Inca child mummy returned to indigenous community in Argentina
By Lucila Sigal
BUENOS AIRES, May 29 (Reuters) – The mummy of an Inca-era child found frozen on a mountain in northwestern Argentina in 1905 was returned to the indigenous community after spending 119 years in a museum in Buenos Aires.
The so-called “Child of Chañi,” named for the mountain in Jujuy province where he was coincidentally found by military members and climbers — almost 5,900 meters (19,357 ft) above sea level — was between 5 and 7 years old when he was sacrificed as part of a sacred Inca ritual known as “capacocha.”
Since the discovery, the boy’s remains have been stored in the Juan B. Ambrosetti Ethnographic Museum, overseen by the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). For decades, indigenous communities of the Puna region in northern Argentina have been demanding the return of the mummy.
The mummy was transferred from the museum in Buenos Aires’ bustling city center on Thursday to the town of El Moreno in Jujuy province, where the Kolla indigenous community celebrated it with ceremonies and rituals.
“This little boy has a lot to tell us about our identity,” Clemente Flores, a Kolla leader, told Reuters. “He is our grandfather, a beloved being who fell asleep to show us the history of our culture and ways of life, some of which still survive.”
During the official return at the museum on Wednesday, university officials apologized to the Kolla community for the delay.
“Not everything is in the pursuit of science,” said Ricardo Manetti, Dean of UBA’s Faculty of Philosophy and Letters.
The mummy’s final destination has not yet been determined.
(Reporting by Lucila Sigall; Writing by Leila Miller; Editing by Stephen Coates)
