Peru

PERU. - I. GEOGRAPHY. - It is the largest (1.25 million sq. km.), but not the most populous (8.2 million inhabitants; 7 per sq. km.), of the Andean states.

The territory comprises a coastal region about 2000 km. long, with a dry climate and, in the south, an outright desert-like appearance; the Sierra, which is the most important part of the country, made up of lines of high reliefs (6765 m. in the Nevado de Huascarán), separated by plateaus and deep valleys; and the Montaña, sloping down to the Amazonian lowland, covered by impenetrable equatorial forest. 70% of the population lives in the Sierra, where the major centers are found at altitudes ranging from 2300 to 3360 m. (Cerro de Pasco, at 4300 m., is one of the highest in the world), 25% on the coast, enlivened by the growing development of irrigation; the rest in the Montaña. Of this population about half are Amerindians, the rest mestizos, creoles, blacks and mulattoes. Relatively numerous are the Asians (23 thousand Japanese and 7 thousand Chinese); Italians number about 15 thousand.

Peru is a country of great agricultural and mining possibilities, but it has long suffered from a lack of capital, labor and political stability, although recently it has been set on the path toward a certain economic recovery, to which Italians have contributed and continue to contribute to a considerable extent. Agriculture yields a variety of products (cotton, sugar cane, rice, coffee, citrus fruits, vines, fruit, etc.), but cereals are not sufficient for domestic consumption. Rubber is in decline; the cultivation of coca (from which cocaine is extracted) is notable. From the forest little is still obtained (difficulties of communication); livestock raising is fair (especially sheep, llama and alpaca); fishing along the coasts is in continuous development, the coasts being rich in plankton and therefore in fish (recent establishment of plants for canned product). From the subsoil are extracted petroleum (2 million tons in 1949), copper, silver, lead, iron, coal, vanadium, bismuth, etc.; along the coast are the famous guano deposits. Industries are still of proportions entirely inadequate to the prospects; and so too is commerce.

The capital Lima (750 thousand inhabitants) is the only center with a population of more than 100 thousand inhabitants; Callao (90 thousand).

Talara (15 thousand) and Mollendo (14 thousand) are the main ports. Peru is a unitary republic, with a representative government with bicameral representation; the president is elected every 6 years. The country is divided into 24 departments. The state religion is Catholic; pagans are still numerous in the interior.

Giuseppe Caraci

II. RELIGION

The Inca conquerors underwent in religion the influence of the conquered countries and assimilated a good part of their culture. There resulted, therefore, as a natural consequence of the fusion with the various pre-Inca civilizations, a kind of religious syncretism.

The official religion of the Peruvian Empire consisted principally in a solar cult. The Sun, the divinity of the clan of the Incas, was represented on earth by the Emperor. The principal honors were paid to the sun with a solemn ceremonial that took place, above all, at the solstices and the equinoxes.

Part of the solar cult were certain divinities that personified the celestial bodies. The most important were the Moon, wife and sister of the sun; Pitua, the eldest son of the sun, who represented the planet Jupiter, held to be the dwelling place of the blessed; Chasca, corresponding to the planet Venus, depicted as a youth with long curly hair, in the capacity of page of the sun who now preceded, now followed him in the sky. The Pleiades, held to be regulators of moisture, were venerated particularly in December: to them was addressed the prayer to make rains fall upon the sown fields. The god of lightning, Catequil, worshiped for his three aspects of flash, thunder and bolt, was represented as a serpent, with or without feathers, and was one of the ministers of the sun. This god belonged to a very ancient stratum of Peruvian religion; probably his cult had required human sacrifices in the most distant times.

To a very ancient epoch, certainly pre-Inca, the origin of the cult of two divinities, Viracoca and Pachacamac, dates back, a cult so deeply felt by the natives that the Inca conquerors not only admitted them as part of the official religion, but recognized great importance to these gods themselves. A myth related that from the sun and the moon three sons had been born, Viracoca, Pachacamac, and Manco Capac: the first two obtained from their father the celestial dominion, the third and his descendants had the empire of the world. According to criticism, Pachacamac originally would have been the Supreme Being of the Chimu, a population that settled in a very remote epoch in the Peruvian region. To the god no cult was paid: he was the indefinable one or, simply, "He who is." His name could be pronounced only in a low voice, bowing the head and performing particular gestures. Human affairs were regulated by him with eternal laws, from which no one could escape. In ancient times he had destroyed humanity; he had then created a better one. Other divinities of very remote origin were: Mamapacha, the mother earth; Waku, water; Nina, fire; Uayra, the wind. The great mountains, the great rivers and various plants and animals were also venerated. Besides the divinities of a higher order the Incas venerated certain things, objects, localities, called generically huacas (or also huilicas). There were immovable and movable huacas. The former included temples, tombs of ancestors, places to which memories of mythological personages or of dead Inca emperors were linked, battlefields, hills, caverns, palaces, prisons, houses, meeting places, bridges, quarries; the most common huacas were springs and rocks. A special type of huaca was the Apacita, a heap of stones that indicated some critical point along the roads (e.g., the passes) and before which travelers stopped to make offerings and pray. Among the movable huacas there were images and amulets intended for different purposes: some represented human beings, others animals. Corpses and unusual and exceptional things were also huacas, such as ears of special maize, stones of unusual shape or color, crystals, etc.; twins, people with six fingers and those born feet first. Every Inca emperor had a personal guardian, whom he called brother: this one was generally considered a movable huaca. Perhaps even other men could have personal guardians. It is not entirely clear whether the Indians believed in the existence of supernatural beings distinct from the object in which they resided or whether they considered the object itself a supernatural being. This second hypothesis is, however, the most probable.

The highest authority in the religious field was the sovereign (called Inca), a living god and head of the priests. In his religious functions, he was assisted by the silac Humu, chosen from among his closest relatives (generally brothers or uncles). The other priests were divided, according to their duties, into sacrificers, diviners, hermits, mediums, etc. They were not gathered into colleges. Only certain women, the husta or virgins of the sun, were gathered in a particular organization. They were chosen from among noble maidens and from those of the people of particular beauty. At the age of eight they were shut up in convents where they remained all their lives. A vow, solemnly pronounced, obliged them to chastity and not to see men except the sons of the sun; whoever broke the vow, a case that almost never occurred, was subject to the death penalty, a penalty extendable to the lover and the relatives. The husta occupied themselves with the service of the temple of Cuzco and, in particular, fed the sacred fire, which had to burn perpetually; they wove the fabrics for the Emperor, kneaded the sacred bread and prepared the sora for the ceremonies of worship. Among the husta the Emperor could choose some concubine. Religious practices, besides the prescribed rituals, consisted in prayers, individual or collective, in fasts and pilgrimages, and in the confession of sins. The faith in an otherworldly life was deeply felt. In relation to this belief, objects, often even of value, were placed in the tomb beside the deceased, which would serve him in the future life. In the kingdom of the dead, nobles and people had distinct seats. Many temples, among them the famous one of Cuzco, rose throughout the Empire.

Tullio Tentori

III. HISTORY

In 1529 Charles V granted F. Pizarro (v.) permission to explore, occupy and settle new lands south of Panama, beyond the Birù (or Pirù) river, a little further south of the bay of S. Miguel (7° 34 N.), leaving the conqueror the widest freedom of movement in those unexplored zones.

The history of P. before the arrival of Pizarro and his men eludes any investigation, owing to the lack of sources, the destructions carried out by the occupiers and the partiality of the first Spanish chroniclers who accompanied Pizarro, or who immediately succeeded him. Among these, the only exception, though not entirely above rigorous criticism, is the chronicle of Girolamo Benzoni, of Milan, who reached those lands around 1541. The Spaniards thus came into contact with the Empire of the Incas, whose name in the local language was that of Tahuantinsuyu, that is, of the "Four Regions": the western (Cuntisuyu), the northern (Chinchaysuyu), the southern (Collasuyu), the eastern (Antisuyu), embracing an extent much greater than that of the present P.

The capital of this State, over which the Sapa Inca, that is to say the "only lord", ruled, was Cuzco, built, according to indigenous legend, by Manco Capac.

From Cuzco, through various vicissitudes, the Empire pushed as far as the Pacific and then, little by little, as far as present-day Pasto (in Colombia) and southward into Argentina, in the time of the Inca Huayna Capac. Such is the tradition, but present-day criticism holds that the founding of Cuzco and the pre-eminence to which the Empire of the Incas attained must be ascribed to the cohesion of certain members of the privileged caste, from whom the expansionist movement of the entire nation would have developed. The causes of the disintegration of the Inca Empire, moreover, besides the warlike activity of the conquerors, are due to the war of succession between the last two Incas, Huascar and Atahualpa, sons of Huayna Capac, a struggle that gave the newly arrived Spaniards an easy advantage. From Cuzco the Sapa Incas extended their dominion over the surrounding tribes, defeating them and transferring the various subject populations to localities different from their original ones, causing tribes from different regions to flow into these. In this way it was possible for the Incas (that is, for the ayllu that would give the Empire its civil and military leaders) to achieve on the one hand the enlargement of the controlled territory, and on the other the strengthening of the imperial stock, from which power later passed to the branch of Haman-Coczo, as a consequence of a palace revolution. It may be held that the duration of the Inca Empire was about two and a half centuries, Pizarro having put an end to it, with the killing of Atahualpa, in 1533.

The major archaeological finds of P. range from the zone comprised between the 4th and 17th parallel south, from the basin of the Marañon (north) to the course of the Desaguadeso river

(south), from which it may be concluded that the territorial expansion had taken place in all directions. Although it cannot be established how the cultural and social level of the entire Inca imperial complex was reached, it is certain that the civilization found in the central zone is far superior to that of the surrounding populations: and proof of this is found in the system of roads that radiated from Cuzco in the various directions; in the succession of staging posts; in the organization of messengers; in the rope bridges over which it was possible to cross terrifying ravines and very rapid watercourses; in the constructions of stone worked dry or with mortar; in the organization of the army; in the cult of the dead; in the veneration of the Sun, to which temples of incomparable wealth and sumptuousness had been erected; in the agricultural customs of the Sapa Inca; in the obligation, for all, to work the fields and in the distribution of the harvests; in pottery and weaving. There existed, however, genuine grey areas of considerable importance: the lack of transport animals stronger than the llama; the ignorance of carts and wheels; the absence of iron and, what matters more, of writing, not replaced by the quipu, a mnemonic system of recording by means of knots on ropes prepared for the purpose.

The population was organized in a kind of agricultural collectivism whereby, from the members of the ruling caste down to the last of the subjects, all worked the land, the primary factor of national wealth, and then devoted themselves to the arts, to the crafts, or served in the army. The great merit of the Inca agricultural organization was to have devised and built systems of terraces descending in steps, in order to make the most of every clod of soil. The private or political life of the vast Inca organization was founded on the organization of the ayllu, constituted by a complex of leading families, placed under the same command and having a common totem and a determined extent of land to cultivate. The union of the different ayllus, owing to the increase of cultivable territory and the development of agricultural works, would lead to the tribe, which, united with others, would give life to the district, governed by a chief; the subjection of the latter to the Inca would lead, necessarily, to the confederation of the four regions, each governed by a legate of the Inca of royal blood and dependent directly on the Sapa Inca. Annually the distribution of the land to the ayllus was regulated, and at the time of the harvest this was divided among the families after the portions belonging to the temples of the Sun, to the Inca and to the State had been taken out; while meadows and woods belonged to the ayllus, the herds and the mines were the preserve of the Inca; works of public utility were carried out in common by all the ayllus of the region.

The military organization was similar to the civil one; the Sapa Inca, or a very close relative of his, was the commander-in-chief of the army, which, through officers of progressively lower rank, transmitted orders to the troops; the weapons used, all of wood with metal tips, were slings, arrows, lances, clubs, swords, iron maces. The greatest care was devoted to the troops: while plunder was severely forbidden, a skilful disposition of storehouses had been arranged as far as the extreme limits of the territory, while, besides the roads and the ordinary bridges, military roads and bridges had been prepared and were always kept in perfect passability.

On 24 Sept. 1532 the Inca era ends and Peruvian history properly so called begins, through the work of Pizarro (v.). After a first period, characterized by the adventurer conquerors, there followed that of the Hispano-colonial organization. It recognized as tiny cities the seats of military detachments, divided the territory into repartimentos and, after confirmation to the heirs of the first Spanish possessor, into encomiendas. For these, masses of natives were constantly resorted to for agricultural works of public utility, to their grave harm. Charles V, also through ecclesiastical interest, issued in 1542 the Nuevas Leyes, which, applied arbitrarily, had a notable significance after the discovery of important deposits of gold, silver and mercury (1544-54).

The extremely rapid development of industry, besides giving rise to new cities such as Potosí and Huancavelica, increased the demand for indigenous labor which, despite the protests of some viceroys and of many authoritative local figures, was exploited in a barbarous manner until 1742, when the corregidores (a sort of administrative officials) were abolished and Peru was divided into eight intendancies, each headed by Spanish officials directly dependent on the viceroy. Trade was exercised as a monopoly by the Universidad de mercaderes of Lima, while in Spain the only ones authorized to trade with Peru were first the Castilians and from 1775 all Spaniards: only in 1808 would there be full freedom of trade between the mother country and Peru.

The ideological movement arising from the emergence of the United States and from the French Revolution, influencing the liberal and educated classes of Latin America, meanwhile provoked that series of uprisings that would lead to the separation of the various Hispanic colonies. But in the closed and almost inaccessible Peru, the innovative ideologies took root only after a column of Argentines and Chileans, under the orders of the Libertador General San Martín, landed on the coasts of the region and seized Lima (1822), giving rise to the proclamation of independence (28 July).

San Martín having been appointed supreme dictator on 3 Aug. 1822, in the following month he transferred his powers to the Congress, which hastened to elect José de la Riva Agüero as the first president of the new Republic. The reaction of the Spaniards hindered the development of Peruvian events to such an extent that only with the battles of Ayacucho (won by General Sucre, lieutenant of Bolívar, on 9 Dec. 1824 against the troops of viceroy La Serna) and of Callao (22 Jan. 1826) was it definitively broken; Madrid would bow to the accomplished facts only later. Once the desire to bring the borders of the new Republic to its ancient historical-geographical unity, including also upper Bolivian Peru, had fallen away, as well as Bolívar's aspiration to constitute a confederation among Peru, Bolivia and Colombia with a single capital, there followed in the region confused and dramatic years due to repeated discord and abuses, which continued until 1845, when the new Republic was able to proceed decisively along the path of economic and civil progress: the first railway lines were inaugurated, the telegraph service was organized, considerable impetus was given to public works, and the internal debt was consolidated. On 10 Nov. 1860 the new Constitution was promulgated, by which the economic, legislative and judicial powers were clearly distinguished, the death penalty was abolished, and ecclesiastical tithes and fueros were suppressed.

The prosperity and progress of Peru were interrupted in part by a war against Spain, in which Chile also took part (1866), and then by the more serious "War of the Pacific," fought by Peru together with Bolivia against Chile from 1879 to 1884 and concluded only on 30 Apr. 1895. After these events, national life resumed that uninterrupted rhythm with which it reached our own times.

IV. EVANGELIZATION

The secular priest Fernando de Luque took part in the first military reconnaissance of Peru in 1524, together with Pizarro and Almagro; in 1527 Pizarro explored the country together with the Franciscan Marco da Nizza and with the cleric Alfonso di Molina. In his campaign of 1523 for the conquest of the territory, he brought with him from Spain, under the guidance of Reginaldo di Pedrazza (v. PANAMA), 6 Dominicans, among them Fr. Vincenzo Vaveride, who, appointed bishop of Cuzco (1536), was consecrated in Spain and on his return brought with him other Dominicans. Charles V appointed him "protector of the Indians." In 1541 he was massacred by the Indians on the island of Puna (Ecuador). In 1534 the Dominicans founded at Cuzco their first convent in the temple of the sun, given to them by Pizarro after the conquest of the city. In 1553 the Dominican province of Lima was erected, with 18 convents: in 1565 there were more than 100 Dominicans in Peru.

Equally active were the 12 Franciscans who, with their superior Marco da Nizza, Pizarro's companion in 1557, went to that land. Among the Franciscan missionaries, the lay brother Mateo di Xumilla and St. Francis Solano distinguished themselves. In 1555 the Franciscan custody of Peru was erected, which in 1550 had 15 houses. In 1553 it was transformed into a province, counting 18 houses. Their work was carried on among colonists and Indians. The Mercedarians maintain that their confreres, around 1534, to the number of 24, were the first to evangelize Peru. After having given the Church of Peru some good bishops, their activity in the country ceased. The Augustinians too preached the Gospel to the Peruvians from 1550. Among these, Frs. Garcia and Ortiz distinguished themselves; from the last prince of the Incas they obtained permission to preach, erect chapels, open schools, and at last had the joy of baptizing him with the name Philip. After Cuzco, Lima too was erected as a diocese in 1541 and on 20 Jan. 1545 as an archdiocese, which on 12 March 1546 was transformed into a metropolitan see, and in 1572 into a primatial one. The first bishop, then archbishop, was the Dominican Girolamo da Loaysa. Among his successors, St. Toribio da Mogrovejo (1579-1600) must be especially noted, for his activity both pastoral and missionary, which earned him the title of apostle of Peru. He held 10 diocesan synods and 3 provincial councils; three times he visited his diocese, penetrating as far as the forests of the Andes; he founded a printing press and published a catechism.

In 1551 the University of Lima was founded, the first on the American continent. Peru, with St. Rose of Lima, has given the Church the first American saint. The Jesuits joined the other missionaries in 1568, immediately founding churches and schools in almost all the cities, and in 1577 a seminary for the missions at Juli, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. In 1582 the province of Peru already counted 1533 Jesuits. In 1572 the Jesuits accepted the mission among the Indians. Frs. Samaniego and Martínez erected the famous mission of S. Cruz de la Sierra, where in a short time more than 10,000 were baptized. In 1580, after only 3 years from the beginning of the missions, 50 Jesuits preached in the Indian languages, whereas ordinarily in the other missions of the time preaching was often done through interpreters. The Jesuits, many times at the peril of their lives, sought to draw the Indians from the forests into the Christian centers. In 1690 and 1710 they succeeded in obtaining from the viceroys the prohibition of the Indian slave market. With the mission among the Moxi, who were gathered into 6 reductions, they brought Christianity as far as the borders of the country. Toward the end of the 18th century the Jesuits Arlet and Borin were in Peru, and they evangelized the Caniciani. After the expulsion of the Jesuits (1767), their missions passed to the secular clergy, but they went on declining more and more. The struggle for independence against Spain first, then the civil wars and the domination of Freemasonry in the 19th century were disastrous for the Church and the missions. In 1849 the Franciscans were able to revive their mission of Ocopa. But only in 1900, after the invitation of Leo XIII in 1895, at the request of the bishops of the region and in full agreement with the government, Propaganda created 3 new apostolic prefectures for the Indians of the mountainous regions of the interior: namely that of Ucayali, left to the Franciscans, that of Urubamba, entrusted to the Dominicans, and that of S. Leone delle Amazzoni, to the Augustinians.

V. ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION

According to the Annuario Pontificio, 1952 (p. 1217), it consists of 4 metropolitan sees, 11 suffragan sees, 4 apostolic vicariates, 2 apostolic prefectures, 1 prelature nullius.

1. Metropolitan sees: 1) AREQUIPA (Apr. 15, 1577; metropolitan May 23, 1943), with the suffragan sees: PUNO (Oct. 7, 1861); TACNA (Dec. 18, 1944); 2) CUZCO (Sept. 5, 1536; metropolitan May 23, 1943), with the suffragan see: AVACUCHO or HUAMANGA (July 20, 1609); 3) LIMA (May 14, 1541; metropolitan Feb. 12, 1546), with the suffragan sees: HUANUCO (March 17, 1865); HUARAZ (May 8, 1899); HUANCAVELICA (Dec. 18, 1884); HUANCAVO (Dec. 18, 1884); ICA (Aug. 18, 1946); 4) TRUJILLO (June 15, 1577; metropolitan May 23

1943), with the suffragans: CAJAMARCA (5 Apr. 1908); CHACHAPOYAS (formerly MAYNAS 1805; present name 4 July 1943); PIURA (20 Feb. 1940) and the prelature nullius: MOVOBAMBA (7 March 1948).

2. Apostolic vicariates: IQUITOS (1 Aug. 1945); PORTO MALDONADO (10 March 1949); S. GABRIELE DELL'ADDOLORATA DI MARAÑON (3 June 1936); UCAVALI (14 July 1925).

3. Apostolic prefectures: S. FRANCESCO SAVERIO (11 Jan. 1946); S. GIUSEPPE DELLE AMAZZONI (13 July 1945).

Nicola Kowalsky

VI. LEGAL CONDITIONS OF THE CHURCH

Art. 232 of the Constitution of 9 April 1933 declares that "respecting the sentiments of the popular majority, the State protects the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman religion," while the other religions enjoy freedom for the exercise of their respective cults. Art. 233 recalls the exercise of the right of patronage. This right, which many countries born from the dismemberment of the Spanish Empire invoke from the Holy See, appealing not too justly to the one already granted to the Spanish Kings by Pope Julius II with the bull of 8 Dec. 1498 and with the Universalis Ecclesia of 28 July 1508, Peru instead derives from the apostolic letters of 3 March 1874. With these letters, in fact, Pius IX granted to the President of the Republic and to his successors the enjoyment of the right of patronage, on condition that the ecclesiastical goods be left to the clergy and distributed with diligence and fidelity and that the Peruvian government favor and protect the Catholic religion. Accordingly, the designation of archbishops and bishops is now carried out as follows: from a double set of three priests who are to be promoted (three from the diocese or archdiocese to be provided for and three from another diocese: law of 1874), which
must be Peruvians by birth (art. 235 of the Constitution), one is chosen to be presented to the Pope.

Art. 234 provides for the stipulation of a concordat with the Holy See: a concordat that is probably delayed by two facts: by the impossibility of maintaining the right of patronage, at least in its present form, since it is by now a principle sanctioned in concordat law that the Church freely chooses its Pastors; and by the existence of divorce, established in P. in 1931.

Diplomatic relations are maintained through the apostolic nuncio in Lima and the ambassador accredited to the Holy See. Giulio Dante

VII. LITERATURE: v. ISPANO-AMERICANA, LETTERATURA.

VIII. ART

The territory of Peru possesses the most important archaeological evidence of the cultures of the Andean region, both from the American prehistoric era and from the protohistoric era. In quality, except for sculpture, they are not inferior to those of the Mexican and Maya cultures (v.), to which they are ideally linked, although contacts were scanty and rare, and it is more correct to speak of analogies and similarities due to identity and contemporaneity of development.

The area of the Andean cultures encompasses the entire vast territory over which the Incas extended their dominion, and thus expands, beyond the current borders of Peru, to the Bolivian zone around Lake Titicaca. Indeed, the remains of the localities of Tihuanaco, Pirapi and Sallustani cannot be separated from those of the Peruvian region of the same lake and of the valley of the Hurubamba River, since they belong to the identical system and display the same tectonic and decorative themes. For expository convenience, without entering into the heart of the lively controversies that have divided the field of scholars intent on establishing the priority of the coastal cultures over those of the Sierra and the Montaña, or vice versa, the traditional distinction will be accepted, analyzing the monuments from the so-called Chimu civilization, which developed in the northern part of the coastal region. According to the Spanish chroniclers, the Kingdom of Gran-Chimu ceased, due to the invasion of the Incas, about a century before the conquest. Of it remain the imposing ruins of the city of Chan-Chan, erected in the fertile plain between the Chicama and Moche rivers, near the present city of Trujillo, in a period ranging from 800 to 1000 A.D.

The great extent of the ruins, which occupy over 15 sq km, suggests that it was the capital of the Kingdom. It is divided with perfect topographical distribution into four quarters enclosed by sturdy walls with low rectangular houses, alternating with vast earthen platforms on whose terraces are situated temples and dwellings of dignitaries and priests, with fronts many tens of meters wide and up to five high.

The construction material used is sun-dried clay, which in the arid climate achieves a stony hardness. The devastation wrought by time and by treasure hunters, who have literally crumbled many buildings, prevents forming an adequate idea of its whole. The constructive genius of these peoples is revealed not only in the geometric perfection with which walls, entrances and pediments are squared and leveled, but also in the complex and advanced irrigation systems, with which gardens and orchards were nourished all around the city. Of the original ornamentation, scanty traces remain. Stuccoes and frescoes decorated exteriors and interiors. The prevailing taste is for minute figurations, with geometric patterns similar to those of ceramics and textiles, or with stylized fish and birds. The monotony of repetitions is avoided with a most skillful asymmetrical alternation.

At the southern extremity of the Chimu kingdom, in a locality today called "La Fortaleza," on the summit of a hill squared into terraces according to the contour lines, and each surrounded by a high wall of dry clay, stands the fortress of Paramonga. Four strongly projecting bastions protect the corners. The defensive technique is revealed, in the complex of constructions (the fort is surrounded by small dwellings, connected by narrow walkways), as extraordinarily evolved compared to that of all other primitive peoples; the fortress resisted the onslaught of the Incas, and only the great Pachacutec was able to overcome it at the beginning of the 15th century. South of the Chimu kingdom, along the Peruvian coast, other cultures developed from very remote times, until the encounter with the civilization of the Incas. Interesting finds were made in the valleys of Ancon, Chancay and Rimac: there the major ruins of Pachacamac have walls that anciently bore splendid polychrome fresco designs, of which insignificant traces remain. Further south, in the territory of the ancient Chincha confederation, lies the seat of the culture known by the name of Ica or Nasca, which flourished between 900 and 1400. It was the first to be overrun by the Inca conquerors. The ruins of La Centinela, the most important in the area, clearly testify to the succession of Pre-Inca and Inca cultures and the frequent exchanges between the coast and the high plateau. The presence of niches on the exterior and interior of the wall structures brings these constructions close to those of the Urubamba valley.

It is useless to push further south, because, although there are reports of even very ancient cultures that flourished along the entire coast up to the Chilean border, archaeological recoveries have not so far been able to reveal anything artistically interesting, apart from fictile or textile artifacts, particularly from the peninsula of Paracas.

The Peruvian high plateau possesses, around Lake Titicaca and in the high valley of its emissary the Urubamba, at exceptional altitudes approaching 4000 m, one of the most interesting and suggestive archaeological zones in the world.

In Bolivian territory, Tiahuanaco has the admirable "Gate of the Sun," designed and cut with an exceptional sense of proportion, whose decoration constitutes the masterpiece of Inca sculpture. Viracocha, the creator god, is represented hieratically surrounded by the stylized symbols of his earthly manifestations. Also in Bolivian territory, at Pirapi and Sallustani, are the finest examples of the characteristic Chulpas, the circular funerary towers of the Incas built with perfectly squared blocks of basalt and crowned by a projecting cornice of slabs; into the inner cell lead doors without architraves and jambs, and devoid of any decoration.

The capital of the Inca civilizations was the city of Cuzco. There the ancient constructions served as a base for the buildings erected by the Spanish conquerors; the city streets present today a picturesque appearance, due to the contrast between the ancient rusticated slabs without cement and the white plaster of the upper additions.

The ancient city had a regular plan, with narrow, paved streets. About the religious buildings of which traces remain, there are fabulous accounts by the Spanish chroniclers. The temple of the Sun, the largest in the city, had a sumptuous decoration in which gold was lavished. Other temples were dedicated to the moon, the stars, thunder, lightning and the rainbow. Near Cuzco stand the ruins of Tampumachay. At Kenko the semicircular ruins of an amphitheater have been found. The center is marked by a large stone carved with the figure of a puma. North of Cuzco, ruins of a fortress with angled spurs, on descending terraces, exist at Sacsahuaman; the summit of the hill is occupied by the famous and mysterious stairway carved into the living rock, known by the improper name of "Throne of the Incas." The soundness of the structures and the acute-angled bastions, distributed with masterly military intuition, made it one of the strongholds during the civil war among the conquerors. Another fortress, protecting the sacred valley of the Urubamba, stands at Ollantaytambo, characteristic for its niches, similar to those of La Centinela.

At Piaac, 80 km northeast of Cuzco, the complex of semicircular fortifications and temples attests to the degree of perfection reached by Inca architects, in the most splendid period of their civilization, between the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th. The great blocks are placed side by side with meticulous precision: although the copper cramps that anciently held them together have been removed, the walls stand perfectly plumb. Although the Incas were ignorant of the use of iron and did not possess pulleys and other tools, common to European craftsmen, the windows and the stones chamfered at the corners are at a most exact level. One of the most singular buildings of this complex is the Intihuatana, with an elliptical plan, which is presumed to have served as an astronomical observatory.

The dead city of Machu Picchu, 80 km. northwest of Cuzco, situated at over 3000 m. above sea level, on one of the numerous mountains cut at an elbow by the Urubamba, inaccessible in earlier times, and discovered only in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, offers, through the perfect preservation of its monuments, untouched by treasure hunters, the highest example of Inca art and urban planning. The city is built following the irregularities of the terrain and divided into compartments, seemingly according to a precise hierarchy that scholars have sought to determine. Toward the northwest the religious center occupied the most prominent part. The private dwellings are arranged on the outside; and, in all directions, by means of terraces, walls, and enclosures, an attempt was made to gain space on the steep slopes of the mountain in order to erect houses, gardens, and orchards. No primitive culture shows, as this one of the Incas does, so much skill in adapting to the terrain, and such a high capacity for exploitation and organization. But unlike the artists of the Aztec and Maya civilizations, the builders of the Incas did not elaborate fantastic decorations: they seem concerned only with the solution of practical problems and of structures: bound to the earth, as one scholar says, they did not concern themselves with communicating their own feeling: the soul of the Incas, like their art, remains hermetic, despite the infinite attempts that have been made to penetrate and understand it.

Andean sculpture is poor. The most important finds are the monolith of Cerro Sechin (upper P.) and the Raimondi stele of Chavin de Huántar (central P.), which offer examples of highly elaborate and fine carved decoration on anthropomorphic themes. The stylization brings the figurative elements back to the surface plane, with a technique analogous to that of vase ornamentation.

Andean ceramics, by contrast, have no rivals on the American continent for originality of forms and for fineness of design and execution: they can perhaps bear comparison with the best Greek and Italic production. It is not possible here to distinguish the infinite varieties of styles from the Mochica, to the Chimu, to the Nasca, to the Tiahuanaco, to those of the southern coast and of the high plateau. One may limit oneself to providing a few examples among the most singular of the Mochica style (from 500 to 800 A.D.), characterized by original and realistic portraits, and of the classic Inca style (14th-15th century), of which an aryballos with typical vertical bands is published here. Weavers and goldsmiths provide artifacts of excellent quality, produced mainly in the central coastal zone, and widely diffused throughout the territory of the Empire.

In the era of the conquest, the Spaniards built edifices at Trujillo and at Cuzco, according to the orientations of art in the mother country. But very soon the suggestion of the tenacious indigenous tradition influenced artisans and artists, especially in the creation of decorative motifs, sometimes of good workmanship, such as those of the Jesuit seat at Cuzco (second half of the 16th century) or of the convent of St. Dominic, in the same city. In the following centuries Hispano-colonial art had its regular development, with borrowings and exchanges among all the nations of South America, but here it produced no monument of exceptional importance.

Riccardo Averini

IX. SCHOOL SYSTEM

Art. 25, tit. III of the Peruvian Constitution establishes that all those who offer the guarantees of capacity and morality prescribed by law may direct educational establishments of every grade or teach in them. The State has the right of control over every educational activity through the National Council of Education, reorganized in the year 1907 and dependent on the Central Office of Education. It is the duty of the State, on the basis of the reform of José Pardo (1905), to provide free of charge to all elementary-school pupils books, notebooks and pencils. Every pupil must be directed toward the search for beauty, truth, goodness and justice.

The entire school system, based on psychotechnics and on school medicine, comprises elementary, secondary and higher schools. The latter comprise: the Universidad nacional del Gran Padre S. Augustin in Arequipa, founded in 1821, the Universidad de S. Marcos in Lima, founded in the year 1571, the Universidad de S. Antonio Abad in Cuzco, founded in 1598, the Universidad de S. Tomás y Santa Rosa in Trujillo, founded in 1835, and the Catholic University of Lima, founded in 1917 and canonically erected in 1942.

The schools dependent on the Catholic missions are the following: 9 schools of catechism and prayers, 103 elementary schools, 3 lower secondary schools, 9 vocational schools and 1 teacher-training school. The instruction of the Catholic clergy takes place in 1 preparatory school, in 2 minor seminaries and in 8 Seminaria plena. - See plate LXXX.