A text-first glossary of Quechua, Inka, and Andean universe terms used across Pachakuna, each with a quick explanation and related concept links.
Showing: 130 / 130 all terms
15 terms
Allin Kawsay means living well through relational balance with community, landscape, and responsibility.
Ama Llulla means do not lie, emphasizing truth as social infrastructure.
Ama Quella means do not be idle; it frames contribution as a duty to community continuity.
Ama Sua means do not steal; it is one of the ethical foundations often cited in Andean civic teaching.
Ayllu is the kin-based community unit that links people, land, labor, ritual duties, and collective memory.
Ayni is reciprocal care: communities help one another today with the expectation that support is returned when needed.
Llank'ay means purposeful work, especially labor done with discipline and contribution to collective goals.
Masintin is enacted harmony between complements, the social practice of making duality collaborative rather than competitive.
Also written as: Ming'a, Minga
Minka is communal labor for shared benefit, such as paths, water channels, schools, and festival spaces.
Mit'a was rotational labor service to state or regional projects, organized by time blocks and community obligations.
Munay is the force of love, intention, and beauty that guides ethical action in many Andean teachings.
Sumaq Kawsay frames prosperity as collective dignity, reciprocity, and ecological continuity rather than extraction.
Tinkuy means encounter: ritual meeting between people, energies, territories, or lineages to renew social balance.
Yachay means knowledge as living practice, built through study, memory, observation, and apprenticeship.
Yanantin describes complementary duality: paired forces that are different but meant to work together in balance.
16 terms
Amaru is a powerful serpent being in Andean symbolism, often bridging upper and inner worlds.
Apu refers to a mountain-being and protective intelligence linked to specific peaks and communities.
Also written as: Seqe
Ceque lines describe ritual pathways radiating from Cusco and connecting shrines, obligations, and calendar logic.
Chakana, the Andean cross, encodes relational geometry across cosmic levels, social order, and orientation.
Hanan Pacha is the upper world of celestial order, often tied to star knowledge, winds, and solar alignment.
Illapa is associated with thunder, lightning, and rain power, connecting weather to ceremony and agriculture.
Inti is the sun as cosmic regulator of seasons, agriculture, and ceremonial calendars.
Kay Pacha is the lived world of humans, animals, plants, and daily responsibility.
Killa is the moon and a key marker for ritual timing, fertility cycles, and nocturnal orientation.
Pacha unites time-space as one living field, where cycles, place, and moral action are inseparable.
Pachakuti means world-turning transformation: a deep shift in social order, landscape relation, or historical direction.
Pachamama is living Earth as nurturing relation, not passive resource; reciprocity with land is central to this idea.
Paqarina is an origin-place concept, often tied to caves, springs, or sacred thresholds where lineages begin.
Also written as: Uku Pacha
Ukhu Pacha is the inner or below world associated with origin, seeds, ancestors, and transformation.
Also written as: Huaca
Wak'a denotes a sacred place, object, spring, stone, or shrine where spiritual and social obligations converge.
Wiraqocha is a creator figure in many Andean narratives, often linked with water, light, and civilizational ordering.
12 terms
Aclla were women selected for advanced ceremonial, textile, and state-linked responsibilities.
Acllahuasi were institutional houses where selected women trained in specialized skills and ritual duties.
Amauta means teacher-sage, especially in philosophy, memory, ethics, and governance instruction.
Hatun Runa describes commoner populations whose agricultural and civic labor sustained the wider system.
Also written as: Curaca
Kuraka was a local authority role that coordinated labor, mediation, and regional governance.
Mitmaqkuna were relocated populations used to reorganize labor, frontier stability, and cultural integration.
Panaka were royal kin groups that managed memory, estates, and ceremonial continuity across generations.
Quipucamayoc were specialists in quipu record systems for accounting, logistics, and administrative memory.
Sapa Inka refers to the sovereign ruler, but authority depended on reciprocal obligations across many institutions.
Also written as: Tahuantinsuyo
Tawantinsuyu means the four united regions and names the Inka political-territorial system.
Also written as: Tokoyrikoq
Tukuy Rikuq means the all-seeing overseer role, associated with inspection and compliance across territories.
Also written as: Yanacona
Yanakuna refers to service groups attached to specific functions in state or elite contexts.
6 terms
Harawi is poetic song tradition that carries memory, emotion, and social teaching through performance.
Also written as: Quipu
Khipu are knotted-cord information systems used for accounting, administration, and possibly narrative memory.
Runasimi means the language of the people and is a preferred self-name for Quechua language traditions.
Taki means song and can also refer to music-dance complexes where movement and voice form one ritual act.
Tocapu are geometric motif blocks in elite textiles and tunics, often interpreted as encoded status or identity signs.
Willakuy is story-telling or narrating, a social mode of transmitting history and values.
15 terms
Amuna refers to premodern water infiltration techniques that recharge aquifers for dry-season availability.
Andenes are agricultural terraces that manage slope, water, and microclimate while increasing food security.
Apacheta are cairn-like stone offerings on mountain routes marking gratitude, passage, and intention.
Also written as: Chasquiwasi
Chaskiwasi were small relay houses where runners synchronized handoffs in communication routes.
Chasquis were elite relay runners who moved messages, goods, and timing intelligence across mountain distances.
Kallanka were large rectangular halls used for gatherings, storage, lodging, or state events.
Kancha is a compound layout centered on a courtyard, used for domestic, elite, and institutional functions.
Pukara refers to fortified or defensive architecture positioned for strategic visibility and protection.
Puquio are spring-linked hydraulic systems, often associated with underground channels in arid zones.
Qhapaq Ñan is the extensive Andean road system linking ecological zones, settlements, and logistics nodes.
Qocha means pond or water body and appears in many place-based water management traditions.
Also written as: Collca
Qolqa were state or communal storage facilities designed for climate control and long-horizon resilience.
Tambos were waystations for storage, rest, and redistribution on strategic routes.
Ushnu is a ceremonial platform architecture linking political authority, ritual, and spatial order.
Waru Waru are raised-field systems with water channels that buffer frost and improve highland cultivation.
25 terms
Alpacas are key camelids for fiber economies, highland livelihoods, and pasture knowledge systems.
Bofedales are high-Andean wetlands vital for water storage, biodiversity, and camelid grazing.
Camu camu is an Amazonian fruit noted for high vitamin content and floodplain ecological adaptation.
Also written as: Chacra
Chakra is cultivated land managed through local ecological knowledge and seasonal planning.
Hampi means medicine or healing and includes plant knowledge, ritual context, and community care.
Ichu is highland grass essential to pasture ecologies, thatching, and mountain animal systems.
Kañiwa is a hardy Andean grain crop suited to cold highland conditions and poor soils.
Also written as: Quinua
Kinwa is an Andean grain valued for resilience, nutrition, and adaptation across altitude bands.
Also written as: Coca
Kuka leaves are used in ritual, social exchange, and high-altitude adaptation practices.
Also written as: Cóndor, Condor
Kuntur is the condor, a high-Andean aerial symbol of vision, altitude, and ceremonial power.
Llamas are transport, fiber, and ritual animals central to highland mobility and exchange.
Maca is a high-Andean root cultivated in extreme conditions and widely associated with vitality traditions.
Omagua describes lowland Amazon ecological zones with major river systems and dense tropical biodiversity.
Otorongo is a regional term for jaguar in Amazonian contexts, often tied to power and forest guardianship.
Puma is a major Andean symbolic animal associated with strength, terrestrial order, and urban mythic planning.
Puna is the high-altitude grassland ecological zone with specialized grazing and cold-adapted lifeways.
Rupa-Rupa is the high jungle belt in Peru, rich in transitional biodiversity between Andes and Amazon.
Suni refers to upland ecological belts where tubers and resilient crops are cultivated at elevation.
Taruca is an Andean deer adapted to high-elevation terrain and seasonal movement patterns.
Tarwi (Andean lupin) is a high-protein legume used in food systems with long-standing regional roots.
Totora reeds are central to wetland craft, boatmaking, and shoreline livelihood systems, especially around Titicaca.
Ukuku can refer to bear-like ritual identity and appears in highland pilgrimage and performance traditions.
Vicuñas are wild camelids valued for fine fiber and linked to conservation and communal stewardship.
Vizcacha is a highland rodent species associated with rocky slopes and puna ecosystems.
Yunga is a warm inter-zonal ecological band connecting coast or highlands with lower valleys.
21 terms
Antara is a panpipe instrument family central to group music and ritual soundscapes.
Chicha is a ceremonial and social beverage in many Andean gatherings, tied to reciprocity and hospitality.
Chumpi is a woven belt tradition that secures garments and can carry symbolic motifs.
Coya Raymi is a ceremonial cycle associated with purification and social-ritual renewal.
Despacho is an offering bundle ceremony designed to restore reciprocal relationship with Earth and spirit forces.
Haywarikuy means to offer or make offerings as an active practice of gratitude and alignment.
Inti Raymi is the major sun festival cycle in Cusco, connecting seasonal transition, procession, and performance.
K'intu is a ritual arrangement of coca leaves offered with intention, gratitude, or petition.
Lliclla is a woven shoulder cloth that carries practical, aesthetic, and symbolic social meaning.
Pago a la Tierra is a modern Spanish label for earth-offering ceremonies rooted in older reciprocal traditions.
Pinkuyllu is an Andean flute tradition tied to seasonal festivals and communal choreography.
Pututu is a conch-shell trumpet used to signal distance, announce arrival, and activate ceremonial attention.
Also written as: Kero
Qero are ceremonial drinking vessels used in reciprocal toasts and ritual exchange.
Qhapaq Raymi is a major ceremonial period historically linked to initiation, authority, and state ritual calendars.
Qoyllur Rit'i is a high-altitude pilgrimage complex combining devotion, dance troupes, and mountain cosmology.
Quena is a notched flute voice associated with lament, devotion, and mountain resonance.
Rit'i means snow and appears in mountain pilgrimage traditions where ice, devotion, and endurance converge.
Situa ceremonies are often described as collective cleansing rites tied to seasonal and civic reset.
Tupu are ornamental pins used in Andean dress, linking material culture to identity and status.
Tusuy means dance as embodied memory, often tied to healing, harvest, and collective identity.
Unku is a tunic form often used in discussions of Andean textile coding and political identity.
20 terms
The Peruvian Amazon is a cultural-ecological macroregion with deep knowledge systems in water, plants, and forest governance.
Antisuyu was the eastern quarter oriented toward Amazonian frontiers and exchange corridors.
Ausangate is a sacred massif central to pilgrimage, glacier ecologies, and highland ritual geographies.
Caral is one of the oldest urban complexes in the Americas, central to deep-time Andean civilization research.
Chan Chan is a major adobe urban complex on the north coast, tied to pre-Inka statecraft and design.
Chinchaysuyu was the northwestern quarter with major routes along coast-highland interactions.
Kuntisuyu was the southwestern quarter, linking highlands to Pacific-facing regions.
Machu Picchu is a mountain sanctuary and engineering complex demonstrating high-altitude architectural adaptation.
Moray is known for concentric terrace complexes often interpreted as microclimate experimentation zones.
Nazca traditions are known for geoglyph landscapes, hydraulic ingenuity, and ceremonial desert design.
Ollantaytambo is a major Sacred Valley node with layered military, agricultural, and ceremonial infrastructure.
Paracas links coastal desert ecologies, marine biodiversity, and long archaeological continuity.
Pisac combines agricultural terraces, ritual spaces, and defensive positioning above the Sacred Valley.
Also written as: Cusco
Qosqo is the historical and symbolic center of Tawantinsuyu, with dense ritual, administrative, and architectural significance.
Qullasuyu was the southeastern quarter with key highland and altiplano networks.
Salkantay is a major Apu peak and route anchor in southern Peru mountain corridors.
Also written as: Titicaca
Lake Titicaca is a foundational high-altiplano water world tied to origin narratives and enduring lifeways.
The Sacred Valley is a high-value cultural corridor where hydrology, agriculture, ritual geography, and contemporary communities converge.
Vilcanota names the mountain-river region shaping southern Andean mobility and hydrology.
Also written as: Urubamba
Willkamayu is the sacred river system of the valley, known today largely as the Urubamba river corridor.