Anotações do Livro "Daily Life in the Inca Empire"

Esse é um post diferente: são todas as anotações que tomei enquanto lendo o livro "Daily Life in the Inca Empire", por Michael A. Malpass.

É um excelente livro, sobre uma cultura interessantíssima, recomendo bastante.
Enfim, sem mais delongas, eis as anotações:

1. the Incas believed their kings never died but were divine rulers, so their lands and wealth remained under their authority forever. As the land near Cuzco was taken by successive kings, later ones had to find their own lands further and further away, until it became necessary to conquer other people to obtain it. Conquest became a means to obtain additional wealth, which remained with the family of the king who achieved it. Pressure would have been placed on the new king to gain as much as his father did for his family, thereby requiring even more conquests even farther away.
2. Although population figures are difficult to determine, a figure of 10 million is not unreasonable
3. Among other engineering marvels, the Inca road system stands out for its sheer size: over 14,000 miles of road were built. Although the road was not paved in the sense that modern ones are, it was carefully prepared to match the needs of the terrain through which it passed. In swampy areas it was raised with earth; in desert zones it was delineated with lines of stones. Along the road were centers and inns to cater to the needs of travellers. Bridges were built to cross rivers and stairways were cut to rise up steep hillsides.
4. The uniformity in Inca pottery is due to the fact that the Incas designed and used their pottery (and buildings as well) as a symbol of superiority over their subjects. Thus artifacts and structures were emblems of imperial power for all to see. They were standardized because they were produced at special manufacturing centers set up for just those purposes and made by skilled craftspeople. Other crafts, such as cloth and metal, were similarly organized.
5. The Incas called their empire Tahuantinsuyu, which in their native Quechua language meant Land of the Four Quarters.
6. Even the early Spanish writers, some of whom asked native people what life was like prior to the Inca conquests, noted that these peoples talked about the abundant warfare among their pre-Inca ancestors
7. The Incas bestowed honor on the sacred objects of conquered people by setting up a shrine for them in Cuzco
8. Spanish writers reported that the Incas sent representatives in an effort to reach terms of submission without warfare, and apparently they were successful in many instances (Rowe 1946: 281). Other groups, however, chose either to fight or to flee. One group burned their fields and villages so the Incas would not be able to use their food or houses.
9. Administration  The Inca empire was administered by a well-developed bureaucracy that collected tribute and distributed it. At the top was the king, who was the ultimate authority on all matters. Below the king were four officials, called apos, each in charge of one of the quarters. These officials were close advisors of the king and probably relatives as well. Each province had a governor who was responsible for its affairs. There were more than 80 provinces in the Inca empire, so this added 80 or more individuals to the bureaucracy. Each
10. governor was under the orders of the apo of the quarter in which his province lay. The 20,000-household province was set up so it could be most effectively ruled. The system was hierarchical in that officials lower down were responsible to ones higher up and it was based on a decimal system of counting, like that of most modern countries today. Below each provincial governor were two government officials called curacas, who were in charge of 10,000 households each. The curacas were each in charge of two curacas of 5,000 households. The curacas in turn directed the activities of five curacas who managed 1,000 households each. The lowest-level administrators were two curacas who had responsibility for 500 households and five curacas who handled 100 households each. What did all the curacas do? Their chief responsibility was to make sure the proper number of people showed up to work for the Incas, and to distribute the workload among the households for which each was responsible. It was also the curaca’s duty to ensure the correct amount of tribute was produced and transported to the nearest Inca center, and to allocate to each household adequate land to support itself. If a curaca did a good job, he was rewarded by his superiors; if not, he was punished. Punishments ranged from public rebuke to death, depending on whether the individual was merely being lazy or actually dishonest.
11.  Inca law applied to many activities such as tribal rights, division of land, policy of rotation for work, and even support of the elderly and disabled (Kendall 1973: 59). Inca law was quite severe, laying out strict punishments for many offenses. The higher the status of the individual, the more severe the punishment for a crime. For example, adultery among commoners was punishable by torture; but if the woman was a noble, both parties were executed. Crimes against the government were treated with special severity. Stealing from the fields of the state was punishable by death. If a curaca put a person to death without permission of his superior, a stone was dropped on his back from a height of three feet. If he did it again, he was killed. Treason was punished by imprisoning the person in an underground prison in Cuzco that was filled with snakes and dangerous animals. The person rarely survived the imprisonment (Rowe 1946: 271). The judicial system was based on the administrative one, with the appropriate curaca presiding over the proceedings. For example, if a case involved grievances of one individual against another but both were within the same unit of 100 households, then the curaca of that unit officiated. However, if the case was against an individual from another unit of 100, then the curaca of
12. 500 who was in charge of both would be the official. Crimes punishable by death, such as those mentioned above, were taken to the provincial governo
13. One major problem that the Incas faced in trying to incorporate many conquered people into their empire was the language barrier. Probably dozens of different languages were spoken by people conquered by the Incas, and little is known about how communication was achieved between the Incas and them. The Incas required conquered leaders to learn Quechua, and their sons were taken to Cuzco for instruction that must have included language
14. There were three categories of importance: the Incas of royal blood, the non-royal Incas of Cuzco, and the Incas-by-privilege.
15. As a king had many wives and children, this required large quantities of food and goods. When a king died, his royal ayllu became a corporate group, called a panaca, that continued to use his wealth to feed its members. The new king then started a new ayllu. There were eleven royal ayllus at the time of the European invasion, corresponding to the first eleven kings; Huascar and Atahuallpa did not have time to form their own. Thus a new king had to find a source of wealth for himself and his ayllu members. This involved using the power and authority of the office of king to obtain land, goods, and services. Some experts think this may be why the Incas began their wars of conquest: the new kings had to conquer additional lands to gain wealth for themselves, because all the lands around Cuzco had been taken by earlier kings
16.  For the Inca, there was an Upper (Hanansaya) and Lower (Hurinsaya) moiety. These moieties chiefly functioned to divide ritual activities among the ayllus of each. Panacas, too, were divided into the two moieties.
17. Inca Social Hierarchy 
1. Inca:  Inca-by-blood, 11 royal panacas, 10 non-royal ayllus, Inca-by-privilege
2. Curaca:  curacas (lower nobility)
3. Laborer class: conquered people
18. Mitimas. A special status in the Inca empire were the mitimas. Mitima were people living away from their place of birth, people who had been moved to another area.
19. There were two kinds of mitima, defined by their role in the empire. One kind allowed the Incas to gain access to certain zones.
20. The second kind of mitima was political, it afforded control over rebellious people.
21. Taxation and Trade  Remarkably the Inca taxation system required nothing of conquered people but their labor: no one provided a single ear of corn or piece of cloth that they owned. The Incas used this labor to produce the food and materials that were needed to maintain the empire. Indeed, labor produced the huge surpluses of food that supported large numbers of craftspeople and the Inca nobility, as well as the even larger number of common workers who came to serve the empire. Labor enabled the Incas to build cities and temples and a highway that
22. was one of the largest of the prehistoric world, and to expand the agricultural systems of their subjects. Agricultural Tax. As mentioned previously, all the land of conquered  people was said to belong to the Inca king. The conquered people then were required to work the land. The Incas divided the food produced by each conquered people into three parts (Rowe 1946: 265): for support of the priests and priestesses of the Inca religion, for support of the large Inca political bureaucracy, and for use by the conquered people themselves. The Incas also claimed ownership of all animals and divided the conquered peoples’ herds of llamas and alpacas by the same proportions. Apparently the relative sizes of the distributions were variable; in some regions the Inca religion received a larger part, and in others the state did. In these situations, it might appear that the Incas reduced the amount of food allotted to the conquered people by a substantial amount, which might have caused starvation. However, Spanish writers have noted that each household was given sufficient fields for its use and that each year the Incas evaluated whether a family’s holdings were adequate (Cobo 1979: 213). Furthermore, the Incas used the labor of conquered people to build new fields and irrigation systems to produce additional food. So people probably were not forced to give up most of their food; rather, they likely had to produce more to satisfy the Incas’ tribute demands. M’ita: The Inca Labor Tax. The Incas required all taxpaying individuals (i.e., the heads of households) to work a certain period of time each year for the empire (Rowe 1946: 266). This labor was called m’ita. Each household, which was the unit of taxation, had to send a person for m’ita work. What they did depended on their skills. Many men were required to serve in the army. Others either transported food and goods from local fields to the Inca centers, or made crafts. M’ita labor was organized in such a way as to minimize disruption in the lives of the worker and his family. When a person was called to do m’ita labor, other ayllu members were required to do his other work for the community. Involving the ayllu was determined in such a way that enough men were left at home to tend the fields and crops. The principal job of the curacas was to decide whose turn it was to work in the m’ita rotation. To illustrate:  The Inca king decided a new bridge was to be constructed over a major river in the middle of a province. Inca engineers determined that 600 men would be needed over a period of 18 months. So the king decreed that 600 men should be called up from that province for the bridge construction. The governor of the province summoned the two curacas of 10,000 households and told them they needed to call up 300 men each. Each curaca then ordered his two curacas of 5,000 households to provide 150 men. In turn, each of these called
23. his five curacas of 1,000 households and ordered 30 men from each. These officials each called two curacas of 500 to present 15 men each. The five curacas below them were ordered to call up 3 men from their 100 households! These 600 men worked for a period of time, fulfilling the m’ita rotation, and then returned home. Next the process was repeated to find another 600 men to work. This continued for 18 months until the bridge was completed.
24.  In fact, because every man was required to do some labor for the Incas each year, there are reports of unnecessary work being generated simply to keep the workers occupied (Rowe 1946: 268)!
25. There were two other categories of fulltime workers. One category, yanacona, were servants and personal attendants of the nobility. Some were selected at an early age for this job; others became yanaconas by royal decree and worked the fields of Inca kings and other nobility. The latter were selected from among the best and brightest of the conquered subjects. Sometimes the yanaconas were given high positions in the government in gratitude for services rendered to an Inca king (Rowe 1982: 101). Like other professions, yanaconas were hereditary positions. The other category of fulltime workers was the acllyaconas, or Chosen Women. Selected from among conquered peoples in the provinces and from among noble families in Cuzco, they did a series of important jobs for the empire. They were selected for their physical attractiveness at around age 10, then were sent to schools where they learned spinning and weaving, cooking, chicha making, and other domestic activities. In the provinces there was a hierarchy of these women based on their physical perfection and social rank (Silverblatt 1987: 82). The most perfect were sacrificed to the Inca gods (see Chapter 5, Religion). Next were women, also of high beauty, who might have been daughters of local curacas. They were taken to Cuzco and made attendants at the most important temples or became secondary wives of the Inca king. Many served as attendants to lesser Inca gods or were given as wives to lower-ranking curacas. Some became mamaconas, or teachers of other Chosen Women at Inca centers. Most Chosen Women probably remained in the provincial centers near their homelands. Daughters of the Cuzco nobility could also become Chosen Women and serve the same purposes: they became wives, priestesses in the temples, or mamaconas. The Chosen Women apparently served a very important economic role, being in charge of producing the large quantities of cloth used by officials of the empire. They also prepared the food and chicha used at government installations for serving the m’ita workers, and perhaps they even provided entertainment. As a luxury commodity they were also given as favors by nobles to others, including conquered leaders, as a way of cementing alliances and social relationships. For these reasons the Chosen Women were very strictly controlled by the government. They were like slaves in the sense of having no personal freedom, but they were more highly regarded in that their services were respected by the Incas.
26. recent severe earthquake in the Colca valley of southern Peru, virtually all the houses in the town of Macas were destroyed. The only ones left standing were those that had been built by the Incas, who apparently knew better than the people of today the most firm ground on which to build
27. In the area around Cuzco, two- and even three-story buildings were also built, although the latter are very rare
28. Rectangular structures were typically grouped together into a cancha, a compound of three or more buildings surrounding an open patio. The compound was enclosed by a wall.
29. Housing. The typical house of the Incas around Cuzco was a rectangular, single-roomed building with one door and no windows. It was built of rough fieldstone, then plastered and painted. The roof was steeply sloped and had a thatch covering. Three or more of these buildings were grouped into a cancha, which was occupied by an extended family. Both royalty and commoners lived in such structures, although those of the royalty were no doubt considerably larger and made of finer masonry. Outside of Cuzco in the conquered areas, houses tended to be different. Because it was the Inca custom to leave a conquered people as unchanged as possible, most continued occupying the kinds of houses they had prior to their subjugation. Thus in the provinces houses might have been round or rectangular. The Wanka, a group living in the central highlands due east of modern Lima, had compounds of round houses, as did groups of the Huánuco area. Construction techniques might also be different. On the coast, where rock is not as abundant as in the highlands, adobe was a more common building material; and because rain seldom fell, roofs were flat and made of woven reeds.
30. Inca settlements share certain characteristics that indicate they were carefully planned. However, the patterns of Inca-built settlements are sufficiently different to suggest the Incas had no one standard to which all towns had to conform
31. Other estates were more like country residences for their owners—a place where the owner could escape from Cuzco for relaxation. Some of the most famous Inca sites, such as Machu Picchu, were actually private estates of this kind. They functioned like small communities with their own fields, kitchens, sleeping quarters, servants’ houses, and shrines to the gods
32. Inca irrigation and water management systems also were impressive. Irrigation canals were often many kilometers long, and sometimes they were stone-lined and covered. The Incas also straightened entire river channels in the region of Cuzco; and it is reported that the bed of the Tullumayo River, where it flowed through Cuzco, was completely paved (Rowe 1946: 233). Aqueducts to bring water over gullies and reservoirs to store water during the dry season were also notable features of Inca engineering.
33. The Inca road system was one of the largest in ancient times, being over 23,000 km (14,000 miles) long
34. (ao longo das estradas – tambos o nome da casinha) These provided a wide variety of services, including housing for travelers, administrative control over a local area, craft production, and ceremonial activity. Tambos were said to be located a day’s walk from each other, although in fact they varied from a walk of 2 to 3 hours to one of a long day
35. Communications  For any empire spanning more than 5,000 kilometers, some form of communication system must be developed so that news can be carried from one end to the other (or, in the Inca case, from the provinces to Cuzco). For this purpose the Incas devised a system of messengers. Every mile or so along the road was a hut on either side of the road occupied by a messenger, or chasqui. When a runner neared the hut, the occupant came out and ran alongside him, heard the message to be passed on and perhaps took a quipu, and then ran as fast as possible to the next hut along the route. The hut on the other side was for messages going in the opposite direction (Rowe 1946: 231). A message could travel about 240 km (150 miles) a day on this route, or go from Lima to Cuzco in three days. In comparison, Spanish mail by horse took twelve to thirteen days two centuries later! This is also how fish could be brought to the Inca king in Cuzco before it spoiled. Chasquis were selected from local villages and were part of the m’ita labor given to the empire. Runners served fifteen-day rotations for this occupation. 
36. Llamas can carry a load of about 80 pounds up and down steep slopes. Although horses and donkeys introduced by the Spaniards can carry heavier loads, they have neither the endurance nor the sure-footedness of llamas. Caravans of llamas were used for transporting items, with a large number of spare animals so that the loads could be shared. Llamas can forage along the route, so food does not have to be supplied for them except in desert areas.
37.  Litters were used for carrying people, but only members of the highest nobility. Litters were carried by chosen bearers who came from the Andamarca Lucanas group in the central highlands
38. Conquered leaders were required to come to Cuzco yearly, to report on their responsibilities. Even though this would have given them the opportunity to see their sons (it is not known if this was allowed), the trip was long and difficult and would have reminded them of their subservient status
39. Birth and Infancy  No special event marked the birth of a child. A woman simply went to the nearest stream and bathed herself and the newborn. She then resumed her duties around the household. After four days the baby was placed in a cradle, where it spent most of its time until it could walk (Rowe 1946: 282). Garcilaso de la Vega, an Inca descendant, mentions that a woman never picked up her child, either to play with it or suckle it, lest the child become a crybaby (1966: 212). It was an interesting custom of the Incas not to name a child until it was weaned from its mother’s breast, around one year of age. This important event was associated with the child’s first haircut. A great party  was given for friends and relatives of the child’s parents, with much drinking and dancing. At the end of the party the oldest male relative cut a small piece of the child’s hair and its nails, and gave it a name. Then other relatives cut off a lock of hair, and each gave the child a gift. The nails and hair were carefully kept. The name given to the child at this ceremony was not his or her permanent name; he or she received a new one upon reaching maturity (Kendall 1973: 76). Childhood was spent learning the activities of the household. When boys were old enough and strong enough, they would help in the fields and with tending animals. Girls would help with the many household tasks of cooking, cleaning, making clothing, and probably taking care of younger brothers and sisters.
40.  Puberty  The end of childhood and the beginning of adulthood were marked differently for boys and girls. A girl became a woman at her first menstruation, and a ceremony was held to mark this notable transition. The girl was restricted to her house for three days, eating virtually nothing except a little raw corn on the third day. On the next day relatives assembled at her house, and she was bathed by her mother, who also braided her hair. She then put on new clothes and went out to serve her relatives food and drink. As at her first haircut, the most important uncle then gave her a permanent name and she received gifts from all involved (Rowe 1946: 284). A common puberty ritual was held for all boys reaching the age of 14, although the event only roughly coincided with the onset of puberty for the participants. For boys of the royal class living in the capital of Cuzco, the ritual took place in December at the same time as the Capac Raymi festival (see Chapter 5, Religion). The ceremony actually was a series of activities spread out over three weeks, with preparations lasting a good deal longer. Mothers had to prepare fine new garments to be worn at the different activities, a task that must have begun months in advance. In November the boys made a pilgrimage to the sacred mountain of Huanacauri, located outside Cuzco. The purpose of the trip was to ask the spirit of the mountain for permission to perform the puberty ceremony. Each boy brought along a llama, which was sacrificed by slitting its throat. The llama’s blood was smeared on the boy’s face by a priest. Then each participant was given a sling to signify his new status as a warrior. Much dancing followed; and the boys had to do certain chores, such as collecting straw for their relatives to sit on and chewing the corn for preparing the chicha for the ceremonies to come (Cobo 1990: 149). During the puberty ceremony the boys again made a pilgrimage to Huanacauri to make more sacrifices of llamas. The boys were whipped on their legs by
41. relatives on the return home, as a means of making them strong and brave. The participants then performed a sacred dance, after which they drank some of the chicha they had helped to prepare previously. A week of rest was followed by another series of sacrifices, beatings, and dancing at the hill of Anahuarque, located near Huanacauri. The boys then participated in a race from the top of the hill to the bottom (the race often resulted in falls, some of them serious). At the end, each boy was given chicha by girls from the same royal class (Cobo 1990: 131). The final part of the puberty ceremony involved a trip to other hills near Cuzco where the boys were given loincloths, formally marking them as men. Then the boys traveled to a sacred spring called Callispuquio, where relatives gave them their weapons: the most important uncle gave a shield, a sling, and a mace. Other relatives gave gifts and advice on how to act as a man and as a proper Inca. The final activity was the piercing of the boys’ ears for wearing the earplugs that were the hallmark of Inca nobility. This marked the participant as a warrior (Cobo 1990: 133). Similar rituals, although probably less elaborate, were conducted at the same time of year in provincial capitals—again, for boys of the noble class. The special ceremony for noble boys indicates the importance of becoming a warrior and a member in good standing of Inca society. No doubt the rituals also served to create special bonds between the participants.
42. A secondary wife could not become a principal wife even if the original principal wife died. This custom prevented jealousy and perhaps even murder of a principal wife by secondary wives
43. Kendall (1973: 84) notes that one of the duties of a secondary wife in a large household was to be a nanny for the legitimate sons of the father. After a son reached puberty, she became responsible for teaching him about sex, including having intercourse with him. Even after he married, the secondary wife remained with him and served the customary duties of that position.
44. The marriage ceremony itself was relatively simple. The groom and his family traveled to the home of the bride, whose family formally presented her to them. The groom’s family accepted her by placing a sandal on her foot; it was made of wool if the bride was a virgin or of grass if she wasn’t. (The Spanish writers are silent about how this was known. It is known that virginity was not a requirement of marriage.) Then the families proceeded to the home of the groom. There the bride presented him with gifts, and their families lectured them on the duties and responsibilities of family life. As with other ceremonies, the marriage ended with a feast and presentation of gifts to the newlyweds (Rowe 1946: 285). Kendall (1973: 82) mentions an interesting custom of the Inca nobility who resided in Cuzco. She cites sources claiming that all marriageable couples of the highest nobility lined up in the main plaza, and the Inca king paired them off and married them.
45. Death and Burial  The final ritual of the life cycle was the funeral for the dead. Upon dying, an individual was wrapped in a shroud. Part of the person’s belongings were burned and the rest were buried with the body. Mourners did a slow dance around the body before burial took place. Afterwards, women relatives cut their hair and wore their cloaks over their heads as a symbol of mourning, and other relatives wore black (Rowe 1946: 286). The period of mourning for nobles lasted one year. Nobles’ funerals were more elaborate versions of the simple one. Funerals of the kings were especially elaborate, including special treatment of the body and particular ceremonies. At death, the king’s body was preserved—probably with herbs. The cold, dry air of the mountains also helped to naturally mummify the body. The eyes were replaced with replicas made of shell. Because the king was thought to be divine, he could not really be considered dead. Therefore the mummified body was kept in his palace, attended by his servants and family members, and brought out to participate in major festivals. The period of mourning lasted one year, during which special songs and poems were written about the king’s deeds. These were performed by professional mourners, both men and women. To officially close the
46. period, at the end of the year a special ceremony was held in which people washed away the pain of grief with sooty ashes (Kendall 1973: 69).
47. Women could own land and herds, because inheritance was through both the mother’s and the father’s side of the family. Thus they controlled certain economic resources, although to what extent is uncertain. Women certainly played key roles in religious activities, as many of the main Inca gods—such as the Moon—were female. The principal leaders for these cults, therefore, were women
48. The only persons who received any formal training were the sons of the nobility and provincial rulers, and the Chosen Women. Boys received a fouryear education at a school in Cuzco, where they learned Quechua in the first year, Inca religion in the second, quipu use in the third, and Inca history in the fourth (Rowe 1946: 283). Teachers were called amautas, or wise men. Training was by practice, repetition, and experience. The amautas maintained discipline through threats and beatings—although these were restricted to a single beating per day, and that only ten blows to the soles of the feet!
49.  Chosen Women were selected at around age 10 from among the conquered people. They were taken to the provincial capital to be schooled in the arts of spinning, weaving, cooking, chicha-making, and religion. The period of instruction lasted four years, after which they were taken to Cuzco and presented to the Inca king, who decided their fate. Silverblatt (1987: 63) notes that young women from both the provinces and nobility also received training, although not in a formal school. Rather, they were taught in the houses of noblewomen in Cuzco.
50. The recipe for one of these, called motepatasca by Cobo (1890–1895: bk. 14, Ch. 4), consisted of corn cooked with herbs and chili peppers until the kernels split open. Another, called locro, was a stew made of meat, potatoes, chuño (freeze-dried potatoes), other vegetables, and chili peppers. As in the Andes today, chili peppers and other spices were often used to make food more flavorful. A kind of corn bread was also made, either by boiling it or baking it in the ashes of a fire. Corn was toasted for eating while traveling. Popcorn was considered a delicacy.
51. The main drink was chicha, a mildly fermented beverage made from any of several plants, predominantly corn. To prepare it, women chewed the kernels,
52. seeds, or fruit and spit the pulp into a large jar filled with warm water. Enzymes in the saliva broke down the sugars in the pulp, allowing it to ferment over the course of several days. The longer the fermentation process went on, the stronger the alcohol content became. Chicha was the staple drink of natives throughout the Andes, but it also had enormous religious importance for the Incas, being used in all religious ceremonies. Cobo (1979: 27) mentions that water was never drunk unless there was no chicha or other drink. The Incas ate only two meals a day, one in the morning at 8 or 9 o’clock and one in the afternoon at 4 or 5 o’clock. Whether certain foods were preferred for these meals is not known. The Incas ate sitting on the ground. Women ate back to back with the men, facing the cooking pots. Cooking was done in ceramic pots with pedestals or tripods placed directly in the fire. The Incas ate from flat plates, sometimes decorated with animal-head handles, and drank from tall cups made of wood or pottery. The only difference between nobles and others was that nobles used plates and cups made of gold and silver, rather than pottery (Rowe 1946: 220–221).
53. Meat was cut into thin strips, pounded, then left to freeze at night and dry in the hot midday sun. This meat was called charqui (whence comes the term jerky).
54. The designs on Inca men’s tunics were highly standardized, reflecting symbols of membership in a particular group (e.g., membership in a royal panaca). Fine tunics worn only on special occasions might have designs from top to bottom, but the day-to-day dress tunic had a single band of square design around the waist, a band at the lower edge, and an inverted triangle at the neck (Rowe 1946: 234). Especially prized by the Incas was clothing decorated with feathers from brightly colored tropical forest birds. Sometimes an entire tunic or mantle was covered; at other times only a portion. Plaques of gold and other metals were also attached to the clothing of Inca nobility as an additional emblem of status. Inca men wore their hair short. The women let it grow long, parted in the middle. Women cut their hair only in mourning or as a sign of disgrace (Rowe 1946: 236). Men’s hair was bound up in a specially woven band or a sling. The king’s band was wrapped several times around his head and included a fringe, or series of tassels, that hung off the headband over the forehead. His band also had a small pompom on a stick worn above it (Rowe 1946: 235). The fringe and pompom were emblems of the kingship: no one else was allowed to wear such articles. Women also bound their hair in a band of cloth, covered with a piece of fine cloth. Jewelry was worn by both Inca women and men. Women apparently only used tupu pins and necklaces. The main piece of men’s jewelry was the large earplugs that were the insignia of nobility. These had a shaft that went through the holes in the earlobes, and a round head with a diameter of about 2 inches. They were made of gold, silver, or other materials. Men also wore bracelets. For bravery in war, soldiers were awarded metal disks that hung around their necks and they also wore necklaces of human teeth taken from their defeated enemies (Rowe 1946: 236). Little else is known about Inca ideals of fashion or beauty. Martín de Morúa, an early Spanish writer, states that Inca women tied strings above and below their knees to thicken the flesh of their thighs and shins, which was considered a particular mark of beauty (cited in Rowe 1946: 237). The Incas also apparently painted their faces, not for aesthetic purposes, but for war and mourning.
55. There were reports that the walls of the Coricancha were sheathed in gold and that the Inca king had a garden consisting of gold and silver models of plants and animals. It is also likely that houses were plastered and painted.
56. Like the great Viking sagas, these were meant to be memorized word for word and repeated at public gatherings. Dramatic pieces were presented as part of public dances, by one or two actors answered by a chorus. Myths and dramatic pieces probably emphasized religious themes
57. Among conquered peoples, marriages were regulated by the Inca administrators. Even though individuals were free to choose their spouse-tobe, couples were not considered officially engaged until the Inca administrator of the province decreed it so. This occurred when the marriageable boys lined up on one side and the girls on the other. Each boy would choose a girl and place her behind him. If two boys wanted the same girl, the Inca official would discuss the matter with all involved and decide who should have her. The loser then would make another choice. When all couples were paired off, the official gave each the king’s blessing; then they could be married following their own customs (Rowe 1946: 285).
58. In the Cuzco region, small beehive-shaped tombs for commoners were often built in caves or cliff faces. In the Colca valley of southern Peru, burials were sometimes in the walls of terraces. In the region around Lake Titicaca, burials were in round or rectangular towers called chullpas. Most of these practices preceded the Inca conquest and were continued as part of the Inca policy of allowing conquered people to maintain as much of their prior culture as possible.
59. Women were officially free from paying tribute, but they were part of a household that was obligated to do so. Thus when a husband or son was away fulfilling his m’ita obligation, women helped fulfill the other household obligations such as working the fields. In addition, any weaving or cloth production required by the empire fell to the women, because most weaving was a woman’s occupation. In fact, all households were expected to make one cloth garment for the state each year; this would have been done by the women of the house.
60. A man became eligible for the m’ita and other taxation upon marrying and setting up a new household. His family received a plot of land for its own use, which was reassessed each year to ensure that his family’s needs were being met. In association with his community, a man had to work the fields of the Inca state and religion. He had to participate in the m’ita rotation, serving the empire in whatever capacity it requested. The three main activities were army service, public works, and mining (Kendall 1973: 85). If a man were particularly gifted in some craft, he might be selected to work fulltime for the
61. empire as a craftsperson at a provincial center or in a special community in his own region of the Andes (see Chapter 2). There was little possibility of improving one’s status in life. The status of nobleman or commoner was inherited. However, a man could gain some measure of greater recognition through outstanding deeds in warfare. He could also become a foreman of 10 or 50 households, a position under the lowest curaca in the administrative hierarchy. The curaca position itself was usually reserved for conquered rulers and hence might not be available to a commoner. Besides working the fields, one of a man’s few domestic tasks involved making sandals for his family (Kendall 1973: 85).
62. Unlike the Incas, many conquered groups practiced head deformation. Colca valley inhabitants were particularly noted for this, and the means by which they bound the head was a way of differentiating between local groups (Ulloa Mogollón 1965: 327).
63. There were no schools for conquered peoples except the ones run by the Incas for the sons of local curacas and the training of Chosen Women.
64. Regarding mathematics, it is known from studies of quipus that the Incas used a decimal system of counting. They also understood the concept of zero, because there is a place for “no units” on the quipus. However, the quipu could not be used like an abacus for quickly adding, subtracting, or multiplying. For these purposes, the quipu accountant used pebbles, grains, or a tray with compartments similar to an abacus (Rowe 1946: 326). Once the desired calculation had been made, the number could be recorded on the quipu. The Incas must have utilized standardized units of measurement to plan their major construction works. For example, to be able to call up the proper number of m’ita workers for a project, Inca engineers must have had a system of determining the amount of work involved. Spanish writers differ on Spanish equivalents for Inca units of measurement, however, so it is uncertain how precise they truly were. Rowe (1946: 323) states that the units of length were based on the human body. There were units equaling the distance between the outstretched thumb and forefinger (5–6 inches); the palm (8 inches); the forearm, or cubit (18 inches); and the height of a man, or fathom (64 inches). The latter unit was used as a standard, and sticks of this length were kept for official use. Units of area were also used, and here the standard was the topo. It apparently was a rectangular area roughly 50 fathoms by 25 fathoms (300 ft by 150 ft). This would be .8 acre. The topo was also the unit of traveling distance, approximately equal to either 4.5 or 6 miles, depending on the authority cited. A shorter unit was based on the pace of a man of average height, which has been computed as roughly 4 feet (a pace is the distance between where one foot is put down and where the same foot is put down again; that is, two steps). To measure a volume of grain, the Incas used a large gourd that contained approximately 26 quarts. They had no standard unit of weight, although they did use a kind of scale to measure equivalents. Time was measured according to the distance the sun had traveled that day, and the hour of an event according to the position of the sun at the moment (Rowe 1946: 324–325).
65. The Incas apparently used two different calendars, one for daytime and one for nighttime (Morris and von Hagen 1993: 180–183). The daytime calendar was based on the solar cycle and was approximately 365 days long. It was used for economic activities such as agriculture, mining, warfare, and construction. The movement of the sun was particularly important to the Inca agricultural calendar, being used to fix the days of planting. Four towers were built on the horizons east and west of Cuzco to mark the rising and setting locations of the sun in August, the time of planting corn and potatoes. The point of view was the ushnu in the main plaza of the city. When the sun rose over the first tower on the eastern horizon and set over the corresponding tower on the western horizon, it marked when the early crops should be planted in August. When the sun rose between two towers built close together farther south, it marked the time of general sowing in September (Rowe 1946: 327).
66. Zuidema (1990: 90) suggests that the Incas’ nighttime calendar was developed to mark important ceremonies to the moon and stars (see below), which were sacred deities of the Incas. It had only 328 days, which equals twelve months of 27.33 days each. The latter almost corresponds to a lunar month, which is 28 days long.
67. The founding father and first king of the Incas was Manco Capac, according to Guaman Poma. He came out of the earth from a cave at a place called Pacariqtambo, accompanied by three brothers and four sisters. Over a period of several years they traveled to Cuzco with a group of other people who were loyal to them, who also came from caves at Pacariqtambo (see Introduction). One brother became feared by the others for his exceptional strength and was sent back to Pacariqtambo, where he was sealed up in the original caves. Another brother stayed at the mountain of Huanacauri, where he originated the male puberty rites. He then turned to stone and subsequently became an important cult figure of the Incas. The two other brothers and the four sisters continued to Cuzco. Upon reaching the Cuzco valley the Incas drove a golden staff into the ground, which was the sign that this would be the place of their permanent settlement. A third brother turned himself into a stone field guardian. Under the direction of the remaining brother, Manco Capac, the Incas drove out the native occupants and founded the capital of Cuzco (Guaman Poma 1980: 80–87). In another variation of this myth, Garcilaso (1966: 52-53) has Manco Capac and his sister (who was also his wife) travel to Pacariqtambo from Lake Titicaca, and then to Cuzco. After founding Cuzco, Manco traveled across the empire, organizing the ethnic groups and bringing them civilization. The differences between these two versions are important, for they affect the social relations of the people who live with the Incas in the Cuzco valley. In Guaman Poma’s version, Manco Capac and his sister originate in Pacariqtambo and are accompanied from there by others; these others become the Incas-by-privilege. Because they accompanied the original ruler to Cuzco, they too are given the status of “Inca.” In Garcilaso’s version, only Manco Capac and his sister come from Lake Titicaca; therefore the Incas-by-privilege were originally not “Inca.” They were given the title later. The differences between the two versions thus reflect a difference in whether the Incas-byprivilege were Incas from 
68. ancient times or only became Incas when the royal couple arrived in the Cuzco valley. An interesting perspective is provided by Brian Bauer (1992: 30). He notes that Garcilaso was the great-grandson of Huayna Capac and hence a royal
69. Inca. From Garcilaso’s perspective, then, the Incas-by-privilege owed their Inca status to his ancestors’ having bestowed it on them. Guaman Poma, however, was from Huánuco and was therefore non-Inca. He saw the differences between the Incas-by-blood and Incas-by-privilege as one of degree.
70. Afterlife  The Incas’ beliefs in an afterlife were akin to beliefs in a heaven and hell. Good people went to live with the Sun, where life was the same as on earth but there was always plenty of food and drink. Bad people went to live beneath the earth, where they were perpetually cold and had only stones to eat. The Inca nobility went to heaven regardless of character (Rowe 1946: 298). The Incas believed that the soul of a dead person protected its descendants from evil and liked its body to be brought out during festivals to be given food and chicha.
71. Priests and priestesses associated with the official shrines and deities were fulltime specialists, supported by the tribute paid by conquered people. The fact that a third of the tribute went to the support of formal Inca religion indicates how many people were involved. There was a hierarchy of priests roughly paralleling the administrative hierarchy of the state. The priests were graded according to the rank of the shrine in which they worked. The highestranking priests were those who worked for the Sun. At the very top was a high priest, who was a close relative of the king and therefore related to the Sun. There was also a hierarchy of the individuals at each shrine: the attendants were subservient to the priests in charge of ceremonies. All the major deities of the Incas were worshipped in the same temples, each with its own shrine. The shrines of the major deities—the Sun, Viracocha, the Thunder, and so on—had attendants; the more important the shrine, the more attendants were present. Different attendants had different functions: for example, some were in charge of divination, others of sacrifices, still others of day-to-day activities. The temples of the official Inca cult had their own group of consecrated women, the mamaconas, who were selected from the Chosen Women. These women did the same tasks as other Chosen Women, making chicha and textiles for the temples, but could not marry or be given as wives to officials. A woman of highest nobility was in charge of them. It is apparent that the mamacona for a temple served all the different deities at that temple; they were not exclusively for the use of the Sun. In addition to the shrines of the Inca cult, there were many local shrines usually associated with particular huacas (discussed earlier). These might or might not have a temple or even a building, but most usually had some kind of attendant. Rowe (1946: 299) says that this attendant was typically an elderly man who could not help with other tasks. The shrines were not supported by the Inca agricultural tax but, rather, by the individuals for whom the place was sacred. In addition to the religious specialists who officiated at the Inca cults and huacas, there were curers and sorcerors. Curers were individuals who claimed to have been contacted by spirits and told how to heal illnesses. Sorcerors were individuals who claimed to be able to speak with spirits and so were consulted when a person needed information, such as where a lost object could be found or what was happening far away. Sorcerors lived among the local people and were greatly feared (Rowe 1946: 302–303). Particularly powerful sorcerors near Cuzco used small braziers of fire to speak with spirits. According to Rowe, they used ventriloquism to make it seem as if
72. the fires were speaking to the person. These individuals were consulted only for the most serious matters and were paid well for their services.
73. Most huacas were given llamas or guinea pies. The main deities—Viracocha, the Creator; Inti, the Sun; and Illapa, the Thunder—always had distinctive colored llamas sacrificed to them: brown to Viracocha, white to Inti, and mixed color to Illapa. The animal was sacrificed by having its throat cut. Food, chicha, and coca were also given to huacas as sacrifices. The food and coca were usually burned, whereas the chicha was poured on the ground (Rowe 1946: 306–307). Cumbi cloth was also an important sacrificial item, especially to the Sun. Seashells, gold, silver, and corn flour were used as offerings as well. The most important ceremonies, natural catastrophes, war, and the coronation of new kings involved sacrifices of humans—always children between the ages of 10 and 15. The children, always non-Incas, had to be physically perfect. The procedure involved a feast for the child so he or she would not go to Viracocha hungry. Following the feast the child would be strangled, its throat cut, or its heart cut out and offered to the deity still beating (Rowe 1946: 306). Sometimes children were sacrificed to mountain huacas by bringing them to the summit, getting them drunk, and then killing them (Reinhard 1992: 99–101). The practice of child sacrifice might appear cruel to the reader, but one must remember that the sacrifice only occurred for the most important religious reasons. Humans were sacrificed for these events because they were considered the most worthy thing that could be offered to the gods. Children, rather than adults, were offered presumably because they were more pure in spirit than adults. Although it was no doubt a painful emotional experience for the families of the sacrificed children, to be selected was considered a great honor by both the child and his or her family.
74. Everyone eats with spoons
75. This was a grant of native labor given by the Spanish Crown to the Spaniards as a reward for their part in the conquest of the Incas. The award did not give the land itself to the Spaniards, only the rights to use the indigenous people’s labor to produce goods. There was a hitch, however: if the natives could not meet the tribute requirements of their encomendero (the person who had control over the encomienda grant), then their lands could be put up for sale to recover the lost payments. It simply
76. became the practice to raise tribute costs to a level so high that the local people could not pay them and had to sell their land to the Spaniards.

 

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