Juanita as historical representation

Human sacrifice has existed for thousands of years and was practiced in most cultures. In this opportunity, we will talk about the sacrifices in the Inca culture. The Incas made sacrifices called "capacocha" in order to avoid natural disasters, since it was believed that in this way these would not occur and that they would even benefit.

In remote ages of  Peru women have been discriminated and forced to do sacrifice rituals to the gods. Juanita was an example of offering a teenager girl to Wiracocha in a ceremony.  Also, these sacrificed girls were considered a gift of the gods, that means they were chosen by the gods to die and to go to another world. 

Until the appearance of Juanita, we had no proof that the Incas also sacrificed women in their rituals, but thanks to her we know more about the history of our country.

On the other hand, Juanita die with approximately as a 12 year old girl in The Ampato Mountain to celebrate Capac Cocha. This ritual called Capac Cocha was done in the Inca period to offer the kids to their antecesors in the mountains. In addition, the Inca decided when the ritual is going to take on with the sun calendar. Since these girls were born and raised in Acllahuasi as Virgins of the sun to bless the empire for having harbests and to avoid disasters.

Juanita's lifestyle was based on weaver, cultivating plants and helping in the Ayllu. Also, her diet has based on "charki", Andean cereals, potatoes, beans and tubers. That means when she was alive she had good health. Her cause of death was that her head had been blow.

To sum up, we can say Juanita is very important to understand our history as a nation and how lived many young Women in the Inca period in South America. Finally, to compare the story of juanita with the Kids of Llullaillaco in Argentina and Chile in the same historical period, they were also climbing mountains and sacrificed to contact their antesesors and gods in another world.

Now if you want to see Juanita or know a little more about her. You can visit her in the Andean sanctuaries museum that is located in the city of Arequipa.

As a curious fact we can tell you that although it is called mummy Juanita she did not actually pass any mummification process, and the most impressive thing is that his body was still preserved in good condition due to the low temperatures of the Andes.