Inca Rope Bridges
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Inca Rope Bridges
Incana rope bridges are simple suspension bridges over canyons , gorges and rivers ('' pongos'') constructed by the Inca Empire. The bridges were an integral part of the Inca road system and exemplify Inca innovation in engineering. Bridges of this type were useful since the Inca people did not use wheeled transport – traffic was limited to pedestrians and livestock – and they were frequently used by ''chasqui'' runners delivering messages throughout the Inca Empire. Construction and maintenance The bridges were constructed using ichu grass woven into large bundles which were very strong. Part of the bridge's strength and reliability came from the fact that each cable was replaced every year by local villagers as part of their ''mit'a'' public service or obligation. In some instances, these local peasants had the sole task of repairing these bridges so that the Inca highways or road systems could continue to function. Repairing these bridges was dangerous, with those per ...
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Queshuachaca
Queshuachaca (also spelled ''Keshwa Chaca, Q'iswa Chaca, Keswachaka, Q'eshwachaka, Qeswachaka, Q'eswachaca, Q'eswachaka, Queshuachaca, or Queswachaka''), is the last remaining Inca rope bridge, consisting of grass ropes that span the Apurimac River near Huinchiri, in Quehue District, Canas Province, Peru. Even though there is a modern bridge nearby, the residents of the region keep the ancient tradition and skills alive by renewing the bridge annually, in June. Several family groups have each prepared a number of grass-ropes to be formed into cables at the site, others prepare mats for decking, and the reconstruction is a communal effort. In ancient times the effort would have been a form of tax, with participants coerced to perform the rebuilding; nowadays the builders have indicated that effort is performed to honor their ancestors and the Mama Pacha, Pachamama (Earth Mother). The event has also been supported by video productions for Nova (American TV series), Nova and the BBC ...
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The First New Chronicle And Good Government
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of the archaic pron ...
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Mama Pacha
Pachamama is a goddess revered by the indigenous peoples of the Andes. In Inca mythology she is an "Earth Mother" type goddess, Dransart, Penny. (1992) "Pachamama: The Inka Earth Mother of the Long Sweeping Garment." ''Dress and Gender: Making and Meaning.'' Ed. Ruth Barnes and Joanne B. Eicher. New York/Oxford: Berg. 145-63. Print. and a fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting, embodies the mountains, and causes earthquakes. She is also an ever-present and independent deity who has her own creative power to sustain life on this earth. Her shrines are hallowed rocks, or the boles of legendary trees, and her artists envision her as an adult female bearing harvests of potatoes or coca leaves. The four cosmological Quechua principles – Water, Earth, Sun, and Moon – claim Pachamama as their prime origin. Priests sacrifice offerings of llamas, ''cuy'' (guinea pigs), children (The Capacocha Ritual) and elaborate, miniature, burned garments to her. Pachamama is th ...
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Canas Province
Canas Province is one of thirteen Provinces of Peru, provinces in the Cusco Region in the southern highlands of Peru. Geography The La Raya mountain range, La Raya mountain range traverses the province. Some of the highest mountains of the province are listed below:escale.minedu.gob.pe - UGEL map of the Canas Province and the Melgar Province (Puno Region) Political division The province is divided into eight Districts of Peru, districts ( es, distritos, singular: ''distrito''), each of which is headed by a mayor (''alcalde''). The districts, with their capitals in parenthesis, are: * Checca District, Checca (Checca, Peru, Checca) * Kunturkanki District, Kunturkanki (El Descanso) * Langui District, Langui (Langui) * Layo District, Layo (Layo, Peru, Layo) * Pampamarca District, Canas, Pampamarca (Pampamarca) * Quehue District, Quehue (Quehue) * Túpac Amaru District, Túpac Amaru (Tungasuca) * Yanaoca District, Yanaoca (Yanaoca) Ethnic groups The people in the province are ...
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Quechua Language
Quechua (, ; ), usually called ("people's language") in Quechuan languages, is an Indigenous languages of the Americas, indigenous language family spoken by the Quechua peoples, primarily living in the Peruvian Andes. Derived from a common ancestral language, it is the most widely spoken Pre-Columbian era, pre-Columbian language family of the Americas, with an estimated 8–10 million speakers as of 2004.Adelaar 2004, pp. 167–168, 255. Approximately 25% (7.7 million) of Peruvians speak a Quechuan language. It is perhaps most widely known for being the main language family of the Inca Empire. The Spanish encouraged its use until the Peruvian War of Independence, Peruvian struggle for independence of the 1780s. As a result, Quechua variants are still widely spoken today, being the co-official language of many regions and the second most spoken language family in Peru. History Quechua had already expanded across wide ranges of the central Andes long before the expansion of the ...
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Q'iswa Chaka
Queshuachaca (also spelled ''Keshwa Chaca, Q'iswa Chaca, Keswachaka, Q'eshwachaka, Qeswachaka, Q'eswachaca, Q'eswachaka, Queshuachaca, or Queswachaka''), is the last remaining Inca rope bridge, consisting of grass ropes that span the Apurimac River near Huinchiri, in Quehue District, Canas Province, Peru. Even though there is a modern bridge nearby, the residents of the region keep the ancient tradition and skills alive by renewing the bridge annually, in June. Several family groups have each prepared a number of grass-ropes to be formed into cables at the site, others prepare mats for decking, and the reconstruction is a communal effort. In ancient times the effort would have been a form of tax, with participants coerced to perform the rebuilding; nowadays the builders have indicated that effort is performed to honor their ancestors and the Pachamama (Earth Mother). The event has also been supported by video productions for Nova and the BBC and is the subject of an independent ...
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The Bridge Of San Luis Rey
''The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' is American author Thornton Wilder's second novel. It was first published in 1927 to worldwide acclaim. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928, and was the best-selling work of fiction that year. Premise ''The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' tells the story of several interrelated people who die in the collapse of an Inca rope bridge in Peru, and the events that lead up to their being on the bridge. A friar who witnesses the accident then goes about inquiring into the lives of the victims, seeking some sort of cosmic answer to the question of why each had to die. Plot Part One: Perhaps an Accident The first few pages of the first chapter explain the book's basic premise: the story centers on a fictional event that happened in Peru on the road between Lima and Cuzco, at noon on Friday, July 20, 1714. A rope bridge woven by the Inca a century earlier collapsed at that particular moment, while five people were crossing it, sending them falling from a grea ...
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Pulitzer Prize For The Novel
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during the preceding calendar year. As the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel (awarded 1918–1947), it was one of the original Pulitzers; the program was Inauguration, inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were awarded that year (no Novel prize was awarded in 1917, the first one having been granted in 1918). The name was changed to the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948, and eligibility was expanded to also includes Short story, short stories, Novella, novellas, Novella, novelettes, and poetry, as well as novels. Finalists have been announced since 1980, usually a total of three. Definition As defined in the original Plan of Award, the prize was given "Annually, for the American novel published during the year which shall best pre ...
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Thornton Wilder
Thornton Niven Wilder (April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975) was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes — for the novel ''The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' and for the plays ''Our Town'' and ''The Skin of Our Teeth'' — and a U.S. National Book Award for the novel '' The Eighth Day''. Early years and family Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin, the son of Amos Parker Wilder, a newspaper editor and later a U.S. diplomat, and Isabella Thornton Niven. Wilder had four siblings as well as a twin who was stillborn. All of the surviving Wilder children spent part of their childhood in China when their father was stationed in Hong Kong and Shanghai as U.S. Consul General. Thornton's older brother, Amos Niven Wilder, became Hollis Professor of Divinity at the Harvard Divinity School. He was a noted poet and was instrumental in developing the field of theopoetics. Their sister Isabel Wilder was an accomplished writer. They had two more sisters, Charlotte Wilder, ...
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Cusco
Cusco, often spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu ()), is a city in Southeastern Peru near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region and of the Cusco Province. The city is the list of cities in Peru, seventh most populous in Peru; in 2017, it had a population of 428,450. Its elevation is around . The city was the capital of the Inca Empire from the 13th century until the 16th-century Spanish conquest of Peru, Spanish conquest. In 1983, Cusco was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO with the title "City of Cuzco". It has become a major tourist destination, hosting nearly 2 million visitors a year. The Constitution of Peru (1993) designates it as the Historical Capital of Peru. Spelling and etymology The indigenous name of this city is . Although the name was used in Southern Quechua, its origin is found in the Aymara language. The word is derived from the phrase ('rock of the owl'), related to the city's foundation myth of the Ayar ...
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