SEXUAL ACTIVITY IN THE UNDERWORLD
In the art of ancient Peru, in addition to sexual activities between beings that inhabit the earthly world, we also find represented sexual interactions among the inhabitants of the underworld, the ancestors. In these interactions associated with Uku Pacha, the intention appears to be the propitiation and arousal of the ancestors, the release of semen, the flowing of fluids symbolizing, perhaps, the coming of the rains needed to ensure the fertility of the earth.
• In the sexual scenes modeled in clay by the peoples of ancient Peru, women are depicted as receptive vessels, but also as the producers of bodily fluids. Women are shown being touched, caressed, kissed and penetrated. In pottery vessels we see women inseminated, pregnant, giving birth, feeding, nurturing. Women are also depicted as sexually active individuals, fomenting the emission of the seminal fluid produced by their male partners.
• Men are depicted as emitters, inseminators, projecting their virility and power. Men touch, caress and kiss, and they are also touched, caressed and kissed. They are also depicted as passive recipients of the propitiatory actions of their female partners, particularly when shown as inhabitants of the underworld, with cadaverous features which nevertheless leave their virility undiminished. In fact, these ancestors are clearly not considered “dead” or inactive, but rather as beings responsible for vitalizing the earth from within.
• The two types of sexual activity engaged in by priests and women with the archetypal features representative of Mother Earth are fellatio and masturbation. In both activities, the receptive vessel is the so-called “canchero”, a bowl with a handle, the opening of which represents, in some cases, a women’s mouth, and in others the vagina. These activities may have been performed in ceremonial contexts associated with the fertility of the land.