Nobienbre Aia Marcai Quilla · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Nobienbre Aia Marcai Quilla
Subject: Months; November; Festivals; Death; Inca Empire; Inca; Indigenous; Indigenous Peoples
Period: 1600-1650;
Geographic: Peru; Cusco; Cuzco; South America; West Indies
Description: This chapter is dedicated to discussing the traditions and rituals of each month during the Inca Empire. The Incas tracked the months and years through the stars and their months consisted of thirty days. This image depicts the month of November, which was dedicated to celebrating the dead. They would take their dead out of burial vaults and dress the bodies with feathers and celebratory garments and sing and dance with them. This image depicts two people carrying a dead body on a plank of wood which is resting on their shoulders. The body is adorned in garments and a head piece. The caption at the bottom of the image reads “la fiesta de los defuntos,” which translates to “the festival of the dead.”
Image Creator: Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala (Illustrator)
Type: Text; Illustration [Manuscript]
Identifier: mta:20311
Language: spa
Source Name: El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno [The First New Chronicle and Good Government]
Parent Collection: Latin American Chronicles; Latin American Chronicles
Image: mta_20311_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Latin American Chronicles
Subject: Months; November; Festivals; Death; Inca Empire; Inca; Indigenous; Indigenous Peoples