The Chakana as an Operator of Appearing: Form, Mediation, and Cosmization in Andean Spatiality

Abstract This paper proposes a radical displacement in the interpretation of the Andean Chakana: from representational symbol to operator of appearing. Drawing from the development of an ontology of appearing and from the so-called “ontological-cosmological turn” articulated around form, symbol, and appearing, the study argues that the Chakana does not represent a preexisting cosmos, but rather organizes the formal conditions through which a world may become articulated and emerge. The article develops a multiscalar morphological procedure applied to diverse Andean archaeological configurations — including Ventarrón, Ñaupa Iglesia, Túcume, Chavín de Huántar, and El Shincal de Quimivil — in order to identify spatial relations, centralities, thresholds, and structures of mediation that allow the Chakana to be understood as an operative principle rather than as a merely symbolic figure. In critical dialogue with doctrinal symbolism, contemporary esoteric readings, and certain reductive forms of relational ontology, the paper proposes understanding the Chakana as a matrix of structural compatibility, a formal grammar of relational transit, and an ontological-territorial form of mediation. The research integrates conceptual analysis, bibliographical study, and direct territorial observation conducted between 2024 and 2025 across diverse Andean archaeological sites in Peru, including Ventarrón, Túcume, Chavín de Huántar, Pachacamac, Kuntur Wasi, Vilcashuamán, Chan Chan, Huaca del Sol y la Luna, El Brujo, Huaca Rajada-Sipán, the Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum, and other archaeological complexes revisited multiple times over the years. The central thesis maintains that the Chakana does not simply appear in the world as an isolated figure, but rather that the world itself may appear chakanized.