Pishtaco

{{Short description|Andean mythological figure}} {{anchor|nicario-retablo-pic}}[[File:Retablo11-Pistaku.jpeg|thumb|upright=1.15|''Pishtako'', ''Peruvian Retablo'', Ayacucho]] A '''{{lang|qu|pishtaco}}''' (in Northern Quechua "slaughterer, cutthroat"), {{lang|qu|'''ñaqaq'''}} (in Southern Quechua, similar meaning) or {{lang|ay|kharisiri}} (in Aymara,"slaughterer") is a folkloric boogeyman figure in the Andes region of South America, particularly in Peru and Bolivia, which extracts the fat of its victims.

It is believed to have originated in Spanish conquistadors' practice of using Indigenous Peruvians' corpse fat as treatment for wounds and illnesses.

==Nomenclature== In central Peru it is called {{lang|qu|pishtaco}} (in Central and Northern Quechua, meaning "slaughterer", from {{lang|qu|pishtay}}, "behead, cut the throat") and south of the Andes {{lang|qu|ñaqaq}}, {{lang|qu|'''naq'aq'''}}, {{lang|qu|'''ñaq'a'q'''}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Other forms:{{lang|qu|niakaq}},<ref name="canessa-aliases"/> {{lang|qu|ñakaq}}<ref>{{harvp|Weismantel|2001|pp=xxxv}}, 6 et passim.</ref>}} (from Southern Quechua: {{lang|qu|naqay}}, also meaning "to behead or cut the throat of")<ref name="benson&cook2001"/>{{sfnp|Molinié Fioravanti|1991|p=80}} or called {{lang|ay|kharikhari}} ("cutter") in the Aymara language,<ref name="canessa-aliases">{{harvp|Canessa|2000|p=705}} (abstract) and p. 718 (endnote 2).</ref> depending on the region.

It is called by the Aymara names {{lang|ay|kharisiri}} (var. {{lang|ay|karisiri}} "slaughterer") or {{lang|ay|lik'ichiri}}{{efn|Lik'ichiri is also the name of a mountain in Bolivia.}} ("fat-maker") in the Bolivian ''Altiplano'',{{sfnp|Molinié Fioravanti|1991|p=80}} ''lik'ichiri'' in southern Bolivia.<ref name="canessa-aliases"/>

==Legend== The typical pishtaco in Andean lore is an attacker targeting indigenous victims to extract the human fat ({{langx|es|unto}} "ointment") for various commercial purpose.{{sfnp|Oliver-Smith|1969|p=363}}{{sfnp|Weismantel|2001|p=xiii}}

He is often given a white male racial profile (or ''mestizo''), often said to be armed with a long knife, with which he beheads, disembowels, or dismembers his victims;{{sfnp|Oliver-Smith|1969|p=363}}{{sfnp|Weismantel|2001|p=xiii}} thus immediately killing the victim. But the pishtaco may also leave no visible wound on the victim, but cause a fatal condition incurring death after a few days.{{Refn|Ledesma<ref name="ledesma2023"/> citing José Martinez Gamboa (2003), Nilo Escriba Palomino (2012) and other sources.}}<ref name="williams2002"/> This is possible by stunning the victim with magic powder and extracting the fat from the anus.<ref name="williams2002"/> He could be a nocturnal attacker{{sfnp|Oliver-Smith|1969|p=363}}{{sfnp|Vasquez del Aguila|2018|pp=139–161}} or more of a marauder of the countryside,{{sfnp|Weismantel|2001|p=xiii}} waylaying solitary travelers.<ref name="williams2002"/>

His perceived professional status, and consequently his garb and purpose of usage for the obtained fat, has transformed depending on the epoch, but the pishtaco has consistently been seen as a powerful ''gringo'' figure.<ref name="garcia_hierro2005"/> The original pishtaco lore (of the Conquistador era), held that Spanish soldiers collected Indian fat to treat their wounds.{{sfnp|Weismantel|2001|p=xiii}} Later in the eighteenth century,{{Refn|Beginning of the 18th century for the Bethlehemite friars developing the reputation. See below.}} the ''nakaq'' ("butcher") subtype appeared which were conceived of as knife-slashing priests.{{sfnp|Weismantel|2001|p=xiii}} and at some time came it came to be believed that the pishtaco used the fat to make better church bells, or polish the faces on the saints' statues.{{Refn|Taussig (1987) ''Shamanism'', p. 238 apud Williams.}} Later of his avatars were a man on horseback or driving an automobile,{{sfnp|Weismantel|2001|p=xiii}} usually plantation owners (''hacendado'') from the age of slavery{{sfnp|Weismantel|2001|p=158}} onward into most of the 20th century.{{sfnp|Weismantel|2001|p=210}} The fat was for greasing firearms,<ref name="franco1999"/> but also seen as being used to lubricate machinery on sugar processing plants, etc.<ref name="scheper-hughes1993"/><ref name="franco1999"/>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|And animal fat or tallow was indeed usually used to grease machinery.{{sfnp|Canessa|2012|p=179}}}}(cf,{{section link||Greasing modern machinery}}). Beside pharmaceuticals, cosmetic usage became part of the lore by the 19th century, where the fat was allegedly used for both medicine and soap-making,{{Refn|Ledesma<ref name="ledesma2023"/> citing Vazquez (2018), p. 143.}} and this sort of talk about the ''kharisiri'' fat used for has persisted into the 1990s.{{sfnp|Weismantel|2001|p=209}} Additional lore about the ''kharisiri'' is that they engage in cannibalism: they will make chicharrones from human flesh and sell them or eat them, together with eating ''mote'' (hominy) made of teeth instead of corn.{{sfnp|Spedding|2005|pp=32, 37}}<ref name="grantham2015"/>

On balance, the ''pishtaco'' is more of a cannibal than vampire.<ref name="braham2024"/> However, Mary Weismantel (2001) has given the generalization that "pishtaco is nearly always a vampirelike white man..",{{sfnp|Weismantel|2001|p=xiii}} and wrote that instead of eviscerating or maiming, they would sometimes drain the victim's "body fluids".{{Refn|Weismantel (1997a) "White Cannibals: Fantasies of Racial Violence in the Andes", pp. 10–11 ''apud'' Stein (2003)<ref name="stein2003"/>}} In conference she has described the Andean pishtaco as "an evil priest who sucked the fat from Indians".<ref name="weismantel2004"/>

The "white bogeyman" is another characterization.{{Refn|{{harvp|Weismantel|2001|p=xxvi}}; Weismantel (2000). "Race Rape: White Masculinity in Andean Pishtaco Tales" ''Identities'' '''7''' (3): 498. doi 10.1080/1070289X ''apud'' Musharbash & Presterudstuen (2020).<ref name="musharbash&presterudstuen2020"/>}}

In the manifestation of the fear during the economic chaos of the Alan García administration (1980s), government ID card-carrying ''ñakaqs'' were rumored to be dispatched to collect fat as vital ingredient to some sort of medicine, whose sales were used to defray the foreign debt<ref name="williams2002"/> (cf. Nicario's work under {{section link||The arts and media}})

===Protection and cure=== The ''wayruru'' beans that are brilliantly red and black colored can be made into amulets to ward against ''kharisiri''.{{sfnp|Spedding|2005|p=32}} Once afflicted with the wasting away condition after fat has been robbed by the ''kharisiri'', the only cure, apart from killing the ''kharisiri'' itself, is to administer purchased human fat that needs to be burned using this ''wayruru'' bean and a white egg. The only ways to survive a pishtaco attack after the fact are to kill the pishtaco or to purchase human fat and burn it with ''wayruru'' beans and an egg, believed somehow to replenish the fat lost.{{sfnp|Canessa|2012|p=179}}

Note that the foregoing prescribed cure is based on anecdote, and the sick man (bleeding diarrhea and vomiting) recovered after supposed use of human fat, which could be expensively bought{{sfnp|Canessa|2012|p=179}} (For further discussion as modern commodity, cf. {{section link||Greasing modern machinery}}).

Anthropologist Juan Antonio Manya records the belief that one may gain protection from a ''kharisiri'' by chewing chancaca, eating earth, or showing a clove of garlic that has been pierced by a needle.<ref>Manya (1969), p. 39 apud {{harvp|Canessa|2000|p=718}} (endnote 8).</ref>

The targets of ''kharisiri'' attacks are usually adults rather than children or the elderly.{{sfnp|Canessa|2000|p=715}}

===Sacaojos=== Thus the ''kharisiri'' which generally avoid bringing children to harm can be distinguished from the '''{{lang|es|sacaojos}}''' (meaning "eye snatchers"<ref name="williams2002"/> or "extractor of eyes", legend from the 1980s{{sfnp|Weismantel|2001|p=xiii}}) that preys on children, though both beings are equivalents of ''pishtaco''.{{sfnp|Canessa|2000|p=715}} The ''sacaojos'' is a version of the pishtaco or nakaq, as according to the ''cholo'' population (during the 1980s economic crisis{{sfnp|Weismantel|2001|p=xiii}}). The rumors detailed machine gun-toting ''gringo'' doctors, accompanied by black men serving as aide or bodyguard, going into shantytowns to harvest children's eyes for export. Other rumors made claims of a special contraption used to extract the eye, or extraction of kidney and suet.<ref name="williams2002"/> And in 1988 young tourists accused of being kidnapping ''sacaojos'' were detained and nearly lynched.{{Refn|Portocarrero Maisch, Gonzalo et al. (1992) ''Sacaojos: Crisis social y fantasmas coloniales'', pp. 48–49, 49– 53, etc. ''apud'' G. Williams.<ref name="williams2002"/>}} It is noted that the lore of the ''sacamanteca'' ("fat-snatcher") was widespread back in Spain in the early 20th century, appearing in the popular literature.{{sfnp|Wachtel|1994|pp=80–81}}

===Other observations=== According to anthropological researcher Ernesta Vasquez del Aguila, the pishtaco is considered to be "untouchable" because he has "the defence of important institutions", whereas the pishtaco's victims are relatively systemically vulnerable.{{sfnp|Vasquez del Aguila|2018|pp=139–161}}

==Colonial background== The legend of the pishtaco dates back at least to the 16th century. Conquistadores were known to treat their wounds with their enemies' corpse fats,<ref name="marrin1986"/><ref>{{harvp|Canessa|2000|p=706}} citing Stern (1987), pp. 170–171</ref> and contemporaries Cristóbal de Molina (1570s) and Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas (1601) wrote about the rumors about the ''unto'' (human grease ointment) that developed where by the Indigenous Andeans believed the Spaniards were there to collect the fat from them to use in this ''unto'' as the only cure for a certain illness, or to treat their sores.{{sfnp|Fernández Juárez|2008|p=75}}{{sfnp|Oliver-Smith|1969|p=364}} Spaniards were also said to have killed natives and boiled their corpses to produce fat to grease their metal muskets and cannons, which rusted quickly in the humid Amazon.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Anderson |first=Jon Lee |date=8 August 2016 |title=The Distant Shore |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/08/an-isolated-tribe-emerges-from-the-rain-forest |access-date=12 September 2016 |magazine=The New Yorker}}</ref>

Anthropologist Efraín Morote Best asserted that pishtacos became associated especially with the order of Bethlehemite friars as a malicious rumor that spread at the beginning of the 18th century; in fact the order had cared for the sick and buried the dead, and took up alms collections on remote roads, possibly because the order's founder, Peter of Saint Joseph de Betancur, was known to clean wounds with his mouth in an expression of humility.{{sfnp|Fernández Juárez|2008|pp=75–76}}<ref>{{harvp|Canessa|2000|p=706}} citing Morote Best (1951) pp. 81–85</ref> This order of friars no longer exists,{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The order or Bethlehemite Brothers dissolved in 1820, was technically restored in 1984 following the beatification of Betancur in 1980 by Pope John Paul II.<ref name="fernández_soneira1997"/>}} and in modern tellings, the accusations of ''pishtacos'' have henceforth fallen on ''mestizo''s and Caucasians.{{sfnp|Fernández Juárez|2008|pp=75–76}}<ref name="canessa-after-morote">{{harvp|Canessa|2000|p=706}} citing Morote Best (1951) and Weismantel (1997). Cf. {{harvp|Weismantel|2001|pp=xxx–xxxiii, xxxviii}} on trying to distinguish ''mestizos'', ''indio'', black or white, etc. racial divides.</ref> The name ''nanaq'' was first attested in 1723 as a throat-cutter and already identified with the priesthood.<ref>Father Joseph García la Concepción (1723) , quoted on ''nacas'' in {{harvp|Wachtel|1994|pp=78–79}}</ref>{{Refn|name="garcia-after-ansión"|García Hierro (2005)<ref name="garcia_hierro2005"/> citing Ansión (1989), p. 70.}}

The Asháninka in the Peruvian Amazon believe in the present day believe the pishtaco (and the primordial whites) to be the wayward spawn of the (Incan) ''viracochas'', fished out of the lake by a disobedient son of the shaman Inca, and came to be called "Franciscans"<ref name="brown&fernández1993"/> In Andean myth Viracocha is a creation god associated with Lake Titicaca, near where he built the world. The fair-skinned denizens there were also called ''viracochas''.<ref name="kulmar1999"/>

The present-day pishtacos inherits some colonial traits, but are clearly remade in modern reincarnation. Thus the modern ''nakaq'' has three main uses for human fat: remedy (old), making resonant bells, and oiling machinery (new). The use of fat in casting bells for better sound is in-between: it is latter-day lore, but vaguely hails back to old association with the Church (cf. {{section link||Ecclesiastic pishtaco}}).{{Refn|name="sifuentes-tr-mayer"|{{harvp|Sifuentes|1989|pp=72–73}} also paraphrased in English by Mayer (1992).<ref name="mayer1992"/> Mayer also quoted by Kristal<ref name="kristal1999"/>}}

=== Ecclesiastic pishtaco === Morote Best finds that the stereotype of the ''pishtaco'' (or rather the ''ñak'aq'') now conformed exactly with the characteristics of the ''Betlemitas'' (Bethlehemites), so that they were seen as wearing brown habits (like the Bethlehemites{{Refn|The Bethlehemites were dressed like the Capuchin monks (brown firars) — though Rubli Kaiser's describing the monks in Mexico.<ref name="rubi_kaiser2005"/>}}), and waylaying people (in the manner similar to the brothers asking for alms on the highways).{{Refn|name="spedding-after-morote"}}

The modern lore of the ''kharisiri'' associates him with a whole list of ecclesiastical elements, like the bread (of the sacrament) or the Book of the Tata Cura ("daddy priest" who collects alms), and he is seen as using the human fat in casting bells of superior sound (as with the ''nakaq'' above{{Refn|name="sifuentes-tr-mayer"}}), or turn them into holy oils and candles, or to polish the faces on the plaster busts of saints.{{Refn|name="spedding-after-morote"|{{harvp|Spedding|2005|p=39}} citing Morote Best (1951) and Gose (1994).}}

José María Arguedas records a story "Los pishtacos" taken down in Lima. The story is set in the early years of the Peruvian Republic (c. 1820s or after), when certain individuals would kill people and use the harvested grease in the foundry to cast the bell, and the more gifted the voice of the victim, the better sounding the bell turned out to be.{{Refn|Arguedas (2013) [1970]<ref name="arguedas2013"/> cited by {{harvp|Molinié Fioravanti|1991|p=83}}}}

The Bolivian ''kharisiri'' had been widely portrayed as dead Franciscan monks wearing broad Franciscan hats until the 1950s, magically removing the kidney fat from the Aymara, and the bishop would make holy oil out of it.{{efn|But around the 1970s there was as shift, and the kidney fat were seen as fueling electricity in North America.}}<ref name="crandon-malamud-apud-weismantel">Crandon-Malamud, Libbet (1991) ''From the Fat of Our Souls'', p. 121 ''apud'' {{harvp|Weismantel|2001|p=209}}</ref>

Artist Nicario Jiménez portrays the pishtaco harvesting fat for their bells in the guise of a Franciscan monks and sets this scene in the colonial period{{sfnp|Weismantel|2001|pp=208–209}} (cf. Nicario's work under {{section link||The arts and media}}).

==Techno-pishtacos== The pishtaco, in modern times, has stood as a symbol for the fear of commodification of Indigenous bodies by white and foreign powers, and for the exploitative implementation of capitalism across Latin America and specifically in Peru that puts predominantly Indigenous as well as Black and Mestizo people at a disadvantage.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Derby |first1=Lauren |author1-link= |last2=Werner |first2=Marion |author2-link= |date=2013 |title=The Devil Wears Dockers: Devil Pacts, Trade Zones, and Rural-Urban Ties in the Dominican Republic |journal=New West Indian Guide |volume=87 |issue=3–4 |pages=294–321 |doi=10.1163/22134360-12340109 |issn=1382-2373 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

The modern version pishtaco was regarded as driving fancy cars like a Mercedes-Benz.<ref name="mitchell2022">{{cite book|last=Mitchell |first=Gregory |author-link= |chapter=Panic at the Gringo |title=Panics without Borders |date=2022-09-13 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YSl3EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA122 |pages=121–122 |publisher=University of California Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctv2vr8txn.9 |jstor=2661038}}</ref>

In Huacho, around the year 1983, pishtaco imagery was predominantly associated with the Villasol road-building company (or sometimes the Ministry of Public Works<ref name="garcia_hierro2005"/>). Rumors circulated about murdered Indigenous people's bodies being used to uphold bridges and maintain the surrounding landscape; these rumors were most likely allegorical for the overworking and unworkable conditions of the company.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Santos-Granero |first=Fernando |date=May 1998 |title=Writing History into the Landscape: Space, Myth, and Ritual in Contemporary Amazonia |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/ae.1998.25.2.128 |journal=American Ethnologist |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=128–148 |doi=10.1525/ae.1998.25.2.128 |issn=0094-0496}}</ref><ref name="garcia_hierro2005"/>

In the aftermath of the killings and disappearances in Peru, part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (or CVR, ''Comisión de la verdad y reconciliación'') was the Integral Program of Reparations, which involved exhumations to confirm deaths or discover the "disappeared", in which the surviving family of the ascertained victim received a sum of about 3,000 Euros. But rather than the remains being respectfully reinterred, the families complained the remains were lumped together and possibly sold for profit as crushed bone material or "flavor enhancers" to industries or as cadavers to medical facilities.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Delacroix |first=Dorothée |author-link=|date=2021-07-25 |title=L'État cannibale. Rumeurs de trafic d'os exhumés au Pérou |url=https://journals.openedition.org/conflits/22659 |journal=Cultures & Conflits |issue=121 |pages=73–97 |doi=10.4000/conflits.22659 |issn=1157-996X |s2cid=238764612}}</ref>

Though in a different country, powerful white men (or organization) has been rumored in Honduras of kidnapping children for experimental usage, and the U.S. CIA has been accused in the rumor.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Samper |first=David |date=January 2002 |title=Cannibalizing Kids: Rumor and Resistance in Latin America |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3814829 |journal=Journal of Folklore Research |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=1–32 |jstor=3814829 }}</ref>

===Greasing modern machinery=== The modern pishtaco or ñaktaq was seen as needing human fat oil to run anything from the manufacture of metals and drugs all the way to the US rocket ships.{{Refn|{{harvp|Gose|1986|p=297}} citing Szeminski & Ansión (1982), p .212<ref name="szeminski&ansion1982"/>}}<ref name="franco1999"/>

A long-standing piece of lore allegedly since colonial times<ref>Hughes here citing Oliver-Smith, Anthony R. (1969), Taussig (1987b), pp.211–241</ref> sugar mill machinery needed human fat as grease, especially of children.<ref name="scheper-hughes1993"/><ref name="franco1999"/> Later since the 1950s, the word had spread that jet aircraft engines could not start without human fat, and in the 1960s, rumors that the U. S. Air Force was trying to fatten up children to this end led to parents boycotting sending their children to USAID lunch programs.<ref name="scheper-hughes1993"/>

Since human fat has become a highly valuable commodity on the international market due to its perceived needs,<ref>{{harvp|Gose|1986|p=297}} citing Ortiz Rescaniere, Alejandro (1973). ''De Adaneva a Inkarrí'' p. 166</ref> there have been instances of actual entrepreneurs. In 1969, two men obtained and sold bottles of human grease obtained from killing shepherd women.<ref name="mayer1992"/>

Formerly, tallow (such as derived from whale blubber) was used in the lubrication of machinery during the Industrial Age; thus, as anthropologist Andrew Canessa writes, "the uses to which human fat is believed to be put are not fanciful imaginings but based on very practical understandings of what fat was widely used for in the relatively recent past".{{sfnp|Canessa|2012|p=179}}

====Pishtacos affair==== In November 2009, the National Police of Peru alleged that Peruvian gangsters had murdered as many as 60 people for their fat, and sold it to intermediaries in Lima, who then sold the fat to laboratories in Europe for use in cosmetics.<ref name="Whalen2009">{{cite news |author=Andrew Whalen (AP) |date=2009-11-19 |title=Gang Killed People For Their Fat: Peruvian Police |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/20/gang-killed-people-for-th_n_364783.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130125163600/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/20/gang-killed-people-for-th_n_364783.html |archive-date=2013-01-25 |publisher=Huffington Post}}</ref> The name for the gang, "pishtacos," as well as the details of the alleged criminal plot, played on the Latin American urban legend of the ''pishtaco,'' <ref name="Brice2009">{{cite news |author=Arthur Brice |date=2009-11-21 |title=Arrests made in ring that sold human fat, Peru says |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/11/20/fat.dead.humans.peru/index.html |access-date=November 21, 2009 |publisher=CNN}}</ref><ref name="Carroll2009">{{cite news |author=Rory Carroll |date=2009-11-20 |title=Gang 'killed victims to extract their fat' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/20/peru-gang-killing-human-fat |work=The Guardian}}</ref> and the incident become known as "the pishtacos affair". <!--WP:UNDUEly too long::::: According to the police, the first suspected gang members, Serapio Marcos and Enedina Estela, were arrested on November 3, 2009.<ref name="Whalen2009" /> Elmer Segundo Castillejos was arrested on November 6.<ref name="Whalen2009" /> Police at one point claimed that they were searching for six additional members of the gang,<ref name="Whalen2009" /> including an alleged ringleader, Hilario Cudena, who "has been killing to extract fat from victims for more than three decades,"<ref name="Whalen2009" /> and two Italian nationals.<ref name="Brice2009" />

The story was that the gang members severed victims' heads, arms and legs, removed their organs, and suspended the carcasses from hooks above candles, which caused the fat to drip into tubs below.<ref name="Carroll2009" /> The gang then allegedly sold the fat at a price of $15,000 per liter.<ref name="AP2009">{{cite news |date=2009-11-21 |title=A Peruvian Black Market in Human Fat? Medical Experts Dispute Lima Police Claims That Gang Murdered Victims, Drained Fat From Bodies to Sell to Cosmetic Makers |url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/21/world/main5727429.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091124073812/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/21/world/main5727429.shtml |archive-date=November 24, 2009 |publisher=Associated Press}}</ref> However, medical experts found this high demand for fat unlikely, especially given the amount of body fat extracted in routine medical procedures such as liposuction.<ref name="AP2009" />

The lurid story was "quickly questioned,"<ref name="Chauvin2009">{{cite news |author=Lucien Chauvin |date=2009-12-01 |title=Peru's Fat-Stealing Gang: Crime or Cover-Up? |url=http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1943539,00.html |access-date=2022-10-23 |publisher=Time Magazine}}</ref> and by December had been revealed as a hoax. General Felix Murga, the "head of the national police's criminal-investigation division,"<ref name="Chauvin2009" /> was placed on leave on December 1, 2009.<ref name="Chauvin2009" /> Former government official Carlos Basombrío Iglesias accused Murga (and others) of devising the hoax specifically to distract the media from a recent press release accusing police in Trujillo, Peru, of extrajudicial killings circa 2007–2008.<ref name="Körperfett">{{cite web |date=2009-12-02 |title='Körperfett-Morde' stürzen Polizeichef |url=http://www.20min.ch/news/kreuz_und_quer/story/28472211 |access-date=2009-12-03 |language=de}}</ref><ref name="CBC2009">{{cite web |date=2009-12-02 |title=Fat-stealing gang story questioned |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/fat-stealing-gang-story-questioned-1.780180 |access-date=2022-10-23 |publisher=CBC News}}</ref> -->

== Journalists as pishtaco == The suspicion of pishtaco falling on ''mestizos'' and Caucasians<ref name="canessa-after-morote"/> means not even benign-seeming professions are spared, be it journalists, scholars, or human aide workers.

Enrique Mayer in discourse relating to the 1983 {{ill|Massacre of Uchuraccay|es|Masacre de Uchuraccay|lt=Massacre}} of Uchuraccay where 8 journalists were killed by the indigenous ''comuneros'', explaining that the journalists may have been taken to be ''pishtacos''.<ref name="mayer1992"/> Mayer makes the point that anthropologists like himself could be taken to be pishtaco, as he thinks happened with Lionel Valée and Salvador Palomino in the 1960s, who were tied up and set to be killed.<ref name="mayer1992"/> Peter Gose also writes that "virtually every ethonographer of the Andes including myself has been identified as a {{lang|qu|ñakaq}}" at one time or another.{{sfnp|Gose|1986|p=297}}

Indigenous people have attacked survey geologists working on the Peruvian and Bolivian altiplano because they believed that the geologists were pishtacos.<ref name="gow2001"/> The work of anthropologists has been stymied because measurements of fat folds were rumored to be part of a plot to select the fattest individuals later to be targeted by pishtacos.<ref name="nordstrom&robben1995">{{cite book|last1=Nordstrom |first1=Carolyn |author1-link= |last2=Robben |first2=Antonius C. G. M. |author2-link= |title=Fieldwork under fire: contemporary studies of violence and survival|publisher=University of California Press |year=1995 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ILbkKQoRWuoC&q=pishtaco+grease+the+machinery&pg=PA122 |page=122 |isbn=0-520-08994-4 }}</ref>

==The arts and media== The ''retablo'' (altar box) entitled "El Pistaku" by Nicario Jiménez<ref>{{cite web|url=https://emuseum.as.miami.edu/objects/24115/retablo-ayucuchano-of-el-pistaku-the-legend-of-the-pistaco |title=Retablo Ayucuchano of El Pistaku (The Legend of the Pistaco) |website=University of Miami Lowe Museum |access-date=2025-03-02}} This copy of the work differs from the one pictured above.</ref> (cf. photo above) shows the evolution of the pishtaco legend over time: the topmost layer represents the Colonial Period when the pishtaco garbed as Franciscans gathering fat with which they will have their bells forged, the middle represents the 1960s where a long-haired white man in a mechanic's overalls need fat to lubricate his airplane engine and factory machinery, and the bottom shows the 1980s, where variously dressed fighters are the special forces collecting fat, and in the mix, a general there for the international purchase of weapons and repayment of foreign debt.{{sfnp|Weismantel|2001|pp=208–209}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Sales of fat-based medicine to pay towards overseas debt was a real rumor, as aforementioned.<ref name="williams2002"/>}}

The pishtaco is prominently referenced in the novel ''Death in the Andes'' by Mario Vargas Llosa.<ref name="vargas_llosa2024"/> In the book, members of the Peruvian Civil Guard investigate the disappearance of three men, the Shining Path guerillas are quickly ruled out and suspicion falls on a locals especially the male and female barkeep,{{sfnp|Sun|2013|pp=99–100}} who clearly believe in the cult with pishtaco as the collector of sacrificial lives, and the ''apu'' mountain deities requiring sacrifice in order to bring about restitution from, in particular, a debacle highway project, thus restore the local economy.{{sfnp|Sun|2013|pp=101–103}}<ref name="kristal1999"/> Vargas failed to take account of the pishtaco lore as motive for the locals killing 8 journalists when he headed the commission to report on the {{ill|Massacre of Uchuraccay|es|Masacre de Uchuraccay}}, but introduced pishtaco in this later novel.<ref name="mayer1992"/><ref name="kristal1999"/>

Pishtacos are primary antagonists in the episode "The Purge" in the ninth season of the TV series ''Supernatural''. The show represents pishtacos as having a lamprey-like appendage coming from their mouth, with which they suck out human fat. The episode revolves around two pishtacos and one human started a weight-loss retreat, at which the pishtacos secretly feed on clients. One of the pishtacos decides to kill their clients instead, and is killed in turn by the show's monster hunter leads.

Pishtacos are also featured in the Gail Carriger novel ''Competence'', the third book in her Custard Protocol series. The crew of the Spotted Custard travel to the Peruvian Andes in search of a supposed newly discovered species of vampire that is on the verge of extinction. The pishtacos in this story are described as being very tall, thin, shock-white haired, and red-eyed with a single columnar tooth for fat-sucking instead of the traditional elongated canine teeth of vampires for blood-sucking. This appearance is a result of the transformation from human to pishtaco.<ref name="carriger2018"/>

Pishtacos play a prominent role in the 2018 edition of the Call of Cthulhu adventure module, ''Masks of Nyarlathotep'', where their mythology is linked to the Lovecraftian entity, Nyarlathotep.<ref>{{cite book |title=Masks of Nyarlathotep |publisher=Chaosium Inc.|year=2018 }}</ref>

Pishtacos also appear as minor supporting characters in the first novel of Josh Erikson's Ethereal Earth series, ''Hero Forged''.<ref>{{cite book |title=Hero Forged |first=Josh |last=Erikson |year=2018 }}</ref>

In the 2018 video game ''Shadow of the Tomb Raider'', pishtacos appear as mythical creatures who hunt members of Trinity, the organization that serves as game's main antagonist.

==See also== * emu oil and horse oil – dermatological uses * Sugar refinery#history – animal blood was once used * {{annotated link|Soap made from human corpses}} * {{ill|Kan'o Haruhide|ja|神尾春央}} – famously quipped on exploitation that for "sesame oil and peasants: the more your grind the more you get"  * {{annotated link|Sacamantecas}} * Abchanchu – legendary Aymara creature

==Explanatory notes== {{notelist}}

==References== {{Reflist|24em|refs= <ref name="arguedas2013">{{cite book|last=Arguedas |first=José María |author-link=José María Arguedas |chapter=Los Pishtacos (Lima) |title=Mitos, leyendas y cuentos peruanos |location= |publisher=Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Perú |date=2013 |orig-year=1970 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2YEs2nKgLbcC&pg=PT89 |pages=140–194 |isbn=978-612-4128-02-8 |quote=grasa de dichas personas servían en la fundición de las campanas; y dicen que cuanto mejor voz tenía la persona más sonora salía la campana |language=es}}</ref>

<ref name="benson&cook2001">{{cite book|last1=Benson |first1=Elizabeth P. |author1-link=Elizabeth P. Benson |last2=Cook |first2=Anita Gwynn |author2-link= |title= Ritual sacrifice in ancient Peru |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=2001 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SX8aAAAAYAAJ&q=quechua+pishtay+behead |page=63, note3 |isbn=9780292708945}}</ref>

<ref name="braham2024">{{cite book|last=Braham |first=Persephone |author-link= |chapter=Chapter 35. Classical Monsters in Latin American Cultures |editor-last=Felton |editor-first=Debbie |editor-link= |title=The Oxford Handbook of Monsters in Classical Myth |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2024 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yPQkEQAAQBAJ&pg=PA497 |page=497 |isbn=9780192650443}}</ref>

<ref name="brown&fernández1993">{{cite book|last1=Brown |first1=Michael F. |author1-link= |last2=Fernández|first2=Eduardo |author2-link= |title=War of Shadows: The Struggle for Utopia in the Peruvian Amazon |publisher=University of California Press |date=1993 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=na0wDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA143 |page=143, {{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=gu3QEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA236|2=notes11, 12}} |isbn=9780520074484 |postscript=none}} {{in lang|en}}; Fernández & Brown (2001) ''{{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=R_R8AAAAMAAJ&q=pishtaco+franciscanos |2=Guerra de sombras: la lucha por la utopía en la Amazonía peruana}}'', p. 138 {{in lang|es}}</ref>

<ref name="carriger2018">{{cite book |last=Carriger |first=Gail |author-link=Gail Carriger |chapter=Ch. Thirteen. On Hives, Haciendas, and Hijinks|title=Competence: The Custard Protocol |publisher=Orbit |date=2018 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yUM9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT258 |isbn=9780316433877}}</ref>

<ref name="fernández_soneira1997">{{cite book |last=Fernández Soneira |first=Teresa |author-link=|title=Cuba: historia de la educación catolica, 1582-1961 |volume=1 |publisher=Ediciones Universal |date=1997 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iKcQAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Orden+fue+restaurada%22 |page=59 |isbn=9780897298346}}</ref>

<ref name="franco1999">{{cite book|last= Franco |first=Jean |author-link=Jean Franco |editor1-last=Pratt|editor1-first=Mary Louise |editor1-link=Mary Louise Pratt |editor2-last=Newman |editor2-first=Kathleen Elizabeth |editor2-link= |chapter=Globalization and the Crisis of the Popular |title=Critical passions: selected essays. Post-contemporary interventions |publisher= Duke University Press |year=1999 |isbn= 0-8223-2248-X |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4AZliOqYI-0C&pg=PA217 |page=217}}</ref>

<ref name="garcia_hierro2005">{{cite book|last=García Hierro|first=Pedro |author-link= |title=The Land Within: Indigenous Territory and the Perception of the Environment |editor1-last=Surrallés |editor1-first=Alexandre |editor1-link=|editor2-last=García Hierro|editor2-first=Pedro |editor2-link= |publisher=IWGIA |date=2005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1rOGvODC3LUC&pg=PA182 |pages=182 |isbn=9788791563119}}</ref>

<ref name="gow2001">{{cite book|last= Gow |first=Peter |author-link= |title= An Amazonian myth and its history |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2001 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=gkWPCcgRXKcC&q=pishtaco&pg=PA256 |page=256|isbn=0-19-924196-1 }}</ref>

<ref name="grantham2015">{{cite book|last=Grantham |first=Michael |author-link= |title=The Transhuman Antihero: Paradoxical Protagonists of Speculative Fiction from Mary Shelley to Richard Morgan |publisher=McFarland |year=2015 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YS-SCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA179 |page=179 |isbn=9780786494057}}</ref>

<ref name="kristal1999">{{cite book|last=Kristal |first= Efraín |author-link= |title=Temptation of the Word: The Novels of Mario Vargas Llosa |publisher= Vanderbilt University Press |year= 1999 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RRAFGXNtgKEC&q=pishtaco+grease+the+machinery&pg=PA192 |page=192 |isbn= 9780826513441}}</ref>

<ref name="ledesma2023">{{cite book|last=Ledesma |first=Diana Cuéllar |author-link= |chapter=Chapter 15 Minor Cinemas, Major Issues: Horror Films and the Traces of the Internal Armed Conflict in Peru |editor1-last=Coryat |editor1-first=Diana |editor1-link=|editor2-last=León |editor2-first=Christian |editor2-link= |editor3-last=Zweig |editor3-first=Noah |editor3-link= |title=Small Cinemas of the Andes: New Aesthetics, Practices and Platforms |publisher=Springer Nature |date=2023 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CMzREAAAQBAJ&pg=PA316 |pages=316|isbn=9783031320187 }}</ref>

<ref name="marrin1986">{{cite book|last= Marrin |first= Albert |author-link=Albert Marrin |title= Aztecs and Spaniards: Cortés and the conquest of Mexico |publisher=Atheneum |year= 1986 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=kik9AAAAYAAJ |page= 76|quote= Melted fat taken from the body of a dead Indian was then used to soothe the raw wound. |isbn= 0-689-31176-1}}</ref>

<ref name="mayer1992">{{cite book |last=Mayer |first=Enrique |author-link= |chapter=Peru In Deep Trouble: Mario Vargas Llosa's 'Inquest in the Andes' Reexamined |editor-last=Marcus |editor-first=George E. |editor-link=George E. Marcus |title=Rereading Cultural Anthropology |publisher=Duke University Press |date=1992 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BMMy9d5lc5EC&pg=PA187 |pages=187–188 |isbn=9780822312970}}</ref>

<ref name="musharbash&presterudstuen2020">{{cite book|last1=Musharbash |first1=Yasmine |author1-link= |last2=Presterudstuen |first2=Geir Henning |author2-link= |chapter=Introduction: Monsters and Change |title=Monster Anthropology: Ethnographic Explorations of Transforming Social Worlds Through Monsters |publisher=Routledge |year=2020 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z3zpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA8 |page=236 |isbn=9781000185539}}</ref>

<ref name="kulmar1999">{{cite journal|last=Kulmar |first=Tarmo |author-link= |title=On The Role Of Creation And Origin Myths In The Development Of Inca State And Religion |journal=Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore |volume=12 |date=1999 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rCYkAQAAIAAJ&q=Viracocha |pages=7–8 |publisher=Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum|doi=10.7592/FEJF1999.12.inca }} {{URL|1=https://www.academia.edu/15085397/On_The_Role_Of_Creation_And_Origin_Myths_In_The_Development_Of_Inca_State_And_Religion |2=full download}} (unpaginated)</ref>

<ref name="rubi_kaiser2005">{{cite book|last=Rubli Kaiser |first=Frederico |author-link= |others=Translated by Gabriel Breña Valle |title=The Betlemitas Convent |publisher=Chapa ediciones |date=2005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4EpCAQAAIAAJ&q=capuchin |page=61 |isbn=9789685546072 }}</ref>

<ref name="scheper-hughes1993">{{cite book|last=Scheper-Hughes |first=Nancy |author-link=Nancy Scheper-Hughes |title= Death without weeping: the violence of everyday life in Brazil |publisher=University of California Press |year=1993 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YJVt4YxX_vsC&q=Eugene+Hammel+jet+engines&pg=PA236 |page=236 |isbn=0-520-07537-4 }}</ref>

<ref name="szeminski&ansion1982">"Los Nacaq (Los Degollares)" in : {{cite journal|last1=Szeminski |first1=Jan |author1-link= |last2=Ansión |first2=Juan|author2-link= |title= Dioses y hombres de Huamanga |journal=Allpanchis |volume=19 |date=1982 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HSp9AAAAMAAJ&q=cohetes |page=212 |language=es}} Story collected by Victor Solier Ochoa, Informant: Mariano QUispe, age 48, Vinchos District</ref>

<ref name="stein2003">{{cite book|last=Stein |first=William W. |author-link=|title=Deconstructing Development Discourse in Peru: A Meta-ethnography of the Modernity Project at Vicos |publisher=University Press of America |year=2003 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=76sTAQAAIAAJ&q=pishtaco |page=221 |isbn=9780761826507}}</ref>

<ref name="vargas_llosa2024">{{cite book|last=Vargas Llosa |first=Mario |author-link=Mario Vargas Llosa |others=Translated by Edith Grossman |title=Death in the Andes: A Novel |publisher=Macmillan + ORM |year=2024 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aVXI9TCz9EMC&q=pishtaco&pg=PT65 |at=Ch. 3 |isbn=9781429921589}}</ref>

<ref name="weismantel2004">{{citation|last=Weismantel |first=Mary |author-link= |title=Really Scary Food |work=Abstracts of the Annual Meeting -- American Anthropological Association |publisher=American Anthropological Association |year=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4b20AAAAIAAJ&q=pishtaco |page=467 |isbn=9781931303187}}</ref>

<ref name="williams2002">{{cite book|last=Williams |first=Gareth |author-link= |title=The Other Side of the Popular: Neoliberalism and Subalternity in Latin America |publisher=Duke University Press |year=2002 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kHy-cL_Yrm0C&pg=PA250 |pages=249–251 |isbn=9780822384328}}</ref> }}

===Bibliography=== {{refbegin}} * {{cite journal|last=Canessa |first=Andrew |author-link= |date=December 2000 |title=Fear and loathing on the kharisiri trail: Alterity and identity in the Andes |url= |journal=Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=705–720 |doi=10.1111/1467-9655.00041 |issn=1359-0987}} * {{cite book |last=Canessa |first=Andrew |author-link= |year=2012 |title=Intimate Indigeneities: Race, Sex, and History in the Small Spaces of Andean Life |location= |publisher=Duke University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2McS8Lonb_gC&pg=PA179 |pages= |isbn=9780822352679 }} * {{cite book |last=Fernández Juárez |first=Gerardo |author-link= |year=2008 |title=Kharisiris en acción: cuerpo, persona y modelos médicos en el Altiplano de Bolivia |location= |publisher=Editorial Abya Yala |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ex6384v4Op4C&pg=PA75 |pages= |isbn=9789978227213 }} * {{cite journal|last=Gose |first=Peter |author-link= |title=Sacrifice and the Commodity Form in the Andes |journal=Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Études Andines |volume=20 |issue=1 |date=June 1986 |url= |pages=296–310 |doi=10.2307/2803161 |jstor=2803161}} * {{cite journal |last=Molinié Fioravanti |first=Antoinette |author-link= |title="Sebo bueno, indio muerto": la estructura de una creencia andina |journal=Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Études Andines |volume=20 |issue=1 |year=1991 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/bifea_0303-7495_1991_num_20_1_1027 |pages=79–92 |doi=10.3406/bifea.1991.1027 }} * {{cite journal |last=Oliver-Smith |first=Anthony |author-link= |title=The Pishtaco: Institutionalized Fear in Highland Peru |journal=The Journal of American Folklore |volume=82 |issue=326 |date=October–December 1969 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VXELAAAAIAAJ&q=pishtaco |pages=363–368 |doi=10.2307/539781 |jstor=539781 }} * {{cite book |last=Sifuentes |first=Eudosio |author-link= |chapter=La continuidad de la historia de los pishtacos en los “robaojos” de hoy |editor-last=Ansión |editor-first=Juan |editor-link= |title=Rereading Cultural Anthropology |location=Lima |publisher=Tarea, Asociacion de Publicaciones Educativas |date=1989 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PkAyAAAAIAAJ&q=campana |pages=61–105 }} * {{cite book |last=Spedding |first=Alison |author-link=Alison Spedding |title=Sueños, kharisiris y curanderos: dinámicas sociales de las creencias en los Andes contempóraneos |location= |publisher=Editorial Mama Huaco |year=2005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rep9AAAAMAAJ&q=kharisiri |page= |isbn= }} * {{cite book |last=Sun |first=Haiqing |author-link= |chapter=6. A Journey Lost in Mystery: Mario Vargas Llosa's ''Death in the Andes'' |editor1-last=Singer |editor1-first=Marc |editor1-link= |editor2-last=Pearson |editor2-first=Nels |editor2-link= |title=Detective Fiction in a Postcolonial and Transnational World |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |year=2013 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z1O0XOk0GlUC&pg=PA102 |pages=97–114 |isbn=9781409475514 }} * {{Cite journal |last=Vasquez del Aguila |first=Ernesto |author-link= |date=December 2018 |title=Pishtacos: Human Fat Murderers, Structural Inequalities, and Resistances in Peru |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330854315 |journal=América Crítica |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=139–161 |via=ResearchGate |archive-date=22 September 2008 |access-date=14 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080922001011/http://ojs.unica.it/index.php/cisap/article/view/3378/pdf |url-status=dead }}, accessed 5 February 2019 * {{cite book |last=Wachtel |first=Nathan |author-link= |year=1994 |title=Gods and Vampires: Return to Chipaya |location= |publisher=University of Chicago Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-hRqlRTo5FQC&pg=PA78 |pages= |isbn=9780226867632 }} * {{cite book |last=Weismantel |first=Mary J. |title=Cholas and pishtacos: stories of race and sex in the Andes |year=2001 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=0-226-89154-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KjTTEGwxXHMC&q=pishtaco&pg=PA6 }} {{refend}}

==External links== ===Pishtaco texts in Quechua=== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110720212401/http://celia.cnrs.fr/FichExt/Am/A_25_09.htm S. Hernán AGUILAR: Kichwa kwintukuna patsaatsinan]. AMERINDIA n°25, 2000. Pishtaku 1, Pishtaku 2 (in Ancash Quechua, with Spanish translation) * [https://www.runasimi.de/nakaq.htm RUNASIMI.de: Nakaq (Nak'aq)]. Wañuchisqanmanta wirata tukuchinkus rimidyuman. Recorded by Alejandro Ortiz Rescaniere in 1971, told by Aurelia Lizame (25 years old), comunidad de Wankarama / Huancarama, provincia de Andahuaylas, departamento del Apurímac. Alejandro Ortiz Rescaniere, De Adaneva {{not a typo|a}} Inkarri: una visión indígena del Perú. Lima, 1973. pp. 164–165 (in Chanka Quechua).

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pishtaco}} Category:Cannibalism in South America Category:Multiracial affairs in South America Category:Quechua legendary creatures Category:Aymara legendary creatures Category:Culture of Peru Category:Racism in Peru Category:Peruvian folklore Category:Bogeymen Category:Stereotypes of white men