Viracocha - Controversy Over "White God"

Controversy Over "White God"

Spanish chroniclers from the 16th century claimed that when the conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro first encountered the Incas they were greeted as Gods, "Viracochas", because their lighter skin resembled their God Viracocha. This story was first reported by Pedro Cieza de León (1553) and later by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa. Similar accounts by Spanish chroniclers (e.g. Juan de Betanzos) describe Viracocha as a "White God", often with a beard. The whiteness of Viracocha is however not mentioned in the native authentic legends of the Incas and most modern scholars therefore consider the "White God" story to be post-conquest Spanish invention.

Similarly to the Incan god Viracocha, the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl and several other deities from Central and South American pantheons, Bochica is described in legends as being bearded. The beard, once believed to be a mark of a prehistoric European influence and quickly fueled and embellished by spirits of the colonial era, had its single significance in the continentally insular culture of Mesoamerica. The Anales de Cuauhtitlan is a very important early source which is particularly valuable for having been originally written in Nahuatl. The Anales de Cuauhtitlan describes the attire of Quetzalcoatl at Tula:

In this quote the beard is represented as a dressing of feathers, fitting comfortably with academic impressions of Mesoamerican art. While descriptions of Viracocha's physical appearance are open to interpretation, it should be noted that men with beards were frequently depicted by the Peruvian Moche culture in its famous pottery, long before the arrival of the Spanish. Modern advocates of fringe theories however such as a pre-Columbian European migration to Peru continue to cite these bearded ceramics and Viracocha's beard as being evidence for an early presence of a non-Amerindian race in Peru. Although most Indians do not have heavy beards, there are groups who do, such as the Aché of Paraguay who also have light skin but who show no evidence of admixture with Europeans and Africans.