To the Incas… mountains were gods. Platforms were built high in the
hills as shrines upon which offerings were made on a regular basis.
In times of crisis: Drought… deluges… earthquakes… nuclear
contamination (well… maybe not that one)… the offering-du-jour
was usually an unblemished child selected to bring enormous joy and
pride and honor to the donor family whose son or daughter was heavily
drugged and placed–while in a deep sleep–upon aforesaid platform to
perish of exposure and placate the gods who would then immediately
remove the catastrophes that had befallen the land. Of course…
sometimes the gods would not remove the catastrophes… but then they
were a capricious lot as gods went and were often too busy with godly
stuff to bother with mortals. That’s how it goes sometimes.
Sometimes the children were offered in pairs… a brother and a
sister and after drugging them they would be strangled or bashed over
the head to ensure death in case the elements decided not to
cooperate. With the children–here comes the gold part folks–there
were often figurines of gold placed beside the offerings as a little
extra. One can never do quite enough to placate and angry god… can
one?
I have an image of two such figurines made of gold. One- -I have been
given to understand–is a female. The other is a male. One has
elongated earlobes to show that the figure represents a member of the
elite.
But the question perseveres. Which is the male and which is the
female? There are clues… I am sure. But I am aging. And my eyes are
not as keen as they once were.
So I beg you… dear readers… to help me out here. Who is who?
Which is which? Why is why? And what is what … and all the other
questions that humans have been trying to decipher over the eons.
Take a look at the one with the lobes and the one without the lobes.
And analyze. And write to me. And release me of the burden of
ignorance which weighs heavily on my shoulders.
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at http://www.tyler-adam.com where you
will scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that
says Current Tidbits… click it… and you will see represented on
our pages a true image of male and female gold statues designed to
accompany the child-offerings to their final destination.
And there ya have it.
That’s it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark