ABSTRACT
The circulation of life is an enduring cosmological concern in the Andes. Animating water enters and leaves life forms, flows to the western edge of the world, and returns underground to rise in the east. Driven by the sun’s diurnal cycle, this circulation envelops the Andean world and defines it as a mid-point. However, the earth itself also generates powerful animating agents that effect this circulation on a more local scale and contribute to the sun’s efforts. Precious metals constitute and circulate between these animating beings, and are particularly concentrated in the sun. All are subject to change according to the vicissitudes of this circulation, including human intervention within it. Thus, the Andean circulatory cosmos has experienced a succession of animating regimes, the two latest of which this chapter discusses: the first defined by mummified ancestors and the second by mountains.
