INCA EMPIRE PREZILeader Profile:
Inca in quechua,means “leader” or “chief”. Sapa means unique. Sapa Inca means unique leader or chief. Here is a list of the 13 spap Incas that ruled the empire. Together, it means unique chief of leader.
Manco Capac, Manco Capac established the Inca empire and was the first sapa Inca. He began the empire in Cuzco, a city now in southeastern Peru by bringing small tributes around the the city of Cuzco together. Blending the tribes around Cuzco together so not so challenging because most of the tribe members were ordinary farmers. If they refused to combine with Manco Capac, it would cause war, which farmers had no interest in. On the other hand, setting up a new city was a great challenge and it demanded constant attention.
There were legends about how Manco Capac founded the empire. Because there wee no written language, the legends were passed down orally. It story may have changed, but here's one legend. Four brothers, Ayar Cachi, Ayar Uchu, Ayar Auca, Ayar Manco, and four sisters lived in the cavern of Pacaritambo, a cave in the Andes Mountains. The brothers and their sisters left the cave in search of a better existence. The first brother, Ayar Cachi had mystical powers. The other sibling coveted the power. The jealous brothers tricked Ayar Cachi into returning to their cave. The siblings later blocked the cave's entrance to prevent him from escaping. The remaining siblings came across Mount Huanacauri during the journey. There, Ayar Uchu turned into stone and became a holy shrine. With only Ayar Auca, Ayar Manco, and the four sisters left, they walked by a village. Auca became frighten and fled. He ran across a rough terrain. Soon, he got exhausted and sat down for some rest. Like his brother, he turned into stone immediately. Ayar Manco and his sisters finally arrived at Cuzco. There, Ayar Manco and his sister brought together the small tributes living near Cuzco forming the Inca Empire. He chnaged his name to Manco Capac and married his sister, Mama Ocllo.
Mayta Capac was fourth ruler of the Inca Empire. He established a school system for the Inca nobility, encouraged religious tolerance, and conquered the people of Tihuanaco / Tiwanaku (located in western Bolivia). Early in his reign, he decided that princes needed basic knowledge and understanding of government and warfare. Later on, he expanded the school concept to include curacas (sons of the Inca chief's relatives) and sons of rulers whose tributes had been absorbed into the empire. At that time, some European rulers forced their people to follow the dominant religion, or suffer with consequences. Mayta Capac was different. He wanted the conquered people to worship the Inca gods, but also respected the other as well because he realized that different cultures honored their gods the same way the Incas felt to their gods. Mayta Capac allowed them to pursue their own gods and religion. Mayta's greatest contribution during his ruling period was the assimilation of the Tiahuanaco's stone cutting, shaping and building. He applied that knowledge to creating stronger stone structures.
Did you know? The sapa Incas were believed to represent the sun gods, similar to how the Egyptian pharaohs were served as gods. Some sapa Incas were born to greatness, but Capac Yupanqui, one of Mayta Capac's son, achieved greatness by his look. Capac Yupanqui wasn't the first in line, he had an older brother, but the designated heir was not chosen, instead Mayta Capac chose Capac Yupanqui, for the reason that he was too ugly to be the Inca chef. Mayta Capac decided that Capac Yupanqui made a better-looking king or sun god.
According to the cronistas (a writer who collects historical or current facts and writes them), the legend begins like this: In 1438, Cuzco came under attack from the Chancas, a violent, belligerent culture that Incas feared. Huiracocha, the sapa Inca at the time, and his heir, Urco Inca, fled to escape capture, and possibly torture. This only left Cusi Yupanqui, the younger son to defend the empire. As the Chancas prepared their attack, Cusi Yupanqui led his soldiers against the Chanca. As the legend goes, Inti, the sun god caused stones on the battlefield to rise as warriors to assist Cusi Yupanqui in defeating the Chancas. Then, Cusi Yupanqui forced his father to abdicate, causing him become the next sapa Inca. From that time on, he was called the Pachacuti meaning the earth shaker. Pachukuti was the ninth sapa Inca of the empire. Pachukuti started a military campaign to expand the empire. He inherited a well-disciplined and experienced army. Every adult male between 25 to 50 were required to have military training. Plus, a part of the manhood rituals included getting weapons of war as gifts and learning how to handle the weapons. A well equipped warrior wore padded cloth armor and a helmet, and carried a spear, mace, sling, and shield. Because of Pachukuti's strong army, many enemies gave up before the fighting had even begun. Pachukuti offered gifts such as gold and valuable cloth and guaranteed peace to whose who promised their allegiance to the empire. In fact, some less powerful cultures chose assimilation. As the empire expanded, he had to maintain control over a larger number of conquered people. One way to keep rebellion was by bringing a conquered culture's god to the Coricancha, the central temple in Cuzco, which had been replaced by Intihuasi. He also built the royal estate at Machu Picchu, the most famous Inca ruins.
Journal Entry: Life in Inca
I did my journal entry in a diary form.
Topic 1: Growing up in the Inca Empire
Today, it was my little sister's naming ceremony. I'm glad that she made it through her first year! My parents named her Achiq, meaning beloved. They have her a haircut, it's a tradition in the naming ceremony. Our people do not name their children until after the child is one year old, perhaps because so may children die as infants. There was another ceremony held for my cousin Alma today, right after Achiq's. The ceremony congratulated 14th birthday. In our empire, we consider men once they are about 14 years old. I had mine a year ago, but it wasn't so fun. I had to sell all my favorite dresses to be able to afford the animal sacrifices. After the ceremony I went out to the meadow to pick flowers for Achiq with my cousin Alma, but he had to leave for school. Only the sons of Inca nobility can attend school, but Alma is the sapa Inca's son's cousin's half brother and his father once saved the sapa Inca's daughter from drowning. I don't understand why only boys are supposed to go to school. I hate the fact that I cannot go to school because I'm a girl, but I keep it to myself.
*Quechua names from http://www.behindthename.com/submit/names/usage/quechua*
Topic 2: Food
Today, I taught Taruka, a friend of mine, how to keep certain foods from spoiling. Taruka is 7 and she lives next door. She is my only, but best friend. Because we are farmers do not have time to socialize, but I am happy least have a friend. Some have none. Anyway, the secret to keep certain foods from spoiling is to freeze-dry them. Freeze-drying have food lots of other benefits. It decreases the weight of the food, it takes up less space, it's easier to store and transport. In order to dry food such as potatoes, meat, or fish, we leave them out on winter nights for the food to freeze. During the day, the food was placed in the sun. The process is repeated until all the water comes out of the food. Meat persevered in this method is called charqui (jerky).
Topic 3: Religious Sacrifice
Next week, the annual children sacrifice will be practiced. During this sacrifice, three children walk to a special platform on the summit of a mountain more that 6700m in height led by Incan priests. Dressed in their finest clothes, the three children have to travel more than 800km to reach the Andean peak. Between the travel, they drank chicha, a fermented beverage made from maize. Chicha includes corn beer and non-alcoholic beverages. Chicha caused the children began to weaken drinking. Then, they lay down, and priests kill them, either by hitting them on the head, or by strangling them. We do the sacrifice in the mountains because mountains have powerful spirits called apus and we can have better contact with the gods. I'm not so sure if it is true but it's what my father told me so I guess it's true. My father also said the sacrifices are often young children because children are pure; they did not have much time to do evil things. Having a "pure" sacrifice is important because they will have to send messages from the gods back to earth.
Topic 4: People
In our empire, most people are commoners, including our family. We have no political rights, but because the government counts on us to raise crops and herd animals, the government makes sure that we are treated well. In return, each household has a to pay a form of tax, called mita. This work includes serving in the army, constructing buildings, roads, and bridges, and moving goods across the empire.
Although most people are farmers, some had special skills such as metalworking or weaving. Some villages only produced goods such as pottery or clothing for the state. But artisans and their families also worked the fields to raise crops. Mining is another important job for some of us. The empire lands provides gold, silver, and other copper, and the metals use to make bronze. Only the Inca noble can afford gold and silver, while we can only afford metal and copper and bronze. My dad used to mine. He told me that mining is hard work because all you have are deer antlers and stones. Some commoners have special roles in the empire. They are chosen by Inca royalty to be their servants. These people are called Yanaconas. My grandmother was one, but she is now retired. She was taken from her family at early age to begin serving. According to my grandmother, Yanaconas do not have to pay tax and they may pass their position to their children. My grandmother could’ve passed my mother her position, but my mother refused.
Topic 5: The Calendar
Our calendar was used to keep track of when certain religious ceremonies are held. We actually have two calendars. One is based on the cycle of the moon, just like the Chinese lunar calendar. The other one is based on movement of the sun. The first one has 354 days, and we sometimes had to add days to a month, but the second one has 365 days. So we just agreed on the second one, the one based on the sun. We, Incas track movement of the sun and stars through the sky. Stone towers in Cuzco lined up with the position of the sun as it rose and set on the longest and shortest days of the year. The calendar is very important to us, Incas because it tells us when to do certain farming tasks.
