Waqay : a word about water and the Andean world in a twentieth-century Spanish manuscript from Huarochirí (Peru)

Abstract

Drawing on an important and newly accessed early twentieth-century manuscript from the highland Lima village of San Pedro de Casta, this article explores the linguistic landscape within which the text—an internal set of irrigation ritual regulations based on Inca precepts—emerged, and offers a highly contextualized analysis of the Quechua word waqay, which features in this predominantly Spanish-language text. The term is central to Andean conceptualizations of landscape, spirituality, and communication. In the local context, agro-pastoral production and community well-being hinge on the deliverance of this word in the annual canal-cleaning ritual.