Pre-Conquest Incas

Introduction

The most critical circumstance to bear in mind regarding our attempts to understand the pre-Columbian Incas is that we do not have available any firsthand written accounts of Inca life and culture from before the time of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, beginning in 1532. This is so because the Incas did not invent a system of writing—at least, not one that we have succeeded in deciphering. This leaves us with two principal sources of indirect testimony on the Incas: written accounts produced after the conquest and archaeology. From early colonial times until the middle of the 20th century, the former had priority in reconstructions of Inca civilization and culture. However, since the middle of the 20th century, archaeology has played an increasingly important role in investigations of the pre-Columbian Incas. The Inca Empire was the largest, most expansive polity of the ancient Americas, with territory organized into four parts—hence, the designation of the empire as Tawantinsuyu (the four parts intimately united)—stretching across some five thousand kilometers, from the border between modern-day Ecuador and Columbia, in the north, extending southward along the spine of the Andes Mountains to what is, in the early 21st century, central Chile. The Incas brought together myriad peoples throughout this vast territory to form a unified state characterized by a highly efficient administrative system centered in the capital city, Cusco. Inca state policies aimed at capturing the wealth of the population, primarily by demanding a portion of the labor time of all adult male (and, some argue, female) subjects as a form of tribute as well as by moving groups of people from their places of origin to some distant place, where they were set to work in service to the Inca. State policies and programs were enforced in the far-flung provinces by cadres of administrative and religious officials who transmitted powerful ideological and religious messages centering on the notion of the Inca king as a divine being, a descendant of the sun. That such messages were not wholly convincing to populations throughout Inca territory is indicated by the high rate of defection of native peoples in support of the Spanish conquistadores, who entered the Andes under the banner of Spain and behind the leadership of Francisco Pizarro, in 1532.

General Overviews and Textbooks

Modern overviews of Inca civilization began with the still useful works Rowe 1964 and Brundage 1985. Patterson 1991 is a sustained argument on the nature of Inca political economy, based on a Marxian analysis. Covey 2008 provides a good, brief overview of the archaeology of the Incas, whereas D’Altroy 2002, McEwan 2006, and Morris and von Hagen 2011 are excellent textbook-style overviews of Inca civilization drawn from ethnohistorical and archaeological sources.

Brundage, Burr Cartwright. Empire of the Inca. Civilization of the American Indian. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A highly accessible account of the lives of elites and commoners in the Inca Empire, including a description of the Spanish conquest and the destruction of core institutions of Inca life. Originally published in 1963.
Brundage, Burr Cartwright. Empire of the Inca. Civilization of the American Indian. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985.
Find this resource:
Covey, R. Alan. “The Inca Empire.” In The Handbook of South American Archaeology. Edited by Helaine Silverman and William H. Isbell, 809–830. New York: Springer, 2008.
DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-74907-5Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A short but well-written account of the Incas; one of the best overviews available on the archaeology of Inca civilization.
Covey, R. Alan. “The Inca Empire.” In The Handbook of South American Archaeology. Edited by Helaine Silverman and William H. Isbell, 809–830. New York: Springer, 2008.
Find this resource:
D’Altroy, Terence N. The Incas. Peoples of America. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2002.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This is a broad and well-documented overview of Inca civilization and one of the most valuable books for use as a textbook for college-level classes.
D’Altroy, Terence N. The Incas. Peoples of America. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2002.
Find this resource:
McEwan, Gordan F. The Incas: New Perspectives. Understanding Ancient Civilizations. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2006.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A well-written textbook-like account of Inca civilization that is best informed on the archaeological (rather than ethnohistorical) information on the Incas.
McEwan, Gordan F. The Incas: New Perspectives. Understanding Ancient Civilizations. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2006.
Find this resource:
Morris, Craig, and Adriana von Hagen. The Incas: Lords of the Four Quarters. Ancient Peoples and Places. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2011.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A lively, highly readable account that is an excellent selection as a textbook on the Incas. Unlike the other accounts of Inca imperial organization, the discussion of the provinces here is organized by quadrants (suyus).
Morris, Craig, and Adriana von Hagen. The Incas: Lords of the Four Quarters. Ancient Peoples and Places. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2011.
Find this resource:
Patterson, Thomas C. The Inca Empire: The Formation and Disintegration of a Pre-capitalist State. Explorations in Anthropology. New York: Berg, 1991.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author’s main concern is with examining and explaining the forces behind class formation in the Inca Empire and the consequences for the structures of authority and the exercise of power.
Patterson, Thomas C. The Inca Empire: The Formation and Disintegration of a Pre-capitalist State. Explorations in Anthropology. New York: Berg, 1991.
Find this resource:
Rowe, John Howland. “Inca Culture at the Time of the Spanish Conquest.” In Handbook of South American Indians. Vol. 2, The Andean Civilizations. Edited by Julian H. Steward, 183–330. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143. New York: Cooper Square, 1964.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Although an older source and therefore not having the advantage of more recent research and publications, this is still a valuable, highly readable, and informative overview of archaeological and ethnohistorical information on the Incas. Originally published in 1946.
Rowe, John Howland. “Inca Culture at the Time of the Spanish Conquest.” In Handbook of South American Indians. Vol. 2, The Andean Civilizations. Edited by Julian H. Steward, 183–330. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143. New York: Cooper Square, 1964.
Find this resource:
Reference Works on Colonial Sources on the Incas

From the mid-16th century through the mid-20th century, the principal sources of information on which studies of Inca civilization were based were the chronicles and documents written by Spanish administrative and ecclesiastical officials. Porras Barrenechea 1986 provides a highly authoritative overview of the principal sources as well as valuable groupings of sources according to their perspective(s) on Inca civilization. Pillsbury 2008 is a magisterial compendium of virtually all colonial and early modern sources pertaining to the Incas and the fate of Inca civilization under Spanish colonial rule.

Pillsbury, Joanne, ed. Guide to Documentary Sources for Andean Studies, 1530–1900. 3 vols. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This three-volume work is the gold standard for commentary on written sources on the Incas. Each entry is penned by an authority on a specific chronicler or document, and each provides bibliographic information on all published editions of that source.
Pillsbury, Joanne, ed. Guide to Documentary Sources for Andean Studies, 1530–1900. 3 vols. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008.
Find this resource:
Porras Barrenechea, Raul. Los cronistas del Perú, 1528–1650, y otras ensayos. Biblioteca clásicos del Perú. Lima, Peru: Banco de Crédito del Perú, 1986.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Written by one of the most knowledgeable Peruvian authorities on the Spanish chronicles, this account groups the sources according to how they viewed the sophistication of Inca civilization and the legitimacy of the Inca kings.
Porras Barrenechea, Raul. Los cronistas del Perú, 1528–1650, y otras ensayos. Biblioteca clásicos del Perú. Lima, Peru: Banco de Crédito del Perú, 1986.
Find this resource:
Primary Sources

Because the Incas did not write (at least, not in a form that has proven accessible to us), the most useful narratives detailing aspects of Inca civilization and rule are the numerous accounts written by Spanish travelers, conquistadores, administrators, and clergy. The earliest of these texts are based on firsthand observations and interviews with people who were alive in preconquest times. Notable among this group were Juan de Betanzos (Betanzos 1996), who married an Inca princess and had access to her family; Pedro de Cieza de León (Cieza de León 1976), who traveled throughout the length and breadth of much of Tawantinsuyu beginning only a decade after the conquest; and Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, who wrote the first officially sanctioned history of the Inca Empire (Sarmiento de Gamboa 1907). Vega 1966 is a highly influential account of Inca civilization as the chronicler experienced it, before the conquest, growing up in the capital of Cusco. Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala was an Andean native who learned to read and write under Jesuit influence. His work (Murra and Adoro 1980) is a sustained critique—in a text accompanied by copious drawings—of the Spanish conquest and colonization whose intended audience was the Spanish king, Philip III. The chronicle of the Mercedarian friar Martín de Murúa (Murúa 2004) is an account of pre- and postconquest Peru whose production was intimately linked to the life and works of Guaman Poma de Ayala. Bernabe Cobo’s Historia del Nuevo Mundo (Cobo 1983, Cobo 1990) is widely regarded as one of the most reliable and comprehensive of our later, mid-17th-century sources. His work synthesizes material from Spanish writings over the previous century.

Betanzos, Juan de. Narrative of the Incas. Translated and edited by Roland Hamilton and Dana Buchanan. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
English translation from the Palma de Mallorca manuscript, originally published in 1557. One of our most knowledgeable sources on the Incas, Betanzos spoke Quechua and was married to an Inca princess, from whose family he obtained much information about the Inca past. His chronicle is divided into two parts. The first concerns the Incas up until the Spanish conquest; the second deals with the conquest and its aftermath.
Betanzos, Juan de. Narrative of the Incas. Translated and edited by Roland Hamilton and Dana Buchanan. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996.
Find this resource:
Cieza de León, Pedro de. The Incas. Translated by Harriet de Onís. Edited by Victor Wolfgang von Hagen. Civilization of the American Indian. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
English translation of Part 3 of Crónica del Perú, originally published in 1554. This is the best-available translation of any part of the four-part chronicle of the soldier-chronicler Cieza de León, who traveled extensively throughout the Andes soon after the conquest and who gives us some of our finest accounts of the Inca realm. Here, he describes Francisco Pizarro’s discovery of Peru, his defeat of Atahualpa, the Indian resistance, and ultimate Spanish domination.
Cieza de León, Pedro de. The Incas. Translated by Harriet de Onís. Edited by Victor Wolfgang von Hagen. Civilization of the American Indian. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976.
Find this resource:
Cobo, Bernabé. 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. Translated and edited by Roland Hamilton. Texas Pan American Series. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
English translation of part of a larger work, Historia del Nuevo Mundo, originally published in 1653. Written by a highly knowledge Jesuit priest, the text deals with the history of the Inca kings and the principal institutions of the state. Although some of Cobo’s comments are based on firsthand observations in Cusco, his main sources were the chronicles and documents written in the 16th and early 17th centuries.
Cobo, Bernabé. 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. Translated and edited by Roland Hamilton. Texas Pan American Series. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983.
Find this resource:
Cobo, Bernabé. Inca Religion and Customs. Translated and edited by Roland Hamilton. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Contains the sections of Cobo’s larger work, Historia del Nuevo Mundo, that cover Inca religion and Inca manners and customs. This work, as well as Cobo 1983, is translated by the dean of translators of Spanish chronicles of Peru, Roland Hamilton; both are highly readable and serve nicely as supplements to textbooks on the Incas.
Cobo, Bernabé. Inca Religion and Customs. Translated and edited by Roland Hamilton. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.
Find this resource:
Murra, John V., and Rolena Adoro, eds. El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno por Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala. 3 vols. Colección América nuestra: América antigua. Mexico City: Siglo Veintiuno, 1980.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Originally published in 1615. A descendant of provincial (Quechua) nobility, Guaman Poma wrote this one-thousand-plus-page letter to the Spanish king, protesting the conquest of Peru and the destruction of the Inca realm. The author’s 398 drawings illustrate life in Peru before, during, and after the conquest and constitute some of our best sources of information on dress, arms, tools, and other aspects of daily life.
Murra, John V., and Rolena Adoro, eds. El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno por Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala. 3 vols. Colección América nuestra: América antigua. Mexico City: Siglo Veintiuno, 1980.
Find this resource:
Murúa, Martín de. Códice Murúa: Historia y genealogía de los reyes incas del Perú del padre mercenario Fray Martín de Murúa; Códice Galvin. 2 vols. Thesaurus americae. Madrid: Testimonio Compañía Editorial, 2004.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Originally published in 1590–1598. This chronicle of the Mercedarian friar Murúa was written in association with Guaman Poma, who drew several of the illustrations (in color). The Códice Galvin is one of three versions of the manuscript. The work is valuable for study of the history of the Inca kings and the institutions of Inca governance and for the visual details in the drawings.
Murúa, Martín de. Códice Murúa: Historia y genealogía de los reyes incas del Perú del padre mercenario Fray Martín de Murúa; Códice Galvin. 2 vols. Thesaurus americae. Madrid: Testimonio Compañía Editorial, 2004.
Find this resource:
Sarmiento de Gamboa, Pedro. “The History of the Incas.” In The History of the Incas and the Execution of the Inca Tupac Amaru. Translated and edited by Clements Markham. Cambridge, UK: Hakluyt Society, 1907.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
English translation of Historia de los Incas, originally published in 1572. Sarmiento, who served the fifth viceroy of Peru (Francisco de Toledo), wrote the first official history of the Inca Empire, using as sources more than one hundred quipu keepers. Sarmiento slanted his narrative to argue that the Incas were tyrants and, therefore, illegitimate rulers. Focuses on the history of the Incas and the organization of Cusco and the empire. Published in 2007 in a translation by Brian S. Bauer and Vania Smith (Austin: University of Texas Press). Also available as an e-book.
Sarmiento de Gamboa, Pedro. “The History of the Incas.” In The History of the Incas and the Execution of the Inca Tupac Amaru. Translated and edited by Clements Markham. Cambridge, UK: Hakluyt Society, 1907.
Find this resource:
Vega, Garcilaso de la. Royal Commentaries of the Incas, and General History of Peru. 2 vols. Translated and edited by Harold V. Livermore. Texas Pan American Series. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1966.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
English translation of Comentarios reales de los Incas, originally published in 1609. One of the most influential accounts on Renaissance European conceptions of the Incas and their empire. The offspring of a conquistador and an Inca princess, Garcilaso de la Vega was highly laudatory of Inca civilization. Although he is accused of embellishing his account beyond what he observed, he drew on numerous sources, and his text is highly readable and generally reliable.
Vega, Garcilaso de la. Royal Commentaries of the Incas, and General History of Peru. 2 vols. Translated and edited by Harold V. Livermore. Texas Pan American Series. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1966.
Find this resource:
Conference Proceedings

One notable aspect of Inca scholarship since the mid-20th century is the emergence of works combining archaeological and ethnohistorical approaches and sources of information. Kaulicke, et al. 2003–2005 is a set of three volumes resulting from a conference on the Incas that took place at Católica University, Lima, Peru, in 2002. Burger, et al. 2007 contains papers from a conference on Inca expressions of power that was held at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, in 1997.

Burger, Richard L., Craig Morris, and Ramiro Matos Mendieta, eds. Variations in the Expression of Inka Power: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 18 and 19 October 1997. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This volume contains fourteen articles from a conference held at Dumbarton Oaks, in Washington, DC, in 1997. The articles are by specialists in a variety of disciplines, principally archaeology, ethnohistory, art history, and material sciences. Architecture and material cultural studies are particularly strongly represented; coverage is of sites from Cusco to the frontiers of the empire.
Burger, Richard L., Craig Morris, and Ramiro Matos Mendieta, eds. Variations in the Expression of Inka Power: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 18 and 19 October 1997. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2007.
Find this resource:
Kaulicke, Peter, Gary Urton, and Ian Farrington, eds. Identidad y transformación en el Tawantinsuyu y en los Andes coloniales: Perspectivas arqueológicas y etnohistóricas. 3 vols. Papers presented at a conference at Católica University, Lima, Peru, 2002. Boletín de arqueología 6–8. Lima, Peru: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2003–2005.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The three volumes of this collection contain more than fifty articles on Inca civilization and culture written by archaeologists and ethnohistorians from Latin America, Europe, and the United States. Especially good coverage of subject matter pertaining to the provinces. In Spanish, with abstracts in English and Spanish.
Kaulicke, Peter, Gary Urton, and Ian Farrington, eds. Identidad y transformación en el Tawantinsuyu y en los Andes coloniales: Perspectivas arqueológicas y etnohistóricas. 3 vols. Papers presented at a conference at Católica University, Lima, Peru, 2002. Boletín de arqueología 6–8. Lima, Peru: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2003–2005.
Find this resource:
Language

Much confusion surrounds the question of the language, or languages, spoken by the Incas. The principal languages at the heart of the controversies are Quechua, Aymara, and Puquina. A full airing and analysis of the range of theories on these matters is presented in Heggarty and Beresford-Jones 2012. Cerrón-Palomino 2012, a contribution to the Heggarty and Beresford-Jones volume, argues that the Incas originally spoke Puquina, then adopted Aymara as they settled into Cusco, and finally took up Quechua as a lingua franca in the course of imperial expansion. Mannheim 1991 is a highly readable, comprehensive account of the status of Quechua, the lingua franca and language of administration in the Inca Empire, based principally on colonial sources. The dictionary of colonial Quechua provided in González Holguín 1952 and that for colonial Aymara in Bertonio 1984 are bilingual (Quechua-Spanish and Aymara-Spanish, respectively); both dictionaries offer students of Inca civilization rich sources for investigating words and phrases pertaining to the perceived and conceived named realities and the substance of the worlds of the speakers of these Andean languages in colonial times.

Bertonio, Ludovico. Vocabulario de la lengua Aymara. Serie documentos históricos. Cochabamba, Bolivia: Centro de Estudios de la Realidad Económica y Social, 1984.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Originally published in 1612. An indispensable reference work on Aymara, the principal language spoken in early colonial times around and south of Lake Titicaca. Bertonio’s dictionary, which is divided into two sections (Spanish-Aymara and Aymara-Spanish), is almost ethnographic in its commentary on the world of Aymara speakers of the period. Valuable for Inca studies, as scholars argue that the Incas originally spoke Aymara. Also available as an e-book.
Bertonio, Ludovico. Vocabulario de la lengua Aymara. Serie documentos históricos. Cochabamba, Bolivia: Centro de Estudios de la Realidad Económica y Social, 1984.
Find this resource:
Cerrón-Palomino, Rodolfo. “Unraveling the Enigma of the ‘Particular Language’ of the Incas.” Paper presented at a conference at the McDonald Institute, University of Cambridge, September 2008. In Archaeology and Language in the Andes: A Cross-Disciplinary Exploration of Prehistory. Edited by Paul Heggarty and David Beresford-Jones, 265–294. Proceedings of the British Academy 173. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
DOI: 10.5871/bacad/9780197265031.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author argues that the so-called secret language spoken by the Incas at court was Puquina, the language they spoke when they originally moved into the Cusco Valley.
Cerrón-Palomino, Rodolfo. “Unraveling the Enigma of the ‘Particular Language’ of the Incas.” Paper presented at a conference at the McDonald Institute, University of Cambridge, September 2008. In Archaeology and Language in the Andes: A Cross-Disciplinary Exploration of Prehistory. Edited by Paul Heggarty and David Beresford-Jones, 265–294. Proceedings of the British Academy 173. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Find this resource:
González Holguín, Diego. Vocabulario de la lengua general de todo el Perú llamada lengua Qquichua o del Inca. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos: Publicaciones del cuarto centenario. Lima, Peru: Imprenta Santa María, 1952.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Originally published in 1608. One of our most valuable sources on the lingua franca and language of administration in Tawantinsuyu. The text, which is divided into two sections (Quechua-Spanish and Spanish-Quechua), contains rich glosses on vocabulary concerning all aspects of life in early colonial Peru. Provides valuable insight into terms and concepts on Inca civilization appearing in the Spanish chronicles.
González Holguín, Diego. Vocabulario de la lengua general de todo el Perú llamada lengua Qquichua o del Inca. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos: Publicaciones del cuarto centenario. Lima, Peru: Imprenta Santa María, 1952.
Find this resource:
Heggarty, Paul, and David Beresford-Jones, eds. Archaeology and Language in the Andes: A Cross-Disciplinary Exploration of Prehistory. Papers presented at a conference at the McDonald Institute, University of Cambridge, September 2008. Proceedings of the British Academy 173. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
DOI: 10.5871/bacad/9780197265031.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A volume that signals a new turn in the study of the major Andean languages, especially Quechua, Aymara, and Puquina. The work resulted from a conference at the University of Cambridge, in which archaeologists, linguists, and ethnohistorians discussed evidence for the origins and dispersal of Andean languages in relation to the emergence of complex cultures, beginning with Chavín and culminating with the Incas.
Heggarty, Paul, and David Beresford-Jones, eds. Archaeology and Language in the Andes: A Cross-Disciplinary Exploration of Prehistory. Papers presented at a conference at the McDonald Institute, University of Cambridge, September 2008. Proceedings of the British Academy 173. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Find this resource:
Mannheim, Bruce. The Language of the Inka since the European Invasion. Texas Linguistics. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This is the most accessible and important book on the Quechua language in English. Contains excellent discussions of the various branches of Quechua, several key grammatical features of the language and their relation to the cultures of Andean Quechua speakers, and processes accounting for the spread of Quechua throughout the central Andes during Inca and early colonial times.
Mannheim, Bruce. The Language of the Inka since the European Invasion. Texas Linguistics. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991.
Find this resource:
The Archaeology of Inca Origins

Although known locally as the archaeological capital of the world, little intensive archaeological research was carried out in or around the Inca capital until the latter decades of the 20th century. Bauer 1992 is an analysis of a program of extensive archaeological surface survey carried out in the zone of the legendary Inca place of origin, in the Paruro/Pacariqtambo region. Covey 2006 contains results of similar surveys to the north and west of Cusco, including the so-called Sacred Valley, as well as a broad overview of processes linked to the emergence of Cusco as the capital of what would become the Inca Empire.

Bauer, Brian S. The Development of the Inca State. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A book resulting from the doctoral dissertation of one of the most active archaeologists working in the Andes in the early 21st century. Argues against an event-based, “great man” theory of the rise of the Incas in favor of a view that privileges longer-term interactions among several cultural traditions in the circum-Cusco region.
Bauer, Brian S. The Development of the Inca State. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992.
Find this resource:
Covey, R. Alan. How the Incas Built Their Heartland: State Formation and the Innovation of Imperial Strategies in the Sacred Valley, Peru. History, Languages, and Cultures of the Spanish and Portuguese Worlds. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An important synthesis of ethnohistorical material and archaeological research carried out in the Cusco region over the two decades previous to publication. The author offers a well-reasoned argument for Inca emergence from the earlier Huari culture and Inca interactions with Killke, Lucre, and other local traditions. Later chapters discuss the expansion of the Incas out of the Cusco basin.
Covey, R. Alan. How the Incas Built Their Heartland: State Formation and the Innovation of Imperial Strategies in the Sacred Valley, Peru. History, Languages, and Cultures of the Spanish and Portuguese Worlds. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006.
Find this resource:
Inca Mythology and the Mytho-History of Inca Origins

Owing to the absence of an indigenous, preconquest written record, much controversy has surrounded the question of how much confidence we can have in the historical reliability of early accounts by Spaniards of (preconquest) Inca history (see Primary Sources). Urton 1990 and Bauer 1991 look at this problem using historical documents pertaining to the legendary place of origin, Pacariqtambo. Urton 1999 contains a recounting of the major Inca myths of origin, whereas Julien 2000 examines many of the same myths, as well as early colonial purported histories of the Incas, in an effort to “read back” through the colonial accounts to their indigenous source testimony. MacCormack 2001 studies colonial Andean processes and practices of history writing in the context of interactions between Incas and Spaniards in early colonial Cusco, whereas Covey 2006 covers much of this same material but brings the discussion up to modern interpretations of that history.

Bauer, Brian S. “Pacariqtambo and the Mythical Origins of the Inca.” Latin American Antiquity 2.1 (1991): 7–26.
DOI: 10.2307/971893Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A synthesis of the ethnohistorical and archaeological evidence relating to the origin of the first Inca king in Pacariqtambo. Based partially on the author’s survey of pre-Inca and Inca archaeological sites in the region of Pacariqtambo/Paruro, south of Cusco. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Bauer, Brian S. “Pacariqtambo and the Mythical Origins of the Inca.” Latin American Antiquity 2.1 (1991): 7–26.
Find this resource:
Covey, R. Alan. “Chronology, Succession, and Sovereignty: The Politics of Inka Historiography and Its Modern Interpretation.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 48.1 (2006): 169–199.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Beginning with an examination of king lists produced by different Spanish chroniclers, Covey argues that the differences resulted from access to different informants as well as chroniclers’ uses of different concepts of history and succession to rule in a dynastic sequence. Throughout, he juxtaposes chroniclers’ accounts with what has been learned from archaeological work around Cusco. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Covey, R. Alan. “Chronology, Succession, and Sovereignty: The Politics of Inka Historiography and Its Modern Interpretation.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 48.1 (2006): 169–199.
Find this resource:
Julien, Catherine. Reading Inca History. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2000.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A bold attempt to read back through the Spanish chronicles to arrive at an understanding of the original quipu testimony, on the basis of which the early sources were written. The author is intent on both analyzing colonial sources and demonstrating that the Incas possessed a notion of historical consciousness, which can be recovered from the Spanish sources.
Julien, Catherine. Reading Inca History. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2000.
Find this resource:
MacCormack, Sabine. “History, Historical Record, and Ceremonial Action: Incas and Spaniards in Cuzco.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 43.2 (2001): 329–363.
DOI: 10.1017/S0010417501003516Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Starting with the account of the last inauguration of an Inca in the imperial city of Cusco, which took place under Spanish eyes, in 1534, the author goes on to explore how political succession was celebrated, what stories were told of the past on such occasions, and how such ceremonies related to the production of historical accounts in the empire. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
MacCormack, Sabine. “History, Historical Record, and Ceremonial Action: Incas and Spaniards in Cuzco.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 43.2 (2001): 329–363.
Find this resource:
Urton, Gary. The History of a Myth: Pacariqtambo and the Origin of the Inkas. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Addresses the degree of historicity to be accorded accounts of Inca history contained in the Spanish chronicles. The author analyzes a 16th-century claim by a member of the elite in Pacariqtambo, the traditional Inca place of origin, that he was descended from the first Inca. The analysis is developed in relation to modern-day social organization in Pacariqtambo.
Urton, Gary. The History of a Myth: Pacariqtambo and the Origin of the Inkas. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.
Find this resource:
Urton, Gary. Inca Myths. Legendary Past. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A recounting of the principal myths of origin of the Incas, focusing on Lake Titicaca and Pacariqtambo as well as provincial myths of origin from various regions on the central and north coasts of Peru.
Urton, Gary. Inca Myths. Legendary Past. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999.
Find this resource:
The Inca Dynasty/-ies

One particularly poignant consequence of the absence of firsthand, indigenous testimony about Inca imperial organization and practices of governance is that controversy has arisen over whether there was a single dynastic line of rulers in Cusco or, because the city and empire were divided into two grand parts (moieties), whether each moiety had its own king, the two serving simultaneously. Duviols 1979 lays out the terms of this debate, whereas the moiety structure and its organizational implications are explored in Zuidema 1989 and Zuidema 1990. Gose 1996 looks at the question of a possible Inca dyarchy in terms of its implications for Inca concepts of history and rulership.

Duviols, Pierre. “La dinastía de los Incas: Monarquía o diarquía? Argumentos heurísticos a favor de una tesis estructuralista.” Journal de la Société des Américanistes 66 (1979): 67–83.
DOI: 10.3406/jsa.1979.2171Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
One of the best-known French scholars of the Incas, Duviols lays out the issues and evidence relating to the suggestion that the Incas did not have a single dynastic line, but a pair of them—one for the moiety (half) of Upper Cusco, the other for Lower Cusco. A cogent and important structuralist analysis applied to Andean/Inca data.
Duviols, Pierre. “La dinastía de los Incas: Monarquía o diarquía? Argumentos heurísticos a favor de una tesis estructuralista.” Journal de la Société des Américanistes 66 (1979): 67–83.
Find this resource:
Gose, Peter. “The Past Is a Lower Moiety: Diarchy, History, and Divine Kingship in the Inka Empire.” History and Anthropology 9.4 (1996): 383–414.
DOI: 10.1080/02757206.1996.9960887Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Contributes to the monarchy-dyarchy debate by asserting that although dual political organization was a feature of local and imperial organizations, a system of dual rulership did not exist in Cusco. Rather, the king, who was associated with the upper moiety, was balanced by the head religious official (villac umu), in the lower moiety. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Gose, Peter. “The Past Is a Lower Moiety: Diarchy, History, and Divine Kingship in the Inka Empire.” History and Anthropology 9.4 (1996): 383–414.
Find this resource:
Zuidema, R. Tom. “The Moieties of Cuzco.” In The Attraction of Opposites: Thought and Society in the Dualistic Mode. Edited by David Maybury-Lewis and Uri Almagor, 255–275. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1989.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A Dutch ethnohistorian and one of the best-known authorities on Inca civilization, Zuidema analyzes in this work the moiety organization in the capital city, Cusco. The focus of the analysis is kinship, social organization, and the ritual calendar.
Zuidema, R. Tom. “The Moieties of Cuzco.” In The Attraction of Opposites: Thought and Society in the Dualistic Mode. Edited by David Maybury-Lewis and Uri Almagor, 255–275. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1989.
Find this resource:
Zuidema, R. Tom. Inca Civilization in Cuzco. Translated by Jean-Jacques Decoster. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
English translation of La civilisation inca au Cuzco, originally published in 1986. A short and rather turgid account of the organization of the social, political, and ritual systems in Inca Cusco. Discussion initially centers on a model of kinship as the basis for administration, then moves on to explore the ceque system, the organization of space, time, and ritual in the ancient city.
Zuidema, R. Tom. Inca Civilization in Cuzco. Translated by Jean-Jacques Decoster. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.
Find this resource:
Cusco—The Capital of Tawantinsuyu

The Inca capital city of Cusco was, from all early colonial accounts, a complex arrangement of multiple, hierarchically organized social and ritual groups centering on the royal court. Inca ritual activities took shape around an array of sacred sites (guacas) located in and around the city, whose linear and radial organization—known as the ceque system—provided the framework for state rituals and ceremonies both within the city and throughout the empire. Zuidema 1964 and Rowe 1979 offer early reconstructions of the ceque system, based principally on chroniclers’ testimony, whereas Bauer 1998 summarizes those accounts and adds to them a comprehensive analysis of documentary research and field analysis. Bauer 2004 gives a broad and detailed archaeological overview of the prehistory of the capital, from the earliest occupation to the Spanish conquest.

Bauer, Brian S. The Sacred Landscape of the Inca: The Cusco Ceque System. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The most authoritative of the reconstructions of the ceque system. Bauer draws not only on the information recorded in the chronicles, but also on additional textual information from later colonial documents as well as from the ground truthing of locations of sites from his archaeological reconnaissance.
Bauer, Brian S. The Sacred Landscape of the Inca: The Cusco Ceque System. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998.
Find this resource:
Bauer, Brian S. Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inca. Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Through descriptions of Cusco at first Spanish contact, later accounts written during the colonial period, and the results of archaeological surveys and excavations, Bauer gives the most complete overview available of the layout of the Inca capital and its development over time, from the pre-Columbian era through the colonial period and up to the early 21st century.
Bauer, Brian S. Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inca. Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004.
Find this resource:
Rowe, John Howland. “An Account of the Shrines of Ancient Cuzco.” Ñawpa Pacha 17 (1979): 1–80.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The ceque system was composed of 328–350 sacred sites (guacas) located in and around the ancient city. These were recorded in 1990 (see Cobo 1990, cited under Primary Sources), with each site being named and with an accounting of the sacrifices made there. Rowe reconstructs the theoretical layout and organization of the system, using the information in Cobo and other chronicles.
Rowe, John Howland. “An Account of the Shrines of Ancient Cuzco.” Ñawpa Pacha 17 (1979): 1–80.
Find this resource:
Zuidema, R. T. The Ceque System of Cuzco: The Social Organization of the Capital of the Inca. Translated by Eva M. Hooykaas. International Archives of Ethnography. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1964.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The earliest, most complete description and analysis of the system of sociopolitical, ritual, and calendrical organization of the Inca capital. Zuidema draws on the various chroniclers’ accounts to build a unified model of a system of organization in the process of disintegration when the Spaniards first observed it. Challenging reading, but well worth the effort.
Zuidema, R. T. The Ceque System of Cuzco: The Social Organization of the Capital of the Inca. Translated by Eva M. Hooykaas. International Archives of Ethnography. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1964.
Find this resource:
Inca Political Organization and State Administration

An array of ethnohistorians has worked to construct accounts of the sources and forms of Inca state power and the practices whereby the Incas extended rule over provincial populations. Rowe 1982 and Rostworowski and Morris 1999 provide authoritative, highly readable overviews of Inca political policies and institutions of governance. Pärssinen 1992 covers much of this same territory, but in greater detail and with more extensive ethnohistorical documentation from around the empire. On-the-ground practices of Inca decimal administration, particularly with regard to oversight by the cord-keeping administrators (quipucamayoqs), are detailed in Julien 1982 and Urton 2010, whereas Zuidema 1982 discusses some of the same topics (in addition to the organization of the calendar), but in broader, theoretical terms. Julien 1988 offers an excellent overview of the policies and practices whereby the Incas assessed and assigned tribute as well as a case study from a quipu transcription from the central Andes. Conrad and Demarest 1984 contains what has been a particularly influential view of Inca political practices, linking succession to rulership to a particular model for explaining the expansion of the empire.

Conrad, Geoffrey W., and Arthur A. Demarest. Religion and Empire: The Dynamics of Aztec and Inca Expansionism. New Studies in Archaeology. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A work that has had considerable influence in its articulation of a theory explaining Inca expansion. Termed split inheritance, the theory holds that at death, an Inca’s office went to his successor, whereas his lands and other possessions went to his kin group. As a consequence the next ruler had to gain new land and possessions, thereby fueling state expansion.
Conrad, Geoffrey W., and Arthur A. Demarest. Religion and Empire: The Dynamics of Aztec and Inca Expansionism. New Studies in Archaeology. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
Find this resource:
Julien, Catherine J. “Inca Decimal Administration in the Lake Titicaca Region.” Paper presented at a conference at Stanford University, December 1978. In The Inca and Aztec States, 1400–1800: Anthropology and History. Edited by George A. Collier, Renato I. Rosaldo, and John D. Wirth, 119–151. Studies in Anthropology. New York: Academic Press, 1982.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Julien analyzes how the Incas gained control over populations and resources in the provinces. She emphasizes the role of decimal administration, whereby the state controlled local labor organization and production, often to the disadvantage of local elites, whose authority was undermined by state administrative control. Julien examines particular case studies, one around Lake Titicaca, the other in the central Andes.
Julien, Catherine J. “Inca Decimal Administration in the Lake Titicaca Region.” Paper presented at a conference at Stanford University, December 1978. In The Inca and Aztec States, 1400–1800: Anthropology and History. Edited by George A. Collier, Renato I. Rosaldo, and John D. Wirth, 119–151. Studies in Anthropology. New York: Academic Press, 1982.
Find this resource:
Julien, Catherine J. “How Inca Decimal Administration Worked.” Ethnohistory 35.3 (1988): 257–279.
DOI: 10.2307/481802Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A very important article that explains the relationship between the structures of Inca decimal administration and the recording of decimal values in quipus. The core of the study is an analysis of a colonial transcription of a quipu dating to pre-Columbian times in which Julien identifies an underlying factor whereby cord keepers calculated tribute obligations of a central Andean community. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Julien, Catherine J. “How Inca Decimal Administration Worked.” Ethnohistory 35.3 (1988): 257–279.
Find this resource:
Pärssinen, Martti. Tawantinsuyu: The Inca State and Its Political Organization. Studia historica. Helsinki: SHS, 1992.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A highly detailed, comprehensive, and authoritative overview of everything one might want to know about Inca political organization. Pärssinen draws on a wealth of chronicles and local documentary sources to lay out systematically what can be said about the main institutions of governance in Cusco and the provinces. Good discussions of decimal organization in different parts of the empire.
Pärssinen, Martti. Tawantinsuyu: The Inca State and Its Political Organization. Studia historica. Helsinki: SHS, 1992.
Find this resource:
Rostworowski, María, and Craig Morris. “The Fourfold Domain: Inka Power and Its Social Foundations.” In South America, Part 1. Vol. 3 of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas. Edited by Frank Salomon and Stuart B. Schwartz, 769–863. New York and Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The result of a collaboration between a noted ethnohistorian (Rostworowski) and a noted archaeologist (Morris), this work provides an excellent, broad overview of the processes of formation of the Inca state, as seen from both ethnohistorical and archaeological points of view, as well as a comprehensive account of the main institutions of imperial organization and administration in Tawantinsuyu.
Rostworowski, María, and Craig Morris. “The Fourfold Domain: Inka Power and Its Social Foundations.” In South America, Part 1. Vol. 3 of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas. Edited by Frank Salomon and Stuart B. Schwartz, 769–863. New York and Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Find this resource:
Rowe, John Howland. “Inca Policies and Institutions Relating to the Cultural Unification of the Empire.” Paper presented at a conference at Stanford University, December 1978. In The Inca and Aztec States, 1400–1800: Anthropology and History. Edited by George A. Collier, Renato I. Rosaldo, and John D. Wirth, 93–118. Studies in Anthropology. New York: Academic Press, 1982.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Rowe analyzes various statuses linked to specialized institutions in the empire whereby the Incas attempted to bring about a shift of loyalty in subjects, redirecting it from their provincial homelands to the state. Statuses included yanacona (retainers, or workers on royal estates), mitimaes (state-sponsored colonists), acllas (women placed in state facilities to perform state labor), and camayos (craft specialists).
Rowe, John Howland. “Inca Policies and Institutions Relating to the Cultural Unification of the Empire.” Paper presented at a conference at Stanford University, December 1978. In The Inca and Aztec States, 1400–1800: Anthropology and History. Edited by George A. Collier, Renato I. Rosaldo, and John D. Wirth, 93–118. Studies in Anthropology. New York: Academic Press, 1982.
Find this resource:
Urton, Gary. “La administración del estado inca por medio de los quipus.” In Señores de los imperios del sol. Edited by Krzysztof Makowski, 93–110. Colección arte y tesoros del Perú. Lima, Peru: Banco de Crédito, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author, who spent decades studying museum collections of quipus, begins with an overview of Inca administrative structures and moves on to a discussion of quipu formats at different levels of administration; the focus is on local-, provincial-, and state-level quipu accounts. Description and analysis of a specific quipu example is given for each of the three levels.
Urton, Gary. “La administración del estado inca por medio de los quipus.” In Señores de los imperios del sol. Edited by Krzysztof Makowski, 93–110. Colección arte y tesoros del Perú. Lima, Peru: Banco de Crédito, 2010.
Find this resource:
Zuidema, R. Tom. “Bureaucracy and Systematic Knowledge in Andean Civilization.” Paper presented at a conference at Stanford University, December 1978. In The Inca and Aztec States, 1400–1800: Anthropology and History. Edited by George A. Collier, Renato I. Rosaldo, and John D. Wirth, 419–458. Studies in Anthropology. New York: Academic Press, 1982.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Zuidema argues that even without a system of writing, the Incas devised administrative controls that coordinated peoples throughout the empire, from the nobility in Cusco to commoners in the provinces. This was achieved by means of such devices as quipus, textiles (containing calendrical data), and ceque lines extending from Cusco to critical administrative nodes in the provinces.
Zuidema, R. Tom. “Bureaucracy and Systematic Knowledge in Andean Civilization.” Paper presented at a conference at Stanford University, December 1978. In The Inca and Aztec States, 1400–1800: Anthropology and History. Edited by George A. Collier, Renato I. Rosaldo, and John D. Wirth, 419–458. Studies in Anthropology. New York: Academic Press, 1982.
Find this resource:
The Provinces

Historical demographers estimate that there were some nine million Inca subjects in Tawantinsuyu. As explained in Pease G. Y. 1982 and Grosboll 1987, the commoners—known as hatun runa (great people)—were composed of a myriad of ethnic groups speaking a large number of diverse languages and organized into some eighty administrative provinces. D’Altroy 1992 explores the exercise of state power in the provinces, primarily in relation to production, storage, and distribution of state resources, whereas inter- and intraprovincial relations are examined through dualism-based models in Duviols 1973 (herders versus pastoralists) and Gose 2000 (male versus female-gendered identities). Malpass 1993 contains studies of provincial organization in the core provinces of the empire, whereas Dillehay and Netherly 1998 and Malpass and Alconini 2010 survey state-provincial relations in the more distant provinces, especially those on the northern and southern frontiers.

D’Altroy, Terence N. Provincial Power in the Inka Empire. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1992.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A highly valuable, theoretically sophisticated analysis of the Inca Empire and its incursion into the central Andean polity of the Wanka peoples. D’Altroy provides a theoretical overview of the comparative nature of empires, drawing a contrast between hegemonic and territorial versions. The treatment of Wanka economic, political, and social transformations under Inca rule is based on both archaeological and ethnohistorical sources.
D’Altroy, Terence N. Provincial Power in the Inka Empire. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1992.
Find this resource:
Dillehay, Tom D., and Patricia Netherly, eds. La frontera del estado inca. 2d. ed. Quito, Ecuador: Editorial Abya-Yala, 1998.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A highly valuable collection of articles by archaeologists and ethnohistorians specializing in the study of Inca installations and interactions with and governance over ethnic groups on the far northern and southern frontiers of Tawantinsuyu.
Dillehay, Tom D., and Patricia Netherly, eds. La frontera del estado inca. 2d. ed. Quito, Ecuador: Editorial Abya-Yala, 1998.
Find this resource:
Duviols, Pierre. “Huari y Llacuaz, agricultores y pastores: Un dualismo prehispánico de oposición y complementaridad.” Revista del Museo Nacional 39 (1973): 153–191.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A critical contribution to our understanding of relations between different ethnic and occupation groups in the Inca provinces. Colonial documents describe regular interactions between lowland agriculturalists (Huari) and highland herders (Llacuaz). Each group had its deity and myths of origin. This dualism may have been ancestral to dual organizations in the Inca Empire, such as the upper and lower moieties.
Duviols, Pierre. “Huari y Llacuaz, agricultores y pastores: Un dualismo prehispánico de oposición y complementaridad.” Revista del Museo Nacional 39 (1973): 153–191.
Find this resource:
Gose, Peter. “The State as a Chosen Woman: Brideservice and the Feeding of Tributaries in the Inka Empire.” American Anthropologist, n.s., 102.1 (2000): 84–97.
DOI: 10.1525/aa.2000.102.1.84Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Gose argues that the Inca state gendered imperial activities in strategic, often contradictory ways. The military and warfare were gendered masculine, and the Incas, who interceded in matrimonial affairs, stood in the position of wife giver to men, whereas in the tributary system, the state was gendered female, as the provider of food, drink, and clothing. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Gose, Peter. “The State as a Chosen Woman: Brideservice and the Feeding of Tributaries in the Inka Empire.” American Anthropologist, n.s., 102.1 (2000): 84–97.
Find this resource:
Grosboll, Sue. “Ethnic Boundaries within the Inca Empire: Evidence from Huánuco, Peru.” In Ethnicity and Culture: Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Conference of the Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary. Edited by Réginald Auger, Margaret F. Glass, Scott MacEachern, and Peter H. McCartney, 115–124. Calgary, Canada: Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary, 1987.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A work that surveys the distribution of ethnic groups within the region of Huánuco, in the central highlands of Peru, and that discusses the relationship between those groups and the important Inca administrative center in the region, Huánuco Pampa.
Grosboll, Sue. “Ethnic Boundaries within the Inca Empire: Evidence from Huánuco, Peru.” In Ethnicity and Culture: Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Conference of the Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary. Edited by Réginald Auger, Margaret F. Glass, Scott MacEachern, and Peter H. McCartney, 115–124. Calgary, Canada: Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary, 1987.
Find this resource:
Malpass, Michael A. Provincial Inca: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Assessment of the Impact of the Inca State. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1993.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This volume contains eight chapters written by archaeologists and ethnohistorians on a wide variety of topics, including how the Incas in Cusco related to conquered populations, ways of identifying Inca presence in provincial settings, and problems in evaluating ethnohistorical and archaeological sources of information on provincial populations in the empire.
Malpass, Michael A. Provincial Inca: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Assessment of the Impact of the Inca State. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1993.
Find this resource:
Malpass, Michael A., and Sonia Alconini, eds. Distant Provinces in the Inka Empire: Toward a Deeper Understanding of Inka Imperialism. Papers presented at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Montreal, 2004. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A multidisciplinary volume in which various authors—in fields as diverse as archaeology, ethnohistory, archaeobotany, mining engineering, and so on—examine how the Incas established and maintained control over distant provinces. The contributions make clear that the Incas used a variety of strategies, tailoring each to the factors they encountered within each new territory, such as resource base, sociopolitical organization, and willingness to resist.
Malpass, Michael A., and Sonia Alconini, eds. Distant Provinces in the Inka Empire: Toward a Deeper Understanding of Inka Imperialism. Papers presented at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Montreal, 2004. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2010.
Find this resource:
Pease G. Y., Franklin. “The Formation of Tawantinsuyu: Mechanisms of Colonization and Relationship with Ethnic Groups.” Paper presented at a conference at Stanford University, December 1978. In The Inca and Aztec States, 1400–1800: Anthropology and History. Edited by George A. Collier, Renato I. Rosaldo, and John D. Wirth, 173–198. Studies in Anthropology. New York: Academic Press, 1982.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Pease is concerned with the different experiences of provinces in different regions of the Inca Empire in terms of policies of ethnic integration and political reorganization imposed by Cusco. Some provinces had earlier histories of complex integration and organization of heterogeneous groups, whereas others had little such experience. Pease asserts that these differences were critical to Inca expansion into different territories.
Pease G. Y., Franklin. “The Formation of Tawantinsuyu: Mechanisms of Colonization and Relationship with Ethnic Groups.” Paper presented at a conference at Stanford University, December 1978. In The Inca and Aztec States, 1400–1800: Anthropology and History. Edited by George A. Collier, Renato I. Rosaldo, and John D. Wirth, 173–198. Studies in Anthropology. New York: Academic Press, 1982.
Find this resource:
Mitimaes—Inca Colonists

D’Altroy 2005 surveys the literature and archaeological evidence relating to what was one of the most unusual institutions and statuses associated with Inca statecraft, that of the mitmaqkuna, or mitimaes. These were groups moved from their homeland by the Incas to some distant territory to serve state interests. LeVine 1987 and Murra 1982 discuss various cases of mitimae arrangements around the empire as well as laying out the connection between this institution and the broader Inca tribute system, in which subjects were required to work on state corvée labor projects. Wachtel 1982 is a classic article examining the huge colonization project founded by the Inca Huayna Capac, in which mitimae colonists were set to work growing corn to fill state storage facilities in support of Inca military operations to the south.

D’Altroy, Terence N. “Remaking the Social Landscape: Colonization in the Inka Empire.” In The Archaeology of Colonial Encounters: Comparative Perspectives. Edited by Gil J. Stein, 263–295. School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research, 2005.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A wide-ranging and informative overview of the Inca policy of transferring colonists (mitimaes) from one location in the empire to another for state purposes. Examples include moving various peoples to state agricultural installations as well as to estate farms of the Inca kin groups (panaqas); to installations for weavers, smiths, and potters; to frontier/military colonies; and to ritual/ceremonial sites. Also provides an excellent discussion of the ideological objectives of this institution.
D’Altroy, Terence N. “Remaking the Social Landscape: Colonization in the Inka Empire.” In The Archaeology of Colonial Encounters: Comparative Perspectives. Edited by Gil J. Stein, 263–295. School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research, 2005.
Find this resource:
LeVine, Terry Yarov. “Inka Labor Service at the Regional Level: The Functional Reality.” In Special Issue: Inka Ethnohistory. Edited by Terence N. D’Altroy. Ethnohistory 34.1 (1987): 14–46.
DOI: 10.2307/482264Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Analyzes labor service, or mit’a (rotating labor) obligations, in the Inca Empire at four different levels of organization: the village, the pachaka (group of one hundred), the waranqa (group of one thousand), and the ethnic group as a whole. Using colonial documentation, Levine analyzes how state and local production, storage, and redistribution were organized at each level. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
LeVine, Terry Yarov. “Inka Labor Service at the Regional Level: The Functional Reality.” In Special Issue: Inka Ethnohistory. Edited by Terence N. D’Altroy. Ethnohistory 34.1 (1987): 14–46.
Find this resource:
Murra, John V. “The Mit’a Obligations of Ethnic Groups to the Inka State.” Paper presented at a conference at Stanford University, December 1978. In The Inca and Aztec States, 1400–1800: Anthropology and History. Edited by George A. Collier, Renato I. Rosaldo, and John D. Wirth, 237–262. Studies in Anthropology. New York: Academic Press, 1982.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Murra’s study of corvée (mit’a) obligations of ethnic groups in the Inca Empire offers a corrective to what he considers to be an overemphasis on Cusco’s capacity to transform affairs in regions distant from the capital. Murra draws on numerous documents that give testimony from quipu accounts of tribute labor organized in a decimal manner.
Murra, John V. “The Mit’a Obligations of Ethnic Groups to the Inka State.” Paper presented at a conference at Stanford University, December 1978. In The Inca and Aztec States, 1400–1800: Anthropology and History. Edited by George A. Collier, Renato I. Rosaldo, and John D. Wirth, 237–262. Studies in Anthropology. New York: Academic Press, 1982.
Find this resource:
Wachtel, Nathan. “The Mitimas of the Cochabamba Valley: The Colonization Policy of Huayna Capac.” Paper presented at a conference at Stanford University, December 1978. In The Inca and Aztec States, 1400–1800: Anthropology and History. Edited by George A. Collier, Renato I. Rosaldo, and John D. Wirth, 199–235. Studies in Anthropology. New York: Academic Press, 1982.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A classic contribution to the study of the mitima system, whereby colonists were moved around for state labor. This case, based on ethnohistorical documents, involves fourteen thousand mitimae sent to Cochabamba, in central Bolivia, to work corn fields to feed the Inca armies. Wachtel describes the recruitment of laborers and the management of their work and living arrangements in Cochabamba.
Wachtel, Nathan. “The Mitimas of the Cochabamba Valley: The Colonization Policy of Huayna Capac.” Paper presented at a conference at Stanford University, December 1978. In The Inca and Aztec States, 1400–1800: Anthropology and History. Edited by George A. Collier, Renato I. Rosaldo, and John D. Wirth, 199–235. Studies in Anthropology. New York: Academic Press, 1982.
Find this resource:
Subsistence, Economy, and Storage

As Murra 1980 explained in a now-classic study, the Inca economy was based on a highly complex exploitation by kin groups (ayllus) of highland agropastoral resources. Such highland-centered economies, however, were further integrated with resources in the Pacific coastal zone and the lowland tropical forest, to the east, in wide-scale resource procurement and redistribution arrangements Murra 1972 terms the vertical control of multiple ecological zones. D’Altroy and Hastorf 2001 provides a detailed accounting of the integrated state-local economy in the central Peruvian highlands region of Xauxa. The articulation of local domestic economies with state production and storage is further explored in D’Altroy and Earle 1985, whereas the articles in LeVine 1992 offer in-depth studies of storage in a variety of settings around the empire. A reconsideration of Murra’s vertical archipelago economic model, based on material relating to the Lupaqa peoples of the Lake Titicaca region, Van Buren 1996 argues that economic strategies relied on by the various communities were more variable, and flexible, than has commonly been assumed.

D’Altroy, Terence N., and Timothy K. Earle. “Staple Finance, Wealth Finance, and Storage in the Inka Political Economy.” Current Anthropology 26.2 (1985): 187–206.
DOI: 10.1086/203249Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The Inca economy depended on a labor tax, whereby the state demanded labor time from subjects. This work looks at two major classes of objects produced by state labor: staple goods (e.g., potatoes and corn) and high-valued products (e.g., gold and shell). The article examines how the state managed production and storage of these different kinds of goods for its own interests. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
D’Altroy, Terence N., and Timothy K. Earle. “Staple Finance, Wealth Finance, and Storage in the Inka Political Economy.” Current Anthropology 26.2 (1985): 187–206.
Find this resource:
D’Altroy, Terence N., and Christine A. Hastorf, eds. Empire and Domestic Economy. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. New York: Kluwer, 2001.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Results of a project by an international team of researchers in the central Andean region of Xauxa. Focuses on the transformation of the political economies of the Wanka peoples of Xauxa with the arrival of the Incas. Chapters deal with the cultural and natural settings, agropastoral production and consumption, ceramic production, and production and distribution of wealth goods.
D’Altroy, Terence N., and Christine A. Hastorf, eds. Empire and Domestic Economy. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. New York: Kluwer, 2001.
Find this resource:
LeVine, Terry Y., ed. Inka Storage Systems. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The Spaniards were enormously impressed by the amount of goods kept in Inca state storehouses. This collection of studies looks at how storage was integrated into the Inca administrative system and how authorities consolidated their power, based on their control of state resources. The emphasis here is on storage in the provinces, rather than in and around the capital.
LeVine, Terry Y., ed. Inka Storage Systems. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.
Find this resource:
Murra, John V. “El control vertical de un máximo de pisos ecológicos en la economía de las sociedades andinas.” In Visita de la provincia de León de Huánuco en 1562: Iñigo Ortiz de Zúñiga, visitador. Vol. 2, Visita de los yacha y mitmaqkuna cuzqueños encomendados en Juan Sanchez Falcon. Edited by John V. Murra, 427–476. Documentos para la historia y etnología de Huánuco y la selva central. Huánuco, Peru: Universidad Nacional Hermilio Valdizán, 1972.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The original and most complete articulation by Murra of his theory of the basis of the Inca economy in a system of “vertical archipelagoes.” In this system, kin groups (ayllus) dispersed their members over different ecological zones and exchanged products, thereby forestalling the need for market systems—which, Murra famously argued, never existed in the pre-Columbian Andes.
Murra, John V. “El control vertical de un máximo de pisos ecológicos en la economía de las sociedades andinas.” In Visita de la provincia de León de Huánuco en 1562: Iñigo Ortiz de Zúñiga, visitador. Vol. 2, Visita de los yacha y mitmaqkuna cuzqueños encomendados en Juan Sanchez Falcon. Edited by John V. Murra, 427–476. Documentos para la historia y etnología de Huánuco y la selva central. Huánuco, Peru: Universidad Nacional Hermilio Valdizán, 1972.
Find this resource:
Murra, John V. The Economic Organization of the Inka State. Research in Economic Anthropology. Greenwich, CT: JAI, 1980.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Based on his doctoral dissertation, Murra’s work is the essential source on the economic organization of Tawantinsuyu. The book draws on both chroniclers’ accounts and documentary sources from the early colonial period to produce a comprehensive exploration of the agropastoral and maritime segments of the Inca economy. Also contains good discussions of local and state forms of labor organization.
Murra, John V. The Economic Organization of the Inka State. Research in Economic Anthropology. Greenwich, CT: JAI, 1980.
Find this resource:
Van Buren, Mary. “Rethinking the Vertical Archipelago: Ethnicity, Exchange, and History in the South Central Andes.” American Anthropologist, n.s., 98.2 (1996): 338–351.
DOI: 10.1525/aa.1996.98.2.02a00100Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A critique of Murra’s thesis of the dispersal of kin groups in vertical archipelagoes as a form of ecological adaptation (see Murra 1972). Van Buren reexamines the case study of the Lupaqa of Lake Titicaca. She contends that instead of a form of ecological adaptation, the dispersal of settlements was an accommodation to disturbances of a rapidly changing colonial order. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Van Buren, Mary. “Rethinking the Vertical Archipelago: Ethnicity, Exchange, and History in the South Central Andes.” American Anthropologist, n.s., 98.2 (1996): 338–351.
Find this resource:
Tawantinsuyu—Regional Studies

The Incas conceived of their world as composed of four parts (suyus) the joining of which formed tawantinsuyu (the four parts intimately united), the Inca Empire. The two smaller segments—Antisuyu and Cuntisuyu—lay (respectively) to the northeast and southwest of Cusco, within modern-day Peru, whereas the two larger quarters—Chinchaysuyu and Collasuyu—straddled territories of two or more modern Andean nation-states (respectively) northwest and southeast from the capital, Cusco. Unlike similar four-part organizations of other ancient states (e.g., China and the Maya), the boundary lines between the suyus did not coincide with cardinal directions, and cardinal orientations do not seem to have been significant to Inca cosmological concepts. The provincial studies referenced here are given in their appropriate suyus.

Chinchaysuyu

Extending northwestward from the capital city, Cusco, Chinchaysuyu encompassed much of central and northern Peru, and northward, to the modern-day border between Ecuador and Columbia.

Ecuador

Salomon 1986 is a comprehensive overview of Inca interaction with and reorganization of ethnic groups in central Ecuador. Bray 1992 surveys Inca sites in northern Ecuador, whereas Ogburn 2004 looks at the fascinating question of the removal of carved stones from the capital city, Cusco, to southern Ecuador.

Bray, Tamara L. “Archaeological Survey in Northern Highland Ecuador: Inca Imperialism and the País Caranqui.” In Special Issue: Analytical Field Survey. Edited by Douglas K. Charles. World Archaeology 24.2 (1992): 218–233.
DOI: 10.1080/00438243.1992.9980204Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Bray’s study is based on an extensive archaeological survey of sites in the region of País Caranqui, in the northern highlands of Ecuador. Her concern is with Inca methods of establishing control over ethnic groups in the region. She concludes that coercion and the weakening of linkages between local polities were important Inca strategies of control. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Bray, Tamara L. “Archaeological Survey in Northern Highland Ecuador: Inca Imperialism and the País Caranqui.” In Special Issue: Analytical Field Survey. Edited by Douglas K. Charles. World Archaeology 24.2 (1992): 218–233.
Find this resource:
Ogburn, Dennis. “Power in Stone: The Long-Distance Movement of Building Blocks in the Inca Empire.” Ethnohistory 51.1 (2004): 101–135.
DOI: 10.1215/00141801-51-1-101Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An analysis of fascinating material relating to the transfer of building blocks in the Inca Empire. In this case, carved stones were moved—carried or dragged—from Cusco to Saraguro, Ecuador. Ogburn argues that the purpose was to effect the transfer of sanctity and power from the capital to a distant province and to demonstrate Inca state control over labor. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Ogburn, Dennis. “Power in Stone: The Long-Distance Movement of Building Blocks in the Inca Empire.” Ethnohistory 51.1 (2004): 101–135.
Find this resource:
Salomon, Frank. Native Lords of Quito in the Age of the Incas: The Political Economy of North-Andean Chiefdoms. Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511558146Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The most comprehensive and authoritative account of pre-Inca peoples and cultures of the Ecuadorian tropical highlands, of their resistance to Inca occupation, and of the reorganization of these populations under Inca domination. The numerous small chiefdoms of the region maintained highly complex political economies—including specialized traders, the mindaláes—characterized by high levels of stratification and inequality.
Salomon, Frank. Native Lords of Quito in the Age of the Incas: The Political Economy of North-Andean Chiefdoms. Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Find this resource:
Northern Highlands

Northern Peru was the staging area for Inca expansion into Ecuador and the location of the important Inca administrative center Cajamarca, where the Spaniards met and defeated the Inca army. Topic, et al. 2002 describes and analyzes the most famous oracle of the northern Peruvian highlands, Catequil, and its related sites in Ecuador. Schjellerup 1997 and Church and von Hagen 2008 provide descriptions and analyses of Inca and pre-Inca cultures in the nearby province of Chachapoyas, the last province conquered by the Incas a few years prior to the Spanish invasion.

Church, Warren B., and Adriana von Hagen. “Chachapoyas: Cultural Development at an Andean Cloud Forest Crossroads.” In Handbook of South American Archaeology. Edited by Helaine Silverman and William H. Isbell, 903–926. New York: Springer, 2008.
DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-74907-5Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A condensed and highly informative overview of the Chachapoyas region, from preceramic to Inca times. The essay augments the somewhat dated monograph Schjellerup 1997, as it presents the findings of archaeological and ethnohistorical research since the beginning of the 21st century, most notably, at the site of Laguna de los Cóndores, where some 220 mummy bundles were discovered in the late 1990s.
Church, Warren B., and Adriana von Hagen. “Chachapoyas: Cultural Development at an Andean Cloud Forest Crossroads.” In Handbook of South American Archaeology. Edited by Helaine Silverman and William H. Isbell, 903–926. New York: Springer, 2008.
Find this resource:
Schjellerup, Inge R. Incas and Spaniards in the Conquest of the Chachapoyas: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Research in the North-Eastern Andes of Peru. GOTARC: Series B, Gothenburg Archaeological Theses. Gothenburg, Sweden: Gothenburg University, 1997.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The most comprehensive contribution of the 20th century to the study of Chachapoyas, one of the last regions conquered by the Incas before the Spanish conquest. Schjellerup’s work draws on archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic sources in its discussion of the pre-Inca Chachapoya culture, the hybrid Chachapoya/Inca culture, and the Spanish colonial occupation and settlement of the region.
Schjellerup, Inge R. Incas and Spaniards in the Conquest of the Chachapoyas: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Research in the North-Eastern Andes of Peru. GOTARC: Series B, Gothenburg Archaeological Theses. Gothenburg, Sweden: Gothenburg University, 1997.
Find this resource:
Topic, John R., Theresa Lange Topic, and Alfredo Melly Cava. “Catequil: The Archaeology, Ethnohistory, and Ethnography of a Major Provincial Huaca.” In Variations in Sociopolitical Organization. Vol. 1, Andean Archaeology. Edited by William H. Isbell and Helaine Silverman, 303–336. New York: Kluwer, 2002.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A definitive study of a major northern highlands Peruvian oracle, known as Catequil. The authors begin with an overview of ethnohistorical sources on the significance of Catequil in the Inca Empire and move on to a discussion of the archaeological record at the presumed site. They then cover sites in Ecuador bearing the name Catequil that were related to and descended from the home site.
Topic, John R., Theresa Lange Topic, and Alfredo Melly Cava. “Catequil: The Archaeology, Ethnohistory, and Ethnography of a Major Provincial Huaca.” In Variations in Sociopolitical Organization. Vol. 1, Andean Archaeology. Edited by William H. Isbell and Helaine Silverman, 303–336. New York: Kluwer, 2002.
Find this resource:
North Coast

Netherly 1990 provides an excellent overview of Chimú and Chimú-Inca political organizations on the north coast of Peru, from late preconquest to early colonial times, whereas Mackey 2011 discusses the site of Farfan during Chimú and Inca times.

Mackey, Carol. “The Persistence of Lambayeque Ethnic Identity: The Perspective from the Jequetepeque Valley, Peru.” In From State to Empire in the Prehistoric Jequetepeque Valley, Peru. Edited by Colleen M. Zori and Ilana Johnson, 149–168. British Archaeological Reports International Series 2310. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2011.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Mackey focuses on the ethnic group known as the Lambayeque, in the Jequetepeque Valley, during Chimú and Inca times. The center for this ethnic group during Inca domination was Farfan. Based on archaeological research at Farfan, Mackey argues that the Inca policy of ruling through local headmen accounted for the persistence of Lambayeque identity through the period of Inca domination.
Mackey, Carol. “The Persistence of Lambayeque Ethnic Identity: The Perspective from the Jequetepeque Valley, Peru.” In From State to Empire in the Prehistoric Jequetepeque Valley, Peru. Edited by Colleen M. Zori and Ilana Johnson, 149–168. British Archaeological Reports International Series 2310. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2011.
Find this resource:
Netherly, Patricia J. “Out of Many, One: The Organization of Rule in the North Coast Polities.” In The Northern Dynasties: Kingship and Statecraft in Chimor: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 12th and 13th October 1985. Edited by Michael E. Moseley and Alana Cordy-Collins, 461–487. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1990.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Although Netherly’s article primarily concerns late pre-Hispanic Chimú political organization on the north coast, the data are relevant for understanding the political systems in this region, through comparison with Inca control of the north coast and during the colonial era. As with the Incas, asymmetrical dualism (with one moiety superior to the other) was a central feature of these political systems.
Netherly, Patricia J. “Out of Many, One: The Organization of Rule in the North Coast Polities.” In The Northern Dynasties: Kingship and Statecraft in Chimor: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 12th and 13th October 1985. Edited by Michael E. Moseley and Alana Cordy-Collins, 461–487. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1990.
Find this resource:
Central Highlands (Huánuco Pampa, Montaro Valley, Xauxa)

The central Peruvian highlands was an area of intense Inca activity aimed at reorganizing local populations for state production, as detailed in D’Altroy and Hastorf 1984. Morris and Thompson 1985 is the best general account of the major Inca administrative center of this region, Huánuco Pampa. Ortiz de Zúñiga 1967 is a detailed, house-by-house census of the Huánuco region just three decades after the conquest.

D’Altroy, Terence N., and Christine A. Hastorf. “The Distribution and Contents of Inca State Storehouses in the Xauxa Region of Peru.” American Antiquity 49.2 (1984): 334–349.
DOI: 10.2307/280022Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A study of state storehouses in the Xauxa region of the central Peruvian highlands. The produce stored in the fifty-two complexes studied by the authors was grown by the local Huanca population. The authors, who draw on archaeological and ethnohistorical sources, conclude that production and disbursement were centrally managed but that material support for state projects was dispersed. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
D’Altroy, Terence N., and Christine A. Hastorf. “The Distribution and Contents of Inca State Storehouses in the Xauxa Region of Peru.” American Antiquity 49.2 (1984): 334–349.
Find this resource:
Morris, Craig, and Donald E. Thompson. Huánuco Pampa: An Inca City and Its Hinterland. New Aspects of Antiquity. London: Thames and Hudson, 1985.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Huánuco Pampa was the principal Inca administrative center in the central Peruvian highlands. Using archaeological and ethnohistorical materials, the authors discuss Inca facilities at the site, including a formal ceremonial platform (ushnu), erected for celebration of state rituals; an area for feeding local tributaries; hundreds of storehouses; and an acllahuasi, where young women were housed for work on state projects.
Morris, Craig, and Donald E. Thompson. Huánuco Pampa: An Inca City and Its Hinterland. New Aspects of Antiquity. London: Thames and Hudson, 1985.
Find this resource:
Ortiz de Zúñiga, Iñigo. Visita de la provincia de León de Huánuco en 1562: Iñigo Ortiz de Zúñiga, visitador. Vol. 1, Visita de las cuatro waranqa de los chupachu. Edited by John V. Murra. Documentos para la historia y etnología de Huánuco y la selva central. Huánuco, Peru: Universidad Nacional Hermilio Valdizán, 1967.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
One of our few extant visitas, colonial administrative “visits” made for the purpose of taking a complete census of the population within a delimited region. This highly detailed visita concerns the four waranqas (groups of one thousand) of the Chupachu ethnic group. An invaluable source on Inca decimal organization and administration in the central Peruvian highlands.
Ortiz de Zúñiga, Iñigo. Visita de la provincia de León de Huánuco en 1562: Iñigo Ortiz de Zúñiga, visitador. Vol. 1, Visita de las cuatro waranqa de los chupachu. Edited by John V. Murra. Documentos para la historia y etnología de Huánuco y la selva central. Huánuco, Peru: Universidad Nacional Hermilio Valdizán, 1967.
Find this resource:
Central Coast (Pachacamac)

Dillehay 1977 is one of the few studies available of the Inca strategy of establishing control over coastal populations from the highlands, whereas Eeckhout 2004 surveys what is known of the sprawling site of Pachacamac, the major Inca (and pre-Inca) oracle and ritual/administrative center on the central Peruvian coast.

Dillehay, Tom D. “Tawantinsuyu Integration of the Chillón Valley, Perú: A Case of Inca Geo-Political Mastery.” Journal of Field Archaeology 4.4 (1977): 397–405.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
In this study of Inca occupation and control in the Chillón Valley, on the central coast of Peru, the author finds that the valley was settled unevenly, with most control facilities and operations centered in the upper valley, nearer to highland centers of operation. Therefore, the author concludes, Inca state control in such settings was often of a more indirect nature. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Dillehay, Tom D. “Tawantinsuyu Integration of the Chillón Valley, Perú: A Case of Inca Geo-Political Mastery.” Journal of Field Archaeology 4.4 (1977): 397–405.
Find this resource:
Eeckhout, Peter. “Reyes del sol y señores de la luna. Inkas e Ychsmas en Pachacámac.” Chungara 36.2 (2004): 495–503.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Based on extensive archaeological research at Pachacamac, in the Lurin Valley, as well as ethnohistorical sources, Eeckhout argues that whereas the site had been the center for the local Ychsma lord, and dedicated to lunar worship, the Incas transformed the site and its symbolic and ceremonial uses to reflect their own, highland forms of rule and solar-based religious traditions.
Eeckhout, Peter. “Reyes del sol y señores de la luna. Inkas e Ychsmas en Pachacámac.” Chungara 36.2 (2004): 495–503.
Find this resource:
Antisuyu

The quarter (suyu) of the Antis lay to the north and east of Cusco, passing through the nearby Sacred Valley. Machu Picchu, which was discovered in 1911 by the Yale scholar and adventurer Hiram Bingham, was an important royal estate in Inca times and is, in the early 21st century, the principal tourist site in the Cusco area—if not the whole of South America. Bingham 1979 is a comprehensive description of the site and contains an overview of Bingham’s archaeological explorations there. Reinhard 2007 situates Machu Picchu among the sacred mountains of the region, whereas Burger and Salazar 2004 provides an excellent, comprehensive account of archaeological research carried out at the site, from Bingham’s time to the early 21st century.

Bingham, Hiram. Machu Picchu: A Citadel of the Incas: Report of the Explorations and Excavations Made in 1911, 1912 and 1915 under the Auspices of Yale University and the National Geographic Society. Memoirs of the National Geographic Society. New York: Hacker Art Books, 1979.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Comprehensive overview of the site of Machu Picchu by its modern discoverer. There are sections on exploration, roads, site planning and architecture, burial caves, pottery, and metallurgy. The author puts forward the argument that Machu Picchu was the place of origin of the Inca dynasty, a theory that has not been accepted by most specialists. Illustrated with photographs and line drawings. Originally published in 1930.
Bingham, Hiram. Machu Picchu: A Citadel of the Incas: Report of the Explorations and Excavations Made in 1911, 1912 and 1915 under the Auspices of Yale University and the National Geographic Society. Memoirs of the National Geographic Society. New York: Hacker Art Books, 1979.
Find this resource:
Burger, Richard L., and Lucy C. Salazar, eds. Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An excellent volume on the archaeology of Machu Picchu and associated sites, with chapters on the discovery of Machu Picchu, daily life at the site, Inca royal estates, and material culture and human remains. Produced in conjunction with the authors’ curation of an exhibit of archaeological materials from the site, which were subsequently repatriated to Peru.
Burger, Richard L., and Lucy C. Salazar, eds. Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004.
Find this resource:
Reinhard, Johan. Machu Picchu: Exploring an Ancient Sacred Center. World Heritage and Monument Series. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A highly readable and well-illustrated introduction to this best known of Peruvian archaeological sites. Reinhard offers excellent descriptions of the geographical setting of Machu Picchu; its relation to the high peaks of the surrounding mountains, many of which are considered sacred (apus); the location of related Inca sites in the region; and the place of Machu Picchu in Inca religion and cosmology.
Reinhard, Johan. Machu Picchu: Exploring an Ancient Sacred Center. World Heritage and Monument Series. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, 2007.
Find this resource:
Collasuyu

This quadrant of Tawantinsuyu embraced the vast territory extending from Cusco toward the southeast, including much of modern-day Bolivia, portions of northwestern Argentina, and farther south, into central Chile.

Lake Titicaca and the Islands of the Sun and Moon

The Incas considered Lake Titicaca, which, in the early 21st century, sits on the border between Peru and Bolivia, to be the place of origin of all things in their universe, including the sun, the moon, and the first Inca. Bauer and Stanish 2001 is an excellent overview of Inca installations and ritual centers in the Lake Titicaca region, especially on the Islands of the Sun and Moon. Julien 1983 is a definitive study of an Inca installation on the northwestern shore of Lake Titicaca, whereas Diez de San Miguel 1964 is an early Spanish administrative concerning settlements along the southwestern shore of the lake that provides unique insight into the organization of that region in Inca times.

Bauer, Brian S., and Charles Stanish. Ritual and Pilgrimage in the Ancient Andes: The Islands of the Sun and the Moon. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Archaeological and ethnohistorical study of the Islands of the Sun and Moon in Lake Titicaca. Inca buildings here celebrated the origin of the sun and the Inca ancestors at the lake. The authors argue that, at the time of the June solstice sunrise celebration, agents of the Incas displayed themselves to pilgrims before the place where the sun first rose.
Bauer, Brian S., and Charles Stanish. Ritual and Pilgrimage in the Ancient Andes: The Islands of the Sun and the Moon. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001.
Find this resource:
Diez de San Miguel, Garci. Vista hecha a la provincia de Chucuito por Garci Diez de San Miguel en el año 1567. Documentos regionales para la etnología y etnohistorica andinas. Lima, Peru: Casa de la Cultura del Perú, 1964.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Colonial administrative visit to the region of Chucuito, on the southwestern shore of Lake Titicaca. The document is in two parts. The first contains the administrative documents authorizing the visitation; the second offers the responses of curacas (native headmen), quipucamayocs (knot makers/organizers), and elders concerning the socioeconomic and political conditions in the region in Inca and early colonial times.
Diez de San Miguel, Garci. Vista hecha a la provincia de Chucuito por Garci Diez de San Miguel en el año 1567. Documentos regionales para la etnología y etnohistorica andinas. Lima, Peru: Casa de la Cultura del Perú, 1964.
Find this resource:
Julien, Catherine J. Hatunqolla: A View of Inca Rule from the Lake Titicaca Region. University of California Publications in Anthropology 15. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The published version of the author’s doctoral dissertation on the Inca site of Hatunqolla, on the northwestern shore of Lake Titicaca. The first part is an overview of ethnohistorical documents pertaining to the site and region; the second part reports the results of Julien’s archaeological survey and excavations and her analysis of the ceramic style sequence at the site.
Julien, Catherine J. Hatunqolla: A View of Inca Rule from the Lake Titicaca Region. University of California Publications in Anthropology 15. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
Find this resource:
Northwestern Argentina and Northern and Central Chile

For much of the 20th century, little research was carried out on Inca settlements in the vast region of northwestern Argentina and Chile that was subject to Inca rule. Acuto 2008 is an excellent overview of Inca archaeological sites in the region. Alconini 2004 focuses on Inca relations with and defense against their nemeses in southeastern Bolivia, the Chiriguanos. Hidalgo Lehuedé 1972 surveys the ethnohistorical evidence for Inca penetration into Chile, whereas the archaeological evidence is discussed in Hidalgo, et al. 2001 and Berenguer Rodríguez 2009. Reinhard 1992 offers an excellent description of archaeological evidence for high-altitude ritual/ceremonial structures in central Chile. Dillehay and Netherly 1988 contains important articles on Inca organization of their northern and southern frontier regions.

Acuto, Félix A. “Experiencing Inca Domination in Northwestern Argentina and the Southern Andes.” In The Handbook of South American Archaeology. Edited by Helaine Silverman and William H. Isbell, 845–861. New York: Springer, 2008.
DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-74907-5Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author argues that Inca domination left an indelible mark on indigenous peoples in this region. Drawing primarily on archaeological research, the author examines Inca installations in the region, focusing on their impact on local peoples as well as on the Inca agents sent there to administer the local populations. The implications of Inca rule reverberated through the colonial period.
Acuto, Félix A. “Experiencing Inca Domination in Northwestern Argentina and the Southern Andes.” In The Handbook of South American Archaeology. Edited by Helaine Silverman and William H. Isbell, 845–861. New York: Springer, 2008.
Find this resource:
Alconini, Sonia. “The Southeastern Inka Frontier against the Chiriguanos: Structure and Dynamics of the Inka Imperial Borderlands.” Latin American Antiquity 15.4 (2004): 389–418.
DOI: 10.2307/4141585Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An important study on Inca strategies of control in distant provinces. Alconini finds that although state investment was high, in terms of the building of settlements, storehouses, and so on, actual involvement in local socioeconomic processes and relations was low. Thus, she concludes, the Incas followed a strategy of maintaining a “soft military frontier” in the region. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Alconini, Sonia. “The Southeastern Inka Frontier against the Chiriguanos: Structure and Dynamics of the Inka Imperial Borderlands.” Latin American Antiquity 15.4 (2004): 389–418.
Find this resource:
Berenguer Rodríguez, José, ed. Chile bajo el imperio de los Inkas: Exposición, noviembre 2009–mayo 2010. Translated by Joan Donaghey. Santiago, Chile: Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, 2009.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
English title: Chile under the Inca Empire. An excellent overview of the Inca penetration and occupation of northern and central Chile. The text and illustrations originated in an exhibit at the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, Santiago, Chile, in 2009–2010. Copiously and beautifully illustrated and highly informative text. In English and Spanish.
Berenguer Rodríguez, José, ed. Chile bajo el imperio de los Inkas: Exposición, noviembre 2009–mayo 2010. Translated by Joan Donaghey. Santiago, Chile: Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, 2009.
Find this resource:
Dillehay, Tom D., and Patricia Netherly, eds. La frontera del estado inca: Proceedings of the 45th International Congress of Americanists, Bogotá, Colombia, 1985. British Archaeological Reports International Series 422. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1988.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Excellent collection of articles on Inca occupation and installations on their frontiers to the south (Collasuyu) and north (Chinchaysuyu).
Dillehay, Tom D., and Patricia Netherly, eds. La frontera del estado inca: Proceedings of the 45th International Congress of Americanists, Bogotá, Colombia, 1985. British Archaeological Reports International Series 422. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1988.
Find this resource:
Hidalgo, Jorge, Carlos Aldunate, Francisco Gallardo, Flora Vilches, Carole Sinclaire, and Diego Salazar, eds. Tras la huella del Inka en Chile. Santiago, Chile: Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, 2001.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Very well illustrated, large-format book that covers much of the same material on the Inca presence in Chile that is discussed in Berenguer Rodríguez 2009.
Hidalgo, Jorge, Carlos Aldunate, Francisco Gallardo, Flora Vilches, Carole Sinclaire, and Diego Salazar, eds. Tras la huella del Inka en Chile. Santiago, Chile: Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, 2001.
Find this resource:
Hidalgo Lehuedé, Jorge. Culturas protohistóricas del norte de Chile: El testimonio de los cronistas. Cuadernos de historia. Santiago, Chile: Departamento de Historia, Facultad Filosofía y Educación, Universidad de Chile, 1972.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
One of the most knowledgeable authorities on Chilean cultural history provides this overview of the principal cultures and cultural traditions of northern Chile, from pre-Inca times through the Inca domination of the region. The discussion of Inca period cultures is based on both archaeological research and early colonial chronicles and documents that describe Spanish encounters in the region.
Hidalgo Lehuedé, Jorge. Culturas protohistóricas del norte de Chile: El testimonio de los cronistas. Cuadernos de historia. Santiago, Chile: Departamento de Historia, Facultad Filosofía y Educación, Universidad de Chile, 1972.
Find this resource:
Reinhard, Johan. “An Archaeological Investigation of Inca Ceremonial Platforms on the Volcano Copiapo, Central Chile.” In Ancient America: Contributions to New World Archaeology. Edited by Nicholas J. Saunders, 145–172. Oxbow Monograph 24. Oxford: Oxbow, 1992.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Dramatic recounting of the excavation of a capacocha (child sacrifice) burial at one of the highest altitude sites ever investigated archaeologically. The burial, at 6,050 meters, on the summit of the volcano Copiapo, contained burial offerings, including miniature male and female figurines. The author presents ethnohistorical data pointing to the political and religious significance of high-altitude burials.
Reinhard, Johan. “An Archaeological Investigation of Inca Ceremonial Platforms on the Volcano Copiapo, Central Chile.” In Ancient America: Contributions to New World Archaeology. Edited by Nicholas J. Saunders, 145–172. Oxbow Monograph 24. Oxford: Oxbow, 1992.
Find this resource:
Cuntisuyu

Stretching to the southwest from Cusco, Cuntisuyu is the relatively small quadrant of Tawantinsuyu incorporating the territory and peoples of the southwestern highlands and south coast of Peru. This was also, nearer to Cusco, the suyu within which Pacariqtambo, the immediate place of origin of the Inca ancestors, was located (see Inca Mythology and the Mytho-History of Inca Origins).

Highlands

Wernke 2006 contains a fascinating study of the Colca Valley, a deep canyon filled with irrigated terracing and settlements of Quechua- and Aymara-speaking peoples that was the focus of intense reorganization efforts by the Incas.

Wernke, Steven A. “The Politics of Community and Inka Statecraft in the Colca Valley, Peru.” Latin American Antiquity 17.2 (2006): 177–208.
DOI: 10.2307/25063046Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A combined ethnohistorical and archaeological study of pre–Inca- and Inca-period sociopolitical organization in Collagua province, Colca Valley, in highland southern Peru. The settlement system of the local population was based on an upper/lower moiety division in pre-Inca times. With onset of Inca control, the population retained the moiety system but became more centralized around Inca administrative and elite facilities. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Wernke, Steven A. “The Politics of Community and Inka Statecraft in the Colca Valley, Peru.” Latin American Antiquity 17.2 (2006): 177–208.
Find this resource:
Coast

Menzel 1959 was a highly influential, mid-20th century study of Inca sites on the south coast of Peru and their links to Cusco, a topic that is also explored in Hyslop 1985, a study of the Inca administrative and military installation of Inkawasi, located in the Cañete Valley.

Hyslop, John. Inkawasi: The New Cuzco; Cañete, Lunahuaná, Peru. British Archaeological Reports International Series 234. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1985.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A detailed settlement survey and archaeological study of the military and administrative installation of Inkawasi, located in the Cañete Valley, on the south coast of Peru. Chapters cover the functions of different sectors at the site, the military significance of the installation, and the incorporation into site planning of astronomical orientations and spatial patterns related to the ceques of Cusco.
Hyslop, John. Inkawasi: The New Cuzco; Cañete, Lunahuaná, Peru. British Archaeological Reports International Series 234. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1985.
Find this resource:
Menzel, Dorothy. “The Inca Occupation of the South Coast of Peru.” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 15.2 (1959): 125–142.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A broad overview of Inca installations and operations on the south coast of Peru, drawing on ethnohistorical and archaeological sources. Sections deal with architecture and town planning as well as ceramics produced in various regions. Concludes with a discussion of the implications of the archaeology for understanding the nature of Inca control in the region.
Menzel, Dorothy. “The Inca Occupation of the South Coast of Peru.” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 15.2 (1959): 125–142.
Find this resource:
Inca Technologies

There is a wide array of objects, artifacts, and facilities, many of which were produced by standardized technological procedures by craftsmen, engineers, and other specialists around the empire whose styles, forms, and distribution betray a direct connection to Inca state projects, ideology, and political interests.

Roads

Hyslop 1984 is our most comprehensive and authoritative study of the Inca road system, which was known as the capac ñan (royal path/road), a vast network of well-tended roads and footpaths stretching the length and breadth of the empire that was used primarily by Inca administrators and the militia.

Hyslop, John. The Inka Road System. Studies in Archaeology. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, 1984.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This magisterial work reports the results of the author’s years of research traveling stretches of the capac ñan from north of Quito, Ecuador, to Santiago, Chile. Chapters discuss different road segments as well as providing overviews of the size of the road system, installations built along the roads, and the amount and kinds of traffic.
Hyslop, John. The Inka Road System. Studies in Archaeology. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, 1984.
Find this resource:
Settlement Planning

Hyslop 1990 surveys the array of Inca installations around the empire, focusing on certain elements of planning and design that reflected key principles intended to communicate Inca power and control in the provinces. Similar issues are addressed in Moore 1996, which looks at the layout of plazas in terms of their function as central places for state rituals.

Hyslop, John. Inka Settlement Planning. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A comprehensive survey of major settlements and types of settlements built by the Incas throughout Tawantinsuyu. Chapters deal with such matters as ushnus (ceremonial platforms); the incorporation of rocks, outcrops, and bodies of water; astronomical alignments; and general environmental considerations. Also covered are the layout of Cusco and military installations.
Hyslop, John. Inka Settlement Planning. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.
Find this resource:
Moore, Jerry D. “The Archaeology of Plazas and the Proxemics of Ritual: Three Andean Traditions.” American Anthropologist, n.s., 98.4 (1996): 789–802.
DOI: 10.1525/aa.1996.98.4.02a00090Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A valuable study of plazas in three Andean settings: the Incas; the Chimú of the north coast of Peru (who came under Inca control); and Chiripa, a pre-Inca society of the Lake Titicaca region. The article contains a good overview and discussion of the effects of plaza layout and placement in terms of ritual activities and the dynamics of ceremonialism. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Moore, Jerry D. “The Archaeology of Plazas and the Proxemics of Ritual: Three Andean Traditions.” American Anthropologist, n.s., 98.4 (1996): 789–802.
Find this resource:
Architecture

As defined and illustrated to great effect in both Gasparini and Margolies 1980 and Hemming and Ranney 1982, one of the most distinctive, recognizable technologies of Inca civilization was a set of architectural canons—especially trapezoidal windows, niches, and entryways—that guided the construction of state facilities and that render Inca installations readily identifiable in the early 21st century. Niles 1987 examines a range of expressions of Inca architecture at a single site, Callachaca, near Cusco. Some of the finest examples of Inca architecture are found in the so-called Sacred Valley, located near Cusco, which includes the magnificent site of Ollantaytambo, described in Protzen 1993, as well as the iconic site of Machu Picchu (see Antisuyu).

Gasparini, Graziano, and Luise Margolies. Inca Architecture. Translated by Patricia J. Lyon. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
With a lively text built around 324 excellent and highly informative illustrations, the authors’ explorations of Inca architecture, which draw freely on ethnographic analogies, provide convincing analyses of the forms of Inca buildings and their meanings for both the Incas and their subjects. The analyses of buildings throughout Tawantinsuyu give one a clear understanding of the political and religious functions of Inca architecture.
Gasparini, Graziano, and Luise Margolies. Inca Architecture. Translated by Patricia J. Lyon. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980.
Find this resource:
Hemming, John, and Edward Ranney. Monuments of the Incas. Boston: Little, Brown, 1982.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A highly readable, beautifully illustrated survey of sites in the empire, from northern Ecuador to southern Peru. Especially complete coverage of sites in and around Cusco and the Sacred Valley. The book is written by Hemming and illustrated with Ranney’s dramatic black-and-white photographs.
Hemming, John, and Edward Ranney. Monuments of the Incas. Boston: Little, Brown, 1982.
Find this resource:
Niles, Susan A. Callachaca: Style and Status in an Inca Community. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1987.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A valuable study of ruins at an Inca-period estate in the southeastern portion of the Cusco Valley, along the Huatanay River. The author examines variations in architecture at Callachaca and neighboring sites, arguing that the stylistic differences reflect hierarchical principles consistent with and illustrative of Inca cosmological values, particularly as seen in the ceque system of Cusco.
Niles, Susan A. Callachaca: Style and Status in an Inca Community. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1987.
Find this resource:
Protzen, Jean-Pierre. Inca Architecture and Construction at Ollantaytambo. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A professional architect, Protzen offers a compelling discussion and analysis of a major Inca site in the Sacred Valley, Ollantaytambo, often considered the “gateway to Machu Picchu.” The site was abandoned during construction, which allowed Protzen to study details of the quarrying, working, and fitting of stones. His description shows convincingly how Inca masons harmonized buildings with the landscape.
Protzen, Jean-Pierre. Inca Architecture and Construction at Ollantaytambo. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Find this resource:
Ceramics

As Bray 2003 argues so convincingly, with their predominately geometric decoration and focus on a dozen or so primary vessel forms, Inca ceramics represented a major medium for communicating state ideology in Cusco and around the empire. Issues of ceramic production, standardization, and style are considered in the important works Costin and Hagstrum 1995 and Hayashida 1999.

Bray, Tamara L. “Inka Pottery as Culinary Equipment: Food, Feasting, and Gender in Imperial State Design.” Latin American Antiquity 14.1 (2003): 3–28.
DOI: 10.2307/972232Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An empire-wide study of ceramics, aimed at analyzing relations among food, politics, and gender, especially in the Inca provinces. Bray finds that a distinctive state vessel assemblage was used by Inca administrators as a part of a conscious strategy to create material symbols of class difference. The analysis outlines the main features of what Bray terms an imperial haute cuisine. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Bray, Tamara L. “Inka Pottery as Culinary Equipment: Food, Feasting, and Gender in Imperial State Design.” Latin American Antiquity 14.1 (2003): 3–28.
Find this resource:
Costin, Cathy L., and Melissa B. Hagstrum. “Standardization, Labor Investment, Skill, and the Organization of Ceramic Production in Late Prehispanic Highland Peru.” American Antiquity 60.4 (1995): 619–639.
DOI: 10.2307/282046Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An analysis of ceramic production in the central highlands of Peru, in the Yanamarca Valley, taking into account such factors as demand, the social relations of producers, and the support base for artisans. The authors conclude that in this region, local Wanka wares were produced by household-based artisans, whereas Cusco-style wares were produced by corvée laborers. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Costin, Cathy L., and Melissa B. Hagstrum. “Standardization, Labor Investment, Skill, and the Organization of Ceramic Production in Late Prehispanic Highland Peru.” American Antiquity 60.4 (1995): 619–639.
Find this resource:
Hayashida, Frances M. “Style, Technology, and State Production: Inka Pottery Manufacture in the Leche Valley, Peru.” Latin American Antiquity 10.4 (1999): 337–352.
DOI: 10.2307/971961Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A study of pottery production in the Leche Valley, on the north coast of Peru. Following Inca contact, Inca-style jars were added to ceramic repertories in the valley, although local potters continued to produce local wares, using local techniques. Hayashida asserts that this example cautions us against making easy presumptions about relations between style and political and ethnic identities. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Hayashida, Frances M. “Style, Technology, and State Production: Inka Pottery Manufacture in the Leche Valley, Peru.” Latin American Antiquity 10.4 (1999): 337–352.
Find this resource:
Textiles

The Incas were heirs to a tradition of textile production—in cotton and camelid fibers—that went back thousands of years. Rowe 1995–1996 surveys the complete range of forms and styles of textiles produced at state and local levels, whereas Murra 1962 is a classic work on the particularly high status of textiles produced in state facilities in terms of the political and religious uses to which the textiles were put. Rowe 1979 considers the question of standardization in the production of the three-quarter-length tunics known as uncus, and Zuidema 1991 examines these same objects but interrogates the symbolic meanings of their designs.

Murra, John V. “Cloth and Its Functions in the Inca State.” American Anthropologist, n.s., 64.4 (1962): 710–728.
DOI: 10.1525/aa.1962.64.4.02a00020Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Drawing primarily on ethnohistorical sources, this work has played a critical role in defining and detailing the mechanisms of the production and distribution of textiles in the Inca world, both in local villages and in state facilities, as well as in explaining the important role cloth played in exchange and political relations in the Inca Empire. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Murra, John V. “Cloth and Its Functions in the Inca State.” American Anthropologist, n.s., 64.4 (1962): 710–728.
Find this resource:
Rowe, Ann Pollard. “Inca Weaving and Costume.” Textile Museum Journal 34–35 (1995–1996): 5–53.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
With a well-written text defining and describing all forms and features of Inca clothing and accoutrements (e.g., slings, bags, belts, pins, and sandals) and styles of weaving, and with excellent photos illustrating the various women’s and men’s garments discussed in the text, this is simply the best survey of Inca weaving and dress available.
Rowe, Ann Pollard. “Inca Weaving and Costume.” Textile Museum Journal 34–35 (1995–1996): 5–53.
Find this resource:
Rowe, John Howland. “Standardization in Inca Tapestry Tunics.” In The Junius B. Bird Pre-Columbian Textile Conference, May 19th and 20th, 1973. Edited by Ann Pollard Rowe, Elizabeth P. Benson, and Anne-Louise Schaffer, 239–260. Washington, DC: Textile Museum, 1979.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An important work in establishing that Inca royal tunics (uncus) were produced according to standardized weaving processes and design principles and that they bore elaborate geometric iconography expressive of core values and principles of Inca ideology and statecraft.
Rowe, John Howland. “Standardization in Inca Tapestry Tunics.” In The Junius B. Bird Pre-Columbian Textile Conference, May 19th and 20th, 1973. Edited by Ann Pollard Rowe, Elizabeth P. Benson, and Anne-Louise Schaffer, 239–260. Washington, DC: Textile Museum, 1979.
Find this resource:
Zuidema, R. Tom. “Guaman Poma and the Art of Empire: Toward an Iconography of Inca Royal Dress.” In Transatlantic Encounters: Europeans and Andeans in the Sixteenth Century. Edited by Kenneth J. Andrien and Rolena Adorno, 151–202. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An interesting argument for the symbolic meaning and political significance attached to uncus depicted in the drawings by the native chronicler Guaman Poma de Ayala. Sections include discussions of design layout, ancestral and calendrical elements, and tunics connected with specific rituals and ceremonies. Also treats the continuing significance of uncus in the colonial Andes.
Zuidema, R. Tom. “Guaman Poma and the Art of Empire: Toward an Iconography of Inca Royal Dress.” In Transatlantic Encounters: Europeans and Andeans in the Sixteenth Century. Edited by Kenneth J. Andrien and Rolena Adorno, 151–202. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
Find this resource:
Quipus/Khipus

As first explained systematically in the modern era in Locke 1923, record keeping in the Inca Empire was performed on knotted-cord devices, called quipus (knots). Murra 1975 established some of the organizational and classificatory principles of Inca recording, and the studies in Mackey, et al. 1990 surveyed the range of quipu and related devices, from Inca through colonial times. Ascher and Ascher 1997 is a seminal study in laying out patterns in Inca cord keepings and their links to Inca mathematics. The possibility that quipus recorded information for performing narratives is explored in Quilter and Urton 2002 and Radicati di Primeglio 2006. Urton 2003 argues that cord signs were grounded in dualistic, or binary, coding. Brokaw 2010 is an excellent survey, primarily of written sources pertaining to quipus and quipu use, from pre-Inca times through the colonial period.

Ascher, Marcia, and Robert Ascher. Mathematics of the Incas: Code of the Quipu. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1997.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The Aschers have been major contributors to modern quipu scholarship, carrying out studies of museum collections from the 1960s until the end of the 20th century. This work summarizes the results of their research and lays out the basic features of quipu record keeping and the implications of numerical data recorded on quipus for the study of Inca mathematics.
Ascher, Marcia, and Robert Ascher. Mathematics of the Incas: Code of the Quipu. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1997.
Find this resource:
Brokaw, Galen. A History of the Khipu. Cambridge Latin American Studies. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An excellent work. Brokaw begins by analyzing pre-Inca forms of record keeping; then shifts to a review of research on extant quipu samples in museums; and, finally, discusses cord keeping in the colonial Andes, with sections on historiographic, administrative, and ecclesiastical uses of quipus and data recorded on them from Inca times.
Brokaw, Galen. A History of the Khipu. Cambridge Latin American Studies. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Find this resource:
Locke, L. Leland. The Ancient Quipu or Peruvian Knot Record. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1923.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Locke was the originator of the modern, scientific study of quipus. This work contains extracts of passages on quipus drawn from the Spanish chronicles as well as descriptions from his studies of several quipus in the American Museum of Natural History. Locke describes and analyzes the method of recording numerical values on the quipus, a base-ten place value system.
Locke, L. Leland. The Ancient Quipu or Peruvian Knot Record. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1923.
Find this resource:
Mackey, Carol, Andrés R. Altieri, Jean-Marie Ansión, Marcia Ascher, and Hugo Pereyra Sanchez, eds. Quipu y yupana: Colección de escritos. Papers presented at the conference “Kipu y Kipucamayocs: Historia y Evolución,” Lima, Peru, 1988. Lima, Peru: Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, 1990.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A collection of original and previously published works focusing on quipus and the Inca calculating device known as yupana. Sections include contributions on pre-Inca, Inca, and modern quipus, yupanas, quipu-like instruments, and Quechua numbers. In Spanish.
Mackey, Carol, Andrés R. Altieri, Jean-Marie Ansión, Marcia Ascher, and Hugo Pereyra Sanchez, eds. Quipu y yupana: Colección de escritos. Papers presented at the conference “Kipu y Kipucamayocs: Historia y Evolución,” Lima, Peru, 1988. Lima, Peru: Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, 1990.
Find this resource:
Murra, John V. “Las etno-categorías de un khipu estatal.” In Formaciones económicas y políticas del mundo andino. By John V. Murra, 243–254. Historia andina. Lima, Peru: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1975.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The first contribution to the tradition of modern quipu research, based on study of colonial transcriptions of quipu readings by quipucamayocs (knot makers/organizers) in court proceedings. The material derives from evidence presented in 1561 by a Wanka quipucamayoc who testified from his cord account what was given to (or stolen by) the Spaniards from the Inca storehouse in Xauxa.
Murra, John V. “Las etno-categorías de un khipu estatal.” In Formaciones económicas y políticas del mundo andino. By John V. Murra, 243–254. Historia andina. Lima, Peru: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1975.
Find this resource:
Quilter, Jeffrey, and Gary Urton, eds. Narrative Threads: Accounting and Recounting in Andean Khipu. Papers presented at a conference at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, 1997. Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This volume concerns what the Spanish chroniclers described as the capacity of quipus to be used for narrative productions, or performances, such as myths and life histories. Chapters deal with quipu structures, chroniclers’ accounts of quipus, colonial uses and transformations of quipu keeping, and modern quipu use.
Quilter, Jeffrey, and Gary Urton, eds. Narrative Threads: Accounting and Recounting in Andean Khipu. Papers presented at a conference at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, 1997. Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002.
Find this resource:
Radicati di Primeglio, Carlos. Estudios sobre los quipus. Edited by Gary Urton. Clásicos sanmarquinos. Lima, Peru: Fondo Editorial Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 2006.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Radicati was one of the most influential students of quipus during the 20th century, in Peru. Drawing on both ethnohistorical sources and studies of extant samples, he produced important works on quipus and their uses in Inca administration. His principal texts, collected in this anthology, were written between the 1950s and 1990s. Studies include analyses of numerical registry and color patterning.
Radicati di Primeglio, Carlos. Estudios sobre los quipus. Edited by Gary Urton. Clásicos sanmarquinos. Lima, Peru: Fondo Editorial Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 2006.
Find this resource:
Urton, Gary. Signs of the Inka Khipu: Binary Coding in the Andean Knotted-String Records. Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian Studies. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author argues that, beyond numerical data, quipu signing was based on sets of construction and visual (e.g., color) features organized in a dualistic manner, such that quipu structure resulted from a process of making binary decisions in cord production. One chapter contends that quipu semiosis was grounded in parallelism—that is, the production of couplets paired by meaning.
Urton, Gary. Signs of the Inka Khipu: Binary Coding in the Andean Knotted-String Records. Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian Studies. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003.
Find this resource:
Keros (Drinking Cups)

Cummins 2002 is the definitive study of Inca practices relating to the serving and sharing of toasts of corn beer (chicha/aqja) in keros (cups/goblets) made of various media (wood, ceramics, or metal) in everyday and official state settings. Flores Ochoa, et al. 1998 contains an excellent overview of the corpus of keros that survive, from Inca through colonial times. Wichrowska and Ziólkowski 2000 discusses the vessels in a collection in Berlin and presents excellent descriptions of their decoration and complex iconography.

Cummins, Thomas B. F. Toasts with the Inca: Andean Abstraction and Colonial Images on Quero Vessels. History, Languages, and Cultures of the Spanish and Portuguese Worlds. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The most important study of Inca ceremonies involving drinking of chicha (corn beer) from keros and the place of such ceremonies in Inca ritual life, social relations, and political organization. Chapters cover abstraction and representation in kero decoration, the colonial commodification of vessels, and the place of keros and drinking in colonial political formations.
Cummins, Thomas B. F. Toasts with the Inca: Andean Abstraction and Colonial Images on Quero Vessels. History, Languages, and Cultures of the Spanish and Portuguese Worlds. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002.
Find this resource:
Flores Ochoa, Jorge A., Elizabeth Kuon Arce, and Roberto Samanez Argumedo. Qeros: Arte inka en vasos ceremoniales. Colección arte y tesoros del Perú. Lima, Peru: Banco de Crédito del Perú, 1998.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Beautifully illustrated study of Inca and colonial keros, primarily those made of wood. Contains chapters on the function of keros in Inca ceremonies, principal design elements (especially tocapus, decorative geometric squares), and the engraving and painting of vessels. Two chapters deal with design layouts and representational scenes painted on colonial-era keros, respectively.
Flores Ochoa, Jorge A., Elizabeth Kuon Arce, and Roberto Samanez Argumedo. Qeros: Arte inka en vasos ceremoniales. Colección arte y tesoros del Perú. Lima, Peru: Banco de Crédito del Perú, 1998.
Find this resource:
Wichrowska, Oriana, and Mariusz S. Ziólkowski, eds. Iconografía de los keros. Andes 5. Warsaw, Poland: Universidad de Varsovia, 2000.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A catalogue containing photographs and drawings in both black and white and color of the seventy-one keros in the collections of the Museum für Völkerkunde (now the Ethnologisches Museum), Berlin. A difficult source to obtain, but an important resource for those interested in detailed and comparative study of Inca wooden keros.
Wichrowska, Oriana, and Mariusz S. Ziólkowski, eds. Iconografía de los keros. Andes 5. Warsaw, Poland: Universidad de Varsovia, 2000.
Find this resource:
Metallurgy

As explained in the powerful and deeply informed study Lechtman 1993, Andean metallurgists developed an astonishing array of subtle and sophisticated techniques for working ores and metals to express concepts of power, based on color and richness of sheen. Rowe 1996 is a study of Inca objects in the extraordinary collection of the Washington, DC–based institution Dumbarton Oaks. Dransart 2000 analyzes miniature clothed figurines found in Inca burials.

Dransart, Penny. “Clothed Metal and the Iconography of Human Form among the Incas.” Paper presented at a conference for the opening of the exhibition “The Gilded Image: Precolumbian Gold from South and Central America,” Museum of Mankind, London. In Precolumbian Gold: Technology, Style and Iconography. Edited by Colin McEwan, 76–91. London: British Museum, 2000.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Dransart’s emphasis in this work is on Inca miniature figurines, found principally in association with capacocha (child sacrifice) burials. The figurines are made of combined metal and textile components. Drawing on ethnohistorical accounts, Dransart interprets the figurines as symbolic of deep Inca religious principles relating to gender, the human body, natural objects (e.g., plants and metals), and deities.
Dransart, Penny. “Clothed Metal and the Iconography of Human Form among the Incas.” Paper presented at a conference for the opening of the exhibition “The Gilded Image: Precolumbian Gold from South and Central America,” Museum of Mankind, London. In Precolumbian Gold: Technology, Style and Iconography. Edited by Colin McEwan, 76–91. London: British Museum, 2000.
Find this resource:
Lechtman, Heather. “Technologies of Power: The Andean Case.” In Configurations of Power: Holistic Anthropology in Theory and Practice. Edited by John S. Henderson and Patricia J. Netherly, 244–280. Society for Latin American Anthropology Publication Series. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author draws a contrast between European and Andean metallurgy, arguing that whereas the former valued hardness and sharpness, the latter valued color and depth of sheen. She goes on to make an analogy between Andean textiles and metalworking, contending that what was essential in both cases was working the material from the interior to produce the surface decoration.
Lechtman, Heather. “Technologies of Power: The Andean Case.” In Configurations of Power: Holistic Anthropology in Theory and Practice. Edited by John S. Henderson and Patricia J. Netherly, 244–280. Society for Latin American Anthropology Publication Series. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993.
Find this resource:
Rowe, John H. “Inca.” In Andean Art at Dumbarton Oaks. Vol. 1. Edited by Elizabeth Hill Boone, 302–308. Pre-Columbian Art at Dumbarton Oaks. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1996.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Rowe’s study focuses on a few of the rare pieces of Inca metalwork that survived the conquest, as most Inca gold and silver objects were melted down by the Spanish invaders in the 16th century. The examples discussed here include human figurines of hammered gold and silver and a staff finial representing a bird made of cast tin bronze.
Rowe, John H. “Inca.” In Andean Art at Dumbarton Oaks. Vol. 1. Edited by Elizabeth Hill Boone, 302–308. Pre-Columbian Art at Dumbarton Oaks. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1996.
Find this resource:
Stoneworking

Perhaps for no other technological accomplishments have the engineering and craft skills of the Incas been celebrated more than in stoneworking. Protzen 1985 is the definitive work, detailing how Inca stonemasons quarried and worked stone without the benefit of metal tools. Bengtsson 1998 surveys the range of stoneworking methods evident in the terraces, buildings, and monumental decorative stone slabs at the site of Ollantaytambo. Dean 2010 provides a thoughtful, deeply informed study of the cultural significance of stone and stoneworking in Inca civilization.

Bengtsson, Lisbet. Prehistoric Stonework in the Peruvian Andes: A Case Study at Ollantaytambo. Etnologiska studier. Gothenburg, Sweden: Etnografiska museet, 1998.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A highly readable and well-illustrated study on Inca stonework, focusing on Inca buildings and terracing at the site of Ollantaytambo, in the Sacred Valley, near Cusco. Chapters deal with technical, social, and cultural aspects of stoneworking. One particularly informative chapter concerns Inca labor recruitment and organization in the context of stoneworking.
Bengtsson, Lisbet. Prehistoric Stonework in the Peruvian Andes: A Case Study at Ollantaytambo. Etnologiska studier. Gothenburg, Sweden: Etnografiska museet, 1998.
Find this resource:
Dean, Carolyn. A Culture of Stone: Inka Perspectives on Rock. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Dean argues that, for the Incas, stone was a vital component of the natural and social worlds. Chapters cover Inca classifications of stone and types of buildings; the synthesis of stone and plants (realized in terracing); and stoneworking as a strategy for legitimizing and naturalizing Inca rule in the provinces, especially by integrating buildings directly into natural outcrops.
Dean, Carolyn. A Culture of Stone: Inka Perspectives on Rock. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010.
Find this resource:
Protzen, Jean-Pierre. “Inca Quarrying and Stonecutting.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 44.2 (1985): 161–182.
DOI: 10.2307/990027Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Protzen, who is not only a scholar of stonework, but also a practitioner, explains how the Incas cut and fitted stones together, based on his experimental work at Inca quarrying sites. His overall conclusion is that, despite the amazing complexity of Inca cut-stone walls, stones can be mined, cut, dressed, and fit with little effort, and quickly. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Protzen, Jean-Pierre. “Inca Quarrying and Stonecutting.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 44.2 (1985): 161–182.
Find this resource:
Military (Arms and Weaponry)

Bram 1941 provides one of the few studies available of Spanish chroniclers’ accounts of Inca military organization, provisioning of troops, and tactics in warfare. Guilmartin 1991 describes the dramatic differences between Inca and European weaponry and warfare.

Bram, Joseph. An Analysis of Inca Militarism. American Ethnological Society Monograph 4. New York: Augustin, 1941.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This dated but still valuable work contains four chapters, dealing with (respectively) sociopolitical institutions of the Inca state; the expansion of the empire; Inca weaponry, warfare, fortresses, and tactics of war; and the motives of Inca expansionism. The final chapter he divides between economic and ideological causes, giving priority to the former.
Bram, Joseph. An Analysis of Inca Militarism. American Ethnological Society Monograph 4. New York: Augustin, 1941.
Find this resource:
Guilmartin, John F., Jr. “The Cutting Edge: An Analysis of the Spanish Invasion and Overthrow of the Inca Empire, 1532–1539.” In Transatlantic Encounters: Europeans and Andeans in the Sixteenth Century. Edited by Kenneth J. Andrien and Rolena Adorno, 40–69. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A highly informative study of the differences between Inca and Spanish military technologies and battle tactics and strategies. Guilmartin’s accounting of the differences in weaponry, especially the advantage offered by steel weapons and the use of cannon, goes a long way toward explaining why the Spanish conquest was virtually assured with Francisco Pizarro’s initial defeat of Atahualpa, at Cajamarca, in 1532.
Guilmartin, John F., Jr. “The Cutting Edge: An Analysis of the Spanish Invasion and Overthrow of the Inca Empire, 1532–1539.” In Transatlantic Encounters: Europeans and Andeans in the Sixteenth Century. Edited by Kenneth J. Andrien and Rolena Adorno, 40–69. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
Find this resource:
Inca Religion and Cosmology

As detailed in the magisterial study MacCormack 1991, Inca state religion was focused on the body and person of the king, as the divine descendant of the sun, a set of beliefs that set Andean peoples on a collision course with their Christian conquerors. Gose 1996 analyzes the link between belief in the divinity of the Incas and the politics of state power exercised through a network of oracles. The nexus of state power, religion, class, and gender is the focus of the classic text Silverblatt 1987, whereas Ramírez 2005 casts many of these same issues as central to the construction and maintenance of a cosmological system underlying notions of authority and identity in the pre-Columbian and colonial Andes. Cosmology is also the subject of Classen 1993, a treatment of concepts of the human body in the Inca world, as reconstructed from chronicles and colonial dictionaries, and Urton 1988, an exploration of peasant astronomy in a contemporary community near Cusco that exhibits many of the same astronomical and cosmological beliefs described for the Incas in the Spanish chronicles. Salomon and Urioste 1991 contains an English translation of and authoritative commentary on the only document we possess on the local religious beliefs and practices in an early colonial community in the central Andes.

Classen, Constance. Inca Cosmology and the Human Body. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1993.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This book examines Inca conceptions of the human body and the link between the body and cosmology. The principal sources used are the Spanish chronicles and colonial dictionaries of Quechua and Aymara (see González Holguín 1952 and Bertonio 1984, respectively, both cited under Language). Chapters deal with myths of creation, illness and death, metaphors of the body, and the “disordering” of the body under colonial domination.
Classen, Constance. Inca Cosmology and the Human Body. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1993.
Find this resource:
Gose, Peter. “Oracles, Divine Kingship, and Political Representation in the Inka State.” Ethnohistory 43.1 (1996): 1–32.
DOI: 10.2307/483342Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Gose argues that, under the Incas, oracles were an important form of political representation, as they spoke as deified dead rulers for social groups removed from the center of power. This allowed the Incas to govern, while receiving advice and information from subordinate groups. Consultation had to be indirect because of the social distance separating Inca kings from their subjects. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Gose, Peter. “Oracles, Divine Kingship, and Political Representation in the Inka State.” Ethnohistory 43.1 (1996): 1–32.
Find this resource:
MacCormack, Sabine. Religion in the Andes: Vision and Imagination in Early Colonial Peru. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This book signaled a major turn in the study of Inca religion. Whereas previous accounts attempted to read through the prejudices and worldviews of the Spanish chroniclers to arrive at the “true” Inca religion, MacCormack, equally knowledgeable in Andean and Mediterranean classical and medieval scholarship, seeks to understand how European ideologies and theology shaped early colonial accounts of Andean religious concepts.
MacCormack, Sabine. Religion in the Andes: Vision and Imagination in Early Colonial Peru. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Find this resource:
Ramírez, Susan Elizabeth. To Feed and Be Fed: The Cosmological Bases of Authority and Identity in the Andes. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Ramírez asserts that the person of the Inca was the center of the universe and the core identity of Inca cosmology. The Inca connected his subjects to the ancestors, nature, and each other. These concepts, which were incorporated into state rituals centering on feasting with the Incas and the ancestors, defined, structured, and gave meaning to community and identity.
Ramírez, Susan Elizabeth. To Feed and Be Fed: The Cosmological Bases of Authority and Identity in the Andes. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005.
Find this resource:
Salomon, F., and J. L. Urioste. The Huarochirí Manuscript: A Testament of Ancient and Colonial Andean Religion. Translated by Frank Salomon and George L. Urioste. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Our only text of indigenous, preconquest religious traditions from a community outside Cusco. Written in Quechua, in Huarochirí province, in the highlands east of Lima, the text was produced by local informants, a native editor/redactor, and an overseer-priest, Francisco de Avila. Chapters recount myths about the gods and their place in the creation and organization of the local population.
Salomon, F., and J. L. Urioste. The Huarochirí Manuscript: A Testament of Ancient and Colonial Andean Religion. Translated by Frank Salomon and George L. Urioste. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991.
Find this resource:
Silverblatt, Irene. Moon, Sun, and Witches: Gender Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A critical work in shaping understandings of gender relations in pre-Inca, Inca, and early colonial Andean societies. From parallel gender political systems in pre-Inca societies, the Incas emphasized male-centered ideologies, privileging the Inca and the sun, moves that subordinated female-gendered identities. These trends intensified in colonial times, further subjugating women, who were often accused of practicing witchcraft.
Silverblatt, Irene. Moon, Sun, and Witches: Gender Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987.
Find this resource:
Urton, Gary. At the Crossroads of the Earth and the Sky: An Andean Cosmology. Latin American Monographs. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1988.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Beginning with an ethnographic study of astronomical knowledge and cosmological concepts in a contemporary village near Cusco, the author compares modern-day inhabitants’ knowledge of astronomy with Inca astronomy and cosmology, as reported in the Spanish chronicles. Demonstrates that concepts of sky, space, and time that underlay the state cosmologies of the Inca and colonial Spanish regimes provide the basis of contemporary local “peasant” understandings.
Urton, Gary. At the Crossroads of the Earth and the Sky: An Andean Cosmology. Latin American Monographs. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1988.
Find this resource:
Funerary Practices, Mummies, and the Capacochas

In addition to worship of the divine Inca kings in Cusco, the Incas and their subjects throughout Tawantinsuyu paid regular homage to mummies of the ancestors, as described in the important study Salomon 2011. Duviols 1976 is the definitive study of the Inca institution of the capacocha, a term that denotes the sacrifice of children to the Inca on high mountaintops around the empire. Specific capacocha burials and their associated offerings are the subject of Reinhard 2005 and Besom 2010.

Besom, Thomas. “Inka Sacrifice and the Mummy of Salinas Grandes.” Latin American Antiquity 21.4 (2010): 399–422.
DOI: 10.7183/1045-6635.21.4.399Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Whereas most studies of child sacrifice—capacocha—pertain to those disposed on high mountain peaks, this study concerns a child sacrificial burial in a salt flat in northwestern Argentina. The author describes the victim’s clothing, accoutrements, and hairstyle and offers hypotheses concerning where he came from and the possible reasons he was chosen as a sacrificial victim.
Besom, Thomas. “Inka Sacrifice and the Mummy of Salinas Grandes.” Latin American Antiquity 21.4 (2010): 399–422.
Find this resource:
Duviols, Pierre. “La capacocha.” In Special Issue: Ritos y rituales andinos. Edited by Henrique Osvaldo Urbano. Allpanchis 9 (1976): 11–57.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The earliest and most authoritative discussion and analysis of the Inca ceremonial practice of sacrificing children on high mountains throughout the empire. Most evidence for this practice pertains to the quadrant of Collasuyu. Duviols deals with the mechanism and function of human sacrifice, its geometrical projection, and its role in political integration and in the practice of state economic redistribution.
Duviols, Pierre. “La capacocha.” In Special Issue: Ritos y rituales andinos. Edited by Henrique Osvaldo Urbano. Allpanchis 9 (1976): 11–57.
Find this resource:
Reinhard, Johan. The Ice Maiden: Inca Mummies, Mountain Gods, and Sacred Sites in the Andes. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2005.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A popular, highly dramatized, yet quite readable and informative account of recovery of mummies from high mountain peaks, by a noted mountaineer-archaeologist-explorer. Recounts two incidents of the recovery of sacrificial victims from mountain peaks, one on Ampato, the other on Llullaillaco. Although heavy on reports of academic jealousies and disputes, the text brings to life the Inca practice of mountain sacrifices.
Reinhard, Johan. The Ice Maiden: Inca Mummies, Mountain Gods, and Sacred Sites in the Andes. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2005.
Find this resource:
Salomon, Frank. “‘The Beautiful Grandparents’: Andean Ancestor Shrines and Mortuary Ritual as Seen through Colonial Records.” In Tombs for the Living: Andean Mortuary Practices: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 12th and 13th October 1991. Edited by Tom D. Dillehay, 315–353. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2011.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Salomon begins with an examination of colonial documentary evidence for Andean mortuary rituals. He moves on to treatments of the worship of ancestor mummies and guacas (sacred objects/sites) and ideas about the relationship between the living and the dead in early colonial Andean thought and practice. Much of this is presumed to be relevant for Inca conceptions of death and funerary practices. Originally published in 1995.
Salomon, Frank. “‘The Beautiful Grandparents’: Andean Ancestor Shrines and Mortuary Ritual as Seen through Colonial Records.” In Tombs for the Living: Andean Mortuary Practices: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 12th and 13th October 1991. Edited by Tom D. Dillehay, 315–353. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2011.
Find this resource:
Astronomy, the Calendar, and Mathematics

Although it was once thought that the Inca “sciences” were quite rudimentary, late-20th- and early-21st-century studies of astronomy and mathematics have shown a high level of sophistication in these areas. Aveni 1981 is an excellent overview of the basic principles of Inca astronomy, subject matter that is also detailed in the survey and overview of Inca astronomy Bauer and Dearborn 1995. Zuidema 2010 is a magisterial compendium and overview of Inca calendrics by one of the most knowledgeable and highly respected modern-day students of Inca civilization. Inca mathematics, as practiced in various contexts and as recorded in the Inca quipu (see Quipus/Khipus), is the subject matter of Ascher 1986. Urton 1997 examines arithmetic and mathematical concepts of Quechua-speaking peoples (especially weavers) of the Andes, from the time of writing and, through study of colonial sources, back to early postconquest times.

Ascher, Marcia. “Mathematical Ideas of the Incas.” In Native American Mathematics. Edited by Michael P. Closs, 261–289. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author is a mathematician who has pioneered the study of ethnomathematics, especially in the Inca realm. She stresses, in this chapter-length contribution, what we can learn about Inca maths from study of the numerical data recorded on the knotted-cord quipus.
Ascher, Marcia. “Mathematical Ideas of the Incas.” In Native American Mathematics. Edited by Michael P. Closs, 261–289. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986.
Find this resource:
Aveni, Anthony F. “Horizon Astronomy in Incaic Cuzco.” Paper presented at a conference held in Santa Fe, NM, 1979. In Archaeoastronomy in the Americas. Edited by Ray A. Williamson, 305–318. Ballena Anthropological Papers. Los Altos, CA: Ballena, 1981.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Aveni, a world authority on archaeoastronomy, or cultural astronomy, argues that Inca astronomy was a variant of an American tropical tradition, which he terms “horizon astronomy.” The focus of observation in this tradition is the movement of stars at or near the horizon and of those positions relative to zenith. His analysis of Inca astronomy in Cusco draws on this model.
Aveni, Anthony F. “Horizon Astronomy in Incaic Cuzco.” Paper presented at a conference held in Santa Fe, NM, 1979. In Archaeoastronomy in the Americas. Edited by Ray A. Williamson, 305–318. Ballena Anthropological Papers. Los Altos, CA: Ballena, 1981.
Find this resource:
Bauer, Brian S., and David S. P. Dearborn. Astronomy and Empire in the Ancient Andes. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A study of Inca astronomy and calendrics by an archaeologist and a physicist. The work is based on archaeoastronomical research at various Inca sites and information on the Inca calendar contained in the Spanish chronicles. Emphasizes the city of Cusco, with little discussion of calendars and timekeeping outside the capital.
Bauer, Brian S., and David S. P. Dearborn. Astronomy and Empire in the Ancient Andes. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995.
Find this resource:
Urton, Gary. The Social Life of Numbers: A Quechua Ontology of Numbers and Philosophy of Arithmetic. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An examination of Quechua arithmetical and mathematical concepts and practices, based on the author’s research in modern-day weaving communities in Bolivia and ethnohistorical sources on Inca mathematical concepts. The objective is to construct an explication of Quechua concepts of numbers and mathematical operations that can provide a basis for study of Inca quantitative practices, from math to quipu record keeping.
Urton, Gary. The Social Life of Numbers: A Quechua Ontology of Numbers and Philosophy of Arithmetic. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997.
Find this resource:
Zuidema, R. Tom. El calendario inca: Tiempo y espacio en la organización ritual del Cuzco; La idea del pasado. Lima, Peru: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The magnum opus (at more than nine hundred pages) of one of the most knowledgeable and prolific modern students of Inca civilization. Offers an exhaustive description and analysis of the structure and organization of the Inca calendar, along with explorations of Inca astronomical knowledge; calendar formats; and the myths, rituals, and institutional arrangements (especially the ceque system) linked to the calendar.
Zuidema, R. Tom. El calendario inca: Tiempo y espacio en la organización ritual del Cuzco; La idea del pasado. Lima, Peru: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2010.
Find this resource:
Inca Art

Jones 1964 is a catalogue from an exhibit of Inca art, including ceramic, textile, wood, stone, and metal objects. Cummins, et al. 2005 is a collection of articles on artistic representations of Inca subject matter, primarily by European artists, during early colonial times.

Cummins, Thomas, Elena Phipps, and Gabriela Ramos, eds. Los Incas, reyes del Perú. Colección arte y tesoros del Perú. Lima, Peru: Banco de Crédito, 2005.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A collection of beautifully illustrated studies of European Renaissance and Andean paintings of Inca subject matter, with a special focus on images of the Inca kings, their royal tunics, and other objects and accoutrements associated in the European and colonial Andean imaginations with the Incas and their empire.
Cummins, Thomas, Elena Phipps, and Gabriela Ramos, eds. Los Incas, reyes del Perú. Colección arte y tesoros del Perú. Lima, Peru: Banco de Crédito, 2005.
Find this resource:
Jones, Julie. Art of Empire: The Inca of Peru. New York: Museum of Primitive Art, 1964.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Catalogue from an exhibit at the Museum of Primitive Art, New York City, in 1963–1964. The pieces shown in the catalogue—all unfortunately photographed in black and white—are drawn from both public museums and private collections and represent a good overview of Inca artistic accomplishments. Catalogue includes an informative and well-written text.
Jones, Julie. Art of Empire: The Inca of Peru. New York: Museum of Primitive Art, 1964.
Find this resource:
The Spanish Conquest

Prescott 1847, a two-volume account of the dramatic and tragic story of the conquest of the Incas at the hands of Francisco Pizarro and his small force of conquistadores, in Cajamarca, in 1532, is still valuable and highly readable. Equally readable but more recent, thereby incorporating information not available to Prescott, is Hemming 1970. Wachtel 1977 is a now-classic overview of what the author terms the “destructuration” of Tawantinsuyu in the early colonial period, following the immediate events of the Spanish conquest. A native Andean perspective on the dramatic events of the battle at Cajamarca and the relations and actions of Incas and Spaniards over the following several decades is presented by the native chronicler Titu Cusi Yupanqui, an early colonial descendant of Inca royalty (Cusi Yupanqui 2006). Lamana 2008 is a careful rereading and reanalysis of much of the literature generated by the events of Cajamarca and the first couple of decades of the establishment of colonial rule in the Andes, arguing that although the story of the conquest has been told primarily from the point of view of the conquerors, it is possible to construct a history of these events from a native perspective.

Cusi Yupanqui, Titu. History of How the Spaniards Arrived in Peru by Titu Cusi Yupanqui. Translated and edited by Catherine Julien. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2006.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Cusi Yupanqui was a descendant of Manco Inca, a man who claimed descent from the Inca royal lineage and who was installed as Inca king by the Spaniards in their attempt to legitimize colonial rule. Manco had founded a neo-Inca state at the lowland site of Vilcabamba, following a failed rebellion against the Spaniards in Cusco. As a descendant of Manco Inca, Cusi Yupanqui ruled as king of Vilcabamba from 1559 to 1571. During this time, he would write this manuscript, which tells the events of the conquest from the point of view of the Incas and their descendants. In English and Spanish.
Cusi Yupanqui, Titu. History of How the Spaniards Arrived in Peru by Titu Cusi Yupanqui. Translated and edited by Catherine Julien. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2006.
Find this resource:
Hemming, John. The Conquest of the Incas. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1970.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The most readable and exciting narrative of the Spanish invasion of Tawantinsuyu written in the modern era. In addition to his account of the conquest, Hemming does an excellent job of describing the complicated events of the revolt of Spaniards against the Crown in the early years, following the initial events of the conquest.
Hemming, John. The Conquest of the Incas. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1970.
Find this resource:
Lamana, Gonzalo. Domination without Dominance: Inca-Spanish Encounters in Early Colonial Peru. Latin America Otherwise. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Lamana argues that it is possible to construct a version of the events and processes of the Spanish conquest of the Incas from the native point of view by relying more heavily on local and personal sources as well as by attending to the silences, contradictory statements, and so on in the dominant narratives. The emphasis on analyzing competing versions of otherwise well-known events opens up alternative understandings, which can give greater voice to indigenous perspectives and interpretations of those events and of the establishment of a colonial state in the Andes.
Lamana, Gonzalo. Domination without Dominance: Inca-Spanish Encounters in Early Colonial Peru. Latin America Otherwise. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008.
Find this resource:
Prescott, William H. History of the Conquest of Peru: With a Preliminary View of the Civilization of the Incas. 2 vols. New York: Harper, 1847.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A classic work, which, though dated, remains a fascinating account of the encounter between Francisco Pizarro and Atahualpa at Cajamarca and of the subsequent events that transformed Tawantinsuyu into a colonial dependency of the expanding global empire of Spain.
Prescott, William H. History of the Conquest of Peru: With a Preliminary View of the Civilization of the Incas. 2 vols. New York: Harper, 1847.
Find this resource:
Wachtel, Nathan. The Vision of the Vanquished: The Spanish Conquest of Peru through Indian Eyes, 1530–1570. Translated by Ben Reynolds and Siân Reynolds. Hassocks, UK: Harvester, 1977.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
English translation of La vision des vaincus: Les Indiens du Pérou devant la conquête espagnole, 1530–1570, originally published in 1971. Wachtel’s book offers a point of view completely different from that of most conquest histories, as he draws on native chroniclers (especially Guaman Poma) and administrative documents to develop a native Andean perspective on the events of the conquest and the processes of change and transformation that followed. Wachtel provides a particularly cogent overview of the structure and organization of the Inca state, particularly in the Inca capital, before the conquest.
Wachtel, Nathan. The Vision of the Vanquished: The Spanish Conquest of Peru through Indian Eyes, 1530–1570. Translated by Ben Reynolds and Siân Reynolds. Hassocks, UK: Harvester, 1977.
Find this resource: