The Lives and Afterlives of Pachamama

Pachamama has become one of the most common denominations—or chronic misidentifications—for planet earth today. Indeed, the more globally popular Pachamama seems to grow, the less culturally specific it seems to become. Hence, its meteoric rise in discursive circulation calls for an examination of the semantic transformations it has experienced in turn. I will attempt to explain these transformations by tracing the development of some of the most dominant and well-known definitions of Pachamama, as well as by expanding on some of its lesser-known indigenous Andean accounts—from Pachamama’s inception in the colonial archive up to the present day. Along the way, we will be able to recognize the sense of prolonged deferral and potentiality that characterizes Pachamama in the indigenous Andean world and that has likely conferred upon it a lasting utopian allure within and beyond the Andes.