American Peoples

LAH 2020, Spring 2010

INKA – INCA
• European contact - 1532
• Andean highlands, territory extended
some 4,000 Km. (est. 2,484 miles) –
from present southern Colombia
(border to Ecuador) to central Chile
and northwestern Argentina
• Achieved high growth circa 1440 AD,
before European invasion
• Creation myth linked Inkas to Lake
Titicaca (southeast of Cusco)
TAWANTINSUYU

• Land of the Four Quarters

• Capital – Cusco
• Quechua – language of empire
• No written language
• Khipu(s) - mnemonic device, cords
with knots – memory aid to keep
records; register historical events
Political power

• organized under the supreme

ruler – Sapa Inka
• Inka – supreme ruler – Sapa Inka
• Coya – Inka wife
• Ñusta – Inka princess
Economic base

• Intensive agriculture
• Irrigation canals
• Built Andean terraces – andenes –
to maximize use of available land
• Tribute demands made by the Inka
from subject peoples
Basic staples
• potatoes, various edible roots, quinoa
(cereal) in high altitude valleys;
maize at lower altitudes; cotton,
beans, squash, coca leaves, etc.
• Wool from llamas, alpacas, vicuñas,
and guanacos; alpaca and vicuña
wool extremely valued in the Andes
• Storage facilities for potatoes, cereals
Llamas

• Charqui – freeze-dried llama

meat

• Llamas used as beasts of

burden; source of fuel
Religion

• Polytheistic society

• Sun god – Inti

• Moon goddess – Quilla

Ancestor worship

• Mummies of Inca rulers – kept in

Cusco
• Coricancha – Temple of the Sun –
located inside present-day Santo
Domingo Convent in Cusco
• Wak’a – huacas – sacred space,
element of nature
• Rituals and religious practices
• Sacrifice – some human sacrifice,
not as common as in
Mesoamerica