We begin with traditions of the Andes, a chain of mountains
running north-south through the length of South America, dividing
the western, Pacific coast from the interior regions. The culmination
of pre-European Andean religion was the magnificent Inca religious
culture, but much history preceded the Inca. Human beings have
inhabited the Andean area for perhaps ten thousand years. Paleon-
tologists sometimes assume that these early settlers were descendants
of the Asiatic peoples who came to North America across what is now
the Bering Strait. In that scenario, they would have slowly migrated
southward, through Mesoamerica, eventually reaching not only the
southern Andes but even Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost part of
South America.

The earliest Andeans were hunters and agriculturalists of the
Neolithic period. By the period 3000-2000 B.C. more complex cul-
tures had developed. For example, the Aldas of the north coast of
Peru built huge temples (perhaps influenced by Mesoamerican fore-
bears). During the next two millennia peoples such as the Valdiva and
Chavin advanced Andean culture. The glory of the recent two thou-
sand years has been the Inca empire, which at the time of contact with
Europeans, early in the sixteenth century, covered more than four
thousand miles. The northern boundary lay at what is now southern
Columbia, while the southern boundary lay at what is now south‐
central Chile. The Inca ruled over much of present-day Ecuador,
Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. Between the Chavin culture of about 800
B.C. and the Inca empire lay such intermediary peoples as the Nazca
and Moche, the Tiahuanaco, the Huari, and the Chimu. Thus, the
Inca did not spring from nothingness. They built on the achievements

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