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The Role of Women in Moche Culture

Prior to UCLA archeologists Luis Jaime Castillo and Christopher Donnan’s discovery of Moche priestess burial tombs at San Jose de Moro in 1991, experts believed men ruled the Moche culture^[1]. However, recent evidence suggests that women also played an important role in the Moche religious and political spheres. San José de Moro is located in the Jequetepeque River Valley in the northern region of Peru and the tombs discovered at the site date to the Late Moche Period, which was approximately 720 AD.^[2]

Moche art, typically depicted on unique Moche ceramics, proves to be incredibly realistic. Even before Castillo and Donnan uncovered the tombs at San José de Moro, Donnan recognized female characters in the majority of Moche depictions of human sacrifice ceremonies.^[3] However, even the characters that Donnan previously believed to be male characters are now assumed to be female characters. The characters represented in the depiction of Moche human sacrifice always wear the same “brightly colored, crested headdresses” and a particular ceremonial garb to match the headdresses.^[4] Additionally, the characters are often depicted with a unique goblet, likely for the consumption of the sacrificed person’s blood.^[5] Headdresses, clothing and goblets that look exactly like the headdresses, clothing and goblets depicted in the art were discovered in the tombs at San José de Moro.^[6]

Specifically, in the tombs at San José de Moro, Castillo and Donnan uncovered the skeletons of four priestesses. The discovered women were “not merely buried in graves, but in luxurious chamber tombs,” indicating the important role the women played in Moche society.^[7] The tombs were divided into two sections. The first section was an antechamber, which then led to the second section of the tomb: the funerary chamber. In the funerary chamber, the ornate coffin of the deceased priestess served as the central attraction, while her objects of offering and other additional remains--likely her personal servants needed for success in the afterlife--surrounded her.^[8] The objects of offering included the goblets for the consumption of sacrificial blood, shell necklaces, intricate ceramics, architectural models of important Moche sites and the ceremonial headdresses typically portrayed in Moche art.^[9] The walls of the tombs were painted red and the coffin rested on a “low platform at one end of the chamber,” with the human sacrifice ceremony goblet beside her coffin.^[10] The four discovered priestesses differed greatly in age, ranging between forty years old and seven years old. Yet, all the tombs possessed similar coffins modeled after the shape of the woman herself, covered in copper disks and a mask depicting the woman’s face on top of the coffin.^[11] Additionally, as previously mentioned, all the women were buried with objects, servants and ceremonial items necessary for the afterlife.^[12] In 2005, archeologists discovered another female tomb at the site of El Brujo. The tomb of the woman at El Brujo was also adorned with similar objects to the tombs at San José de Moro, as well as “traditional symbols of power,” such as ceremonial war clubs that were sometimes used in human sacrifice, expensive necklaces made of precious metals and jewels and fierce nose rings.^[13]

The important role women played in Moche culture is obvious due to the pure decadence of their tombs.^[14] Based on the similarities between the artifacts discovered in the tombs of the priestesses and the realistic artwork the Moche created, evidence suggests women led the The Sacrifice Ceremony, the Tule Boat Ceremony, the Moche burial ceremonies and the Animated Objects Ceremony.^[15] However, the priestesses likely did not only serve a religious purpose in Moche culture. Due to the interdependence between Moche religion and Moche politics, the priestesses likely also served in a role similar to that of a modern governor, permitting women the ability to rule over the Moche political sphere as well.^[16] As a result, the Moche likely created the priestesses’ coffins in such an ornate manner because her coffin would have been paraded through her polity for a public funeral, including “an honor guard of warriors and musicians to played rattles, drums, whistles and trumps” in an elite burial ceremony.^[17]Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page without content in them (see the help page). Even in death, the bones of the priestesses proved to be well-nourished and strong, indicating the women likely had more access to adequate nutrition than a majority of the other Moche as a result of their powerful status.^[18]

Religion

Both iconography and the finds of human skeletons in ritual contexts seem to indicate that human sacrifice played a significant part in Moche religious practices. These rites appear to have involved the elite as key actors in a spectacle of costumed participants, monumental settings and possibly the ritual consumption of blood. Recent evidence even suggests that women led the Sacrifice Ceremonies as the key actors in the ritual consumption of human blood as priestesses, not male priests.^[19][20] While some scholars, such as Christopher B. Donnan and Izumi Shimada, argue that the sacrificial victims were the losers of ritual battles among local elites, others, such as John Verano and Richard Sutter, suggest that the sacrificial victims were warriors captured in territorial battles between the Moche and other nearby societies. Excavations in plazas near Moche huacas have found groups of people sacrificed together and the skeletons of young men deliberately excarnated, perhaps for temple displays.[14] The Moche may have also held and tortured the victims for several weeks before sacrificing them, with the intent of deliberately drawing blood. The sacrifices may have been associated with rites of ancestral renewal and agricultural fertility. Moche iconography features a figure which scholars have nicknamed the "Decapitator"; it is frequently depicted as a spider, but sometimes as a winged creature or a sea monster: together all three features symbolize land, water and air. When the body is included, the figure is usually shown with one arm holding a knife and another holding a severed head by the hair; it has also been depicted as "a human figure with a tiger's mouth and snarling fangs".[15] The "Decapitator" is thought to have figured prominently in the beliefs surrounding the practice of sacrifice.

The Sacrifice Ceremony stripped the sacrificial victims of their weapons, clothing and any evidence of personal identity. Then, the Moche tied a rope around the hands and neck of the sacrificial victim.^[21] The Moche often sacrificed the sacrificial victims with the tumi, a crescent-shaped metal knife.^[22] According to recent archeology of the Moche Valley, “at least three quarters of the recovered cervical spines showed cut marks indicating that mortal wounds had been caused by the cutting of throats,” likely indicating where the Moche obtained the necessary blood for the ritualized blood consumption.^[23] After death, the sacrificial victims’ bodies were typically cut up, as is depicted in various famous Moche art, such as The Sacrifice Ceremony. The Moche transformed the dismembered body parts into sacred objects for ritual between sacrifice ceremonies.^[24] The priestesses carrying out the symbolic role of deity during the Sacrifice Ceremonies drank the sacrificial victims’ blood from a unique, ceremonial goblet, discovered in the tombs of many uncovered priestesses.^[25]

However, the Moche did not simply partake in human sacrifice as a means of cruelty. Torture, pain and death did not serve as punishments in Moche culture, but instead as a sacred ritual.^[26] According to expert Jeffery Quilter, “death of the sacrificial stone or in the dust of the plaza was believed to be some kind of divine grace, similar to the modern notion that it is noble to die for one’s country.”^[27] Moche human sacrifice practices served as a “communicative exchange” between the mortal humans on Earth and the divine, celestial deities controlling the means for good weather, adequate water supply and a successful harvest.^[28]

References

Hill, Erica. “Sacrificing Moche Bodies.” Journal of Material Culture 8, no. 3 (2003): 285-299. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/13591835030083004

Popson, Colleen P. “Grim Rites of the Moche. Archaeology 55, no. 2 (March-April, 2002). https://archive.archaeology.org/0203/abstracts/moche.html

Quilter, Jeffery. “Moche Politics, Religion and Warfare.” Journal of Prehistory 16, no. 2 (June 2002): 145-189. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1023/A:1019933420233.pdf

Sackler, Arthur M. “Moche Stirrup-Spout Vessel.” Infinity of Nation: Art and History in the Collections of the National Museum of the American Indian. 2020. https://americanindian.si.edu/exhibitions/infinityofnations/andes/238958.html.

Winters, Riley. “Performance and Power: Moche Priestesses Uncovered.” Ancient Origins: Reconstruction the Story of Humanity’s Past. August 7, 2016. https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/performance-and-power-moche-priestesses-uncovered-006403

Williams, A.R. "Tomb of a Powerful Moche Priestess-Queen Found in Peru." National Geographic. August 13, 2013. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/130808-moche-priestess-queen-tomb-discovery-peru-archaeology-science