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Inca Empire

The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called Tawantinsuyu by its subjects, (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts"[a]) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America.[4] The administrative, political and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The Inca civilization arose from the Peruvian highlands sometime in the early 13th century. The Spanish began the conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532 and by 1572, the last Inca state was fully conquered.

Realm of the Four Parts
Tawantinsuyu (Quechua)
1438–1533/1572
Reconstructed royal emblem
The Inca Empire at its greatest extent c. 1525
CapitalCusco
Official languagesQuechua
Common languagesAymara, Puquina, Jaqi family, Muchik and scores of smaller languages.
Religion
Inca religion
GovernmentDivine, absolute monarchy
Sapa Inca 
• 1438–1471
Pachacuti
• 1471–1493
Túpac Inca Yupanqui
• 1493–1527
Huayna Capac
• 1527–1532
Huáscar
• 1532–1533
Atahualpa
Historical eraPre-Columbian era
• Pachacuti created the Tawantinsuyu
1438
• Civil war between Huáscar and Atahualpa
1529–1532
1533/1572
• End of the last Inca resistance
1572
Area
1527[1][2]2,000,000 km2 (770,000 sq mi)

From 1438 to 1533, the Incas incorporated a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean Mountains, using conquest and peaceful assimilation, among other methods. At its largest, the empire joined modern-day Peru, what are now western Ecuador, western and south central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, the southwesternmost tip of Colombia and a large portion of modern-day Chile into a state comparable to the historical empires of Eurasia. Its official language was Quechua.[5]

The Inca Empire was unique in that it lacked many of the features associated with civilization in the Old World. Anthropologist Gordon McEwan wrote that the Incas were able to construct "one of the greatest imperial states in human history" without the use of the wheel, draft animals, knowledge of iron or steel, or even a system of writing.[6] Notable features of the Inca Empire included its monumental architecture, especially stonework, extensive road network reaching all corners of the empire, finely-woven textiles, use of knotted strings (quipu) for record keeping and communication, agricultural innovations and production in a difficult environment, and the organization and management fostered or imposed on its people and their labor.

The Inca Empire functioned largely without money and without markets. Instead, exchange of goods and services was based on reciprocity between individuals and among individuals, groups, and Inca rulers. "Taxes" consisted of a labour obligation of a person to the Empire. The Inca rulers (who theoretically owned all the means of production) reciprocated by granting access to land and goods and providing food and drink in celebratory feasts for their subjects.[7]

Many local forms of worship persisted in the empire, most of them concerning local sacred Huacas, but the Inca leadership encouraged the sun worship of Inti – their sun god – and imposed its sovereignty above other cults such as that of Pachamama.[8] The Incas considered their king, the Sapa Inca, to be the "son of the sun".[9]

The Incan economy is a subject of scholarly debate. Darrell E. La Lone, in his work The Inca as a Nonmarket Economy, noted that scholars have described it as "feudal, slave, [or] socialist," as well as "a system based on reciprocity and redistribution; a system with markets and commerce; or an Asiatic mode of production."[10]

Etymology

The Inca referred to their empire as Tawantinsuyu,[3] "the four suyu". In Quechua, tawa is four and -ntin is a suffix naming a group, so that a tawantin is a quartet, a group of four things taken together, in this case the four suyu ("regions" or "provinces") whose corners met at the capital. The four suyu were: Chinchaysuyu (north), Antisuyu (east; the Amazon jungle), Qullasuyu (south) and Kuntisuyu (west). The name Tawantinsuyu was, therefore, a descriptive term indicating a union of provinces. The Spanish transliterated the name as Tahuatinsuyo or Tahuatinsuyu.

While the term Inka nowaydays is translated as "ruler" or "lord" in Quechua, this term does not simply refer to the "King" of the Tawantinsuyu or Sapa Inka but also to the Inca nobles, and some theorize its meaning could be broader.[11][12] In that sense, the Inca nobles were a small percentage of the total population of the empire, probably numbering only 15,000 to 40,000, but ruling a population of around 10 million people.[13]

When the Spanish arrived to the Empire of the Incas they gave the name "Peru" to what the natives knew as Tawantinsuyu.[14] The name "Inca Empire" (Imperio de los Incas) originated from the Chronicles of the 16th Century.[15]

History

Antecedents

The Inca Empire was the last chapter of thousands of years of Andean civilizations. The Andean civilization is one of at least five civilizations in the world deemed by scholars to be "pristine." The concept of a "pristine" civilization refers to a civilization that has developed independently from external influences and is not a derivative of other civilizations.[16]

The Inca Empire was preceded by two large-scale empires in the Andes: the Tiwanaku (c. 300–1100 AD), based around Lake Titicaca, and the Wari or Huari (c. 600–1100 AD), centered near the city of Ayacucho. The Wari occupied the Cuzco area for about 400 years. Thus, many of the characteristics of the Inca Empire derived from earlier multi-ethnic and expansive Andean cultures.[17] To those earlier civilizations may be owed some of the accomplishments cited for the Inca Empire: "thousands of miles of roads and dozens of large administrative centers with elaborate stone construction...terraced mountainsides and filled in valleys", and the production of "vast quantities of goods".[18]

Carl Troll has argued that the development of the Inca state in the central Andes was aided by conditions that allow for the elaboration of the staple food chuño. Chuño, which can be stored for long periods, is made of potato dried at the freezing temperatures that are common at nighttime in the southern Peruvian highlands. Such a link between the Inca state and chuño may be questioned, as other crops such as maize can also be dried with only sunlight.[19]

Troll also argued that llamas, the Incas' pack animal, can be found in their largest numbers in this very same region.[19] The maximum extent of the Inca Empire roughly coincided with the distribution of llamas and alpacas, the only large domesticated animals in Pre-Hispanic America.[20]

As a third point Troll pointed out irrigation technology as advantageous to Inca state-building.[21] While Troll theorized concerning environmental influences on the Inca Empire, he opposed environmental determinism, arguing that culture lay at the core of the Inca civilization.[21]

Origin

The Inca people were a pastoral tribe in the Cusco area around the 12th century. Indigenous Peruvian oral history tells an origin story of three caves. The center cave at Tampu T'uqu (Tambo Tocco) was named Qhapaq T'uqu ("principal niche", also spelled Capac Tocco). The other caves were Maras T'uqu (Maras Tocco) and Sutiq T'uqu (Sutic Tocco).[22] Four brothers and four sisters stepped out of the middle cave. They were: Ayar Manco, Ayar Cachi, Ayar Awqa (Ayar Auca) and Ayar Uchu; and Mama Ocllo, Mama Raua, Mama Huaco and Mama Qura (Mama Cora). Out of the side caves came the people who were to be the ancestors of all the Inca clans.

 
Manco Cápac, First Inca, 1 of 14 Portraits of Inca Kings, Probably mid-18th century. Oil on canvas. Brooklyn Museum

Ayar Manco carried a magic staff made of the finest gold. Where this staff landed, the people would live. They traveled for a long time. On the way, Ayar Cachi boasted about his strength and power. His siblings tricked him into returning to the cave to get a sacred llama. When he went into the cave, they trapped him inside to get rid of him.

Ayar Uchu decided to stay on the top of the cave to look over the Inca people. The minute he proclaimed that, he turned to stone. They built a shrine around the stone and it became a sacred object. Ayar Auca grew tired of all this and decided to travel alone. Only Ayar Manco and his four sisters remained.

Finally, they reached Cusco. The staff sank into the ground. Before they arrived, Mama Ocllo had already borne Ayar Manco a child, Sinchi Roca. The people who were already living in Cusco fought hard to keep their land, but Mama Huaca was a good fighter. When the enemy attacked, she threw her bolas (several stones tied together that spun through the air when thrown) at a soldier (gualla) and killed him instantly. The other people became afraid and ran away.

After that, Ayar Manco became known as Manco Cápac, the founder of the Inca. It is said that he and his sisters built the first Inca homes in the valley with their own hands. When the time came, Manco Cápac turned to stone like his brothers before him. His son, Sinchi Roca, became the second emperor of the Inca.[23]

Kingdom of Cusco

 
Inca expansion (1438–1533)

Under the leadership of Manco Cápac, the Inca formed the small city-state Kingdom of Cusco (Quechua Qusqu', Qosqo). In 1438, they began a far-reaching expansion under the command of Sapa Inca (paramount leader) Pachacuti-Cusi Yupanqui, whose name meant "earth-shaker". The name of Pachacuti was given to him after he conquered the Tribe of Chancas (modern Apurímac). During his reign, he and his son Tupac Yupanqui brought much of the modern-day territory of Peru under Inca control.[24]

Reorganization and formation

Pachacuti reorganized the kingdom of Cusco into the Tahuantinsuyu, which consisted of a central government with the Inca at its head and four provincial governments with strong leaders: Chinchasuyu (NW), Antisuyu (NE), Kuntisuyu (SW) and Qullasuyu (SE).[25] Pachacuti is thought to have built Machu Picchu, either as a family home or summer retreat, although it may have been an agricultural station.[26]

Pachacuti sent spies to regions he wanted in his empire and they brought to him reports on political organization, military strength and wealth. He then sent messages to their leaders extolling the benefits of joining his empire, offering them presents of luxury goods such as high quality textiles and promising that they would be materially richer as his subjects.

Most accepted the rule of the Inca as a fait accompli and acquiesced peacefully. Refusal to accept Inca rule resulted in military conquest. Following conquest the local rulers were executed. The ruler's children were brought to Cusco to learn about Inca administration systems, then return to rule their native lands. This allowed the Inca to indoctrinate them into the Inca nobility and, with luck, marry their daughters into families at various corners of the empire.

Expansion and consolidation

Traditionally the son of the Inca ruler led the army. Pachacuti's son Túpac Inca Yupanqui began conquests to the north in 1463 and continued them as Inca ruler after Pachacuti's death in 1471. Túpac Inca's most important conquest was the Kingdom of Chimor, the Inca's only serious rival for the Peruvian coast. Túpac Inca's empire then stretched north into what are today Ecuador and Colombia.

Túpac Inca's son Huayna Cápac added a small portion of land to the north in what is today Ecuador. At its height, the Inca Empire included modern-day Peru, what are today western and south central Bolivia, southwest Ecuador and Colombia and a large portion of modern-day Chile, at the north of the Maule River. Traditional historiography claims the advance south halted after the Battle of the Maule where they met determined resistance from the Mapuche.[27]

This view is challenged by historian Osvaldo Silva who argues instead that it was the social and political framework of the Mapuche that posed the main difficulty in imposing imperial rule.[27] Silva does accept that the battle of the Maule was a stalemate, but argues the Incas lacked incentives for conquest they had had when fighting more complex societies such as the Chimú Empire.[27]

Silva also disputes the date given by traditional historiography for the battle: the late 15th century during the reign of Topa Inca Yupanqui (1471–93).[27] Instead, he places it in 1532 during the Inca Civil War.[27] Nevertheless, Silva agrees on the claim that the bulk of the Incan conquests were made during the late 15th century.[27] At the time of the Incan Civil War an Inca army was, according to Diego de Rosales, subduing a revolt among the Diaguitas of Copiapó and Coquimbo.[27]

The empire's push into the Amazon Basin near the Chinchipe River was stopped by the Shuar in 1527.[28] The empire extended into corners of what are today the north of Argentina and part of the southern Colombia. However, most of the southern portion of the Inca empire, the portion denominated as Qullasuyu, was located in the Altiplano.

The Inca Empire was an amalgamation of languages, cultures and peoples. The components of the empire were not all uniformly loyal, nor were the local cultures all fully integrated. The Inca empire as a whole had an economy based on exchange and taxation of luxury goods and labour. The following quote describes a method of taxation:

For as is well known to all, not a single village of the highlands or the plains failed to pay the tribute levied on it by those who were in charge of these matters. There were even provinces where, when the natives alleged that they were unable to pay their tribute, the Inca ordered that each inhabitant should be obliged to turn in every four months a large quill full of live lice, which was the Inca's way of teaching and accustoming them to pay tribute.[29]

Inca Civil War and Spanish conquest

 
The first image of the Inca in Europe, Pedro Cieza de León, Crónica del Perú, 1553

Spanish conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro and his brothers explored south from what is today Panama, reaching Inca territory by 1526.[30] It was clear that they had reached a wealthy land with prospects of great treasure, and after another expedition in 1529 Pizarro traveled to Spain and received royal approval to conquer the region and be its viceroy. This approval was received as detailed in the following quote: "In July 1529 the Queen of Spain signed a charter allowing Pizarro to conquer the Incas. Pizarro was named governor and captain of all conquests in Peru, or New Castile, as the Spanish now called the land".[31]

When the conquistadors returned to Peru in 1532, a war of succession between the sons of Sapa Inca Huayna Capac, Huáscar and Atahualpa, and unrest among newly conquered territories weakened the empire. Perhaps more importantly, smallpox, influenza, typhus and measles had spread from Central America. The first epidemic of European disease in the Inca Empire was probably in the 1520s, killing Huayna Capac, his designated heir, and an unknown, probably large, number of other Incan subjects.[32]

The forces led by Pizarro consisted of 168 men, one cannon, and 27 horses. Conquistadors ported lances, arquebuses, steel armor and long swords. In contrast, the Inca used weapons made out of wood, stone, copper and bronze, while using an Alpaca fiber based armor, putting them at significant technological disadvantage—none of their weapons could pierce the Spanish steel armor. In addition, due to the absence of horses in Peru, the Inca did not develop tactics to fight cavalry. However, the Inca were still effective warriors, being able to successfully fight the Mapuche, who later would strategically defeat the Spanish as they expanded further south.

The first engagement between the Inca and the Spanish was the Battle of Puná, near present-day Guayaquil, Ecuador, on the Pacific Coast; Pizarro then founded the city of Piura in July 1532. Hernando de Soto was sent inland to explore the interior and returned with an invitation to meet the Inca, Atahualpa, who had defeated his brother in the civil war and was resting at Cajamarca with his army of 80,000 troops, that were at the moment armed only with hunting tools (knives and lassos for hunting llamas).

Pizarro and some of his men, most notably a friar named Vincente de Valverde, met with the Inca, who had brought only a small retinue. The Inca offered them ceremonial chicha in a golden cup, which the Spanish rejected. The Spanish interpreter, Friar Vincente, read the "Requerimiento" that demanded that he and his empire accept the rule of King Charles I of Spain and convert to Christianity. Atahualpa dismissed the message and asked them to leave. After this, the Spanish began their attack against the mostly unarmed Inca, captured Atahualpa as hostage, and forced the Inca to collaborate.

Atahualpa offered the Spaniards enough gold to fill the room he was imprisoned in and twice that amount of silver. The Inca fulfilled this ransom, but Pizarro deceived them, refusing to release the Inca afterwards. During Atahualpa's imprisonment Huáscar was assassinated elsewhere. The Spaniards maintained that this was at Atahualpa's orders; this was used as one of the charges against Atahualpa when the Spaniards finally executed him, in August 1533.[33]

Although "defeat" often implies an unwanted loss in battle, many of the diverse ethnic groups ruled by the Inca "welcomed the Spanish invaders as liberators and willingly settled down with them to share rule of Andean farmers and miners".[34] Many regional leaders, called Kurakas, continued to serve the Spanish overlords, called encomenderos, as they had served the Inca overlords. Other than efforts to spread the religion of Christianity, the Spanish benefited from and made little effort to change the society and culture of the former Inca Empire until the rule of Francisco de Toledo as viceroy from 1569 to 1581.[35]

End of the Inca Empire

 
Atahualpa, the last Sapa Inca of the empire, was executed by the Spanish on 29 August 1533.
 
Facade of the Convent of Santo Domingo in Cusco, built on the base of the Coricancha

The Spanish installed Atahualpa's brother Manco Inca Yupanqui in power; for some time Manco cooperated with the Spanish while they fought to put down resistance in the north. Meanwhile, an associate of Pizarro, Diego de Almagro, attempted to claim Cusco. Manco tried to use this intra-Spanish feud to his advantage, recapturing Cusco in 1536, but the Spanish retook the city afterwards. Manco Inca then retreated to the mountains of Vilcabamba and established the small Neo-Inca State, where he and his successors ruled for another 36 years, sometimes raiding the Spanish or inciting revolts against them. In 1572 the last Inca stronghold was conquered and the last ruler, Túpac Amaru, Manco's son, was captured and executed.[36] This ended resistance to the Spanish conquest under the political authority of the Inca state.

After the fall of the Inca Empire many aspects of Inca culture were systematically destroyed, including their sophisticated farming system, known as the vertical archipelago model of agriculture.[37] Spanish colonial officials used the Inca mita corvée labor system for colonial aims, sometimes brutally. One member of each family was forced to work in the gold and silver mines, the foremost of which was the titanic silver mine at Potosí. When a family member died, which would usually happen within a year or two, the family was required to send a replacement.[citation needed]

Although smallpox is usually presumed to have spread through the Empire before the arrival of the Spaniards, the devastation is also consistent with other theories.[38] Beginning in Colombia, smallpox spread rapidly before the Spanish invaders first arrived in the empire. The spread was probably aided by the efficient Inca road system. Smallpox was only the first epidemic.[39] Other diseases, including a probable typhus outbreak in 1546, influenza and smallpox together in 1558, smallpox again in 1589, diphtheria in 1614, and measles in 1618, all ravaged the Inca people.

There would be periodic attempts by indigenous leaders to expel the Spanish colonists and re-create the Inca Empire until the late 18th century. See Juan Santos Atahualpa and Túpac Amaru II.

Society

Population

The number of people inhabiting Tawantinsuyu at its peak is uncertain, with estimates ranging from 4–37 million. Most population estimates are in the range of 6 to 14 million. In spite of the fact that the Inca kept excellent census records using their quipus, knowledge of how to read them was lost as almost all fell into disuse and disintegrated over time or were destroyed by the Spaniards.[40]

Languages

The empire was extremely linguistically diverse. Some of the most important languages were Quechua, Aymara, Puquina and Mochica, respectively mainly spoken in the Central Andes, the Altiplano or (Qullasuyu), the south Peruvian coast (Kuntisuyu), and the area of the north Peruvian coast (Chinchaysuyu) around Chan Chan, today Trujillo. Other languages included Quignam, Jaqaru, Leco, Uru-Chipaya languages, Kunza, Humahuaca, Cacán, Mapudungun, Culle, Chachapoya, Catacao languages, Manta, and Barbacoan languages, as well as numerous Amazonian languages on the frontier regions. The exact linguistic topography of the pre-Columbian and early colonial Andes remains incompletely understood, owing to the extinction of several languages and the loss of historical records.

In order to manage this diversity, the Inca lords promoted the usage of Quechua, especially the variety of what is now Lima[41] as the Qhapaq Runasimi ("great language of the people"), or the official language/lingua franca. Defined by mutual intelligibility, Quechua is actually a family of languages rather than one single language, parallel to the Romance or Slavic languages in Europe. Most communities within the empire, even those resistant to Inca rule, learned to speak a variety of Quechua (forming new regional varieties with distinct phonetics) in order to communicate with the Inca lords and mitma colonists, as well as the wider integrating society, but largely retained their native languages as well. The Incas also had their own ethnic language, referred to as Qhapaq simi ("royal language"), which is thought to have been closely related to or a dialect of Puquina. The split between Qhapaq simi and Qhapaq Runasimi exemplifies the larger split between hatun and hunin (high and low) society in general.

There are several common misconceptions about the history of Quechua, as it is frequently identified as the "Inca language". Quechua did not originate with the Incas, had been a lingua franca in multiple areas before the Inca expansions, was diverse before the rise of the Incas, and it was not the native or original language of the Incas. However, the Incas left an impressive linguistic legacy, in that they introduced Quechua to many areas where it is still widely spoken today, including Ecuador, southern Bolivia, southern Colombia, and parts of the Amazon basin. The Spanish conquerors continued the official usage of Quechua during the early colonial period, and transformed it into a literary language.[42]

The Incas were not known to develop a written form of language; however, they visually recorded narratives through paintings on vases and cups (qirus).[43] These paintings are usually accompanied by geometric patterns known as toqapu, which are also found in textiles. Researchers have speculated that toqapu patterns could have served as a form of written communication (e.g.: heraldry, or glyphs), however this remains unclear.[44] The Incas also kept records by using quipus.

Age and defining gender

 
"The Maiden", one of the Llullaillaco mummies. Inca human sacrifice, Salta province (Argentina).

The high infant mortality rates that plagued the Inca Empire caused all newborn infants to be given the term 'wawa' when they were born. Most families did not invest very much into their child until they reached the age of two or three years old. Once the child reached the age of three, a "coming of age" ceremony occurred, called the rutuchikuy. For the Incas, this ceremony indicated that the child had entered the stage of "ignorance". During this ceremony, the family would invite all relatives to their house for food and dance, and then each member of the family would receive a lock of hair from the child. After each family member had received a lock, the father would shave the child's head. This stage of life was categorized by a stage of "ignorance, inexperience, and lack of reason, a condition that the child would overcome with time".[45] For Incan society, in order to advance from the stage of ignorance to development the child must learn the roles associated with their gender.

The next important ritual was to celebrate the maturity of a child. Unlike the coming of age ceremony, the celebration of maturity signified the child's sexual potency. This celebration of puberty was called warachikuy for boys and qikuchikuy for girls. The warachikuy ceremony included dancing, fasting, tasks to display strength, and family ceremonies. The boy would also be given new clothes and taught how to act as an unmarried man. The qikuchikuy signified the onset of menstruation, upon which the girl would go into the forest alone and return only once the bleeding had ended. In the forest she would fast, and, once returned, the girl would be given a new name, adult clothing, and advice. This "folly" stage of life was the time young adults were allowed to have sex without being a parent.[45]

Between the ages of 20 and 30, people were considered young adults, "ripe for serious thought and labor".[45] Young adults were able to retain their youthful status by living at home and assisting in their home community. Young adults only reached full maturity and independence once they had married.

At the end of life, the terms for men and women denote loss of sexual vitality and humanity. Specifically, the "decrepitude" stage signifies the loss of mental well-being and further physical decline.

Table 7.1 from R. Alan Covey's Article[45]
Age Social Value of Life Stage Female Term Male Term
< 3 Conception Wawa Wawa
3–7 Ignorance (not speaking) Warma Warma
7–14 Development Thaski (or P'asña) Maqt'a
14–20 Folly (sexually active) Sipas (unmarried) Wayna (unmarried)
20+ Maturity (body and mind) Warmi Qhari
70 Infirmity Paya Machu
90 Decrepitude Ruku Ruku

Marriage

In the Incan Empire, the age of marriage differed for men and women: men typically married at the age of 20, while women usually got married about four years earlier at the age of 16.[46] Men who were highly ranked in society could have multiple wives, but those lower in the ranks could only take a single wife.[47] Marriages were typically within classes and resembled a more business-like agreement. Once married, the women were expected to cook, collect food and watch over the children and livestock.[46] Girls and mothers would also work around the house to keep it orderly to please the public inspectors.[48] These duties remained the same even after wives became pregnant and with the added responsibility of praying and making offerings to Kanopa, who was the god of pregnancy.[46] It was typical for marriages to begin on a trial basis with both men and women having a say in the longevity of the marriage. If the man felt that it wouldn't work out or if the woman wanted to return to her parents' home the marriage would end. Once the marriage was final, the only way the two could be divorced was if they did not have a child together.[46] Marriage within the Empire was crucial for survival. A family was considered disadvantaged if there was not a married couple at the center because everyday life centered around the balance of male and female tasks.[49]

Gender roles

According to some historians, such as Terence N. D'Altroy, male and female roles were considered equal in Inca society. The "indigenous cultures saw the two genders as complementary parts of a whole".[49] In other words, there was not a hierarchical structure in the domestic sphere for the Incas. Within the domestic sphere, women came to be known as weavers, although there is significant evidence to suggest that this gender role did not appear until colonizing Spaniards realized women's productive talents in this sphere and used it to their economic advantage. There is evidence to suggest that both men and women contributed equally to the weaving tasks in pre-Hispanic Andean culture.[50] Women's everyday tasks included: spinning, watching the children, weaving cloth, cooking, brewing chichi, preparing fields for cultivation, planting seeds, bearing children, harvesting, weeding, hoeing, herding, and carrying water.[51] Men on the other hand, "weeded, plowed, participated in combat, helped in the harvest, carried firewood, built houses, herded llama and alpaca, and spun and wove when necessary".[51] This relationship between the genders may have been complementary. Unsurprisingly, onlooking Spaniards believed women were treated like slaves, because women did not work in Spanish society to the same extent, and certainly did not work in fields.[52] Women were sometimes allowed to own land and herds because inheritance was passed down from both the mother's and father's side of the family.[53] Kinship within the Inca society followed a parallel line of descent. In other words, women descended from women and men descended from men. Due to the parallel descent, a woman had access to land and other assets through her mother.[51]

Burial customs

Due to the dry climate that extends from modern-day Peru to what is now Chile's Norte Grande, mummification occurred naturally by desiccation. It is believed that the ancient Incas learned to mummify their dead to show reverence to their leaders and representatives. [54] Mummification was chosen to preserve the body and to give others the opportunity to worship them in their death. The ancient Inca believed in reincarnation, so preservation of the body was vital for passage into the afterlife. [55] Since mummification was reserved for royalty, this entailed preserving power by placing the deceased's valuables with the body in places of honor. The bodies remained accessible for ceremonies where they would be removed and celebrated with. [56] The ancient Inca mummified their dead with various tools. Chicha corn beer was used to delay decomposition and the effects of bacterial activity on the body. The bodies were then stuffed with natural materials such as vegetable matter and animal hair. Sticks were to used to maintain their shape and poses.[57] In addition to the mummification process, the Inca would bury their dead in the fetal position inside a vessel intended to mimic the womb for preparation of their new birth. A ceremony would be held that included music, food, and drink for the relatives and loved ones of the deceased. [58]

Religion

 
Diorite Viracocha Inca sculpture from Amarucancha archeological site, Cusco

Inca myths were transmitted orally until early Spanish colonists recorded them; however, some scholars claim that they were recorded on quipus, Andean knotted string records.[59]

The Inca believed in reincarnation.[60] After death, the passage to the next world was fraught with difficulties. The spirit of the dead, camaquen, would need to follow a long road and during the trip the assistance of a black dog that could see in the dark was required. Most Incas imagined the after world to be like an earthly paradise with flower-covered fields and snow-capped mountains.

It was important to the Inca that they not die as a result of burning or that the body of the deceased not be incinerated. Burning would cause their vital force to disappear and threaten their passage to the after world. The Inca nobility practiced cranial deformation.[61] They wrapped tight cloth straps around the heads of newborns to shape their soft skulls into a more conical form, thus distinguishing the nobility from other social classes.

The Incas made human sacrifices. As many as 4,000 servants, court officials, favorites and concubines were killed upon the death of the Inca Huayna Capac in 1527.[62] The Incas performed child sacrifices around important events, such as the death of the Sapa Inca or during a famine. These sacrifices were known as qhapaq hucha.[63]

Deities

The Incas were polytheists who worshipped many gods. These included:

  • Viracocha (also Pachacamac) – Created all living things
  • Apu Illapu – Rain god, prayed to when they need rain
  • Ayar Cachi – Hot-tempered god, causes earthquakes
  • Illapa – Goddess of lightning and thunder (also Yakumama, goddess of water)
  • Inti – Sun god and patron deity of the holy city of Cusco (home of the sun)
  • Kuychi – Rainbow god, connected with fertility
  • Mama Killa – Means "Mother Moon", wife of Inti
  • Mama Occlo – Created wisdom to civilize the people, taught women to weave cloth and build houses
  • Manco Cápac – Known for his courage and sent to Earth to become first king of the Incas. Taught people how to grow plants, make weapons, work together, share resources and worship the other gods
  • Pachamama – Goddess of earth and wife of Viracocha. People give her offerings of coca leaves and beer and pray to her for major agricultural occasions
  • Quchamama – Goddess of the sea
  • Sachamama – Means "Mother Tree", represented as a snake with two heads
  • Yacumama – Means "Mother Water", represented as a snake, transformed into a great river (also Illapa) when she came to Earth

Economy

 
Illustration of Inca farmers using a chakitaqlla (Andean foot plough), Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno, circa 1615

The Inca Empire employed central planning. The Inca Empire traded with outside regions, although they did not operate a substantial internal market economy. While axe-monies were used along the northern coast, presumably by the provincial mindaláe trading class,[64] most households in the empire lived in a traditional economy in which households were required to pay taxes, usually in the form of the mit'a corvée labor, and military obligations,[65] though barter (or trueque) was present in some areas.[66] In return, the state provided security, food in times of hardship through the supply of emergency resources, agricultural projects (e.g. aqueducts and terraces) to increase productivity, and occasional feasts hosted by Inca officials for their subjects. While mit'a was used by the state to obtain labor, individual villages had a pre-inca system of communal work, known as mink'a. This system survives to the modern day, known as mink'a or faena. The economy rested on the material foundations of the vertical archipelago, a system of ecological complementarity in accessing resources[67] and the cultural foundation of ayni, or reciprocal exchange.[68][69]

Government

Beliefs

 
Inti, as represented by José Bernardo de Tagle of Peru

The Sapa Inca was conceptualized as divine and was effectively head of the state religion. The Willaq Umu (or Chief Priest) was second to the emperor. Local religious traditions continued and in some cases such as the Oracle at Pachacamac on the Peruvian coast, were officially venerated. Following Pachacuti, the Sapa Inca claimed descent from Inti, who placed a high value on imperial blood; by the end of the empire, it was common to incestuously wed brother and sister. He was "son of the sun", and his people the intip churin, or "children of the sun", and both his right to rule and mission to conquer derived from his holy ancestor. The Sapa Inca also presided over ideologically important festivals, notably during the Inti Raymi, or "Sunfest" attended by soldiers, mummified rulers, nobles, clerics and the general population of Cusco beginning on the June solstice and culminating nine days later with the ritual breaking of the earth using a foot plow by the Inca. Moreover, Cusco was considered cosmologically central, loaded as it was with huacas and radiating ceque lines as the geographic center of the Four-Quarters; Inca Garcilaso de la Vega called it "the navel of the universe".[70][71][72][73]

Organization of the empire

The Inca Empire was a federalist system consisting of a central government with the Inca at its head and four regional quarters, or suyu: Chinchay Suyu (NW), Anti Suyu (NE), Kunti Suyu (SW) and Qulla Suyu (SE). The four corners of these quarters met at the center, Cusco. These suyu were likely created around 1460 during the reign of Pachacuti before the empire reached its largest territorial extent. At the time the suyu were established they were roughly of equal size and only later changed their proportions as the empire expanded north and south along the Andes.[74]

Cusco was likely not organized as a wamani, or province. Rather, it was probably somewhat akin to a modern federal district, like Washington, DC or Mexico City. The city sat at the center of the four suyu and served as the preeminent center of politics and religion. While Cusco was essentially governed by the Sapa Inca, his relatives and the royal panaqa lineages, each suyu was governed by an Apu, a term of esteem used for men of high status and for venerated mountains. Both Cusco as a district and the four suyu as administrative regions were grouped into upper hanan and lower hurin divisions. As the Inca did not have written records, it is impossible to exhaustively list the constituent wamani. However, colonial records allow us to reconstruct a partial list. There were likely more than 86 wamani, with more than 48 in the highlands and more than 38 on the coast.[75][76][77]

Suyu

 
The four suyus or quarters of the empire

The most populous suyu was Chinchaysuyu, which encompassed the former Chimu empire and much of the northern Andes. At its largest extent, it extended through much of what are now Ecuador and Colombia.

The largest suyu by area was Qullasuyu, named after the Aymara-speaking Qulla people. It encompassed what is now the Bolivian Altiplano and much of the southern Andes, reaching what is now Argentina and as far south as the Maipo or Maule river in modern Central Chile.[78] Historian José Bengoa singled out Quillota as likely being the foremost Inca settlement in Chile.[79]

The second smallest suyu, Antisuyu, was northwest of Cusco in the high Andes. Its name is the root of the word "Andes".[80]

Kuntisuyu was the smallest suyu, located along the southern coast of modern Peru, extending into the highlands towards Cusco.[81]

Laws

The Inca state had no separate judiciary or codified laws. Customs, expectations and traditional local power holders governed behavior. The state had legal force, such as through tokoyrikoq (lit. "he who sees all"), or inspectors. The highest such inspector, typically a blood relative to the Sapa Inca, acted independently of the conventional hierarchy, providing a point of view for the Sapa Inca free of bureaucratic influence.[82]

The Inca had three moral precepts that governed their behavior:

  • Ama sua: Do not steal
  • Ama llulla: Do not lie
  • Ama quella: Do not be lazy

Administration

Colonial sources are not entirely clear or in agreement about Inca government structure, such as exact duties and functions of government positions. But the basic structure can be broadly described. The top was the Sapa Inca. Below that may have been the Willaq Umu, literally the "priest who recounts", the High Priest of the Sun.[83] However, beneath the Sapa Inca also sat the Inkap rantin, who was a confidant and assistant to the Sapa Inca, perhaps similar to a Prime Minister.[84] Starting with Topa Inca Yupanqui, a "Council of the Realm" was composed of 16 nobles: 2 from hanan Cusco; 2 from hurin Cusco; 4 from Chinchaysuyu; 2 from Cuntisuyu; 4 from Collasuyu; and 2 from Antisuyu. This weighting of representation balanced the hanan and hurin divisions of the empire, both within Cusco and within the Quarters (hanan suyukuna and hurin suyukuna).[85]

While provincial bureaucracy and government varied greatly, the basic organization was decimal. Taxpayers – male heads of household of a certain age range – were organized into corvée labor units (often doubling as military units) that formed the state's muscle as part of mit'a service. Each unit of more than 100 tax-payers were headed by a kuraka, while smaller units were headed by a kamayuq, a lower, non-hereditary status. However, while kuraka status was hereditary and typically served for life, the position of a kuraka in the hierarchy was subject to change based on the privileges of superiors in the hierarchy; a pachaka kuraka could be appointed to the position by a waranqa kuraka. Furthermore, one kuraka in each decimal level could serve as the head of one of the nine groups at a lower level, so that a pachaka kuraka might also be a waranqa kuraka, in effect directly responsible for one unit of 100 tax-payers and less directly responsible for nine other such units.[86][87][88]

Kuraka in Charge[89][90] Number of Taxpayers
Hunu kuraka 10,000
Pichkawaranqa kuraka 5,000
Waranqa kuraka 1,000
Pichkapachaka kuraka 500
Pachaka kuraka 100
Pichkachunka kamayuq 50
Chunka kamayuq 10

Arts and technology

Monumental architecture

We can assure your majesty that it is so beautiful and has such fine buildings that it would even be remarkable in Spain.

Francisco Pizarro

Architecture was the most important of the Incan arts, with textiles reflecting architectural motifs. The most notable example is Machu Picchu, which was constructed by Inca engineers. The prime Inca structures were made of stone blocks that fit together so well that a knife could not be fitted through the stonework. These constructs have survived for centuries, with no use of mortar to sustain them.

This process was first used on a large scale by the Pucara (c. 300 BC–AD 300) peoples to the south in Lake Titicaca and later in the city of Tiwanaku (c. AD 400–1100) in what is now Bolivia. The rocks were sculpted to fit together exactly by repeatedly lowering a rock onto another and carving away any sections on the lower rock where the dust was compressed. The tight fit and the concavity on the lower rocks made them extraordinarily stable, despite the ongoing challenge of earthquakes and volcanic activity.

Measures, calendrics and mathematics

 
Quipu, 15th century. Brooklyn Museum

Physical measures used by the Inca were based on human body parts. Units included fingers, the distance from thumb to forefinger, palms, cubits and wingspans. The most basic distance unit was thatkiy or thatki, or one pace. The next largest unit was reported by Cobo to be the topo or tupu, measuring 6,000 thatkiys, or about 7.7 km (4.8 mi); careful study has shown that a range of 4.0 to 6.3 km (2.5 to 3.9 mi) is likely. Next was the wamani, composed of 30 topos (roughly 232 km or 144 mi). To measure area, 25 by 50 wingspans were used, reckoned in topos (roughly 3,280 km2 or 1,270 sq mi). It seems likely that distance was often interpreted as one day's walk; the distance between tambo way-stations varies widely in terms of distance, but far less in terms of time to walk that distance.[91][92]

Inca calendars were strongly tied to astronomy. Inca astronomers understood equinoxes, solstices and zenith passages, along with the Venus cycle. They could not, however, predict eclipses. The Inca calendar was essentially lunisolar, as two calendars were maintained in parallel, one solar and one lunar. As 12 lunar months fall 11 days short of a full 365-day solar year, those in charge of the calendar had to adjust every winter solstice. Each lunar month was marked with festivals and rituals.[93] Apparently, the days of the week were not named and days were not grouped into weeks. Similarly, months were not grouped into seasons. Time during a day was not measured in hours or minutes, but in terms of how far the sun had travelled or in how long it had taken to perform a task.[94]

The sophistication of Inca administration, calendrics and engineering required facility with numbers. Numerical information was stored in the knots of quipu strings, allowing for compact storage of large numbers.[95][96] These numbers were stored in base-10 digits, the same base used by the Quechua language[97] and in administrative and military units.[87] These numbers, stored in quipu, could be calculated on yupanas, grids with squares of positionally varying mathematical values, perhaps functioning as an abacus.[98] Calculation was facilitated by moving piles of tokens, seeds or pebbles between compartments of the yupana. It is likely that Inca mathematics at least allowed division of integers into integers or fractions and multiplication of integers and fractions.[99]

According to mid-17th-century Jesuit chronicler Bernabé Cobo,[100] the Inca designated officials to perform accounting-related tasks. These officials were called quipo camayos. Study of khipu sample VA 42527 (Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin)[101] revealed that the numbers arranged in calendrically significant patterns were used for agricultural purposes in the "farm account books" kept by the khipukamayuq (accountant or warehouse keeper) to facilitate the closing of accounting books.[102]

Tunics

 
Tunic worn by a Inca of high rank, in vicuña wool and cotton (1450-1540 CE), kept at the Washington Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection[103]

Tunics were created by skilled Incan textile-makers as a piece of warm clothing, but they also symbolized cultural and political status and power. Cumbi was the fine, tapestry-woven woolen cloth that was produced and necessary for the creation of tunics. Cumbi was produced by specially-appointed women and men. Generally, textile-making was practiced by both men and women. As emphasized by certain historians, only with European conquest was it deemed that women would become the primary weavers in society, as opposed to Incan society where specialty textiles were produced by men and women equally.[50]

Complex patterns and designs were meant to convey information about order in Andean society as well as the Universe. Tunics could also symbolize one's relationship to ancient rulers or important ancestors. These textiles were frequently designed to represent the physical order of a society, for example, the flow of tribute within an empire. Many tunics have a "checkerboard effect" which is known as the collcapata. According to historians Kenneth Mills, William B. Taylor, and Sandra Lauderdale Graham, the collcapata patterns "seem to have expressed concepts of commonality, and, ultimately, unity of all ranks of people, representing a careful kind of foundation upon which the structure of Inkaic universalism was built." Rulers wore various tunics throughout the year, switching them out for different occasions and feasts.

The symbols present within the tunics suggest the importance of "pictographic expression" within Inkan and other Andean societies far before the iconographies of the Spanish Christians.[104]

Uncu

Uncu was a men's garment similar to a tunic. It was an upper-body garment of knee-length; Royals wore it with a mantle cloth called ''yacolla.''[105][106]

Ceramics, precious metals and textiles

 
Camelid Conopa, 1470–1532, Brooklyn Museum, Small stone figurines, or conopas, of llamas and alpacas were the most common ritual effigies used in the highlands of modern-day Peru and what is now Bolivia. These devotional objects were often buried in the animals' corrals to bring protection and prosperity to their owners and fertility to the herds. The cylindrical cavities in their backs were filled with offerings to the gods in the form of a mixture including animal fat, coca leaves, maize kernels and seashells.

Ceramics were painted using the polychrome technique portraying numerous motifs including animals, birds, waves, felines (popular in the Chavin culture) and geometric patterns found in the Nazca style of ceramics. In a culture without a written language, ceramics portrayed the basic scenes of everyday life, including the smelting of metals, relationships and scenes of tribal warfare. The most distinctive Inca ceramic objects are the Cusco bottles or "aryballos".[107] Many of these pieces are on display in Lima in the Larco Archaeological Museum and the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History.

Almost all of the gold and silver work of the Incan empire was melted down by the conquistadors, and shipped back to Spain.[108]

Communication and medicine

The Inca recorded information on assemblages of knotted strings, known as Quipu, although they can no longer be decoded. Originally it was thought that Quipu were used only as mnemonic devices or to record numerical data. Quipus are also believed to record history and literature.[109]

The Inca made many discoveries in medicine.[110] They performed successful skull surgery, by cutting holes in the skull to alleviate fluid buildup and inflammation caused by head wounds. Many skull surgeries performed by Inca surgeons were successful. Survival rates were 80–90%, compared to about 30% before Inca times.[111]

Coca

 
Coca leaves

The Incas revered the coca plant as sacred/magical. Its leaves were used in moderate amounts to lessen hunger and pain during work, but were mostly used for religious and health purposes.[112] The Spaniards took advantage of the effects of chewing coca leaves.[112] The Chasqui, messengers who ran throughout the empire to deliver messages, chewed coca leaves for extra energy. Coca leaves were also used as an anaesthetic during surgeries.

Weapons, armor and warfare

 
Sacsayhuamán, the largest Inca pukara (largest Inca fortresses)
 
Copper heads for maces

The Inca army was the most powerful at that time, because any ordinary villager or farmer could be recruited as a soldier as part of the mit'a system of mandatory public service. Every able bodied male Inca of fighting age had to take part in war in some capacity at least once and to prepare for warfare again when needed. By the time the empire reached its largest size, every section of the empire contributed in setting up an army for war.

The Incas had no iron or steel and their weapons were not much more effective than those of their opponents so they often defeated opponents by sheer force of numbers, or else by persuading them to surrender beforehand by offering generous terms.[113] Inca weaponry included "hardwood spears launched using throwers, arrows, javelins, slings, the bolas, clubs, and maces with star-shaped heads made of copper or bronze".[113][114] Rolling rocks downhill onto the enemy was a common strategy, taking advantage of the hilly terrain.[115] Fighting was sometimes accompanied by drums and trumpets made of wood, shell or bone.[116][117] Armor included:[113][118]

  • Helmets made of wood, cane, or animal skin, often lined with copper or bronze; some were adorned with feathers
  • Round or square shields made from wood or hide
  • Cloth tunics padded with cotton and small wooden planks to protect the spine
  • Ceremonial metal breastplates, of copper, silver, and gold, have been found in burial sites, some of which may have also been used in battle.[119][120]

Roads allowed quick movement (on foot) for the Inca army and shelters called tambo and storage silos called qullqas were built one day's travelling distance from each other, so that an army on campaign could always be fed and rested. This can be seen in names of ruins such as Ollantay Tambo, or My Lord's Storehouse. These were set up so the Inca and his entourage would always have supplies (and possibly shelter) ready as they traveled.

Chronicles and references from the 16th and 17th centuries support the idea of a banner. However, it represented the Inca (emperor), not the empire.

Francisco López de Jerez[121] wrote in 1534:

... todos venían repartidos en sus escuadras con sus banderas y capitanes que los mandan, con tanto concierto como turcos.
(... all of them came distributed into squads, with their flags and captains commanding them, as well-ordered as Turks.)

Chronicler Bernabé Cobo wrote:

The royal standard or banner was a small square flag, ten or twelve spans around, made of cotton or wool cloth, placed on the end of a long staff, stretched and stiff such that it did not wave in the air and on it each king painted his arms and emblems, for each one chose different ones, though the sign of the Incas was the rainbow and two parallel snakes along the width with the tassel as a crown, which each king used to add for a badge or blazon those preferred, like a lion, an eagle and other figures.
(... el guión o estandarte real era una banderilla cuadrada y pequeña, de diez o doce palmos de ruedo, hecha de lienzo de algodón o de lana, iba puesta en el remate de una asta larga, tendida y tiesa, sin que ondease al aire, y en ella pintaba cada rey sus armas y divisas, porque cada uno las escogía diferentes, aunque las generales de los Incas eran el arco celeste y dos culebras tendidas a lo largo paralelas con la borda que le servía de corona, a las cuales solía añadir por divisa y blasón cada rey las que le parecía, como un león, un águila y otras figuras.)
-Bernabé Cobo, Historia del Nuevo Mundo (1653)

Guaman Poma's 1615 book, El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno, shows numerous line drawings of Inca flags.[122] In his 1847 book A History of the Conquest of Peru, "William H. Prescott ... says that in the Inca army each company had its particular banner and that the imperial standard, high above all, displayed the glittering device of the rainbow, the armorial ensign of the Incas."[123] A 1917 world flags book says the Inca "heir-apparent ... was entitled to display the royal standard of the rainbow in his military campaigns."[124]

In modern times the rainbow flag has been wrongly associated with the Tawantinsuyu and displayed as a symbol of Inca heritage by some groups in Peru and Bolivia. The city of Cusco also flies the Rainbow Flag, but as an official flag of the city. The Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo (2001–2006) flew the Rainbow Flag in Lima's presidential palace. However, according to Peruvian historiography, the Inca Empire never had a flag. Peruvian historian María Rostworowski said, "I bet my life, the Inca never had that flag, it never existed, no chronicler mentioned it".[125] Also, to the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio, the flag dates to the first decades of the 20th century,[126] and even the Congress of the Republic of Peru has determined that flag is a fake by citing the conclusion of National Academy of Peruvian History:

"The official use of the wrongly called 'Tawantinsuyu flag' is a mistake. In the Pre-Hispanic Andean World there did not exist the concept of a flag, it did not belong to their historic context".[126]
National Academy of Peruvian History

Adaptations to altitude

The people of the Andes, including the Incas, were able to adapt to high-altitude living through successful acclimatization, which is characterized by increasing oxygen supply to the blood tissues. For the native living in the Andean highlands, this was achieved through the development of a larger lung capacity, and an increase in red blood cell counts, hemoglobin concentration, and capillary beds.[127]

Compared to other humans, the Andeans had slower heart rates, almost one-third larger lung capacity, about 2 L (4 pints) more blood volume and double the amount of hemoglobin, which transfers oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. While the Conquistadors may have been taller, the Inca had the advantage of coping with the extraordinary altitude.[128] The Tibetans in Asia living in the Himalayas are also adapted to living in high-altitudes, although the adaptation is different from that of the Andeans.[129]

See also

Incan archeological sites

Incan-related

General

Notes

  1. ^ Quechua: Tawantinsuyu, lit. "four parts together"[3]

References

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Bibliography

  • Куприенко, Сергей (2013). Источники XVI–XVII веков по истории инков: хроники, документы, письма. Kyiv: Видавець Купрієнко СА. ISBN 978-617-7085-03-3.
  • Bengoa, José (2003). Historia de los antiguos mapuches del sur: desde antes de la llegada de los españoles hasta las paces de Quilín : siglos XVI y XVII (in Spanish). BPR Publishers. ISBN 978-956-8303-02-0.
  • de la Vega, Garcilaso (2006). The Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru, Abridged. Hackett Publishing. pp. 32–. ISBN 978-1-60384-856-5.
  • Hemming, John (2003). The Conquest of the Incas. Harvest Press. ISBN 0-15-602826-3.
  • MacQuarrie, Kim (2007). The Last Days of the Incas. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-6049-7.
  • Mann, Charles C. (2005). 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. Knopf. pp. 64–105. ISBN 978-0-307-27818-0.
  • McEwan, Gordon F. (2008). The Incas: New Perspectives. W.W. Norton, Incorporated. pp. 221–. ISBN 978-0-393-33301-5.
  • Morales, Edmundo (1995). The guinea pig: healing, food, and ritual in the Andes. University of Arizona Press.
  • Popenoe, Hugh; Steven R. King; Jorge Leon; Luis Sumar Kalinowski; Noel D. Vietmeyer (1989). Lost Crops of the Incas: Little-Known Plants of the Andes with Promise for Worldwide Cultivation. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. ISBN 0-309-04264-X.
  • Sanderson, Steven E. (1992). The Politics of Trade in Latin American Development. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2021-2.
  • D'Altroy, Terence N. (2014). The Incas. Wiley. ISBN 978-1-118-61059-6.
  • Steward, Julian H., ed. (1946). The Handbook of South American Indians: The Andean Civilizations. no. 143 v. 2 Bulletin / Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology. Vol. 2. Biodiversity Heritage Library / Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. p. 1935.
  • Julien, Catherine J. (1982). Inca Decimal Administration in the Lake Titicaca Region in The Inca and Aztec States: 1400–1800. New York: Academic Press.
  • Moseley, Michael Edward (2001). The Incas and Their Ancestors: The Archaeology of Peru. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-28277-9.

External links

  • "Guaman Poma – El Primer Nueva Corónica Y Buen Gobierno" – A high-quality digital version of the Corónica, scanned from the original manuscript.
  • Conquest nts.html Inca Land by Hiram Bingham (published 1912–1922).
  • Inca Artifacts, Peru and Machu Picchu 360-degree movies of inca artifacts and Peruvian landscapes.
  • Ancient Civilizations – Inca
  • "Ice Treasures of the Inca" National Geographic site.
  • "The Sacred Hymns of Pachacutec", poetry of an Inca emperor.
  • Engineering in the Andes Mountains, lecture on Inca suspension bridges
  • of Inca Empire events
  • Ancient Peruvian art: contributions to the archaeology of the empire of the Incas, a four volume work from 1902 (fully available online as PDF)

inca, empire, inca, incan, incas, redirect, here, general, view, inca, civilization, people, culture, andean, civilizations, carolina, parakeet, incas, carolina, parakeet, other, uses, inca, disambiguation, incan, disambiguation, also, known, incan, empire, in. Inca Incan and Incas redirect here For a general view of Inca civilization people and culture see Andean civilizations For the Carolina parakeet see Incas Carolina parakeet For other uses see Inca disambiguation and Incan disambiguation The Inca Empire also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire called Tawantinsuyu by its subjects Quechua for the Realm of the Four Parts a was the largest empire in pre Columbian America 4 The administrative political and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco The Inca civilization arose from the Peruvian highlands sometime in the early 13th century The Spanish began the conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532 and by 1572 the last Inca state was fully conquered Realm of the Four PartsTawantinsuyu Quechua 1438 1533 1572Reconstructed royal emblemThe Inca Empire at its greatest extent c 1525CapitalCuscoOfficial languagesQuechuaCommon languagesAymara Puquina Jaqi family Muchik and scores of smaller languages ReligionInca religionGovernmentDivine absolute monarchySapa Inca 1438 1471Pachacuti 1471 1493Tupac Inca Yupanqui 1493 1527Huayna Capac 1527 1532Huascar 1532 1533AtahualpaHistorical eraPre Columbian era Pachacuti created the Tawantinsuyu1438 Civil war between Huascar and Atahualpa1529 1532 Spanish conquest led by Francisco Pizarro1533 1572 End of the last Inca resistance1572Area1527 1 2 2 000 000 km2 770 000 sq mi Preceded by Succeeded byKingdom of ChimorKingdom of CuscoAymara kingdoms New CastileNew ToledoNew AndalusiaNeo Inca StateFrom 1438 to 1533 the Incas incorporated a large portion of western South America centered on the Andean Mountains using conquest and peaceful assimilation among other methods At its largest the empire joined modern day Peru what are now western Ecuador western and south central Bolivia northwest Argentina the southwesternmost tip of Colombia and a large portion of modern day Chile into a state comparable to the historical empires of Eurasia Its official language was Quechua 5 The Inca Empire was unique in that it lacked many of the features associated with civilization in the Old World Anthropologist Gordon McEwan wrote that the Incas were able to construct one of the greatest imperial states in human history without the use of the wheel draft animals knowledge of iron or steel or even a system of writing 6 Notable features of the Inca Empire included its monumental architecture especially stonework extensive road network reaching all corners of the empire finely woven textiles use of knotted strings quipu for record keeping and communication agricultural innovations and production in a difficult environment and the organization and management fostered or imposed on its people and their labor The Inca Empire functioned largely without money and without markets Instead exchange of goods and services was based on reciprocity between individuals and among individuals groups and Inca rulers Taxes consisted of a labour obligation of a person to the Empire The Inca rulers who theoretically owned all the means of production reciprocated by granting access to land and goods and providing food and drink in celebratory feasts for their subjects 7 Many local forms of worship persisted in the empire most of them concerning local sacred Huacas but the Inca leadership encouraged the sun worship of Inti their sun god and imposed its sovereignty above other cults such as that of Pachamama 8 The Incas considered their king the Sapa Inca to be the son of the sun 9 The Incan economy is a subject of scholarly debate Darrell E La Lone in his work The Inca as a Nonmarket Economy noted that scholars have described it as feudal slave or socialist as well as a system based on reciprocity and redistribution a system with markets and commerce or an Asiatic mode of production 10 Contents 1 Etymology 2 History 2 1 Antecedents 2 2 Origin 2 3 Kingdom of Cusco 2 4 Reorganization and formation 2 5 Expansion and consolidation 2 6 Inca Civil War and Spanish conquest 2 7 End of the Inca Empire 3 Society 3 1 Population 3 2 Languages 3 3 Age and defining gender 3 4 Marriage 3 5 Gender roles 3 6 Burial customs 4 Religion 4 1 Deities 5 Economy 6 Government 6 1 Beliefs 6 2 Organization of the empire 6 2 1 Suyu 6 3 Laws 6 4 Administration 7 Arts and technology 7 1 Monumental architecture 7 2 Measures calendrics and mathematics 7 3 Tunics 7 3 1 Uncu 7 4 Ceramics precious metals and textiles 7 5 Communication and medicine 7 6 Coca 7 7 Weapons armor and warfare 7 8 Banner of the Inca 8 Adaptations to altitude 9 See also 9 1 Incan archeological sites 9 2 Incan related 9 3 General 10 Notes 11 References 12 Bibliography 13 External linksEtymologyThe Inca referred to their empire as Tawantinsuyu 3 the four suyu In Quechua tawa is four and ntin is a suffix naming a group so that a tawantin is a quartet a group of four things taken together in this case the four suyu regions or provinces whose corners met at the capital The four suyu were Chinchaysuyu north Antisuyu east the Amazon jungle Qullasuyu south and Kuntisuyu west The name Tawantinsuyu was therefore a descriptive term indicating a union of provinces The Spanish transliterated the name as Tahuatinsuyo or Tahuatinsuyu While the term Inka nowaydays is translated as ruler or lord in Quechua this term does not simply refer to the King of the Tawantinsuyu or Sapa Inka but also to the Inca nobles and some theorize its meaning could be broader 11 12 In that sense the Inca nobles were a small percentage of the total population of the empire probably numbering only 15 000 to 40 000 but ruling a population of around 10 million people 13 When the Spanish arrived to the Empire of the Incas they gave the name Peru to what the natives knew as Tawantinsuyu 14 The name Inca Empire Imperio de los Incas originated from the Chronicles of the 16th Century 15 HistoryFurther information History of Cusco Antecedents The Inca Empire was the last chapter of thousands of years of Andean civilizations The Andean civilization is one of at least five civilizations in the world deemed by scholars to be pristine The concept of a pristine civilization refers to a civilization that has developed independently from external influences and is not a derivative of other civilizations 16 The Inca Empire was preceded by two large scale empires in the Andes the Tiwanaku c 300 1100 AD based around Lake Titicaca and the Wari or Huari c 600 1100 AD centered near the city of Ayacucho The Wari occupied the Cuzco area for about 400 years Thus many of the characteristics of the Inca Empire derived from earlier multi ethnic and expansive Andean cultures 17 To those earlier civilizations may be owed some of the accomplishments cited for the Inca Empire thousands of miles of roads and dozens of large administrative centers with elaborate stone construction terraced mountainsides and filled in valleys and the production of vast quantities of goods 18 Carl Troll has argued that the development of the Inca state in the central Andes was aided by conditions that allow for the elaboration of the staple food chuno Chuno which can be stored for long periods is made of potato dried at the freezing temperatures that are common at nighttime in the southern Peruvian highlands Such a link between the Inca state and chuno may be questioned as other crops such as maize can also be dried with only sunlight 19 Troll also argued that llamas the Incas pack animal can be found in their largest numbers in this very same region 19 The maximum extent of the Inca Empire roughly coincided with the distribution of llamas and alpacas the only large domesticated animals in Pre Hispanic America 20 As a third point Troll pointed out irrigation technology as advantageous to Inca state building 21 While Troll theorized concerning environmental influences on the Inca Empire he opposed environmental determinism arguing that culture lay at the core of the Inca civilization 21 Origin Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo children of the Inti Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala El primer nueva coronica y buen gobierno circa 1615 The Inca people were a pastoral tribe in the Cusco area around the 12th century Indigenous Peruvian oral history tells an origin story of three caves The center cave at Tampu T uqu Tambo Tocco was named Qhapaq T uqu principal niche also spelled Capac Tocco The other caves were Maras T uqu Maras Tocco and Sutiq T uqu Sutic Tocco 22 Four brothers and four sisters stepped out of the middle cave They were Ayar Manco Ayar Cachi Ayar Awqa Ayar Auca and Ayar Uchu and Mama Ocllo Mama Raua Mama Huaco and Mama Qura Mama Cora Out of the side caves came the people who were to be the ancestors of all the Inca clans Manco Capac First Inca 1 of 14 Portraits of Inca Kings Probably mid 18th century Oil on canvas Brooklyn Museum Ayar Manco carried a magic staff made of the finest gold Where this staff landed the people would live They traveled for a long time On the way Ayar Cachi boasted about his strength and power His siblings tricked him into returning to the cave to get a sacred llama When he went into the cave they trapped him inside to get rid of him Ayar Uchu decided to stay on the top of the cave to look over the Inca people The minute he proclaimed that he turned to stone They built a shrine around the stone and it became a sacred object Ayar Auca grew tired of all this and decided to travel alone Only Ayar Manco and his four sisters remained Finally they reached Cusco The staff sank into the ground Before they arrived Mama Ocllo had already borne Ayar Manco a child Sinchi Roca The people who were already living in Cusco fought hard to keep their land but Mama Huaca was a good fighter When the enemy attacked she threw her bolas several stones tied together that spun through the air when thrown at a soldier gualla and killed him instantly The other people became afraid and ran away After that Ayar Manco became known as Manco Capac the founder of the Inca It is said that he and his sisters built the first Inca homes in the valley with their own hands When the time came Manco Capac turned to stone like his brothers before him His son Sinchi Roca became the second emperor of the Inca 23 Kingdom of Cusco Main article Kingdom of Cusco Inca expansion 1438 1533 Under the leadership of Manco Capac the Inca formed the small city state Kingdom of Cusco Quechua Qusqu Qosqo In 1438 they began a far reaching expansion under the command of Sapa Inca paramount leader Pachacuti Cusi Yupanqui whose name meant earth shaker The name of Pachacuti was given to him after he conquered the Tribe of Chancas modern Apurimac During his reign he and his son Tupac Yupanqui brought much of the modern day territory of Peru under Inca control 24 Reorganization and formation Pachacuti reorganized the kingdom of Cusco into the Tahuantinsuyu which consisted of a central government with the Inca at its head and four provincial governments with strong leaders Chinchasuyu NW Antisuyu NE Kuntisuyu SW and Qullasuyu SE 25 Pachacuti is thought to have built Machu Picchu either as a family home or summer retreat although it may have been an agricultural station 26 Pachacuti sent spies to regions he wanted in his empire and they brought to him reports on political organization military strength and wealth He then sent messages to their leaders extolling the benefits of joining his empire offering them presents of luxury goods such as high quality textiles and promising that they would be materially richer as his subjects Most accepted the rule of the Inca as a fait accompli and acquiesced peacefully Refusal to accept Inca rule resulted in military conquest Following conquest the local rulers were executed The ruler s children were brought to Cusco to learn about Inca administration systems then return to rule their native lands This allowed the Inca to indoctrinate them into the Inca nobility and with luck marry their daughters into families at various corners of the empire Expansion and consolidation See also Chimor Inca War Traditionally the son of the Inca ruler led the army Pachacuti s son Tupac Inca Yupanqui began conquests to the north in 1463 and continued them as Inca ruler after Pachacuti s death in 1471 Tupac Inca s most important conquest was the Kingdom of Chimor the Inca s only serious rival for the Peruvian coast Tupac Inca s empire then stretched north into what are today Ecuador and Colombia Tupac Inca s son Huayna Capac added a small portion of land to the north in what is today Ecuador At its height the Inca Empire included modern day Peru what are today western and south central Bolivia southwest Ecuador and Colombia and a large portion of modern day Chile at the north of the Maule River Traditional historiography claims the advance south halted after the Battle of the Maule where they met determined resistance from the Mapuche 27 This view is challenged by historian Osvaldo Silva who argues instead that it was the social and political framework of the Mapuche that posed the main difficulty in imposing imperial rule 27 Silva does accept that the battle of the Maule was a stalemate but argues the Incas lacked incentives for conquest they had had when fighting more complex societies such as the Chimu Empire 27 Silva also disputes the date given by traditional historiography for the battle the late 15th century during the reign of Topa Inca Yupanqui 1471 93 27 Instead he places it in 1532 during the Inca Civil War 27 Nevertheless Silva agrees on the claim that the bulk of the Incan conquests were made during the late 15th century 27 At the time of the Incan Civil War an Inca army was according to Diego de Rosales subduing a revolt among the Diaguitas of Copiapo and Coquimbo 27 The empire s push into the Amazon Basin near the Chinchipe River was stopped by the Shuar in 1527 28 The empire extended into corners of what are today the north of Argentina and part of the southern Colombia However most of the southern portion of the Inca empire the portion denominated as Qullasuyu was located in the Altiplano The Inca Empire was an amalgamation of languages cultures and peoples The components of the empire were not all uniformly loyal nor were the local cultures all fully integrated The Inca empire as a whole had an economy based on exchange and taxation of luxury goods and labour The following quote describes a method of taxation For as is well known to all not a single village of the highlands or the plains failed to pay the tribute levied on it by those who were in charge of these matters There were even provinces where when the natives alleged that they were unable to pay their tribute the Inca ordered that each inhabitant should be obliged to turn in every four months a large quill full of live lice which was the Inca s way of teaching and accustoming them to pay tribute 29 Inca Civil War and Spanish conquest Main articles Inca Civil War and Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire The first image of the Inca in Europe Pedro Cieza de Leon Cronica del Peru 1553 Spanish conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro and his brothers explored south from what is today Panama reaching Inca territory by 1526 30 It was clear that they had reached a wealthy land with prospects of great treasure and after another expedition in 1529 Pizarro traveled to Spain and received royal approval to conquer the region and be its viceroy This approval was received as detailed in the following quote In July 1529 the Queen of Spain signed a charter allowing Pizarro to conquer the Incas Pizarro was named governor and captain of all conquests in Peru or New Castile as the Spanish now called the land 31 When the conquistadors returned to Peru in 1532 a war of succession between the sons of Sapa Inca Huayna Capac Huascar and Atahualpa and unrest among newly conquered territories weakened the empire Perhaps more importantly smallpox influenza typhus and measles had spread from Central America The first epidemic of European disease in the Inca Empire was probably in the 1520s killing Huayna Capac his designated heir and an unknown probably large number of other Incan subjects 32 The forces led by Pizarro consisted of 168 men one cannon and 27 horses Conquistadors ported lances arquebuses steel armor and long swords In contrast the Inca used weapons made out of wood stone copper and bronze while using an Alpaca fiber based armor putting them at significant technological disadvantage none of their weapons could pierce the Spanish steel armor In addition due to the absence of horses in Peru the Inca did not develop tactics to fight cavalry However the Inca were still effective warriors being able to successfully fight the Mapuche who later would strategically defeat the Spanish as they expanded further south The first engagement between the Inca and the Spanish was the Battle of Puna near present day Guayaquil Ecuador on the Pacific Coast Pizarro then founded the city of Piura in July 1532 Hernando de Soto was sent inland to explore the interior and returned with an invitation to meet the Inca Atahualpa who had defeated his brother in the civil war and was resting at Cajamarca with his army of 80 000 troops that were at the moment armed only with hunting tools knives and lassos for hunting llamas Pizarro and some of his men most notably a friar named Vincente de Valverde met with the Inca who had brought only a small retinue The Inca offered them ceremonial chicha in a golden cup which the Spanish rejected The Spanish interpreter Friar Vincente read the Requerimiento that demanded that he and his empire accept the rule of King Charles I of Spain and convert to Christianity Atahualpa dismissed the message and asked them to leave After this the Spanish began their attack against the mostly unarmed Inca captured Atahualpa as hostage and forced the Inca to collaborate Atahualpa offered the Spaniards enough gold to fill the room he was imprisoned in and twice that amount of silver The Inca fulfilled this ransom but Pizarro deceived them refusing to release the Inca afterwards During Atahualpa s imprisonment Huascar was assassinated elsewhere The Spaniards maintained that this was at Atahualpa s orders this was used as one of the charges against Atahualpa when the Spaniards finally executed him in August 1533 33 Although defeat often implies an unwanted loss in battle many of the diverse ethnic groups ruled by the Inca welcomed the Spanish invaders as liberators and willingly settled down with them to share rule of Andean farmers and miners 34 Many regional leaders called Kurakas continued to serve the Spanish overlords called encomenderos as they had served the Inca overlords Other than efforts to spread the religion of Christianity the Spanish benefited from and made little effort to change the society and culture of the former Inca Empire until the rule of Francisco de Toledo as viceroy from 1569 to 1581 35 End of the Inca Empire Main article Neo Inca State See also Society in the Spanish Colonial Americas Atahualpa the last Sapa Inca of the empire was executed by the Spanish on 29 August 1533 Facade of the Convent of Santo Domingo in Cusco built on the base of the Coricancha The Spanish installed Atahualpa s brother Manco Inca Yupanqui in power for some time Manco cooperated with the Spanish while they fought to put down resistance in the north Meanwhile an associate of Pizarro Diego de Almagro attempted to claim Cusco Manco tried to use this intra Spanish feud to his advantage recapturing Cusco in 1536 but the Spanish retook the city afterwards Manco Inca then retreated to the mountains of Vilcabamba and established the small Neo Inca State where he and his successors ruled for another 36 years sometimes raiding the Spanish or inciting revolts against them In 1572 the last Inca stronghold was conquered and the last ruler Tupac Amaru Manco s son was captured and executed 36 This ended resistance to the Spanish conquest under the political authority of the Inca state After the fall of the Inca Empire many aspects of Inca culture were systematically destroyed including their sophisticated farming system known as the vertical archipelago model of agriculture 37 Spanish colonial officials used the Inca mita corvee labor system for colonial aims sometimes brutally One member of each family was forced to work in the gold and silver mines the foremost of which was the titanic silver mine at Potosi When a family member died which would usually happen within a year or two the family was required to send a replacement citation needed Although smallpox is usually presumed to have spread through the Empire before the arrival of the Spaniards the devastation is also consistent with other theories 38 Beginning in Colombia smallpox spread rapidly before the Spanish invaders first arrived in the empire The spread was probably aided by the efficient Inca road system Smallpox was only the first epidemic 39 Other diseases including a probable typhus outbreak in 1546 influenza and smallpox together in 1558 smallpox again in 1589 diphtheria in 1614 and measles in 1618 all ravaged the Inca people There would be periodic attempts by indigenous leaders to expel the Spanish colonists and re create the Inca Empire until the late 18th century See Juan Santos Atahualpa and Tupac Amaru II SocietyMain articles Inca society and Inca education Population The number of people inhabiting Tawantinsuyu at its peak is uncertain with estimates ranging from 4 37 million Most population estimates are in the range of 6 to 14 million In spite of the fact that the Inca kept excellent census records using their quipus knowledge of how to read them was lost as almost all fell into disuse and disintegrated over time or were destroyed by the Spaniards 40 Languages Main article Quechua languages The empire was extremely linguistically diverse Some of the most important languages were Quechua Aymara Puquina and Mochica respectively mainly spoken in the Central Andes the Altiplano or Qullasuyu the south Peruvian coast Kuntisuyu and the area of the north Peruvian coast Chinchaysuyu around Chan Chan today Trujillo Other languages included Quignam Jaqaru Leco Uru Chipaya languages Kunza Humahuaca Cacan Mapudungun Culle Chachapoya Catacao languages Manta and Barbacoan languages as well as numerous Amazonian languages on the frontier regions The exact linguistic topography of the pre Columbian and early colonial Andes remains incompletely understood owing to the extinction of several languages and the loss of historical records In order to manage this diversity the Inca lords promoted the usage of Quechua especially the variety of what is now Lima 41 as the Qhapaq Runasimi great language of the people or the official language lingua franca Defined by mutual intelligibility Quechua is actually a family of languages rather than one single language parallel to the Romance or Slavic languages in Europe Most communities within the empire even those resistant to Inca rule learned to speak a variety of Quechua forming new regional varieties with distinct phonetics in order to communicate with the Inca lords and mitma colonists as well as the wider integrating society but largely retained their native languages as well The Incas also had their own ethnic language referred to as Qhapaq simi royal language which is thought to have been closely related to or a dialect of Puquina The split between Qhapaq simi and Qhapaq Runasimi exemplifies the larger split between hatun and hunin high and low society in general There are several common misconceptions about the history of Quechua as it is frequently identified as the Inca language Quechua did not originate with the Incas had been a lingua franca in multiple areas before the Inca expansions was diverse before the rise of the Incas and it was not the native or original language of the Incas However the Incas left an impressive linguistic legacy in that they introduced Quechua to many areas where it is still widely spoken today including Ecuador southern Bolivia southern Colombia and parts of the Amazon basin The Spanish conquerors continued the official usage of Quechua during the early colonial period and transformed it into a literary language 42 The Incas were not known to develop a written form of language however they visually recorded narratives through paintings on vases and cups qirus 43 These paintings are usually accompanied by geometric patterns known as toqapu which are also found in textiles Researchers have speculated that toqapu patterns could have served as a form of written communication e g heraldry or glyphs however this remains unclear 44 The Incas also kept records by using quipus Age and defining gender The Maiden one of the Llullaillaco mummies Inca human sacrifice Salta province Argentina The high infant mortality rates that plagued the Inca Empire caused all newborn infants to be given the term wawa when they were born Most families did not invest very much into their child until they reached the age of two or three years old Once the child reached the age of three a coming of age ceremony occurred called the rutuchikuy For the Incas this ceremony indicated that the child had entered the stage of ignorance During this ceremony the family would invite all relatives to their house for food and dance and then each member of the family would receive a lock of hair from the child After each family member had received a lock the father would shave the child s head This stage of life was categorized by a stage of ignorance inexperience and lack of reason a condition that the child would overcome with time 45 For Incan society in order to advance from the stage of ignorance to development the child must learn the roles associated with their gender The next important ritual was to celebrate the maturity of a child Unlike the coming of age ceremony the celebration of maturity signified the child s sexual potency This celebration of puberty was called warachikuy for boys and qikuchikuy for girls The warachikuy ceremony included dancing fasting tasks to display strength and family ceremonies The boy would also be given new clothes and taught how to act as an unmarried man The qikuchikuy signified the onset of menstruation upon which the girl would go into the forest alone and return only once the bleeding had ended In the forest she would fast and once returned the girl would be given a new name adult clothing and advice This folly stage of life was the time young adults were allowed to have sex without being a parent 45 Between the ages of 20 and 30 people were considered young adults ripe for serious thought and labor 45 Young adults were able to retain their youthful status by living at home and assisting in their home community Young adults only reached full maturity and independence once they had married At the end of life the terms for men and women denote loss of sexual vitality and humanity Specifically the decrepitude stage signifies the loss of mental well being and further physical decline Table 7 1 from R Alan Covey s Article 45 Age Social Value of Life Stage Female Term Male Term lt 3 Conception Wawa Wawa3 7 Ignorance not speaking Warma Warma7 14 Development Thaski or P asna Maqt a14 20 Folly sexually active Sipas unmarried Wayna unmarried 20 Maturity body and mind Warmi Qhari70 Infirmity Paya Machu90 Decrepitude Ruku RukuMarriage In the Incan Empire the age of marriage differed for men and women men typically married at the age of 20 while women usually got married about four years earlier at the age of 16 46 Men who were highly ranked in society could have multiple wives but those lower in the ranks could only take a single wife 47 Marriages were typically within classes and resembled a more business like agreement Once married the women were expected to cook collect food and watch over the children and livestock 46 Girls and mothers would also work around the house to keep it orderly to please the public inspectors 48 These duties remained the same even after wives became pregnant and with the added responsibility of praying and making offerings to Kanopa who was the god of pregnancy 46 It was typical for marriages to begin on a trial basis with both men and women having a say in the longevity of the marriage If the man felt that it wouldn t work out or if the woman wanted to return to her parents home the marriage would end Once the marriage was final the only way the two could be divorced was if they did not have a child together 46 Marriage within the Empire was crucial for survival A family was considered disadvantaged if there was not a married couple at the center because everyday life centered around the balance of male and female tasks 49 Gender roles According to some historians such as Terence N D Altroy male and female roles were considered equal in Inca society The indigenous cultures saw the two genders as complementary parts of a whole 49 In other words there was not a hierarchical structure in the domestic sphere for the Incas Within the domestic sphere women came to be known as weavers although there is significant evidence to suggest that this gender role did not appear until colonizing Spaniards realized women s productive talents in this sphere and used it to their economic advantage There is evidence to suggest that both men and women contributed equally to the weaving tasks in pre Hispanic Andean culture 50 Women s everyday tasks included spinning watching the children weaving cloth cooking brewing chichi preparing fields for cultivation planting seeds bearing children harvesting weeding hoeing herding and carrying water 51 Men on the other hand weeded plowed participated in combat helped in the harvest carried firewood built houses herded llama and alpaca and spun and wove when necessary 51 This relationship between the genders may have been complementary Unsurprisingly onlooking Spaniards believed women were treated like slaves because women did not work in Spanish society to the same extent and certainly did not work in fields 52 Women were sometimes allowed to own land and herds because inheritance was passed down from both the mother s and father s side of the family 53 Kinship within the Inca society followed a parallel line of descent In other words women descended from women and men descended from men Due to the parallel descent a woman had access to land and other assets through her mother 51 Burial customs Due to the dry climate that extends from modern day Peru to what is now Chile s Norte Grande mummification occurred naturally by desiccation It is believed that the ancient Incas learned to mummify their dead to show reverence to their leaders and representatives 54 Mummification was chosen to preserve the body and to give others the opportunity to worship them in their death The ancient Inca believed in reincarnation so preservation of the body was vital for passage into the afterlife 55 Since mummification was reserved for royalty this entailed preserving power by placing the deceased s valuables with the body in places of honor The bodies remained accessible for ceremonies where they would be removed and celebrated with 56 The ancient Inca mummified their dead with various tools Chicha corn beer was used to delay decomposition and the effects of bacterial activity on the body The bodies were then stuffed with natural materials such as vegetable matter and animal hair Sticks were to used to maintain their shape and poses 57 In addition to the mummification process the Inca would bury their dead in the fetal position inside a vessel intended to mimic the womb for preparation of their new birth A ceremony would be held that included music food and drink for the relatives and loved ones of the deceased 58 ReligionSee also Religion in the Inca Empire and Inca mythology Diorite Viracocha Inca sculpture from Amarucancha archeological site Cusco Inca myths were transmitted orally until early Spanish colonists recorded them however some scholars claim that they were recorded on quipus Andean knotted string records 59 The Inca believed in reincarnation 60 After death the passage to the next world was fraught with difficulties The spirit of the dead camaquen would need to follow a long road and during the trip the assistance of a black dog that could see in the dark was required Most Incas imagined the after world to be like an earthly paradise with flower covered fields and snow capped mountains It was important to the Inca that they not die as a result of burning or that the body of the deceased not be incinerated Burning would cause their vital force to disappear and threaten their passage to the after world The Inca nobility practiced cranial deformation 61 They wrapped tight cloth straps around the heads of newborns to shape their soft skulls into a more conical form thus distinguishing the nobility from other social classes The Incas made human sacrifices As many as 4 000 servants court officials favorites and concubines were killed upon the death of the Inca Huayna Capac in 1527 62 The Incas performed child sacrifices around important events such as the death of the Sapa Inca or during a famine These sacrifices were known as qhapaq hucha 63 Deities The Incas were polytheists who worshipped many gods These included Viracocha also Pachacamac Created all living things Apu Illapu Rain god prayed to when they need rain Ayar Cachi Hot tempered god causes earthquakes Illapa Goddess of lightning and thunder also Yakumama goddess of water Inti Sun god and patron deity of the holy city of Cusco home of the sun Kuychi Rainbow god connected with fertility Mama Killa Means Mother Moon wife of Inti Mama Occlo Created wisdom to civilize the people taught women to weave cloth and build houses Manco Capac Known for his courage and sent to Earth to become first king of the Incas Taught people how to grow plants make weapons work together share resources and worship the other gods Pachamama Goddess of earth and wife of Viracocha People give her offerings of coca leaves and beer and pray to her for major agricultural occasions Quchamama Goddess of the sea Sachamama Means Mother Tree represented as a snake with two heads Yacumama Means Mother Water represented as a snake transformed into a great river also Illapa when she came to EarthEconomyMain article Economy of the Inca Empire Further information Incan agriculture Vertical archipelago Mit a and Qullqa Illustration of Inca farmers using a chakitaqlla Andean foot plough Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala El primer nueva coronica y buen gobierno circa 1615 The Inca Empire employed central planning The Inca Empire traded with outside regions although they did not operate a substantial internal market economy While axe monies were used along the northern coast presumably by the provincial mindalae trading class 64 most households in the empire lived in a traditional economy in which households were required to pay taxes usually in the form of the mit a corvee labor and military obligations 65 though barter or trueque was present in some areas 66 In return the state provided security food in times of hardship through the supply of emergency resources agricultural projects e g aqueducts and terraces to increase productivity and occasional feasts hosted by Inca officials for their subjects While mit a was used by the state to obtain labor individual villages had a pre inca system of communal work known as mink a This system survives to the modern day known as mink a or faena The economy rested on the material foundations of the vertical archipelago a system of ecological complementarity in accessing resources 67 and the cultural foundation of ayni or reciprocal exchange 68 69 GovernmentMain article Government of the Inca Empire Beliefs Inti as represented by Jose Bernardo de Tagle of Peru The Sapa Inca was conceptualized as divine and was effectively head of the state religion The Willaq Umu or Chief Priest was second to the emperor Local religious traditions continued and in some cases such as the Oracle at Pachacamac on the Peruvian coast were officially venerated Following Pachacuti the Sapa Inca claimed descent from Inti who placed a high value on imperial blood by the end of the empire it was common to incestuously wed brother and sister He was son of the sun and his people the intip churin or children of the sun and both his right to rule and mission to conquer derived from his holy ancestor The Sapa Inca also presided over ideologically important festivals notably during the Inti Raymi or Sunfest attended by soldiers mummified rulers nobles clerics and the general population of Cusco beginning on the June solstice and culminating nine days later with the ritual breaking of the earth using a foot plow by the Inca Moreover Cusco was considered cosmologically central loaded as it was with huacas and radiating ceque lines as the geographic center of the Four Quarters Inca Garcilaso de la Vega called it the navel of the universe 70 71 72 73 Organization of the empire The Inca Empire was a federalist system consisting of a central government with the Inca at its head and four regional quarters or suyu Chinchay Suyu NW Anti Suyu NE Kunti Suyu SW and Qulla Suyu SE The four corners of these quarters met at the center Cusco These suyu were likely created around 1460 during the reign of Pachacuti before the empire reached its largest territorial extent At the time the suyu were established they were roughly of equal size and only later changed their proportions as the empire expanded north and south along the Andes 74 Cusco was likely not organized as a wamani or province Rather it was probably somewhat akin to a modern federal district like Washington DC or Mexico City The city sat at the center of the four suyu and served as the preeminent center of politics and religion While Cusco was essentially governed by the Sapa Inca his relatives and the royal panaqa lineages each suyu was governed by an Apu a term of esteem used for men of high status and for venerated mountains Both Cusco as a district and the four suyu as administrative regions were grouped into upper hanan and lower hurin divisions As the Inca did not have written records it is impossible to exhaustively list the constituent wamani However colonial records allow us to reconstruct a partial list There were likely more than 86 wamani with more than 48 in the highlands and more than 38 on the coast 75 76 77 Suyu The four suyus or quarters of the empire The most populous suyu was Chinchaysuyu which encompassed the former Chimu empire and much of the northern Andes At its largest extent it extended through much of what are now Ecuador and Colombia The largest suyu by area was Qullasuyu named after the Aymara speaking Qulla people It encompassed what is now the Bolivian Altiplano and much of the southern Andes reaching what is now Argentina and as far south as the Maipo or Maule river in modern Central Chile 78 Historian Jose Bengoa singled out Quillota as likely being the foremost Inca settlement in Chile 79 The second smallest suyu Antisuyu was northwest of Cusco in the high Andes Its name is the root of the word Andes 80 Kuntisuyu was the smallest suyu located along the southern coast of modern Peru extending into the highlands towards Cusco 81 Laws The Inca state had no separate judiciary or codified laws Customs expectations and traditional local power holders governed behavior The state had legal force such as through tokoyrikoq lit he who sees all or inspectors The highest such inspector typically a blood relative to the Sapa Inca acted independently of the conventional hierarchy providing a point of view for the Sapa Inca free of bureaucratic influence 82 The Inca had three moral precepts that governed their behavior Ama sua Do not steal Ama llulla Do not lie Ama quella Do not be lazyAdministration Colonial sources are not entirely clear or in agreement about Inca government structure such as exact duties and functions of government positions But the basic structure can be broadly described The top was the Sapa Inca Below that may have been the Willaq Umu literally the priest who recounts the High Priest of the Sun 83 However beneath the Sapa Inca also sat the Inkap rantin who was a confidant and assistant to the Sapa Inca perhaps similar to a Prime Minister 84 Starting with Topa Inca Yupanqui a Council of the Realm was composed of 16 nobles 2 from hanan Cusco 2 from hurin Cusco 4 from Chinchaysuyu 2 from Cuntisuyu 4 from Collasuyu and 2 from Antisuyu This weighting of representation balanced the hanan and hurin divisions of the empire both within Cusco and within the Quarters hanan suyukuna and hurin suyukuna 85 While provincial bureaucracy and government varied greatly the basic organization was decimal Taxpayers male heads of household of a certain age range were organized into corvee labor units often doubling as military units that formed the state s muscle as part of mit a service Each unit of more than 100 tax payers were headed by a kuraka while smaller units were headed by a kamayuq a lower non hereditary status However while kuraka status was hereditary and typically served for life the position of a kuraka in the hierarchy was subject to change based on the privileges of superiors in the hierarchy a pachaka kuraka could be appointed to the position by a waranqa kuraka Furthermore one kuraka in each decimal level could serve as the head of one of the nine groups at a lower level so that a pachaka kuraka might also be a waranqa kuraka in effect directly responsible for one unit of 100 tax payers and less directly responsible for nine other such units 86 87 88 Kuraka in Charge 89 90 Number of TaxpayersHunu kuraka 10 000Pichkawaranqa kuraka 5 000Waranqa kuraka 1 000Pichkapachaka kuraka 500Pachaka kuraka 100Pichkachunka kamayuq 50Chunka kamayuq 10Arts and technologyMonumental architecture We can assure your majesty that it is so beautiful and has such fine buildings that it would even be remarkable in Spain Francisco Pizarro Architecture was the most important of the Incan arts with textiles reflecting architectural motifs The most notable example is Machu Picchu which was constructed by Inca engineers The prime Inca structures were made of stone blocks that fit together so well that a knife could not be fitted through the stonework These constructs have survived for centuries with no use of mortar to sustain them This process was first used on a large scale by the Pucara c 300 BC AD 300 peoples to the south in Lake Titicaca and later in the city of Tiwanaku c AD 400 1100 in what is now Bolivia The rocks were sculpted to fit together exactly by repeatedly lowering a rock onto another and carving away any sections on the lower rock where the dust was compressed The tight fit and the concavity on the lower rocks made them extraordinarily stable despite the ongoing challenge of earthquakes and volcanic activity Measures calendrics and mathematics See also Mathematics of the Incas Quipu 15th century Brooklyn Museum Physical measures used by the Inca were based on human body parts Units included fingers the distance from thumb to forefinger palms cubits and wingspans The most basic distance unit was thatkiy or thatki or one pace The next largest unit was reported by Cobo to be the topo or tupu measuring 6 000 thatkiys or about 7 7 km 4 8 mi careful study has shown that a range of 4 0 to 6 3 km 2 5 to 3 9 mi is likely Next was the wamani composed of 30 topos roughly 232 km or 144 mi To measure area 25 by 50 wingspans were used reckoned in topos roughly 3 280 km2 or 1 270 sq mi It seems likely that distance was often interpreted as one day s walk the distance between tambo way stations varies widely in terms of distance but far less in terms of time to walk that distance 91 92 Inca calendars were strongly tied to astronomy Inca astronomers understood equinoxes solstices and zenith passages along with the Venus cycle They could not however predict eclipses The Inca calendar was essentially lunisolar as two calendars were maintained in parallel one solar and one lunar As 12 lunar months fall 11 days short of a full 365 day solar year those in charge of the calendar had to adjust every winter solstice Each lunar month was marked with festivals and rituals 93 Apparently the days of the week were not named and days were not grouped into weeks Similarly months were not grouped into seasons Time during a day was not measured in hours or minutes but in terms of how far the sun had travelled or in how long it had taken to perform a task 94 The sophistication of Inca administration calendrics and engineering required facility with numbers Numerical information was stored in the knots of quipu strings allowing for compact storage of large numbers 95 96 These numbers were stored in base 10 digits the same base used by the Quechua language 97 and in administrative and military units 87 These numbers stored in quipu could be calculated on yupanas grids with squares of positionally varying mathematical values perhaps functioning as an abacus 98 Calculation was facilitated by moving piles of tokens seeds or pebbles between compartments of the yupana It is likely that Inca mathematics at least allowed division of integers into integers or fractions and multiplication of integers and fractions 99 According to mid 17th century Jesuit chronicler Bernabe Cobo 100 the Inca designated officials to perform accounting related tasks These officials were called quipo camayos Study of khipu sample VA 42527 Museum fur Volkerkunde Berlin 101 revealed that the numbers arranged in calendrically significant patterns were used for agricultural purposes in the farm account books kept by the khipukamayuq accountant or warehouse keeper to facilitate the closing of accounting books 102 Tunics Tunic worn by a Inca of high rank in vicuna wool and cotton 1450 1540 CE kept at the Washington Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection 103 Tunics were created by skilled Incan textile makers as a piece of warm clothing but they also symbolized cultural and political status and power Cumbi was the fine tapestry woven woolen cloth that was produced and necessary for the creation of tunics Cumbi was produced by specially appointed women and men Generally textile making was practiced by both men and women As emphasized by certain historians only with European conquest was it deemed that women would become the primary weavers in society as opposed to Incan society where specialty textiles were produced by men and women equally 50 Complex patterns and designs were meant to convey information about order in Andean society as well as the Universe Tunics could also symbolize one s relationship to ancient rulers or important ancestors These textiles were frequently designed to represent the physical order of a society for example the flow of tribute within an empire Many tunics have a checkerboard effect which is known as the collcapata According to historians Kenneth Mills William B Taylor and Sandra Lauderdale Graham the collcapata patterns seem to have expressed concepts of commonality and ultimately unity of all ranks of people representing a careful kind of foundation upon which the structure of Inkaic universalism was built Rulers wore various tunics throughout the year switching them out for different occasions and feasts The symbols present within the tunics suggest the importance of pictographic expression within Inkan and other Andean societies far before the iconographies of the Spanish Christians 104 Uncu Uncu was a men s garment similar to a tunic It was an upper body garment of knee length Royals wore it with a mantle cloth called yacolla 105 106 Ceramics precious metals and textiles Camelid Conopa 1470 1532 Brooklyn Museum Small stone figurines or conopas of llamas and alpacas were the most common ritual effigies used in the highlands of modern day Peru and what is now Bolivia These devotional objects were often buried in the animals corrals to bring protection and prosperity to their owners and fertility to the herds The cylindrical cavities in their backs were filled with offerings to the gods in the form of a mixture including animal fat coca leaves maize kernels and seashells Ceramics were painted using the polychrome technique portraying numerous motifs including animals birds waves felines popular in the Chavin culture and geometric patterns found in the Nazca style of ceramics In a culture without a written language ceramics portrayed the basic scenes of everyday life including the smelting of metals relationships and scenes of tribal warfare The most distinctive Inca ceramic objects are the Cusco bottles or aryballos 107 Many of these pieces are on display in Lima in the Larco Archaeological Museum and the National Museum of Archaeology Anthropology and History Almost all of the gold and silver work of the Incan empire was melted down by the conquistadors and shipped back to Spain 108 Communication and medicine The Inca recorded information on assemblages of knotted strings known as Quipu although they can no longer be decoded Originally it was thought that Quipu were used only as mnemonic devices or to record numerical data Quipus are also believed to record history and literature 109 The Inca made many discoveries in medicine 110 They performed successful skull surgery by cutting holes in the skull to alleviate fluid buildup and inflammation caused by head wounds Many skull surgeries performed by Inca surgeons were successful Survival rates were 80 90 compared to about 30 before Inca times 111 Coca Coca leaves The Incas revered the coca plant as sacred magical Its leaves were used in moderate amounts to lessen hunger and pain during work but were mostly used for religious and health purposes 112 The Spaniards took advantage of the effects of chewing coca leaves 112 The Chasqui messengers who ran throughout the empire to deliver messages chewed coca leaves for extra energy Coca leaves were also used as an anaesthetic during surgeries Weapons armor and warfare Main article Inca army Sacsayhuaman the largest Inca pukara largest Inca fortresses Copper heads for maces The Inca army was the most powerful at that time because any ordinary villager or farmer could be recruited as a soldier as part of the mit a system of mandatory public service Every able bodied male Inca of fighting age had to take part in war in some capacity at least once and to prepare for warfare again when needed By the time the empire reached its largest size every section of the empire contributed in setting up an army for war The Incas had no iron or steel and their weapons were not much more effective than those of their opponents so they often defeated opponents by sheer force of numbers or else by persuading them to surrender beforehand by offering generous terms 113 Inca weaponry included hardwood spears launched using throwers arrows javelins slings the bolas clubs and maces with star shaped heads made of copper or bronze 113 114 Rolling rocks downhill onto the enemy was a common strategy taking advantage of the hilly terrain 115 Fighting was sometimes accompanied by drums and trumpets made of wood shell or bone 116 117 Armor included 113 118 Helmets made of wood cane or animal skin often lined with copper or bronze some were adorned with feathers Round or square shields made from wood or hide Cloth tunics padded with cotton and small wooden planks to protect the spine Ceremonial metal breastplates of copper silver and gold have been found in burial sites some of which may have also been used in battle 119 120 Roads allowed quick movement on foot for the Inca army and shelters called tambo and storage silos called qullqas were built one day s travelling distance from each other so that an army on campaign could always be fed and rested This can be seen in names of ruins such as Ollantay Tambo or My Lord s Storehouse These were set up so the Inca and his entourage would always have supplies and possibly shelter ready as they traveled Banner of the Inca See also Wiphala and Rainbow flag Andean indigenism Chronicles and references from the 16th and 17th centuries support the idea of a banner However it represented the Inca emperor not the empire Francisco Lopez de Jerez 121 wrote in 1534 todos venian repartidos en sus escuadras con sus banderas y capitanes que los mandan con tanto concierto como turcos all of them came distributed into squads with their flags and captains commanding them as well ordered as Turks Chronicler Bernabe Cobo wrote The royal standard or banner was a small square flag ten or twelve spans around made of cotton or wool cloth placed on the end of a long staff stretched and stiff such that it did not wave in the air and on it each king painted his arms and emblems for each one chose different ones though the sign of the Incas was the rainbow and two parallel snakes along the width with the tassel as a crown which each king used to add for a badge or blazon those preferred like a lion an eagle and other figures el guion o estandarte real era una banderilla cuadrada y pequena de diez o doce palmos de ruedo hecha de lienzo de algodon o de lana iba puesta en el remate de una asta larga tendida y tiesa sin que ondease al aire y en ella pintaba cada rey sus armas y divisas porque cada uno las escogia diferentes aunque las generales de los Incas eran el arco celeste y dos culebras tendidas a lo largo paralelas con la borda que le servia de corona a las cuales solia anadir por divisa y blason cada rey las que le parecia como un leon un aguila y otras figuras Bernabe Cobo Historia del Nuevo Mundo 1653 Guaman Poma s 1615 book El primer nueva coronica y buen gobierno shows numerous line drawings of Inca flags 122 In his 1847 book A History of the Conquest of Peru William H Prescott says that in the Inca army each company had its particular banner and that the imperial standard high above all displayed the glittering device of the rainbow the armorial ensign of the Incas 123 A 1917 world flags book says the Inca heir apparent was entitled to display the royal standard of the rainbow in his military campaigns 124 In modern times the rainbow flag has been wrongly associated with the Tawantinsuyu and displayed as a symbol of Inca heritage by some groups in Peru and Bolivia The city of Cusco also flies the Rainbow Flag but as an official flag of the city The Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo 2001 2006 flew the Rainbow Flag in Lima s presidential palace However according to Peruvian historiography the Inca Empire never had a flag Peruvian historian Maria Rostworowski said I bet my life the Inca never had that flag it never existed no chronicler mentioned it 125 Also to the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio the flag dates to the first decades of the 20th century 126 and even the Congress of the Republic of Peru has determined that flag is a fake by citing the conclusion of National Academy of Peruvian History The official use of the wrongly called Tawantinsuyu flag is a mistake In the Pre Hispanic Andean World there did not exist the concept of a flag it did not belong to their historic context 126 National Academy of Peruvian HistoryAdaptations to altitudeThe people of the Andes including the Incas were able to adapt to high altitude living through successful acclimatization which is characterized by increasing oxygen supply to the blood tissues For the native living in the Andean highlands this was achieved through the development of a larger lung capacity and an increase in red blood cell counts hemoglobin concentration and capillary beds 127 Compared to other humans the Andeans had slower heart rates almost one third larger lung capacity about 2 L 4 pints more blood volume and double the amount of hemoglobin which transfers oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body While the Conquistadors may have been taller the Inca had the advantage of coping with the extraordinary altitude 128 The Tibetans in Asia living in the Himalayas are also adapted to living in high altitudes although the adaptation is different from that of the Andeans 129 See also Civilizations portalIncan archeological sites Choquequirao Cojitambo El Fuerte de Samaipata Huanuco Pampa Huchuy Qosqo Inca Caranqui Llaqtapata Moray Ollantaytambo Oroncota Pambamarca Fortress Complex Pisac Pukara of La Compania Quispiguanca Rumicucho Tampukancha Tumebamba Vitcos Vilcabamba Incan related History of Cusco Atahualpa last Inca Emperor Aclla the chosen women Amauta Inca teachers Amazonas before the Inca Empire Anden agricultural terrace Inca army Inca cuisine Incan aqueducts Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala Paria Bolivia Religion in the Inca Empire Tampukancha Inca religious site Society of the Spanish Americans in the Spanish Colonial Americas General Ancient Peru Cultural periods of Peru Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas History of Peru History of smallpox Epidemics in the Americas Muisca ConfederationNotes Quechua Tawantinsuyu lit four parts together 3 References Turchin Peter Adams Jonathan M Hall Thomas D December 2006 East West Orientation of Historical Empires Journal of World Systems Research 12 2 222 ISSN 1076 156X Retrieved 16 September 2016 Rein Taagepera September 1997 Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities Context for Russia International Studies Quarterly 41 3 497 doi 10 1111 0020 8833 00053 JSTOR 2600793 Retrieved 7 September 2018 a b McEwan 2008 p 221 Schwartz Glenn M Nichols John J 2010 After Collapse The Regeneration of Complex Societies University of Arizona Press ISBN 978 0 8165 2936 0 Quechua the Language of the Incas 11 November 2013 McEwan Gordon F 2006 The Incas New Perspectives New York W W Norton amp Co p 5 Morris Craig and von Hagen Adrianna 2011 The Incas London Thames amp Hudson pp 48 58 The Inca All Empires The Inca The National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland 29 May 2007 Retrieved 10 September 2013 La Lone Darrell E 1982 The Inca as a Nonmarket Economy Supply on Command versus Supply and Demand Contexts for Prehistoric Exchange 292 Retrieved 10 August 2017 Pease Franklin 2011 The Incas 1st ed Lima Peru Fondo Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru pp 95 121 ISBN 978 9972 42 949 1 Inca American Heritage Dictionary Houghton Mifflin Company 2009 McEwan 2008 p 93 Prescott William Hickling 1847 History of the Conquest of Peru Retrieved 12 July 2022 Pease Franklin 2011 The Incas 1st ed Lima Peru Fondo Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru p 31 ISBN 978 9972 42 949 1 Upton Gary and von Hagen Adriana 2015 Encyclopedia of the Incas New York Rowand amp Littlefield p 2 Some scholars cite 6 or 7 pristine civilizations ISBN 0804715165 McEwan Gordon F 2006 The Incas New Perspectives Archived 11 December 2022 at the Wayback Machine New York W W Norton amp Company p 65 Spalding Karen 1984 Huarocochi Stanford University Press Stanford page 77 a b Gade Daniel 2016 Urubamba Verticality Reflections on Crops and Diseases Spell of the Urubamba Anthropogeographical Essays on an Andean Valley in Space and Time p 86 ISBN 978 3 319 20849 7 Hardoy Jorge Henrique 1973 Pre Columbian Cities p 24 ISBN 978 0 8027 0380 4 a b Gade Daniel W 1996 Carl Troll on Nature and Culture in the Andes Carl Troll uber die Natur und Kultur in den Anden Erdkunde 50 4 301 16 doi 10 3112 erdkunde 1996 04 02 McEwan 2008 p 57 McEwan 2008 p 69 Demarest Arthur Andrew Conrad Geoffrey W 1984 Religion and Empire The Dynamics of Aztec and Inca Expansionism Cambridge Cambridge University Press pp 57 59 ISBN 0 521 31896 3 The three laws of Tawantinsuyu are still referred to in Bolivia these days as the three laws of the Qullasuyu Weatherford J McIver 1988 Indian Givers How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World New York Fawcett Columbine pp 60 62 ISBN 0 449 90496 2 a b c d e f g Silva Galdames Osvaldo 1983 Detuvo la batalla del Maule la expansion inca hacia el sur de Chile Cuadernos de Historia in Spanish 3 7 25 Retrieved 10 January 2019 Ernesto Salazar 1977 An Indian federation in lowland Ecuador PDF International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs p 13 Retrieved 16 February 2013 Starn Orin Kirk Carlos Ivan Degregori Carlos Ivan 2009 The Peru Reader History Culture Politics Duke University Press ISBN 978 0 8223 8750 3 Juan de Samano 9 October 2009 Relacion de los primeros descubrimientos de Francisco Pizarro y Diego de Almagro 1526 bloknot info A Skromnitsky Retrieved 10 October 2009 Somervill Barbara 2005 Francisco Pizarro Conqueror of the Incas Compass Point Books p 52 ISBN 978 0 7565 1061 9 D Altroy Terence N 2003 The Incas Malden Massachusetts Blackwell Publishing p 76 ISBN 9780631176770 McEwan 2008 p 79 Raudzens George ed 2003 Technology Disease and Colonial Conquest Boston Brill Academic p xiv Mumford Jeremy Ravi 2012 Vertical Empire Duke University Press Durham pages 19 30 56 57 ISBN 9780822353102 McEwan 2008 p 31 Sanderson 1992 p 76 El Nino Catastrophism and Culture Change in Ancient America Daniel H Sandweiss Jeffrey Quilter www hup harvard edu Retrieved 7 August 2022 Millersville University Silent Killers of the New World Archived 3 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine McEwan 2008 pp 93 96 The 10 million population estimate in the info box is a mid range estimate of the population Torero Fernandez de Cordoba Alfredo 1970 Linguistica e historia de la Sociedad Andina Anales Cientificos de la Universidad Agraria VIII 3 4 pags 249 251 Lima UNALM Origins And Diversity of Quechua Comparing chronicles and Andean visual texts Issues for analysis PDF Chungara Revista de Antropologia Chilena 46 Nº 1 2014 91 113 Eeckhout Peter 11 April 2004 Royal Tocapu in Guacan Poma An Inca Heraldic Boletin de Arqueologia PUCP Nº 8 2004 8 305 23 a b c d Covey R Alan 1947 Inca Gender Relations from household to empire In Brettell Caroline Sargent Carolyn F eds Gender in cross cultural perspective 7th ed Abingdon Oxfordshire ISBN 978 0 415 78386 6 OCLC 962171839 a b c d Incas lords of gold and glory Alexandria VA Time Life Books 1992 ISBN 0 8094 9870 7 OCLC 25371192 Gouda F 2008 Colonial Encounters Body Politics and Flows of Desire Journal of Women s History 20 3 166 80 Gerard K 1997 Ancient Lives New Moon 4 4 44 a b D Altroy Terence N 2002 The Incas Malden MA Blackwell ISBN 0 631 17677 2 OCLC 46449340 a b Karen B Graubart 2000 Weaving and the Construction of a Gender Division of Labor in Early Colonial Peru The American Indian Quarterly 24 no 4 537 561 a b c Silverblatt Irene 1987 Moon sun and witches gender ideologies and class in Inca and colonial Peru Princeton NJ Princeton University Press ISBN 0 691 07726 6 OCLC 14165734 Cobo Bernabe 1979 History of the Inca Empire an account of the Indians customs and their origin together with a treatise on Inca legends history and social institutions Hamilton Roland Austin University of Texas Press ISBN 0 292 73008 X OCLC 4933087 Malpass Michael Andrew 1996 Daily life in the Inca empire Westport CN Greenwood Press ISBN 0 313 29390 2 OCLC 33405288 Magazine Smithsonian Heaney Christopher The Fascinating Afterlife of Peru s Mummies Smithsonian Magazine Retrieved 31 July 2022 Tom Garlinghouse 15 July 2020 Mummification The lost art of embalming the dead livescience com Retrieved 31 July 2022 Magazine Smithsonian Heaney Christopher The Fascinating Afterlife of Peru s Mummies Smithsonian Magazine Retrieved 2 August 2022 Williams Emma J 22 May 2018 Comparing Mummification Processes Egyptian amp Inca EXARC Journal EXARC Journal Issue 2018 2 ISSN 2212 8956 Morveli Fidelus Coraza 14 August 2018 Funeral Rites in Inca Times Cuzco Eats Retrieved 4 August 2022 Urton Gary 2009 Signs of the Inka Khipu Binary Coding in the Andean Knotted String Records University of Texas Press ISBN 978 0 292 77375 2 The Incas of Peru Archived from the original on 4 November 2016 Retrieved 15 October 2007 Burger Richard L Salazar Lucy C 2004 Machu Picchu Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 09763 4 Davies Nigel 1981 Human sacrifice in history and today Morrow pp 261 62 ISBN 978 0 688 03755 0 Reinhard Johan November 1999 A 6 700 metros ninos incas sacrificados quedaron congelados en el tiempo National Geographic Spanish version 36 55 Salomon Frank 1 January 1987 A North Andean Status Trader Complex under Inka Rule Ethnohistory 34 1 63 77 doi 10 2307 482266 JSTOR 482266 Earls J The Character of Inca and Andean Agriculture pp 1 29 Moseley 2001 p 44 Murra John V Rowe John Howland 1 January 1984 An Interview with John V Murra The Hispanic American Historical Review 64 4 633 53 doi 10 2307 2514748 JSTOR 2514748 S2CID 222285111 Maffie J 5 March 2013 Pre Columbian Philosophies In Nuccetelli Susana Schutte Ofelia Bueno Otavio eds A Companion to Latin American Philosophy John Wiley amp Sons pp 137 38 ISBN 978 1 118 61056 5 Newitz Annalee 3 January 2012 The greatest mystery of the Inca Empire was its strange economy io9 retrieved 4 January 2012 Willey Gordon R 1966 An Introduction to American Archaeology South America Englewood Cliffs Prentice Hall pp 173 75 D Altroy 2014 pp 86 89 111 154 55 Moseley2001 pp 81 85 McEwan 2008 pp 138 39 Rowe in Steward Ed p 262 Rowe in Steward ed pp 185 92 D Altroy 2014 pp 42 43 86 89 McEwan 2008 pp 113 14 Dillehay T Gordon A 1998 La actividad prehispanica y su influencia en la Araucania In Dillehay Tom Netherly Patricia eds La frontera del estado Inca Editorial Abya Yala ISBN 978 9978 04 977 8 Bengoa 2003 pp 37 38 D Altroy 2014 p 87 D Altroy 2014 pp 87 88 D Altroy 2014 pp 235 36 D Altroy 2014 p 99 R T Zuidema Hierarchy and Space in Incaic Social Organization Ethnohistory Vol 30 No 2 Spring 1983 p 97 Zuidema 1983 p 48 sfn error no target CITEREFZuidema1983 help Julien 1982 pp 121 27 a b D Altroy 2014 pp 233 34 McEwan 2008 pp 114 15 Julien 1982 p 123 D Altroy 2014 p 233 D Altroy 2014 pp 246 47 McEwan 2008 pp 179 80 D Altroy 2014 pp 150 54 McEwan 2008 pp 185 87 Neuman William 2 January 2016 Untangling an Accounting Tool and an Ancient Incan Mystery The New York Times Archived from the original on 3 January 2022 Retrieved 2 January 2016 McEwan 2008 p 183 185 Supplementary Information for Heggarty 2008 Arch cam ac uk Archived from the original on 12 March 2013 Retrieved 24 September 2012 Inca mathematics History mcs st and ac uk Retrieved 24 September 2012 McEwan 2008 p 185 Cobo B 1983 1653 Obras del P Bernabe Cobo Vol 1 Edited and preliminary study By Francisco Mateos Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles vol 91 Madrid Ediciones Atlas Saez Rodriguez A 2012 An Ethnomathematics Exercise for Analyzing a Khipu Sample from Pachacamac Peru Revista Latinoamericana de Etnomatematica 5 1 62 88 Saez Rodriguez A 2013 Knot numbers used as labels for identifying subject matter of a khipu Revista Latinoamericana de Etnomatematica 6 1 4 19 All T oqapu Tunic Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection website Mills Kenneth Taylor William B and Graham Sandra Lauderdale eds Colonial Latin America A Documentary History Denver Rowman amp Littlefield Publishers 2002 14 18 Cummins Thomas B F Anderson Barbara 23 September 2008 The Getty Murua Essays on the Making of Martin de Murua s Historia General del Piru J Paul Getty Museum Ms Ludwig XIII 16 Getty Publications p 127 ISBN 978 0 89236 894 5 Feltham Jane 1989 Peruvian textiles Internet Archive Aylesbury Shire p 57 ISBN 978 0 7478 0014 9 Berrin Kathleen 1997 The Spirit of Ancient Peru Treasures from the Museo Arqueologico Rafael Larco Herrera Thames and Hudson ISBN 978 0 500 01802 6 Minster Christopher What Happened to the Treasure Hoard of the Inca Emperor ThoughtCo Retrieved 13 February 2019 McEwan 2008 p 183 Somervill Barbara A 2005 Empire of the Inca New York Facts on File Inc pp 101 03 ISBN 0 8160 5560 2 Incan skull surgery Science News Archived from the original on 13 May 2012 Retrieved 25 September 2009 a b Cocaine s use From the Incas to the U S Boca Raton News 4 April 1985 Retrieved 2 February 2014 a b c Cartwright Mark 19 May 2016 Inca Warfare World History Encyclopedia Kim MacQuarrie 17 June 2008 The Last Days of the Incas Simon and Schuster p 144 ISBN 978 0 7432 6050 3 Geoffrey Parker 29 September 2008 The Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare The Triumph of the West Cambridge University Press p 136 ISBN 978 0 521 73806 4 Robert Stevenson 1 January 1968 Music in Aztec amp Inca Territory University of California Press p 77 ISBN 978 0 520 03169 2 Father Bernabe Cobo Roland Hamilton 1 May 1990 Inca Religion and Customs University of Texas Press p 218 ISBN 978 0 292 73861 4 Cottie Arthur Burland 1968 Peru Under the Incas Putnam p 101 The sling was the most deadly projectile weapon Spear long handled axe and bronze headed mace were the effective weapons Protection was afforded by a wooden helmet covered with bronze long quilted tunic and flexible quilted shield Peter Von Sivers Charles Desnoyers George B Stow 2012 Patterns of World History Oxford University Press p 505 ISBN 978 0 19 533334 3 Maestro Carmen Perez 1999 Armas de metal en el Peru prehispanico Espacio Tiempo y Forma Sene I Prehistoria y Arqueologia in Spanish 319 346 Francisco Lopez de Jerez Verdadera relacion de la conquista del Peru y provincia de Cusco llamada la Nueva Castilla 1534 Guaman Poma El primer nueva coronica y buen gobierno 1615 1616 pp 256 286 344 346 400 434 1077 this pagination corresponds to the Det Kongelige Bibliotek search engine pagination of the book Additionally Poma shows both well drafted European flags and coats of arms on pp 373 515 558 1077 On pp 83 167 71 Poma uses a European heraldic graphic convention a shield to place certain totems related to Inca leaders Preble George Henry Charles Edward Asnis 1917 Origin and History of the American Flag and of the Naval and Yacht Club Signals Vol 1 N L Brown p 85 McCandless Byron 1917 Flags of the world National Geographic Society p 356 Bandera gay o del Tahuantinsuyo Terra 19 April 2010 Archived from the original on 27 November 2012 Retrieved 16 December 2013 a b La Bandera del Tahuantisuyo PDF in Spanish Archived from the original PDF on 13 August 2011 Retrieved 12 June 2009 Frisancho A Roberto 2013 Developmental Functional Adaptation to High Altitude Review PDF American Journal of Human Biology 25 2 151 68 doi 10 1002 ajhb 22367 hdl 2027 42 96751 PMID 24065360 S2CID 33055072 Kellog RH 1968 Altitude acclimatization A historical introduction emphasizing the regulation of breathing Physiologist 11 1 37 57 PMID 4865521 Gibbons Ann Tibertans inherited high altitude gene from ancient humans Science org Retrieved 18 June 2021 BibliographyKuprienko Sergej 2013 Istochniki XVI XVII vekov po istorii inkov hroniki dokumenty pisma Kyiv Vidavec Kupriyenko SA ISBN 978 617 7085 03 3 Bengoa Jose 2003 Historia de los antiguos mapuches del sur desde antes de la llegada de los espanoles hasta las paces de Quilin siglos XVI y XVII in Spanish BPR Publishers ISBN 978 956 8303 02 0 de la Vega Garcilaso 2006 The Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru Abridged Hackett Publishing pp 32 ISBN 978 1 60384 856 5 Hemming John 2003 The Conquest of the Incas Harvest Press ISBN 0 15 602826 3 MacQuarrie Kim 2007 The Last Days of the Incas Simon amp Schuster ISBN 978 0 7432 6049 7 Mann Charles C 2005 1491 New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus Knopf pp 64 105 ISBN 978 0 307 27818 0 McEwan Gordon F 2008 The Incas New Perspectives W W Norton Incorporated pp 221 ISBN 978 0 393 33301 5 Morales Edmundo 1995 The guinea pig healing food and ritual in the Andes University of Arizona Press Popenoe Hugh Steven R King Jorge Leon Luis Sumar Kalinowski Noel D Vietmeyer 1989 Lost Crops of the Incas Little Known Plants of the Andes with Promise for Worldwide Cultivation Washington DC National Academy Press ISBN 0 309 04264 X Sanderson Steven E 1992 The Politics of Trade in Latin American Development Stanford University Press ISBN 978 0 8047 2021 2 D Altroy Terence N 2014 The Incas Wiley ISBN 978 1 118 61059 6 Steward Julian H ed 1946 The Handbook of South American Indians The Andean Civilizations no 143 v 2 Bulletin Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Vol 2 Biodiversity Heritage Library Washington DC Smithsonian Institution p 1935 Julien Catherine J 1982 Inca Decimal Administration in the Lake Titicaca Region in The Inca and Aztec States 1400 1800 New York Academic Press Moseley Michael Edward 2001 The Incas and Their Ancestors The Archaeology of Peru Thames amp Hudson ISBN 978 0 500 28277 9 External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Inca category Guaman Poma El Primer Nueva Coronica Y Buen Gobierno A high quality digital version of the Coronica scanned from the original manuscript Conquest nts html Inca Land by Hiram Bingham published 1912 1922 Inca Artifacts Peru and Machu Picchu 360 degree movies of inca artifacts and Peruvian landscapes Ancient Civilizations Inca Ice Treasures of the Inca National Geographic site The Sacred Hymns of Pachacutec poetry of an Inca emperor Incan Religion Engineering in the Andes Mountains lecture on Inca suspension bridges A Map and Timeline of Inca Empire events Ancient Peruvian art contributions to the archaeology of the empire of the Incas a four volume work from 1902 fully available online as PDF Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Inca Empire amp oldid 1140870238, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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