Inca Society
Who were the Incas?
- Settled and built cities around water such as Lake Titicaca (mid-13th century)
- The Incans were expert weavers
- The Incas were expert metal smiths
- Incan art forms also included music; among the remains of their civilization are found flutes made of bone and of cane, clay trumpets and trumpets of shells, and bells of different tones—some made of bronze, some of pure copper.
Pachacuti:
- Military efforts around Titicaca Lake and expanded incas rule
- Took control over the Chimu kingdom and adapted their irrigation system.
- The Inca empire spread through modern day Bolivia, Ecuador, chile, and Peru.
- Military and administrative elite assigned the armies to conquered people.
- Staffed a Beurocracy to manage political affairs
- If the conquered people rebelled, incas forced them to resettle in another part of the empire.
Cusco:
- People such as the military elites, priests, rulers of captured settlements lived in Cusco
- They had mountain roads
- Runners acted as a postal system throughout the empire (almost like a relay). There would be men at each stations to receive the message until it reaches its destined place.
Social Structure:
- Structure being rulers, aristocrats, priests,peasant and cultivators(everyone else)
- Rulers were descendants of the sun so they owned everything, and survived in mummified form after their physical bodies gave way.
- Aristocrats and priests were privileged, so they consumed fine food and wore embroidered clothes.
- Priests were celibate or were not allowed to marry.
- Peasant and cultivators supported the system by paying tribute to the bureaucrats.
- The agricultural surpluses were stored for famine, and to support the widows, orphans, and others who couldn’t cultivate land themselves.
The Incas were illiterate so they kept a record of their history using a quipus(they are cords that contained numeric and other values depicted by knots).The cords recorded crop production and taxes.
- The Inca farmers were the first people to grow/cultivate potatoes.
- Agriculture included potatoes, maize, tomatoes, green vegetables, peppers, chilies, and cassava.
- Domesticated animals such as llamas, and alpacas.
- They kept guinea pigs for food
- Used llamas as a way of transportation.
Religion of the Children of the Sun
- The Incas' viewed their king as God and he owned everything
- Sun god was Inti, and moon, stars, planets, rain and natural forces as divine
- The Incas believed that their gods and their ancestors could communicate/give them their opinions through dreams.
- The priests were very powerful because they were said to read the signs. They saw a message/sign in everywhere, on the rock,on a leaf, or evan in the water.
- Sacrificed to gain favor of the gods.
- Instead of humans, sacrificed animals such as llamas and guinea pigs.
- Everyone mummified their dead because they believed in after life.
- Mummies of dead rulers remained in their palaces and were treated as if they were still alive. Their family brought them things like food.
List of the Main Gods:
Summary of the Inca Society-
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