#kontiki

Mid century modern aesthetic design of American dining rooms & vintage menus from the 40s-70s

Before the interview proper begins, and as Hopkins sets his own tape machine in motion (for recording Uncut's conversation with Gallagher, Creation really aren't taking any chances), Noel talks enthusiastically about an album by an American "power pop" band he discovered through the pages of Uncut last year - 'Kontiki' by Cotton Mather - which, in his estimation, is the best LP since 'Definitely Maybe', and this despite brother Liam's initial reservations ("They're a Yank band!" "Yeah, but the singer sounds like John Lennon." "Oh, all right, then").

Noel Gallagher, Uncut interview recorded December 1999, released March 2000.

Interview with Robert Harrison from Cotton Mather about meeting Noel and Liam. Live4ever, 24 April 2017. (Captions added by me, most of the transcription below.)

Paul Stacey tells me that it was a New Year's Day or Boxing Day party at Ron Wood's house, where somebody had Kontiki. And they listened to it over and over with Noel amongst them.

The Oasis guys were absolutely lovely to us. I didn't recognize the feuding brothers I had been told about. I didn't know who those guys were. I met two really delightfully friendly men who took us under their wing and certainly didn't have to. They were following in a great tradition of bands that help a younger band or a newer band up the ladder.

They were phenomenal. I mean they really helped us so much because their fans found out about us and it kinda built the foundation of everything we did after that. And you know, it was wonderful.

I met Noel, I think wherever we played our first show, and Liam came up to me and said, "My brother wants to meet you."

And he led me back down a corridor and I thought, oh, I'm gonna meet Noel, I've heard they don't like each other, whatever, y'know. And he's got this denim jacket and a red bandana. And he leads me back down this corridor and there's Noel, in a denim jacket and a red bandana. It was like, this is cute!

The coolest thing is, they came to the soundchecks, and that is pretty badass. They came to the soundchecks because they're music fans. It was all about the music with those guys and I assume still is. From the sound of the records it sounds like it is.

I believe he's talking about the gig at The Bataclan in Paris on 21 March 2000. Liam wore a denim jacket with a yellow scarf, and while Noel only wore a T-shirt during the gig, an Ozone special was filmed that day, where Noel had on a denim jacket and a red scarf. So I believe Harrison is mistaken about the color of Liam's scarf, but he did wear the red one on different days of the tour.

Viracocha, the Incan lord of creation. Before time there was only darkness. Within this darkness lay a watery chaos, lake Titicaca. This chaos stirred and out emerged the first of all things, Viracocha. With his wife Mama Qucha, Viracocha spawned the sun god Inti and the moon goddess Mama Quilla, from his hand spilled the stars of the night sky. Viracocha made the earth itself, creating the valleys, mountains and seas by which life called home. Viracocha manifested time, ordering Inti and Mama Quills to move across the sky.

Viracocha gathered the stones strewn across his lands, and as they rested in his hands he blew on them, instilling within them life. These stones became giants who raged against the earth and held no intelligence of their own. Disappointed, Viracocha sent a flood and wiped away the giants. Viracocha tried once again, this time he used smaller stones, bringning about the human race.

Viracocha now satisfied with his creation, left the mortal world, leaving it in the care of humanity and the gods. Despite his departure, Viracocha regularly visited the earth in the form of a beggar, teaching the masses about the world they inhabited. Viracocha embodied the wind and storms and was heavily associated with the sea, possibly in relation to the pre creation chaos but it could also be the result of his wife Mama Qucha, who embodied the sea and the life within it. Viracocha was revered by his worshippers as the animate force of the universe, the substance by which all was created.

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Viracocha was the highest and most worshipped god among the Incas. The worship of Viracocha didn’t originate within the Incas however, as he does predate the Incan civilization themselves, likely originating from their predecessors. However it was among the Inca’s where Viracocha grew to his pinnacle of popularity, he was the center point of Incan worship, with the sun god Inti, an incredibly popular god in his own right, was only second to Viracocha.

As the Incan civilization grew they absorbed neighboring peoples like the Nazca, Ichma, and Aymara along with many others, their gods were both inducted into the Inca pantheon as well as conflated with viracocha himself. The Nazca’s Kon in particular became close with the worship of Viracocha. Originally both Kon and Pachacamac were introduced into the pantheon as sons of the sun god Inti, both of them keeping their attributes as creator gods they held in their native lands. However Viracocha’s worshippers began to associate Kon more and more closely with Viracocha, ultimately treating Kon as a manifestation of Viracocha, Cuniraya Huiracocha. Cuniraya embodied Viracocha’s aspect as a trickster god, with his form as a beggar being used to irritate the gods. With Viracocha’s popularity came a multitude of names and titles, such as Pachayachicachan “teacher of the earth”, and T'iqsi Wiraqocha. One of Viracocha’s epithets, Kontiki, is the result of further conflation between Viracocha and Kon. Both Thunupa and Pachacamac, the chief gods of the Aymara and Ichma respectively, were both similarly conflated with Viracocha. While not to the same degree as Kon, the two were still absorbed into Viracocha by the Inca, with their native myths being given to Viracocha and vise versa.

It’s believed that the Polynesian and Andean peoples came into contact with one another. Evidence such as the planting of sweet potatoes in Polynesia, a crop native to South America, and South American genetics in some Polynesian peoples proves this hypothesis. The presence of the word “Tiki” in some of Viracocha’s names lead some to believe that Viracocha and Kon had absorbed the Polynesian Tiki, however this is likely a coincidence as the Andean Tiki likely comes from a mutation of the aforementioned word T'iqsi.

According to the records of the Spanish colonists, they alleged that Viracocha among many other gods were believed by the Incans to be white or Caucasian with beards. A similar claim was made by the Spanish colonists who colonized mesoamerica with Quetzalcoatl. Not a single piece of evidence exists to support the idea that the Incans believed this, in actuality it was an attempt made by the Spanish to aggrandize and appropriate themselves in Incan customs to further push colonization.

Among the Spanish’s records of Incan mythology, they claim that Viracocha walked on water, that he traveled the earth and taught humanity, and that he would reappear during times of need. These have intrigued scholars with its mirroring of many of the traits shared by Jesus, it’s unclear if it comes from an attempt to convert the Incas or if it’s an actual belief the Incas had. However in conjunction with the Spanish’s attempt in changing Viracocha’s race it is more likely that it came from an attempt to Christianize the Incans. Despite this there are some parallels within both Incan and South American mythology, as South American gods like Kon were depicted departing the earth from the sea, it’s known that Incas did believe that Viracocha traveled the earth in human form as a trickster which could be equated with teaching humanity.

The development of Viracocha likely branched off from a common ‘staff god’ ancestor, with fellow branches being Kon, Pachacamac, the Lanzon deity of the Chavin, the Moche Ai Apaec and the Aymara Thunupa. This common ancestor was most likely the staff god found in Caral Supe.