To begin my research, in the most obvious way. I started to collect knowledge about Peruvian mythology and overall Inca stories and deities.
I was in search of books or old texts about Inca mythology. I encounter myself with a handbook of Inca Mythology by Steel Paul. This book serves as an introduction to Inca mythology, as this is very extended, the book only touches on some narratives, themes, and concepts that the Incas believed. In the first two chapters, the author includes an overview of the Inca civilization and how they view the world and also includes how they perceive time. Chapter 3 is the most interesting because contains a bunch of mythic narratives from Inca mythology. This book serves as a guide to give me an idea of the different stories that the Incas had. And, as inspiration to find my focus on what story want to tell in my thesis project.
Following my research, I keep exploring the origins of the Incas. As in Greek mythology, we have Cronus the creator of cosmo, in Inca mythology, we have Viracocha, the great creator.
"According to legend, Viracocha emerged from Lake Titicaca and created all of the things in the world, including man, before sailing off into the Pacific Ocean."
(Minster)
That's the short, summary version of the creation myth. The extended version talks about man's creation before the creation of the Incas as we know it today. Viracocha first created giants and then they became stones. This myth is kind of long and it has other variations.
From this myth, two other myths come out. Well, two different versions of how the Incas originated and found Cuzco city. The legend of the Ayar brothers, and the legend of Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo. Both end up with Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo as the first Incas and founders of the city of Cuzco.
Continuing with the mythology theme, but this time I want to focus on the study of mythologies. I wanted to back up a little and see why is mythology stories important for society and why people study them.
An article that I found mentioned that the study of myths relates to the cultural and spiritual perspective of a particular culture or religion.
"Myths are narratives about divine or heroic beings, arranged in a logical manner, and passed from generation to generation and culture to culture in syncretic mimetic shifts .All sacred traditions have myths, and use of the term does not imply crticism or any depreciation in importance, as there often is in common usage."
(Mythology)
Stepping outside the theme of mythology. Part of my thesis project is storytelling. I started researching how to tell a story and the structure of storytelling.
I found out that Joseph Campbell, an American writer identifies the common structure among myths and stories. He combines his knowledge of myth, and modern-day psychology to create his own version of a hero's journey. We can see this structure in famous stories such as Harry Potter or Star Wars.
He identify 17 stages which he dived into 3 parts; separation, initiation, and return.
