-shaped area is defined by monumental mounds of Huaca Loro, El Moscón, Las Ventanas, La Merced, and Abejas built between around AD 900 and 1050. The pyramidal monumental mounds were used as both burials sites for
1904-768: Is of little or no importance, where some characters may be fully clothed while some wear only shoes and gloves. Another popular example in video games is the Super Mario series, debuting in 1985 with Super Mario Bros. , of which main antagonist includes a fictional species of anthropomorphic turtle -like creatures known as Koopas . Other games in the series, as well as of other of its greater Mario franchise, spawned similar characters such as Yoshi , Donkey Kong and many others . Claes Oldenburg 's soft sculptures are commonly described as anthropomorphic. Depicting common household objects, Oldenburg's sculptures were considered Pop Art . Reproducing these objects, often at
2016-468: Is revealed in varying burial types and practices, along with accompanying grave goods. The most obvious difference in burial type based on social hierarchy was that commoners were buried in simple, shallow graves on the peripheries of the monumental mounds while the elite of Sicán society were buried in deep shaft tombs beneath monumental mounds, as shown in the East and West tombs at Huaca Loro. Secondly, it
2128-577: Is the name that archaeologist Izumi Shimada gave to the culture that inhabited what is now the north coast of Peru between about 750 and 1375 CE. According to Shimada, Sican means "temple of the Moon". The Sican culture is also referred to as Lambayeque culture, after the name of the region in Peru. It succeeded the Moche culture . There is still controversy among archeologists and anthropologists over whether
2240-482: Is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such as nations, emotions, and natural forces, such as seasons and weather. Both have ancient roots as storytelling and artistic devices, and most cultures have traditional fables with anthropomorphized animals as characters. People have also routinely attributed human emotions and behavioral traits to wild as well as domesticated animals. Anthropomorphism and anthropomorphization derive from
2352-472: The Genesis creation myth : "So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them". Hindus do not reject the concept of a deity in the abstract unmanifested, but note practical problems. The Bhagavad Gita , Chapter 12, Verse 5, states that it is much more difficult for people to focus on a deity that is unmanifested than one with form , remarking on
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#17327803959342464-757: The Spanish explorers and conquistadors . The Sican inhabited a coastal territory near the La Leche and Lambayeque Rivers . The archaeological sites span the Lambayeque region, including the Motupe, La Leche, Lambayeque, and Zaña valleys, near modern-day Chiclayo . Numerous sites have been identified in the Batán Grande area of the La Leche Valley. The climate of the area during Sican occupation
2576-617: The Wari Empire and the Middle Cajamarca polity enabled the resurgence in local political and religious identity and autonomy. The Middle Sican culture is marked by distinctive characteristics in six areas: art and ideology, crafts and technology, funerary customs, long-distance trade, religious cities and monumental temples, and the structure and authority of the state (Shimada 2000, p. 52-61; Shimada 1985, p. 365-369). Together, these characteristics provide evidence that
2688-431: The adobe bricks used to make the mounds are indications of the patrons donating materials and/or labor for the construction of the temples (Shimada 2000, p. 60). This construction technique required "large-scale, unified construction with centrally pooled materials and labor force" (Shimada 2000 p. 60). It allowed for rapid erection of monumental buildings while minimizing labor and material investment and promoted
2800-719: The prophets , who explicitly rejected any likeness of God to humans. Their rejection grew further after the Islamic Golden Age in the tenth century, which Maimonides codified in the twelfth century, in his thirteen principles of Jewish faith. In the Ismaili interpretation of Islam , assigning attributes to God as well as negating any attributes from God ( via negativa ) both qualify as anthropomorphism and are rejected, as God cannot be understood by either assigning attributes to Him or taking them away. The 10th-century Ismaili philosopher Abu Yaqub al-Sijistani suggested
2912-697: The 1920s to the present day. In the Disney/Pixar franchises Cars and Planes , all the characters are anthropomorphic vehicles, while in Toy Story , they are anthropomorphic toys. Other Pixar franchises like Monsters, Inc features anthropomorphic monsters and Finding Nemo features anthropomorphic sea animals (like fish, sharks, and whales). Discussing anthropomorphic animals from DreamWorks franchise Madagascar , Timothy Laurie suggests that " social differences based on conflict and contradiction are naturalized and made less 'contestable' through
3024-511: The 1960s, anthropomorphism has also been represented in various animated television shows such as Biker Mice From Mars (1993–1996) and SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron (1993–1995). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , first aired in 1987, features four pizza-loving anthropomorphic turtles with a great knowledge of ninjutsu, led by their anthropomorphic rat sensei, Master Splinter. Nickelodeon 's longest running animated TV series SpongeBob SquarePants (1999–present), revolves around SpongeBob ,
3136-473: The Batán Grande area, but the precious metal objects were clearly for the elites. From their high status sites, the elites supervised the manufacturing of their precious metal objects for ritual or funerary purposes (Shimada and Merkel 1991, p. 86). Excavations of religious sites have revealed much about the funerary practices of the Sicán people. These funerary practices have helped anthropologists understand
3248-550: The Deity. The population of Batán Grande included many skilled artisans. Craft production during the Middle Sican flourished and became one of the leading characteristics of the period. The highly polished black finish ceramics from the Early Sican bloomed in this later phase, along with metallurgy ; however, the ceramic technology used in the Middle Sican developed over 2500 years from local pottery production techniques (Shimada and Wagner 2001, p. 26). Workshops, such as
3360-732: The Hebrew Bible and Christian New Testaments , as well as in the texts of some other religions. Anthropomorphism, also referred to as personification, is a well-established literary device from ancient times. The story of " The Hawk and the Nightingale " in Hesiod 's Works and Days preceded Aesop 's fables by centuries. Collections of linked fables from India, the Jataka Tales and Panchatantra , also employ anthropomorphized animals to illustrate principles of life. Many of
3472-556: The Lambayeque Valley dating to the Sicán. The first type is the T-shaped mound, which is a relatively low mound with a short, central ramp providing direct access to the top of the mound. The second type is a relatively tall mound with steep sides and a zig-zagging ramp to provide circuitous access to the mound top. This second type also featured an enclosed structure at the top of the mound, likely for private rituals, whereas
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3584-435: The Lambayeque region point to the convergence of major factors to allow such an occurrence: accessible ore deposits, extensive forests for hardwood to make charcoal, pottery making tradition using efficient kilns, gold working tradition that formed the basis for later metalworking technology, and a demand for goods by the elites (Shimada, Goldstein, Wagner, Bezur 2007, p. 339). The large number of smelting sites also point to
3696-518: The Late Sican and reflect the revitalization of the religion going back to tradition relationships with nature. Icons include felines, fish, and birds that were secondary to the Sican Deity during the previous era, but were also linked to previous cultures in the area. Sican material culture, such as ceramics and metallurgy, unrelated to religion or politics did not suffer a severe change during
3808-421: The Late Sican since the idea of mounds were not associated with the fall of the Middle Sican, only those mounds in Batán Grande. The same types of ceremonial and religious artifacts made from the same materials were found at Túcume. The site grew enormously during its 250-year Late Sican occupation. By the time of the Chimú conquest of the Lambayeque region in 1375, there were 26 major mounds and enclosures. The site
3920-471: The Middle Sican (Shimada 1985, p. 361). Such changes have been seen by researchers at sites in Batán Grande, including the Huaca del Pueblo site, dated to around 850-900. The Middle Sican period lasted from 900 to 1100 . This is the period of the Sican's "cultural florescence", and is marked by the emergence of various cultural innovations, some of which were unprecedented in the local area. The decline of
4032-429: The Middle Sican to Late Sican transition. Agriculture and irrigation were also not affected by the transition of political and religious power, as evidenced by the lack of effects on Pampa de Chaparri and numerous large urban hill-side settlements. Túcume took on the religious and ceremonial prestige as the site of Sican claimed during the Middle Sican. The mounds and temples from the Middle Sican were continued into
4144-465: The Moche culture prior to the Early Sican, and shows the sharing of cultures in the region. Much of the ceramics were examples of a single spout, loop-handle bottle, featuring an anthropomorphic -avian (bird) face at the spout base. The face consisted of bulging eyes, a hooked beak or triangular projection instead of a nose, stylized ears, and no mouth. It appeared to be a predecessor to the related faces of
4256-414: The Moche culture, which fell around 800. Their works shows shared motifs in the artifacts recovered. Similar groups include Cajamarca , Wari , and Pachacamac . From remains found in the archaeological locations, researchers have determined that this culture maintained commercial exchange with people from present-day Ecuador (shells and snails), Colombia to the north ( emeralds and amber ), Chile to
4368-547: The Rabbit as research. Adams returned to anthropomorphic storytelling in his later novels The Plague Dogs (1977) and Traveller (1988). By the 21st century, the children's picture book market had expanded massively. Perhaps a majority of picture books have some kind of anthropomorphism, with popular examples being The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1969) by Eric Carle and The Gruffalo (1999) by Julia Donaldson . Anthropomorphism in literature and other media led to
4480-536: The Sican Deity It decorates all artistic media of the Sicán, including ceramics, metal works, and textiles. The icon is most commonly represented with a mask face and upturned eyes. Sometimes it may be shown with avian features, such as beaks, wings, and talons, which are evident in Early Sicán ceramics. These avian features are related to Naylamp , the key figure in Sicán mythology. The name "Naylamp"
4592-459: The Sican Deity and the Sican Lord of the Middle Sican culture. (Shimada 2000, p. 51) Aside from the shared ceramic styles, much of the Early Sican defines a distinguishable culture. While the ceramic styles and iconography show some continuity with previous cultures, the combination of all the influences is Sican. The changing ceramic styles, iconography , and funerary practices reflect
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4704-444: The Sicán culture had a highly productive economy, clear social differentiation, and an influential religious ideology. The religious ideology was the underpinning of the structure of their theocratic state. Sicán art is representational in style and religious in nature. Features such as sculptural representation and the minimization of number of colors (one to three), were common among the art of many earlier cultures that flourished on
4816-514: The Tank Engine and other anthropomorphic locomotives . The fantasy genre developed from mythological, fairy tale, and Romance motifs sometimes have anthropomorphic animals as characters. The best-selling examples of the genre are The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955), both by J. R. R. Tolkien , books peopled with talking creatures such as ravens, spiders, and
4928-669: The Willows by Kenneth Grahame (1908); Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928) by A. A. Milne ; and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950) and the subsequent books in The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis . In many of these stories the animals can be seen as representing facets of human personality and character. As John Rowe Townsend remarks, discussing The Jungle Book in which
5040-492: The aging process as the sculpture wrinkles and sinks with time. In the essay "Art and Objecthood", Michael Fried makes the case that " literalist art " ( minimalism ) becomes theatrical by means of anthropomorphism. The viewer engages the minimalist work, not as an autonomous art object, but as a theatrical interaction. Fried references a conversation in which Tony Smith answers questions about his six-foot cube, "Die". Q: Why didn't you make it larger so that it would loom over
5152-407: The amount of labor required by using their method. In modern standards, their copper-alloy smelting was inefficient, which could have led to the high number of workshops with multiple furnaces (Shimada and Merkel 1991, p. 85). The precious metal objects found in Middle Sican sites reveal the unprecedented scale of their production and use. Metal objects permeated all levels of society. Tumbaga ,
5264-476: The anthropomorphic qualities of imitation found in the erotic, organic sculptures of artists Eva Hesse and Louise Bourgeois , are not necessarily for strictly "mimetic" purposes. Instead, like the insect, the work must come into being in the "scopic field... which we cannot view from outside." For branding , merchandising , and representation , figures known as mascots are now often employed to personify sports teams , corporations , and major events such as
5376-650: The area. Their materials came from mainly the northern Andes, such as Ecuador (from the Manteno and Milagro cultures), Peru, Colombia, but could have also reached as far south as the Tiwanaku empire in the south-central Andes and east to the Marañón River , a major tributary of the Amazon River . The Middle Sican trade networks appear to be unprecedented in range and goods involved, which helped to insure
5488-655: The basis of their story. Examples include Squid Girl (anthropomorphized squid), Hetalia: Axis Powers (personified countries), Upotte!! (personified guns), Arpeggio of Blue Steel and Kancolle (personified ships). Some of the most notable examples are the Walt Disney characters Mickey Mouse , Donald Duck , Goofy , and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit ; the Looney Tunes characters Bugs Bunny , Daffy Duck , and Porky Pig ; and an array of others from
5600-450: The black ceramics, while only the social elite had access to the precious metal object; therefore, metalworking probably was given production preference by the elites (Goldsmith and Shimada 2007, p. 47). The greatness of Middle Sican metallurgy was the large-scale smelting and diverse use of arsenical copper , which was more ductile and corrosion-resistant than pure copper. The great amounts of smelting and/or metalworking sites found in
5712-402: The boy Mowgli must rely on his new friends the bear Baloo and the black panther Bagheera , "The world of the jungle is in fact both itself and our world as well". A notable work aimed at an adult audience is George Orwell 's Animal Farm , in which all the main characters are anthropomorphic animals. Non-animal examples include Rev. W. Awdry 's Railway Series stories featuring Thomas
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#17327803959345824-540: The broader organization and structure of Sicán society and religion. Most of the evidence for these funerary practices has been based on excavations carried out at the Huaca Loro site in the city of Poma, located at Batán Grande, in La Leche Valley, by Izumi Shimada and the SAP. First of all, the funerary practices at Huaca Loro reflect the social differentiation and hierarchy present Sicán society. This social stratification
5936-542: The buried elite below to the divine. (Nickle Arts Museum 2006, Shimada et al. 2004) Also, the principal personage of the East Tomb at Huaca Loro wears a mask identical to the Sicán Deity, which is another reference to his relationship to the Deity and the divine. (Shimada et al. 2004, p. 389) The construction itself of these monumental mounds served as a reminder of the elite's power and endurance, and combined with
6048-406: The celestial world (Nickle Arts Museum 2006, p. 66; Shimada 2000, p. 52-53). Through the iconography which the Sicán associated with the icon, anthropologists theorize that the Sicán Deity may have been attributed with power to control all of the celestial forces fundamental to life and abundance (Shimada 2000, p. 53). the lack of representation of humans in Middle Sicán art emphasizes
6160-528: The centralization of political and religious power in order to plan and complete these monumental mounds. While the Sican ceramics and metallurgy are vastly studied, agriculture during the Middle to Late Sican may have been linked to their increasing craft production. Shimada suggests that the canals at Pampa de Chaparri were developed by the Sican as part of an agro-industrial complex marked by an increase in mining and smelting operations, settlement growth, and
6272-546: The characters in Walt Disney Animation Studios ' Zootopia (2016) are anthropomorphic animals, that is an entirely nonhuman civilization. The live-action/animated franchise Alvin and the Chipmunks by 20th Century Fox centers around anthropomorphic talkative and singing chipmunks . The female singing chipmunks called The Chipettes are also centered in some of the franchise's films. Since
6384-517: The classificatory matrix of human and nonhuman relations ". Other DreamWorks franchises like Shrek features fairy tale characters, and Blue Sky Studios of 20th Century Fox franchises like Ice Age features anthropomorphic extinct animals. Other characters in SpongeBob SquarePants features anthropomorphic sea animals as well (like sea sponges, starfish, octopus, crabs, whales, puffer fish, lobsters, and zooplankton). All of
6496-411: The concept or representation of the icon of the Sicán Deity. Both the preceding Moche and Wari cultures feature a single dominant male figure, and the upturned eyes characteristic of the Sicán Deity are common to the art and iconography of other Pre-Hispanic societies. The iconography accompanying the Sicán Deity was unique and significant (Nickle Arts Museum 2006, p. 66). Iconography of the moon and
6608-584: The divine as deities with human forms and qualities. They resemble human beings not only in appearance and personality; they exhibited many human behaviors that were used to explain natural phenomena, creation, and historical events. The deities fell in love, married, had children, fought battles, wielded weapons, and rode horses and chariots. They feasted on special foods, and sometimes required sacrifices of food, beverage, and sacred objects to be made by human beings. Some anthropomorphic deities represented specific human concepts, such as love, war, fertility, beauty, or
6720-472: The dragon Smaug and a multitude of anthropomorphic goblins and elves . John D. Rateliff calls this the " Doctor Dolittle Theme" in his book The History of the Hobbit and Tolkien saw this anthropomorphism as closely linked to the emergence of human language and myth : "...The first men to talk of 'trees and stars' saw things very differently. To them, the world was alive with mythological beings... To them
6832-451: The drought that surely weakened agriculture in the area, the tolerance of the common population plummeted, forcing the removal of the political and religious leadership at Sican to save the people. There was little or no repair of the destruction of Sican, and further damage was inflicted by El Nino floods around 1100. The burning and abandonment of the previous capital meant that a new capital needed to be built. Túcume or "el Purgatorio"
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#17327803959346944-587: The earliest ancient examples set in a mythological context to the great collections of the Brothers Grimm and Perrault . The Tale of Two Brothers (Egypt, 13th century BCE) features several talking cows and in Cupid and Psyche (Rome, 2nd century CE) Zephyrus , the west wind, carries Psyche away. Later an ant feels sorry for her and helps her in her quest. Building on the popularity of fables and fairy tales, children's literature began to emerge in
7056-550: The earliest known evidence of anthropomorphism. One of the oldest known is an ivory sculpture, the Löwenmensch figurine , Germany, a human-shaped figurine with the head of a lioness or lion, determined to be about 32,000 years old. It is not possible to say what these prehistoric artworks represent. A more recent example is The Sorcerer , an enigmatic cave painting from the Trois-Frères Cave , Ariège, France:
7168-430: The elite and places of worship and ritual. The construction of the monumental mounds required considerable material, labor resources and time, indicating the Sicán elite's control and monopoly over the society's resources and manpower. They are a dramatic symbol of the power, wealth and permanence of the Middle Sicán elite and their theocratic state that dominated much of the north coast. Two types of mounds are found in
7280-575: The elite included semi-precious stone objects, amber, feathers, textiles, imported shells (such as conus and spondylus ), shell beads, and double spout bottles. (Nickle Arts Museum 2006, p. 87; Shimada 2000, p. 56; Bruhns 1994, p. 290) On the other hand, commoner burials had a significantly less amount of grave goods of different types, made of less valuable materials. For example, commoner grave goods at Huaca Loro were usually restricted to single-spout bottles, utilitarian plain and/or paddle decorated pottery, and copper-arsenic objects, instead of
7392-494: The elite tombs at Huaca Loro, through the grouping and placement of bodies. The complex internal organization of both East and West Tombs was designed according to specific social and kinship relationships (Shimada et al. 2004). Recent studies that included the use of MtDNA (systematic mitochondrial DNA) analysis and inherited dental traits analysis revealed that women in the West Tomb were grouped according to their kinship ties to
7504-405: The expansion of agriculture. Along the canals, 39 Middle Sican sites and 76 Late Sican sites were identified; however, few sites were located in the irrigation fields. This Sican occupation at the irrigation system points to its construction during the Middle Sican. The construction of this irrigation system, as well as the association of hierarchical social units and canal branches, coincides with
7616-482: The figure's significance is unknown, but it is usually interpreted as some kind of great spirit or master of the animals. In either case there is an element of anthropomorphism. This anthropomorphic art has been linked by archaeologist Steven Mithen with the emergence of more systematic hunting practices in the Upper Palaeolithic. He proposes that these are the product of a change in the architecture of
7728-640: The first dynasty of prehistoric kings in La Leche and Lambayeque valleys. In The Legend of Naylamp, first recorded in the 16th century by the Spanish chronicler Miguel Cabello de Balboa , Naylamp is said to have traveled on a balsa raft by sea to the Lambayeque shores. He founded a large city, and the 12 sons of his eldest son each founded a new city in the Lambayeque region. When Naylamp died, he sprouted wings and flew off to another world (Nickle Arts Museum 2006, p. 18 and 65). Middle Sicán art did not change
7840-617: The first type of mound was likely for public rituals (Shimada 2000, p. 60; Shimada, Shinoda, Farnum, Corruccini, Watanabe 2004, p. 388). The mounds also covered and protected the shafts of tombs of elites underneath. The Sicán used a walled-chamber-and-fill technique (which first appeared on the North Coast during Moche V) for constructing the monumental mound where the walls were created by adobe bricks and mortar in conjunction with chambers of superimposed lattices filled with refuse and other readily available materials. Marks on
7952-473: The gods' shapes and make their bodies of such a sort as the form they themselves have. ... Ethiopians say that their gods are snub–nosed [ σιμούς ] and black Thracians that they are pale and red-haired. Xenophanes said that "the greatest god" resembles man "neither in form nor in mind". Both Judaism and Islam reject an anthropomorphic deity, believing that God is beyond human comprehension. Judaism's rejection of an anthropomorphic deity began with
8064-499: The great complexity itself of elite burial practices based on social differentiation. Social stratification and hierarchy is also evidenced through the variation in quantity and quality of grave goods associated with those of different social status. The elite East Tomb at Huaca Loro, contained over a ton of diverse grave goods, over two-thirds of which were objects of arsenical bronze , tumbaga (low-karat gold), silver and copper alloys, and high-karat gold alloys. Other grave goods of
8176-436: The help of the Middle Sican religious prestige. Only the geometric designs continued on the pottery into the Late Sican. Metallurgy is one of the Sican's greatest legacies, lasting nearly 600 years at Batán Grande (Shimada and Merkel 1991, p. 83). Some Middle Sican workshops showed multicraft production and it is likely the crafts competed for resources, such as fuel for kilns. Middle- and high-status burials both contained
8288-432: The human mind , an increasing fluidity between the natural history and social intelligences , where anthropomorphism allowed hunters to identify empathetically with hunted animals and better predict their movements. In religion and mythology, anthropomorphism is the perception of a divine being or beings in human form, or the recognition of human qualities in these beings. Ancient mythologies frequently represented
8400-481: The idea of a separate inside; an idea mirrored in the human form. Fried considers the Literalist art's "hollowness" to be "biomorphic" as it references a living organism. Curator Lucy Lippard 's Eccentric Abstraction show, in 1966, sets up Briony Fer 's writing of a post-minimalist anthropomorphism. Reacting to Fried's interpretation of minimalist art's "looming presence of objects which appear as actors might on
8512-415: The kilns were used either for ceramics or metallurgy (Shimada and Wagner 2001, p. 28). The Paleteada ceramics used the paddle-and-anvil technique to form and decorate pottery, primarily with geometric designs (Cleland and Shimada 1998, p. 112). The monochrome black pottery became widely popular across the region during the Middle Sican as the Sican themselves began to emphasize the black pottery, with
8624-562: The largest valley of the north coast of Peru. The Lambayeque Valley is the site of scores of natural and man-made waterways and is also a region containing the remains of about 250 decaying and heavily eroded mud-brick pyramids . This Lambayeque Region geography article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article relating to archaeology in Peru is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Lambayeque culture The Sican (also Sicán ) culture
8736-420: The living elite. (Shimada et al. 2004, p. 389) The variety of grave goods suggests the wide range of power of the Middle Sican elite. They not only received the most grave offerings, but also the best quality and exotic offerings. None of the metalworking sites showed evidence of on-site mining of any of the materials. In addition, the spondylus shell, emeralds, feathers, and other minerals were imported to
8848-457: The method of double negation; for example: "God is not existent" followed by "God is not non-existent". This glorifies God from any understanding or human comprehension. In secular thought, one of the most notable criticisms began in 1600 with Francis Bacon , who argued against Aristotle 's teleology , which declared that everything behaves as it does in order to achieve some end, in order to fulfill itself. Bacon pointed out that achieving ends
8960-509: The monumental mound at Huaca Loro, the preparation of the East and West Tombs and performance of the associated rituals required careful and complex planning, and considerable material, labor resources and time, and suggests the elite's control and monopoly of power in society. Secondly, the funerary practices of the Sicán suggest the existence of an elite lineage that used the new Sicán religion to demonstrate and maintain their power (Shimada et al. 2004). The Sicán elite used funerary practices as
9072-531: The nineteenth century with works such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll , The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) by Carlo Collodi and The Jungle Book (1894) by Rudyard Kipling , all employing anthropomorphic elements. This continued in the twentieth century with many of the most popular titles having anthropomorphic characters, examples being The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1901) and later books by Beatrix Potter ; The Wind in
9184-461: The north coast of Peru. Sicán art reconfigured the motifs, conventions, and concepts of these antecedent cultures (mainly the Wari and Moche) into an overall new and unique style. The references to the old ideas, images and ways of antecedent cultures in Sicán art would have been useful in providing prestige and legitimacy to the new Sicán religion which was emerging. Sicán iconography is dominated by
9296-450: The observer? A: I was not making a monument. Q: Then why didn't you make it smaller so that the observer could see over the top? A: I was not making an object. Fried implies an anthropomorphic connection by means of "a surrogate person – that is, a kind of statue." The minimalist decision of "hollowness" in much of their work was also considered by Fried to be "blatantly anthropomorphic". This "hollowness" contributes to
9408-440: The ocean may symbolize the Sicán Deity's involvement in the wellbeing of marine life and fishermen. Iconography related to water signifies the importance of irrigation and agriculture to the Sicán. Other iconography, such as of the sun and moon, symbolizes the importance of duality in both human and celestial life. Depictions of the Sicán Deity with tumi knives and trophy heads may indicate his omnipotent control in both human life and
9520-468: The omnipresence of the Sicán Deity in Sicán iconography. The only exceptions are representations of the Sicán Lord, the male elite personage, and his entourage. (Shimada 2000, p. 53) Iconography of the Sicán Lord is almost identical to the Sicán Deity, except that he is shown in natural settings and does not have avian features. The Sicán Lord was probably meant to represent an earthly alter-ego of
9632-628: The one found at Huaca Sialupe to the west of Batán Grande, likely had both pottery and metalworking production sites (Goldsmith and Shimada 2007, p. 45). Ceramics allowed for a medium to convey political and religious ideology in the forms of storage vessels, architectural ornaments, cooking vessels, sculptures of the Deity or animals, and other types proliferated during this period. The potters likely worked separately from one another, rather than in assembly-line type production. Huaca Sialupe excavations produced clusters of similar kilns using local hardwood for charcoal . Field experiments indicated that
9744-582: The other, is degraded to nearly human levels by giving him human infirmities, passions, and prejudices. In Faces in the Clouds , anthropologist Stewart Guthrie proposes that all religions are anthropomorphisms that originate in the brain's tendency to detect the presence or vestiges of other humans in natural phenomena. Some scholars argue that anthropomorphism overestimates the similarity of humans and nonhumans and therefore could not yield accurate accounts. There are various examples of personification in both
9856-435: The people. The elites were the mediators between the common people and the Sican Deity, as the Sican Deity was the mediator between nature and the Sican people. After 30 years of uncertainty in respect to nature, the temples that were the center of Middle Sican religion and elite power were burned and abandoned between 1050 and 1100. Perhaps the ancestor cult and aggrandizing of the elites caused too much resentment. Coupled with
9968-425: The perspective of adherents to religions in which humans were created in the form of the divine, the phenomenon may be considered theomorphism , or the giving of divine qualities to humans. Anthropomorphism has cropped up as a Christian heresy , particularly prominently with Audianism in third-century Syria, but also fourth-century Egypt and tenth-century Italy. This often was based on a literal interpretation of
10080-534: The pony-inhabited land of Equestria . The Netflix original series Centaurworld focuses on a warhorse who gets transported to a Dr. Seuss -like world full of centaurs who possess the bottom half of any animal, as opposed to the traditional horse . In the American animated TV series Family Guy , one of the show's main characters, Brian , is a dog. Brian shows many human characteristics – he walks upright, talks, smokes, and drinks Martinis – but also acts like
10192-418: The precious metal objects of the elite tombs. (Nickle Arts Museum 2006, p. 87, Shimada et al. 2004) The power of the elite of Sicán society is demonstrated not only by the amount, quality, and diversity of exotic and status goods accumulated in the tombs, but also by the amount of time and labor that would have gone into making and acquiring them. (Shimada 2000, p. 56) All together, the construction of
10304-404: The principal personage and each other (Shimada et al. 2005; Shimada et al. 2004). The grouping of women in the south part of the West Tomb were found to be maternally related to one another, as well as the principal personage; the grouping of women in the north part of the West Tomb were found to not only be unrelated to one another, but also unrelated to the principal personage. Further, ceramics in
10416-556: The principal personage or each other therefore were placed and grouped according to some other distinct relationship to the principal personage. This genetic evidence and along with the differing styles of ceramics suggests that the North-niche women of the West Tomb were perhaps descendants of a different ethnic group, the Moche, who had been integrated into Sicán society under political domination (Shimada et al. 2004). While these relationships have not been proved definitively, it shows
10528-416: The rapid and dramatic growth of the Middle Sican. Irrigation for agriculture was a necessity for the Sican elite to produce a surplus of food to feed artisans and laborers, who in turn support the elites. The Late Sican period began around 1100 and ended with the conquest of the Lambayeque region by the Chimú kingdom of Chimor circa 1375. Around 1020, a major drought lasting 30 years occurred at Sican. At
10640-413: The seasons. Anthropomorphic deities exhibited human qualities such as beauty , wisdom , and power , and sometimes human weaknesses such as greed , hatred , jealousy , and uncontrollable anger . Greek deities such as Zeus and Apollo often were depicted in human form exhibiting both commendable and despicable human traits. Anthropomorphism in this case is, more specifically, anthropotheism . From
10752-421: The several animals and think of some of them as royal animals, of others as silly, of others as witty, and others as innocent. Apollonius noted that the fable was created to teach wisdom through fictions that are meant to be taken as fictions, contrasting them favorably with the poets' stories of the deities that are sometimes taken literally. Aesop, "by announcing a story which everyone knows not to be true, told
10864-518: The south (blue stone), and the eastern basin of the Marañón River (seeds of gold ). The Lambayeque culture may have been a separate trading people as well. Around 800, the Sican created the city of Poma, located at Batán Grande , in La Leche Valley. Few other Early Sican sites have been discovered. The Early Sican culture is known for the highly polished, black-finish ceramics found in the La Leche Valley. This black-finish ceramic style began in
10976-557: The south part were found to be of typical Middle Sicán style, while the ceramics in the North part were of a Mochica style (Shimada et al. 2005; Shimada et al. 2004). This evidence suggests that while the women of the South part of the West tomb were grouped and placed according to their kinship ties with the principal personage, the women of the North part of the West tomb had no kinship ties with
11088-476: The spread of Sican religion and polity outside of the Lambayeque and La Leche valleys (Shimada 2000, p. 58). They also could have controlled the transport methods in addition to the goods being traded. The breeding and herding of llamas on the North Coast since the time of the Moche could have been utilized by the Sican to provide the goods as well as a caravan of llamas to transport the goods considerable distances (Shimada 1985, p. 391). The Sicán culture
11200-536: The stereotypes of animals that are recognized today, such as the wily fox and the proud lion, can be found in these collections. Aesop 's anthropomorphisms were so familiar by the first century CE that they colored the thinking of at least one philosopher: And there is another charm about him, namely, that he puts animals in a pleasing light and makes them interesting to mankind. For after being brought up from childhood with these stories, and after being as it were nursed by them from babyhood, we acquire certain opinions of
11312-404: The symbolic use of Sicán religious iconography to justify the divine merits of the elite lineage, was an attempt by the Sicán elite to "preserve the status quo of inherited rights." (Shimada et al. 2004, p. 370) The funerary rites and rituals performed by the living lineage members served to further reinforce their lineage identity and the three-way relationship between the divine, the dead, and
11424-421: The time of the drought, the Sican Deity, so closely tied to the ocean and water in general, was at the center of Sican religion. The catastrophic changes in weather were thus linked to the Sican Deity, mainly to the failure of the Sican Deity to mediate nature for the Sican people. The Sican ceremonies (and temples/mounds on which they were performed) were supposed to ensure that there was an abundance of nature for
11536-482: The truth by the very fact that he did not claim to be relating real events". The same consciousness of the fable as fiction is to be found in other examples across the world, one example being a traditional Ashanti way of beginning tales of the anthropomorphic trickster -spider Anansi : "We do not really mean, we do not really mean that what we are about to say is true. A story, a story; let it come, let it go." Anthropomorphic motifs have been common in fairy tales from
11648-547: The two are separate cultures. The Sican culture is divided into three major periods based on cultural changes as evidenced in archeological artifacts. Archaeologist Izumi Shimada , founder of the Sican Archaeological Project, named the prehistoric culture which he discovered in northwestern Peru. They succeeded the Moche and preceded the Inca Empire , the historical civilization that encountered
11760-636: The usage of anthropomorphic icons ( murtis ) that adherents can perceive with their senses. Some religions, scholars, and philosophers objected to anthropomorphic deities. The earliest known criticism was that of the Greek philosopher Xenophanes (570–480 BCE) who observed that people model their gods after themselves. He argued against the conception of deities as fundamentally anthropomorphic: But if cattle and horses and lions had hands or could paint with their hands and create works such as men do, horses like horses and cattle like cattle also would depict
11872-632: The verb form anthropomorphize , itself derived from the Greek ánthrōpos ( ἄνθρωπος , lit. "human") and morphē ( μορφή , "form"). It is first attested in 1753, originally in reference to the heresy of applying a human form to the Christian God . From the beginnings of human behavioral modernity in the Upper Paleolithic , about 40,000 years ago, examples of zoomorphic (animal-shaped) works of art occur that may represent
11984-535: The whole of creation was 'myth-woven and elf-patterned'." Richard Adams developed a distinctive take on anthropomorphic writing in the 1970s: his debut novel, Watership Down (1972), featured rabbits that could talk—with their own distinctive language ( Lapine ) and mythology—and included a police-state warren, Efrafa . Despite this, Adams attempted to ensure his characters' behavior mirrored that of wild rabbits, engaging in fighting, copulating and defecating, drawing on Ronald Lockley 's study The Private Life of
12096-515: Was Neil Gaiman 's the Sandman which had a huge impact on how characters that are physical embodiments are written in the fantasy genre. Other examples also include the mature Hellblazer (personified political and moral ideas), Fables and its spin-off series Jack of Fables , which was unique for having anthropomorphic representation of literary techniques and genres . Various Japanese manga and anime have used anthropomorphism as
12208-423: Was constructed as the new Late Sican capital at the juncture of the La Leche and Lambayeque Valleys. Túcume became the new religious and ceremonial center of the Sican. The religious and iconographic legacies of the Middle Sican abruptly disappeared. It is at this juncture, when the Sican Deity and Sican Lord disappear from art, is when the Late Sican begins. Other mythical depictions from the Middle Sican continued in
12320-462: Was first mentioned by the Spanish chronicler Miguel Cabello Valboa , who referred to the Moche figure "Naymlap" in his 1586 Miscelánea Antártica . Later authors believe the form is Mochica Ñañlap , of which the first part is ñañ "waterfowl"; a connexion has been made between the Moche and Chimú cultures and the empire of Chimor and the Mochica language. Naylamp was said to be the founder of
12432-460: Was found that one's social status was also a determinant of the burial position of the body; seated, extended, or flexed. For example, bodies of the High Elite were always buried in the seated position, while commoners could be buried in a seated, extended, or flexed position (Nickle Arts Museum 2006, p. 87; Shimada et al. 2004). Furthermore, social differentiation is manifested even within
12544-436: Was similar to the current climate, despite changes in landscape accumulated in the last 600 years. The drought-and-flood cycles seen in the region for the past 1500 years did not spare the Sican culture. (Goldstein and Shimada 2007, p. 49) The Early Sican period began around 750 and lasted until 900. The lack of artifacts has limited the development of knowledge about this early period. The Sican were probably descendants of
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