Pishtaco

My friend Weiner, a college teacher in Lima and archeologist bears an incredible knowledge of folk tales and myths from Peru and far beyond. Today at breakfast he told me about the myth of Pishtaco.

Pishtaco has got white skin and kills the Indigenous to use their body fat. Pishtar is the Quechua equivalent for the verbs “to cut up, to kill”. The belief is still prevalent today, but has origins far back in history, probably reaching back to the conquista by Pizarro and others. The conquistadores used the body fat of dead natives as an antiseptic to treat their own wounds – a natural antiseptic called unta, in Quechua. As the Spanish killed a incredibly high number of natives, Pishtaco lived on. In naval wars with Chile, Pishtaco killed the natives to fuel the ships with their processed fat. When news about the Second World War reached Peru, Pishtaco killed to grease cannons and guns. Later on in history, Pishtaco killed to produce kerosene.

The myth of the murderer Pishtaco does affect me personally. Once, observing a market in Pisha, I sat besides the head of the village who sold textiles from Lima. It was the first time I took my new “business card” with me, abadge with my photograph on it, displaying my name, my position (antropólogo) and my affiliation with the local farmer’s organization. I asked my companion if he thought it would be necessary to put it on and he replied: “Of course you should! Like that the people will see that you won’t kill them.”