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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY— PUBLICATION NO. 



Until recently, wooden combs of the Mochica type 

 were in current use in Moche, and the use of cactus 

 spines as thread picks, etc., is still fairly common. 



Probably a good many features of modern curan- 

 disino and brujeria go back to Mochica times, al- 

 though later elements have obviously been grafted 

 onto said base. In the Museo Arqueologico "Rafael 

 Larco Herrera" is a modeled vase (No. 340) 

 apparently depicting a curandero massaging the body 

 of a child, as in the modern cure of susto. The 

 spiny-backed shells (Spondyliis picturum) of the 

 mesa de brujeria are found in large quantities in 

 Mochica deposits. Among other herbs used at the 

 present time, Larco Hoyle has identified in the 

 Mochica culture various varieties of cactus, ashango, 

 maichil, habilla. Doubtless, much of the philosophy 

 of curative magic in Moche comes down from the 

 Mochicas. On the other hand, the Mochica surgical 

 techniques seem to have been lost. 



The art of making tapias and something very 

 similar to qumcha walls are also Mochica traits. 

 Panpipes, used infrequently in Moche today, and 

 still occasionally made there, were used also in Mo- 

 chica times. (Vase No. J-356 in the Museo Arqueo- 

 logico "Rafael Larco Herrera.") 



The considerable art talent (most of it unin- 

 structed) which appears in Moche may possibly be 

 a vague inheritance of the more than ordinary talent 

 so successfully exhibited by the Mochicas, although 

 at the present time the forms and the media have 

 changed completely. Interest in depictions of the 

 human face, however, still survives. 



Although it is possible that further investigation 

 of the two cultures would reveal a few further simi- 

 larities between the ancient Mochicas and the modern 

 Mocheros, the review just made of Mochica survivals 

 in Moche is sufficient to indicate, perhaps, that a 

 considerable part of the cultural equipment and cus- 

 toms of the modern community were at least present 

 in the Mochica culture. 



LATER ELEMENTS 



But we should not fall into the romantic error of 

 seeing modern Moche as an unmodified survivor of 

 Mochica culture. So far as we can tell, for all its 

 similarities, life in Moche today is very much dif- 

 ferent from that in the same region under the sway 

 of the Mochicas. A few of the aspects of Mochica 

 life which have disappeared are mentioned below. 



The archeological documents speak eloquently of an 

 elaborately developed religion, centering about a 

 supreme deity of feline cast, who appears in various 

 incarnations, according to Larco Hoyle's material. 

 Associated with this was a large amount of material 

 equipment in the form of temples, adoratorios, 

 priestly costumes, and the like. Nothing of this 

 remains today, except possibly certain "nrimitive" 

 elements in religious thinking and beliefs. All of the 

 old-time religion has been superseded by or absorbed 

 into the local version of Catholicism. The image cult 

 in modern Moche Catholicism may well be supported 

 by an age-old symbolic pattern of reverence for 

 images, but image cults are so common in rural Latin 

 American Catholicism '■* that the image cult in 

 Moche cannot be regarded as a specific Mochica 

 survival. 



Likewise, all formal governmental patterns of Mo- 

 chica times have disappeared,'^^ and, apparently also, 

 practically all of the social organization, both of 

 graded and kinship types, which, by inference, prob- 

 ably existed formerly. War patterns and artifacts 

 have likewise passed out of the picture. The elabo- 

 rate and differentiated costumes and headdresses, 

 functionally connected with the religion and the 

 social organization of the Mochicas, have left hardly 

 an echo in Moche. Practically all of the industries 

 and handicrafts of the Mochicas have disappeared, 

 including pottery making, metalworking, weaving 

 (with exception of traces noted above), and wood, 

 stone, and bone working. Burial customs are over- 

 laid with traditions from other cultures. Houses 

 now, in the majority, are Spanish colonial design, 

 despite the Mochica traces noted previously. The 

 llama has disappeared, as well as the use of the tump- 

 line as an aid to human transport. Although the 

 Mochica underlying base is still visible, life has 

 changed in Moche during the last 900 years. And 

 this is as we should expect. 



To sum up, Moche still preserves a general orien- 

 tation of the common man's life and activities, de- 

 rived possibly from the Mochica civilization. But 

 Moche is not Mochica. It is a composite culture. 

 It is a culture which has pas.sed through numerous 

 periods of change, and one which is undergoing at 

 present probably the heaviest pressure for change in 

 its entire history. 



" Little difference is found in Gimtemala. See Gillin (Ms.). 

 "'^ For succinct summaries of Mochicn culture, sec Larco Hoyle 

 (1946). 



