Andean Archaeology and Ethnohistory - Anthro 490: Class 24
The Organization of the Inka State
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Copyright Bruce Owen 1998
- Announcements
- Huaman Poma extracts
- background
- This is an extract from a heavily edited translation
- of a document written and illustrated in early colonial times by the son of a local ruler subsumed into the Inka state
- he probably exaggerates both his father's and his own rank
- written as a letter with attachments to King Phillip III of Spain, starting around 1567, and finally sent around 1615, when the author was a very old man
- three parts:
- prehistory of Peru
- events of the Spanish Conquest
- abuses of the Peruvians by the Spanish
- the purpose was to impress the King with how good the native insitutions had been, and how bad the injustices imposed by the Spanish were
- so we have to take it with a large grain of salt; it is clearly biased
- romanticizes, simplifies, and justifies a lot of things
- but it was written by someone close to the culture and time
- so many useful assumptions and details creep in probably below the level of conscious intent
- as in the illustrations, showing details of dress, etc.
- It apparently got to Madrid, but was probably never seen by the King.
- had it been, Huaman Poma would probably have been sentenced to prison or death
- A Dutch ambassador got hold of it in the 1650s and took it home to Copenhagen
- where it sat on a shelf in the Royal Library in Copenhagen for 250 years until it was rediscovered by a German scholar visiting the archives in 1908.
- selected information from or illustrated by the extracts
- The Sapa Inka
- The Sapa Inka had the royal palace in Cuzco, but also various estates in the surrounding area
- probably other aristocrats did, too
- used for hunting and general partying
- The Sapa Inka had all sorts of privileges
- special litters
- special foods
- [special clothing]
- fancy displays and music wherever they went
- The Sapa Inka was so different from ordinary people that if anyone else ate his special foods or infringed on other privileges, they could be put to death
- The Sapa Inka doled out minor positions of authority or nobility to people who served him well, but they were not heritable
- note the little story on p. 102 about the Sapa Inka calling a subject to his court to submit his petition
- a typical bit of propaganda and wishful thinking by Huaman Poma...
- Inka "caste" or direct lineage for the highest posts, vs. other nobles from leading families of conquered provinces
- high positions all filled according to descent, not ability [in theory]
- when a high noble was removed from office, all his relatives lost their offices, too
- i.e. still a very large kinship component to the organization
- this is also sensible: get rid of people who might now have a grievance or want to get revenge
- note Huaman Poma's own suggestion that this emphasis on strict descent rules for high nobility was in part to avoid anyone questioning the Sapa Inka's own position
- his position depends on descent, so those around him must also, or they might start to doubt the system
- a very political, cynical calculation...
- "orejones" ("big ears") as a mark of high status (refers to large earspools)
- "mayors of the palace" in charge of suppressing coup attempts (p. 97)
- this might be accurate, but it may also be colored by the (literally) backstabbing politics of the early colonial period
- It was customary for people to give "gifts" to their superiors in the rank hierarchy, all the way up to the Inka
- all land divided up into allotments by two Inka administrators (one from "upper" and one from "lower" Inka ayllus)
- some for the common people
- some for the Sun, the Moon, the Inka, etc.
- all "without disturbing the rights of the community which had been passed down from generation to generation..."
- a bit idealized
- all taxes in the form of labor
- [but labor = goods; the Inka distributed wool and expected textiles back, for example]
- collca complexes
- scattered around the empire
- containing food crops, textiles, etc.
- some for local use, others for the Inka, others for Sun or Moon
- accounting on quipus
- knots to keep accounts of different goods, especially in collca complexes
- using color, knot type, position on the secondary string, position and yarn type of secondary string, etc.
- apparently could record some non-numerical records, but only in a limited way
- Huaman Poma claims that they could record dates, instructions, and informational messages as clearly as Spanish writing
- this may be an exaggeration by a person literate in Spanish but not trained to use the quipu (?)
- at least he gives no clue as to how they are read
- [some quipus said to be Wari, but it is mostly an Inka technique]
- Chasqui runners
- ran in relays
- carried messages by memory and small objects
- Huaman Poma also claims a less-known variant for heavier cargo
- permanent state "employees"
- [the Spanish kept using them after the conquest, but did not maintain the system, so it quickly broke down]
- all local administration was in the hands of local leading families
- production of crops for Inka and gods
- storage and accounting
- maintenance of roads and bridges
- but often with one state-level supervisor for a given task (bridge maintenance, overseeing the chasqui system, etc.)
- on p. 101, notice the distinction between the "Higher Cuzco nobility" and "an Inca of Lower Cuzco"
- this is the trusty old dual organization, with upper and lower "halves"
- La Lone and La Lone 1987
- Ethnohistorical examination of how the Inka state "paid for" the "expenses" of conquering and controlling its vast empire
- Inka state based on a "mobilization economy" working by direct management of resources to produce a large surplus, not market exchange
- the surplus was stored in collca complexes and used for explicitly state-related purposes
- supporting the military
- hosting visiting dignitaries
- supporting workers doing mit'a labor turns in the area
- Focussing on one approach among many: productive "enclaves" worked by transplanted mitmaq laborers
- mit'a: rotating tribute labor service
- mitmaq: permanently resettled working groups
- they suggest that the state's share could not be taken from "private" or local community land, so they had to create new farmland for the mit'a laborers to cultivate for the state
- one way to get this was to establish new (?) lands near each community that they would work for the state
- another was to set up large "enclaves" [or "state farms" or "plantations"] specifically for state production
- actually two kinds
- production enclaves: plantations, especially for maize
- administrative enclaves: regional administrative centers
- both staffed by permanent mitmaq laborers, plus help from rotating mit'a laborers
- after removing the existing populations from the area
- apparently became increasingly common under the last few Inkas
- Productive enclaves
- Example: Cochabamba
- the most impressive example of a production enclave
- Eastern slope of the Andes, in modern Bolivia
- a large, rich maize producing area
- conquered by the Inka
- almost all the local people were moved out
- the region was divided into 77 strips that crossed all the ecological zones of the valley
- 14,000 people were moved in permanently, from a variety of source regions
- groups were assigned to specific strips
- they stored the strip's products and maintained the storehouses
- [could this keep so many people busy?]
- additional land was assigned for the people to grow their own food on
- rotating mit'a laborers sowed and harvested the fields
- these groups were also permanently associated with certain strips
- presumably their source communities might send different individuals each time, but the labor obligation was always to provide workers for the same strip of land
- administered by two Inka supervisors and a hierarchy of kurakas below them
- note possible dual organization again
- only two ethnically Inka people in the whole huge operation!
- the maize was explicitly destined to support the army
- which was also a multiethnic, mobilized-labor arrangement
- specifically, fighting on the northern frontier of the empire (Tomebamba)
- Example: Abancay
- generally similar
- additional detail on organization of the mitmaq families by "etnia" (polity of origin) into decimal system units
- one hundred families from the same source group
- ten such units, from different areas, grouped together at the next administrative level
- again, specifically to support the war on the northern frontier
- Administrative enclaves
- located at strategic points
- intersections of roads
- areas needing defense
- areas needing control against possible uprisings
- the "royal quarters of the Inca" mentioned in the quotation on p. 53 are an example of such an enclave
- contained a retinue of servants
- captains (administrators)
- chasquis
- mamacunas (also called aqlla, or "chosen women")
- lots of weaving done (presumably by the mamacuna)
- collcas full of goods
- careful accounting kept of every local residents' contributions
- Examples of large administrative enclaves mentioned but not described
- Huánuco Viejo
- Jauja (Xauxa, in the Mantaro valley)
- Example of a small enclave: Raqchi
- large structure taken to be a temple
- another cut stone structure, a bath, etc.
- wall surrounding the full 80 hectares!
- presumably indicates need for defense
- [or just for maintaining the isolation of the Inka, associates, and goods?]
- plus other architecture typical of a tambo (=tampu, a waystation, rest stop, state roadside inn) or, they suggest, an administrative enclave
- no documents to verify their claim that this is an administrative enclave
- so they make an analogy to yet another place, Guaiparmarca and Ocomarca
- where a land dispute shows that mitmaq laborers were moved in to take care of a "fortress" and got use of nearby lands to support themselves
- so the state did not have to provide for the mitmaq directly.
- and at the same time could claim to be generous by granting them lands
- Conclusions
- the Inka were almost constantly at war, expanding or putting down rebellions
- the Inka had to demonstrate his "generosity" in order to keep allies
- these enclaves were a way to finance and organize all that
- Murra 1962 on cloth
- [Note not only the role of cloth, but the whole setting and behavior of the Inka, administrators, peasants, and armies; a lot of Inka life is referenced here]
- very fine, sophisticated, and varied cloth was produced in the Andes
- mostly cotton on the coast, mostly wool in the highlands
- ordinary cloth: awasqa
- very fine, highly decorated cloth: kumpi
- said to be better than any European product
- also said to go out of production within years after the Spanish arrived
- both sexes spin and weave
- but use different kinds of looms, make different kinds of cloth
- Murra claims that specialists tended to be male
- hmm.
- hints that wool and cotton fibers were produced communally and shared out
- maybe not in all cases; maybe not on the coast....
- Murra notes the value implied by large cotton textiles in some coastal burials
- one the required two acres of cotton plants
- and a tremendous amount of labor to spin and weave it all
- in addition to practical uses, cloth was the preferred good for exchange in ceremonial circumstances
- at first hair cutting of a small child
- at puberty rights for both sexes
- as bridewealth
- as funerary offerings, clothing for mourners, and for later additional offerings
- idols and revered mummies were dressed in "costly kumpi" clothing
- cloth was used in most Inka sacrifices, often burned
- production at the local level
- kurakas (at least those of larger groups) had automatic access to the community's pooled fiber production
- the labor apparently was provided by the kuraka's multiple wives
- to produce fine cloth for his own use, distribution to supporters, and ritual purposes
- production at the state level
- families had two obligations to the state
- mit'a labor on state (or religious) lands
- in return for the right to keep using local community lands for personal production
- obligation to weave cloth for the state
- in return for the right to draw fibers from the community stocks to make cloth for personal use
- state provided a certain quantity of wool, then expected to get it back as cloth
- lots of collca filled with great quantities of textiles
- both awasqa and kumpi, plus rope, sandals, feathered goods...
- uses by the state
- mostly, apparently, for the army
- remember the claim in an earlier reading that soldiers got two shirts every time they went into battle...
- plus other occasions, like accessions to the throne, etc.
- and many other similar claims cited by Murra
- also a prized gift for diplomacy
- other indications of cloth's value
- the several cases in which the Inka destroyed cloth rather than letting the Spanish get it
- mentioning the cloth even before maize
- and allowing the Spanish to get llamas and allies
- although killing all these would have been time consuming, maybe dangerous, not to mention possibly unacceptable for moral reasons
- numerous other small references (especially pp. 720-1) in which cloth is mentioned along with just a few other highly valued items, like land and servants.
- Precedent for cloth's more than practical value in Moche iconography
- in which prisoners are often stripped
- also done to Europeans felled in the early colonial internal wars
- and even into the 18th century
- special types of cloth reserved for the Inka
- special, rare fibers
- gold and silver embroidery, etc.
- the insignia of the Sapa Inka was not a metal crown, but a red textile fringe that hung on his forehead
- uses by the royal family
- initiation of royal youths
- required many changes of clothes, each garment from a specific relative, with colors and designs relating to the divisions of the royal lineage
- royal marriage proposals and weddings
- very specific, necessary part of the rituals
- given to people in thanks for all sorts of services
- mollified "hostage" sons of distant leaders
- etc.
- Murra notes correctly that there is nothing unusual about this sort of use of prestige goods, only that it should be cloth that is so highly valued