Living in Peru : your everyday companion

by
Ben Jonjak

Yale University has recently released a three-hundred page document detailing a new theory that claims Machu Picchu was indeed constructed by extra-terrestrials. The report comes soon after a U.S. District court's decision to dismiss Peru's claim that Yale be required to return Inca artifacts to the country from which they were stolen, and was written after repeated viewings of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (which appears in the bibliography as a primary reference).

"As a result of this study," said a Yale spokesman, "we have come to the conclusion that it would be absurd to return any Inca artifacts to Peru."

"Because," continued another Yale colleague, "the Incas didn't make them...Aliens did."

"Yeah," continued the first spokesman, "how can Peru claim to own these items when they didn't even come from the Earth?"

"You can SEE the alien spaceship in the movie," the first speaker snorted.

With that, the two spokesmen held up oranges in front of their eyes as props (symbolizing "alien" eyes) and began to chant:

"Aliens have big heads and big eyes. They fly to distant worlds in flying saucers and build cities using the most primitive possible methods. They can only be filmed by low-quality cellphone cameras by photographers who can't keep their hands steady..." Eventually, as the gathered crowd of reporters began to lose interest and drift away, the spokesman resorted to simply screaming, "SPIELBERG WAS RIGHT! SPIELBERG WAS RIGHT!"

As the two Yale authors of the absurd "alien" theory were fitted with straight-jackets and carted away, some of the assembled members of the press began to discuss the possibility that the whole display was just an "April Fool's Day" joke. Apparently it is a tradition in the United States to publish erroneous news, or make some other sort of practical joke, on April 1st, more commonly known as "April Fool's Day."

However, all shenanigans aside, we at Living in Peru would like to see Yale University start to conduct itself like an honorable institution and to stop hiding behind legal technicalities in small-time courtrooms. Perhaps the next time we happen to be at Yale, we too will "discover" several items we like on the campus grounds and simply carry them off back to the countries of our residence (see how you're perpetuating a never-ending cycle of theft Yale? Shame on you). Furthermore, we believe anyone who's ever taken an ethics class from Yale should demand a refund.

April fools!

But seriously Yale...return the artifacts.

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The artifacts were stolen from peru and yale should be made to return them!A us citizen who is speaking out!YALE SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THIER ACTIONS.

Only-without the intention to ofend anybody-no wander america is in trouble.
These people must smoked  marijuana with paraquat.

Good help us...

Actually, this article was stolen from my dream.

Happy April FOOLs DAY!

michelle :   You little devil You.......

IS YALE IN THE COUNTRY OF FULL RESPECT OF HUMAN RIGHTS? iS DOESN'T SEEN SO

Once again I could notice the extreme ignorance of these kind of smart scientists to state that Macchu Picchu and its wonders were built by aliens. Do I have to think that the US Indepence Day was also possible by the presence of aliens? Now I start to believe that Yale University was founded by nerdy clowns, and the scientists there read comics to work on their investigations. I am sorry for this comment or opinion but it annoys me to read this from Yale University.

Return our artifacts, you stupid nerds!

It is absolutely an insult to the Peruvian people, the Incas, and the entire human civilization that Aliens must have built Machu-Pichu! Why is it that every time we are faced with the wonder and amazement of the acccomplishments of those who came before us, some so easily jump to this conclusion. Why do we have such a hard time believing that earlier civilizations could have been so skilled? Did we suddenly wake up one day and have the mental capacity to fly to the moon? Just because these civilizations didn't leave us written instructions and in our modern society we cannot imagine how they did such things does not logically conclude that "it must have been the aliens". Come on!

If you would like to tell the president of Yale about how you feel about the University's refusal to return the artifacts, His email is

richard.levin@yale.edu

The article here on livinginperu.com must be a hoax.
 
Read this link.  http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/28385 

It's April Fools day... this is a joke.

 can't you find something of your own country to be proud of better than keeping stolen pieces from our culture ? its a shame ! peru can still be proud because no one can take our history away, now... can the united states be proud of trying to steel it?

Regardless it being April 1st, all articles taken from Peru should be returned, no matter if made by aliens or the Incas.

mmm...or is it a joke in bad taste or been sucked one pounds of cocaine

How is an insult to say that aliens made Machu Picchu?  That makes absolutely sense to me!  I don't feel insulted at all.   How in the world some people think, nobody else but you guys are in this planet.  Any way, no matter what language you speak, all of you are simple human beings, and this is only a tiny world!!!  believe me!!!

Love ya!!! 

Maybe now Peru can be trusted with these artifacts. Maybe.
Originally Peruvians sold us the artifacts as well as their services to find more. If we hadn't taken the artifacts and studied them we would never know what we know now about the ancient cultures of the Andes. The locals would have sold them to the highest bidder. It still happens today. Sad but true. We have done a great service to all humankind.

The study, documentation and care of artifacts is best done in the best facilities by the best trained persons
- Regardless of Race or Nationality! Prove you can be trusted to do what must be done and the artifacts will be in your care. These artifacts are World property and not just Peru.'s. The ancients did not know of your current boundaries.
You too can get involved in the study, documentation and care of artifacts. Send some of your scientist to study an ancient civilization in another country. Dig up, study, document and care for the found artifacts. Teach us something we dont already know. Come to the table with food you have grown, hunted or gathered. Do not come to the table begging for what we have grown, hunted and gathered. Bring us books that we did not write. We will do the same for you. Until then, we are not going to sacrifice these most important artifacts of World history to a less capable holder.

Yale's history goes deeper than just being theives. Fact is Ex Presidents of the U.S. George W. Bush and George Bush came from Yale and was with a faternity club called "Skulls and Bones". John Kerry as well! Search Skulls and Bones secret society and you will learn all about the sick world of the elitest.

 April 1st, Fool's day joke?...One thing is true: Peruvians claim Macchu Picchu was build by Inkas, but indeed they didn't.
Once again fellows: It was US!!!
Greetings from planet VGD3481 

Quite the bomb you quietly dropped over here Historian. wow

HUMMMM, so what i 'hear' from Historian... I can go to anywhere in the U.S. dig for ancient artifacts, keep them in my possesion for as long as want to, run a study for as long as it takes and never return them because i FEEL i would be the 'best' guardian of past history, right?

Just because Yale was allowed to dig...doesn't mean they get to keep them. And if the artifacts belong to the world...why aren't they free to 'move around it' ?...next i'd will hear since Machu Picchu was discovered by a Mormon....should they move the mountain to Utah ? 

WASATCH:

What you can do is exactly what we have done. IF in fact you can. Some others can and will. I have my doubts that you will be amongst them.

Silly boy, we cant just carry the artifacts from place to place. It would cost too much to see them, damage from the travel. Just the suggestion shows your ignorance of the subject. If they were in Peru they would be stolen immediately.

Build a better and more secure facility with better trained staff and they are yours. The world is waiting....

I think that my country should be proud of the fact that we provided techniques to the Peruvian Government that helped them end a hostage situation that went on for nearly a year.

Please don't turn this into a debate of how "evil" the United States is. 

If you don't like Peruvian artifacts ending up in other countries and private collections then start your battle in Peru with the numerous huaqueros and private collectors.  Start with people like Enrico Poli and his private collection of Moche and Colonial Peruvian antiques.  Poli has a Private museum on Lord Cochrane where for around $50 or S/.150 you can go in and see objects stolen from tombs and churces in Peru then purchased for his own private enterprise.

The Yale collection numbers around 40,000 different artifacts, artifacts being any cultural remnant no matter how small and can include items such as pot shards, seeds, and individual hairs (many of these items throughout Peru are discarded as being insignificant by huaqueros while looting tombs).  If Peru wants them, these should be returned to Peru, I completely agree with that.  I also say that the Nefertiti Bust should be returned to Egypt from Germany.

On the other hand consider that museums are huge warehouses and kind of like an iceberg.  The vast majority of items in a museum are never even seen by the visitor.  Peru is demanding that the items be returned, but upon return where will 40,000 items go?  Is there a facility already in place to house them?  What will happen to these objects once they are returned to Peru?  My bet is that the overwhelming majority of the artifacts will never even see the light of day. 

Museums simply cannot display everything and most of the artifacts will not even prove to be interesting to the casual observer.  Perhaps the best thing for most of these items is to keep them where they currently are, safe and sound where researchers from around the world have the opportunity to study them and Peru doesn't need to use resources that it doesn't currently have to protect them.  The care and storage of these items could possibly turn out to be a huge and unnessisary burden on Peru.

I'm a big believer in traveling exhibitions and loans as a way to raise cultural awareness.  The conditions of the Machu Picchu artifacts at the Peabody were originally to be there one year but the terms were extended and Peru apparently forgot to follow up on the artifacts and they remained at Yale.  Yale shouldn't shoulder the entire blame in this. 

While there are those that cry foul in regards to the Inca artifacts at the Peabody, they should also be honest with themselves and others.  The Machu Picchu exhibit at Yale's Peabody is as admitted by the museum itself as, "Possibly one of the most anticipated, lauded and visited exhibitions in the Yale Peabody Museum’s history..."  That's a lot of free publicity for Peru which eventually is converted into food on children's plates and clothing on their naked bodies.  Yale will also be co-sponsoring a museum in Cusco which will undoubtedly become the home of a number of these artifacts and an added attraction in the city of Cusco, providing more employment for Peruvians in its construction, maintenance and operations.

I've overheard some Peruvian guides at Machu Picchu speaking ill of Hiram Bingham, I heard the voice of nationalism and pride.  Its fine to be proud of one's heritage, but eating a plate full of pride isn't very filling.  Hiram Bingham, Yale, and the United States have done a lot of good things for Peru and its people.  I'm proud of that. 

I don't excuse the fact that the collection remains at Yale, but to make certain comments about the theft of artifacts and solely blaming the United States for stealing them is off base and a bit ignorant. 

 

Apparently Dan has a big point. If we peruvians want to stop Inca's artifacts ending in OTHER countries and "private collectors"...we need to stop the huaqueros and tomb raiders !

I am not going to assume Yale is a "private collector" but they sure enjoy the benefits of  being one...

I'm glad to hear, some of those artifacts will be going back to Peru for permanent exhibition. The admission fees will keep the doors open and keep tied security.

I might be a "Pride fool" or a "silly boy" of some sort, but as the Spaniors raided the Inca's...There is no reason to go back in history again.

Hahaha, good April Fool's joke!

To the historian and dan,ever been to Peru.My guess is that niether of you have.The goverment is more than capable of taking care of the stolen artifacts! Don cooper jax florida

I'm assuming that the comment about the Peruvian government being able to "care for" stolen artifacts was tongue in cheek.

For the record I have actually been to Peru and was living there during some it the country's most trying times from 88-90.  I've been in countless Peruvian homes and even been to the homes of some huaqueros near Moche.  I've had a rusty sharp piece of metal poised to stab me in the gut in Chiclayo and I've been stuck overnight in a bus due to a washed out bridge near Chamayo.  I've seen a child with an infected cut denied help due to a doctor's strike and socialized medicine.  I bought polish for a shoe shine boy who couldn't afford to get it for himself only to return to his home a week later and learn that he had died from the flu.  I've felt the shaking of my building due to a bomb blast just 4 blocks away from where I was living.  I love my cebiche spicey and my papa a la Huancaina heated.

Yes I have been to Peru.  I know how things go down there.  I don't hang out in the gringo enclaves or the tourist circuit and I don't search out bricheras in Parque Kennedy.  

I hope that clears up any misconceptions about me. :)

Anyway, I haven't been in many museums in Peru recently, but if they're as well taken care of as the zoos then the Machu Picchu artifacts should be inexcelent hands.

The Bruning Museum is actually a good one, so is the Museum for the Sipan tombs (I've not been to that one but from the PromPeru website it looks quite modern and well taken care of).  I'd assume that a cooperative effort between Yale and the Peruvian Government would yield a good museum as well.  But Peru is going to have a burden on its hands with all of these new artifacts.  A good museum will need private sponsorship and hopefully enough space to display what will be of public interest.  

I've actually worked doing lab work in a small archaeological museum (belonging to a major US university) and wasn't even privy to many of the artifacts stored there.  They would have liked to display more, but just didn't have the monetary resources or space to do so.

I'd love for all Peruvians and all of humanity to be able to see the Machu Picchu artifacts.  I just hope that wherever they do end up they won't be boxed away where nobody but a scant few researchers will be able to appreciate them.   

Donald,

I lived in Peru for a total of 9 years on 3 different occasions. My wife and I - she's Peruvian - get back for one or two weeks a couple times a year.

"Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it."

My point exactly, historian...We don't need to ignore history NOW. 'As the Spaniors raided the Inca's'...Yale can't do the same. Today is not 500 years ago not even 100 years ago.

History is not beeing ignored...that's why the artifacts need to go back.

    If this news was  intended as anApril Fools joke, then the joke is on them!  Alien intelligence had to have played a roll in the making of Macho Pichu and all the other citadels around the Colca Valley.  I've seen the size of the rocks, the cut shape of the rocks with he little curl in the corners, the places where the rock quarries are, where they were transported to and placed to build these Citadels.  It's just as impossible today as it was then to do as the Incas did.  Todays best Plasma cutters with computor generated guidance systems can't take a perfectly shaped, 300 Ton piece of a rock from the mountain side, never mind the logistics of transporting said rock to the top of another mountain and placing it in place with hundreds of thousands of other ones.  Maybe just because we can't explain it doezn't make it so, but then there the unexplainable Landing Strips......heh heh

Peru’s ancient past: an alternative explanation

By Shrinivas Tilak (Montreal, Canada)

            The article imputed the creation of Macchu Picchu to aliens and in the process provided some immediate comic relief since it was intended to be an April fool’s Day hoax. More seriously though, it also drew attention to an enduring and vexing predicament for all Peruvians: a satisfactory explanation of the formation and development of Peru’s cultural, religious, and social identity since the most ancient times. True, there are no clear or final answers to questions about humanity’s past. In world history, all ‘conclusions’ must remain tentative. Yet, currently available accounts of Peru’s ancient past come in vaguely defined magical and mythical allusions framed in Eurocentric cultural, religious, and sociological paradigms initially developed to rationalize and legitimate military and political conquest of Peru five hundred years ago.            In what follows I attempt to provide an alternative explanation based on the theory of cultural diffusion using the research findings of diligent scholars (some pre-modern; others more recent), who have sought to recreate Peru’s ancient past in terms of the diffusion of select cultural elements from the lands across the pacific: namely Asia; and more particularly India. It is argued that seafaring merchants and traders established cultural contacts between India and America. According to Professor G. Phillips, the maritime intercourse between India and the lands beyond dates from about 600 B.C. The sea-traders of the Indian Ocean (whose chiefs were Hindus), for instance, founded a colony called Lang-ga (after the ancient Indian name Lanka of Ceylon) near about the present gulf of Kias-Tehoa where they arrived in vessels built after the patterns specified in an ancient Indian technological text called Yukti Kalpataru)(see G. Phillips, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1895: 525 cited in Mookerji 1957). Elements of Indian culture similarly helped in the establishment and sustenance of kingdoms all across South East Asia from Cambodia on to Java, Bali, and the Philippines that lasted until about the 14th century.            According to Dr Barry Fell, President of Epigraphical Society, San Diego, California, Indians traded with Mexico via the Pacific Ocean. In a communication he sent to B. Chhabra (former epigraphist for the Government of India and retired joint director general of Archaeological Survey of India), Dr Fell pointed out that Mexican scholars have identified a stone slab inscription found at Thosudo in the Yukatan Province to be in an ancient script from India and composed in a Javanese Kavi dialect. He further stated that more such inscriptions are found in this very dialect at many other sites in Mexico. Dr Fell deciphered a text cut in the Kavi dialect on one brick that stated:
In the year 845 [923 AC] in the month of Ashadha at which time a merchant ship is thoroughly exploring the coast-line, the captain (mahanavika) of the ship is Vusalana, he wishes to name this place Lakibumi [Lakshabhumi] (Varsa titha 845 (a)salahi masa yatatha vanija nava paricaretivela mahanavika hoti vusulana tana Lakibumi chedat leka kavi (see Hebalkar 2002: 105).Another inscription of a captain (called mahanavika in Sanskrit) named Budhagupta was found in the northern district of Wellesley province. It states, “of the great sea-captain Budhagupta [a resident of Raktamrttika] by all means in all respects-all be (they) successful in their voyage” (see Chhabra 1965: 26). Later, in the construction of pyramid temples in Mexico thousands of such inscribed bricks were used. K. V. Ramesha (a retired director of the Archaeological Survey of India) believes that Hindu and Buddhist traders based in Java, Borneo, Malaya, and Cambodia sailed on the Pacific Ocean across the Isthmus of Tiahuanaca and landed on the Pacific coast. Then they reached the town of Camalcalco in the province of Tabasco which was a flourishing trade centre that drew sailors and traders from far off lands (see Hebalkar 2002: 104-105).  

            Miles Poindexter (a former senator and the US ambassador to Peru) argues in his book The Ayar-Incas that Indians from India (he calls them Aryans) and their language came to America via the island chains of Polynesia. The word for boat in Mexico is a South Indian (Tamil) word: Catamaran. Based upon personal, first-hand investigations and observations, Poindexter accumulated compelling evidence suggesting the possible Indian influence on the Inca people in the realms of art, religion, and science. Starting with the hypothesis of Indian (Aryan) contribution to the peoples of Melanesia and other island groups of the South Pacific, he assumed the arrival of Indian cultural elements on the western Shores of Mexico, Central America, and Peru from that source. Poindexter’s study of migrations, visits, contacts, and cultural exchanges between the Hinduized cultures and peoples of South East Asia on the one hand and the Inca, Maya, and Nahua-Aztec civilizations in ancient times should open up a new field for the study of American anthropology, history, and civilizations in general and that of Peru in particular.

            The official historian of Mexico supports Poindexter’s thesis in a book published by the Mexican Foreign Office wherein he states, “Those who first arrived on the continent later to be known as America were groups of people driven by that mighty cultural current that set out from India towards the east.” Ephraim G. Squier (b 1821 in Bethlehem, New York) is another American scholar whose findings support Poindexter. Squier studied civil engineering but turned to journalism hoping and spent most of his time researching ancient Indian mounds in the Mississippi delta. This research led to a publication, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. Later President Lincoln sent Squier to Peru as United States Commissioner, which led to another book, Peru; Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas (1877). For Squire, a proper examination of the monuments of ancient America would disclose the fact that in their interior structure as well as in their exterior form and obvious purposes these buildings correspond with great exactness to those of Hindustan and the Indian Archipelago. This sentiment is echoed in Sir Stamford Raffles who wrote, “The great temple of Borobudur might readily be mistaken for a Central American Temple.”             A scene from a relief temple in Hinduized Java also has its parallel in the famous pyramid temple in Piedras Negras in Guatemala, which is known as a fine piece of Maya sculpture in America. While it is not yet known what the meaning and significance the temple had in ancient Guatemala, the composition and the placing of various motifs and figures on several levels is very similar to those found in Java. The Spanish author Don Vicente Lopez says in his book Le Races Aryans de Peru, that ancient Peruvian poetry bears the imprint of Ramayana and Mahabharata the two epics composed in Sanskrit. In The Aryo-Quechua vocabulary, Lopez also argues that Sanskrit was the sacred language of the Inca rulers and Quechua the language of common Peruvians.

            More recently, an Indian scholar Balaram Chakravorty, who has studied the patterns of similarity between the world views held by Indians and Amer-Indians, has argued that the Mayas of Central and South America are the descendants and followers of an ancient astronomer/scientist/architect named Maya ((he belonged to a community known as the Asuras)) who arrived from India to the land beneath India [i.e. Patala] by way of the Western sea (i.e. the Pacific Ocean). This was possible because Asuras were excellent astronomers, sea-farers, builders, and skilled in warfare Maya’s Surya Siddhanta (a text on astronomy dating from fifth century) states that while Indians (Devas) inhabit the northern hemisphere, numerous diasporic Indians (Asuras; also known as Daityas) inhabit the southern hemisphere.

            The exodus of Maya and his people is detailed in some of the Sanskrit texts known as the Puranas (18 collections of the history and lore of India preserved in the form of various myths).  Some of the Puranas divide Patala into seven zones of Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Talatala, Mahatala, Rasatala, and Patala. Chakravorty identifies Atala with the Atlantic coast in Central America; Vitala with the region around Veracruz, Tabasco, and Campeche; Sutala with Palenque and Guatemala; Talatala with Yukatan; Mahatala with Mexico; Rasatala with Ecuador; and Patala with Peru (Chakravorty 1992 1: 40-44)..             Howeverr, most “mainstream” academics and historians of Peru and of South America refuse to give any credence to the theory of cultural diffusion from India across the oceans. Findings of researchers referred to above seem to suggest that the large number of highly specific correspondences in so many fields (as briefly outlined above) precludes any mere accidental coincidence. Nor would it help us to take refuge in any kind of explanation based on some alleged psychological laws. It is difficult to hypothesize that peoples on both sides of the Pacific just happened (1) to stylize the lotus plant in the same manner and to make it surge from the mouth of a jawless demon’s head; (2) to invent the parasol and use it as a sign of rank; and (3) to invent the same complicated game (Pachisi). There is no explanation other than the assumption of cultural symbiosis and relationship of some sort in ancient times between India and Peru. Such an assumption invites us to make a new start in the appraisal of the origin and development of Peru’s ancient civilization.

References
Chakravorty, Balaram. 1992-1997. The Indians and Amerindians (in 3 volumes). Calcutta: Self Employment Bureau.
Chhabra, B. 1965. Expansion of Indo-Aryan Culture. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.

Hebalkar, Sharad. 2002. Essays on History of Pre-Columbian America. Ambajogai, Maharashtra, India: Bharateeya Itihas Sankalan Samiti.

Lopez, Don Vincente. Aryo-Quechua Dictionary. 

Lopez,  Don Vincente. Le Races Aryans de Peru

Mookerji, Radha Kumud. 1957. Indian Shipping: A History of the Sea-borne Trade and Maritime Activity of the Indians from the earliest Times. Bombay: Orient Longman [1912]. Poindexter, Miles. 1930. Ayar-Incas (in 2 volumes). New York: Horace Liveright.

Squire, E.G. 1877. Peru; Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas