Context (Field collection)
Collected by Bill Sillar in August 1995.
Event Date 8/1995
Author: Annie Tomkins

Context (Production / use)
The cult of el Señor de Huanca (W'anka), is linked with the Inca wak'a (sacred place) and present day Apu, Mount Pachatusan. Christ first appeared in a miraculous apparition in 1674 when a vision of Christ's scourging was seen, and in 1718 Christ appeared as a doctor to cure a Spanish mine owner inflected by an epidemic. The Mercedarian order, which has controlled the shrine since its inception, has propagated its cult among the urban and better off peasantry, and the majority of the ten thousand or more people who visit the shrine annually now use the recently constructed road. Today many commercial goods are produced, like miniature houses, money, animals, trucks and pottery, and sold for use in offerings. [note by Bill Sillar, 1999].
Event Date 1999
Author: Annie Tomkins

Context (Related Documents)
See the documentation for this collection (ie. 1999.144-193) in the Museum Archives.
Event Date 1999
Author: Annie Tomkins

Context (Production / use)
The use of miniatures in rituals is strongly tied to the idea of an annual cycle within which devotees will prosper, but which obliges continuity in the devotion over several years, if not a lifetime. This is partly due to the Andean and Catholic emphasis on the yearly cycle of festivals and devotions, and many of the occasions when miniatures are used are the start of a new period in the agricultural or social calendar such as San Juan, Todos Santos, Christmas, Alacitas, or the roofing of a new house, all of which might be seen as fertility rites at the beginning of a new period of growth. Pilgrimages are mainly undertaken from August to the end of October, towards the end of the dry season when people are preparing to plant the seed for next years crops. August is the month when ground opens up, and it is the most productive time for making offerings particularly those directed into the ground. [note by Bill Sillar].
Event Date 1/10/1999
Author: maa

Description (Physical description)
Description for 1999.173 [A-H] reads: 'Pottery cooking hearth with pots, from the Pucara area. Most commonly used as children's toys. (Señor de Wank'a, September 1995).
A: Hearth with three settings.
B: Smaller hearth with two settings.
C: Pot with two small handles at neck.
D: Smaller pot with one handle at neck.
E: Broad shallow dish.
F: Small pot with two small handles at neck.
G: Small pot with two small handles at neck.
H: Jug with one handle.'
Event Date 1/10/1999
Author: maa

Description (Physical description)
A miniature, rounded pot with two small handles and green glaze at the neck, with white paint above the shoulder. Part of a set of offerings used by the cult of el Señor de Huanca (W'anka). Though they are also commonly used as a children's toy.
Event Date 12/7/2021
Author: Annie Tomkins