Tumi
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The Tumi is a sacrificial ceremonial knife, made of either bronze, copper, gold-alloy, or silver alloy used by some Inca and pre-Inca cultures in the Peruvian Coastal Region. In Andean mythology, the Moche, Chimu and Incas were descendants of the Sun, and had to be worshipped annually with a extravagant celebrations. The festival took place at the end of the potato and maize harvest in order to thank the Sun for the abundant crops or to ask for better crops during the next season. During this important religious ceremony, the High Priest would sacrifice a completely black or white llama. Using a tumi, he would open the animal's chest and with his hands pull out its throbbing heart, lungs and viscera, so that observing those elements he could foretell the future. Later, the animal and its parts were completely incinerated.
Other Andean cultures have used the tumi for the neurological procedure of skull trepanation. Many of these operations were carefully performed, suggesting that the surgery was done for the relief of some body disturbance other than that associated with injury, perhaps an organic or mental condition.
On November 21, 2006, archaeologists announced that they had unearthed 22 graves in northern Peru containing pre-Inca artifacts. Among the artifacts were the first tumi ever discovered by archaeologists. All previous examples had been recovered from grave looters.[1]
In Latin America, to hang a tumi on a wall means good luck. The tumi is the national symbol of Peru and has become a symbol used in the Peruvian tourism publicity.
[edit] See also
- Peru national rugby union team (who use an image of a tumi in their official emblem)
- Tumi (business), an U.S. business named after the tumi
