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Vilca in Andean Culture History: Psychotropic Associations in the Urubamba and Beyond

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Book cover Spell of the Urubamba

Abstract

Vilca (Anadenanthera colubrina) is a small leguminous tree occurring as a species component of the dry tropical forest of the Urubamba and other Andean valleys. The powerful psychotropic properties of its seeds account for the long and important place of this plant in Andean culture history. Archaeological evidence from painted pots, snuff tubes, bone pipes and clyster tubes indicate its diverse modes of past use. Wari and Inca artifacts, as well as the reconstruction of Inca history from early colonial documents, suggest the role of vilca in shamanic-style religion and medicine. When understood that the tryptomines in vilca trigger a characteristic three-stage hallucinogenic experience, new interpretations emerge of several aspects of the Andean past. Vilca uses can be implicated as a feature of oracle shrines at pre-Columbian religious sites as well as the behavior of the Chanka people, enemies of the Incas. After the Conquest, vilca was the substance behind the drug-induced manifestations of the so-called Taqui Onccoy movement. Strong Spanish opposition to vilca which was viewed as a diabolical intervention of Satan, had much to do with the competition it was perceived to pose to Catholic conversion.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The anarchy of Quechua and Aymara transcription has resulted in half a dozen orthographic possibilities: huilca, huillca, bilca, wil’ka or willka as well as in the doubling the substantive to become vilca vilca or willka willka. Aside from this nomenclatural cluster, Ratsch (2005:50, 54) has recorded 128 other folk names for the two Anadenanthera species. No name makes a distinction between the entheogenic material (mainly the seeds) and the tree from which it comes.

  2. 2.

    Huaca, guaca or waka also has a wide variety of meanings. Early colonial writings defined it as an idol or temple of idols. In other contexts, a huaca was a body, an animating force or a landscape object. When huaca was used to refer to any localized source of pre-Columbian sacredness, it is easy to see how that term could be applied to vilca, which induced a quasi-religious experience. References to a “huaca that speaks” denote a shaman offering comment under the influence of vilca.

  3. 3.

    Since Cook, two other records have been filed in the Herbario Vargas of vilca collected at elevations of 2400 m in the Urubamba. That elevation raises the question if they were planted or if they were volunteers from previous generations of planted trees.

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  1. Department of Geography, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA

    Daniel W. Gade

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Gade, D.W. (2016). Vilca in Andean Culture History: Psychotropic Associations in the Urubamba and Beyond. In: Spell of the Urubamba. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20849-7_5

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