Dualistic+Conflict+in+the+Casma+Valley

The Dualistic Idea of Conflict in the Casma Valley
By: Samantha Pietruszewski  Subtle ideas of duality are seen by many peoples around the world. The day is filled with a blinding light, bringing along with it warmth that is most prominently felt. In contrast, the night, a blinding darkness, brings with it the coolness of the night. These two contrasting ideas only meet at twilight and dusk, when the two opposing forces fight with each other so that one disappears and the other takes over. For the Andeans, this dualistic idea was even more prominent. In Rebecca Stone-Miller’s book //Art of the Andes: From Chavín to Inca//, she highlights these many dualisms in Andean South America (Stone-Miller 1995). The dualistic ideas are seen in their environment from the dry, lifeless [|Atacama Desert] sloping into the life filled ocean and in the east snow covered mountains to the dry black mountains of the west (Stone-Miller 1995: 10-12). This dualistic theme, though, was not always portrayed in such a romantic light. Opposing ideas coming together often cause chaos and conflict, which is seen vividly in the Casma Valley (Figure 2). Although two different dualistic ideas are seen portrayed at the sites of Cerro Sechin and Chankillo, both represent what happens when opposing ideas collide.

In order to understand how dualism is seen archaeologically during the Ancient Andean times, this wiki will be discussing how Cosmological and Social Duality  is portrayed throughout the Andes, what the idea of Tinku  is in its relation to social duality, two sites, Cerro Sechin  and Chankillo , in the Casma Valley where the idea of dualistic conflict is portrayed, and the connection of these ideas.

Let us first look at Cosmological and Social Duality.   