The religious landscape of the Andean region is influenced by a variety of overlapping traditions, including: curanderismo, organized around physicians and spirits and most illustratively at the center of religious practices in the rainforests of the east; ancient Huamanism, the cult of the sacred mountains, which emerged as a distinct tradition no later than 8000 BCE out of a deep relationship with the highland terrain; and Wakanism, which originated around 3000 BCE with the advent of urbanized, hierarchical civilization.

The organized worship of waka coincided with the domestication of crops and animals and the emergence of monumental architecture in urban ceremonial centers like Caral-Supe and Kotosh. While its scriptures were originally recorded in khipu, 16th-century Christian evangelization efforts resulted in books like the Huarochirí Manuscript, a testament to Andean religion in the Latin script. Although the ongoing colonial period has led to a forcible shift in the terminology and imagery of Wakanist practices, many aspects of traditional religion nonetheless persist through syncretization.