202557(en)/6 - Among Multiple Bodies, Concepts, and Times: The Camelid Sacrificer
AMONG MULTIPLE BODIES, CONCEPTS, AND TIMES: THE CAMELID SACRIFICER
ENTRE MÚLTIPLES CUERPOS, CONCEPTOS Y TIEMPOS: EL SACRIFICADOR CAMÉLIDO
David E. Trigo Rodríguez
This research analyzes the Andean myth of the Camelid Sacrificer, a creature that sacrifices and/or punishes humans who violate rites and sacred norms related to animal and human fertility. The myth poses analytical challenges due to its broad diffusion, temporal continuity, and cultural adaptations (multicorporality). However, this work identifies its specific attributes that recur across nearly all its pre-Hispanic or contemporary variants. These are interpreted through the lens of agency theory, exploring relationships between humans and non-humans (camelids and objects). Embedded within inter-species social relations, the Camelid Sacrificer has attributes that allude to the night or mythological darkness—a setting for remembrance, that enables metamorphic states and a reversal of roles in relation to the agent that performs the punitive sacrifice.