WEBVTT 1 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:22.879 Hello, and welcome to Western Sieve Episode two hundred and forty five, People 2 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:28.359 of the Andes. Last week we finished with Hernan Cortes and the Fall of 3 00:00:28.359 --> 00:00:34.399 Old Mexico. Hernan Cortez is probably the most famous Spanish conquistador of the era, 4 00:00:35.159 --> 00:00:40.719 but there were others. If Cortez is in first place, then certainly 5 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:48.600 Francisco Pizaro comes in a close second. Cortez is to the Aztec Mexica what 6 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:54.439 Pizaro is to the Inca. The Inca were absolutely at their height of power 7 00:00:54.520 --> 00:01:00.560 and authority when Pizaro arrived. And if you've never been, the Andes is 8 00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:07.239 one of the places on earth expressly designed for defense. So if anyone stood 9 00:01:07.239 --> 00:01:15.120 a good chance against Spanish encroachment, it should have been the Inca. Yet, 10 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:19.200 as we will see, there are numerous parallels between the fall of Old 11 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:23.359 Mexico and the collapse of the Inca. Today, I want to cover the 12 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:27.640 basics. Who were the Inca, where do they live and what can we 13 00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:33.000 say about their culture. One thing I should note at the outset is that 14 00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:36.920 compared to the Mexica and the Maya, we can say a lot more about 15 00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:42.120 the Inca. The reason is simple. While Natal, the classical Mexica language 16 00:01:42.439 --> 00:01:48.560 is effectively dead. Quechua, the language of the Inca, is still spoken 17 00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:53.840 in parts of Peru and Chile today. That language never died, so we 18 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:57.519 can make connections more easily when it comes to the Inca than we could with 19 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:02.640 the Mexica and sir with the Maya. So with all that being said, 20 00:02:04.159 --> 00:02:19.080 let's get started. At first glance, the rugged lands of western South America 21 00:02:19.199 --> 00:02:24.039 probably look like a bad place to give birth to a grand civilization. Compressed 22 00:02:24.039 --> 00:02:29.759 within a narrow band along the Pacific Ocean lie the highest peaks in the western 23 00:02:29.800 --> 00:02:34.120 Hemisphere, a coastal desert that may go on for years without rain, and 24 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:39.759 dense tropical jungles. As forbidding as the setting seems, a closer look shows 25 00:02:39.759 --> 00:02:46.280 that the land contains a mosaic of productive micro environments and natural resources. The 26 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:54.759 Andes Mountains form the continent's most commanding geographic feature, Running eight thousand kilometers along 27 00:02:54.800 --> 00:03:00.759 the length of the land mass. They ascend so rapidly that the mental divide 28 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:06.560 lies only one hundred kilometers east of the shoreline at Lima, Peru. For 29 00:03:06.639 --> 00:03:09.639 a seasoned hiker, the climb up to the high passes takes about a week, 30 00:03:10.439 --> 00:03:14.960 but a passenger in a long distance taxi can get there in a couple 31 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:19.960 hours. The descent from the eastern snow caps to the upper reaches of the 32 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:27.120 Amazon Jungle is even more precipitous in some places. To appreciate how geography has 33 00:03:27.159 --> 00:03:32.080 condensed the ecology, we can visualize a path across central Peru from ocean to 34 00:03:32.159 --> 00:03:37.800 forest. In a trip that would cover about two hundred kilometers by air, 35 00:03:38.520 --> 00:03:43.759 we would pass over twenty, yes twenty, of the world's thirty four major 36 00:03:43.840 --> 00:03:50.159 life zones. In this compact vertical arrangement, which is not duplicated anywhere else 37 00:03:50.159 --> 00:03:54.960 on the planet, Distinct ecological belts may lie less than a hour's walk apart. 38 00:03:58.199 --> 00:04:02.159 The early inhabitants managed to flourish in the demanding conditions, for the Andes 39 00:04:02.199 --> 00:04:06.960 contain one of the richest ecological zones of any of its size in the world. 40 00:04:08.879 --> 00:04:14.000 People first entered the continent at least fifteen thousand years ago, when hunting 41 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:18.199 and gathering were the way of life everywhere. Over the millennia, they devised 42 00:04:18.199 --> 00:04:25.040 a wide variety of foraging, farming, and herding strategies. The marine fisheries 43 00:04:25.240 --> 00:04:30.040 of the Bone chilling inshore waters could be exploited with simple technology well Yama and 44 00:04:30.199 --> 00:04:35.720 alpaca herding became both a successful adaptation and a source of wealth for the mountain 45 00:04:35.759 --> 00:04:43.519 people, although people still foraged for some resources. After states appeared about two 46 00:04:43.519 --> 00:04:49.600 thousand years ago, all of their staple foods and industrial crops had been domesticated 47 00:04:49.639 --> 00:04:58.279 by three thousand BC. They modified features of the landscape through irrigation, terracing, 48 00:04:58.680 --> 00:05:02.079 and draining wetlands. At the same time, they adjusted to the rhythms 49 00:05:02.079 --> 00:05:08.639 with their lives to the demands of the climactic cycles. Despite their successes, 50 00:05:08.639 --> 00:05:13.680 however, land in the Andes was never easy. Even in some of the 51 00:05:13.720 --> 00:05:19.120 most densely occupied highland zones, Crops honestly could still fail two years out of 52 00:05:19.199 --> 00:05:26.360 three, while earthquakes, floods, erratic rainfall, disease, and a host 53 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:34.279 of other natural forces periodically brought disaster to subsistence systems. The Inca Empire, 54 00:05:34.399 --> 00:05:41.439 which was very much a latecomer to the Andean civilizations, built upon a millennia 55 00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:46.800 of adaptation, tradition, and innovation in carving out their domain. For the 56 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:49.600 most parts, it was a rural society, as most people lived in small 57 00:05:49.639 --> 00:05:57.040 towns and villages and spent their time farming and hurting. Over the last five 58 00:05:57.319 --> 00:06:02.680 million years, the oceanic Nazca Plate has been sliding eastward, slowly, creating 59 00:06:02.920 --> 00:06:08.720 a deep trench off the coast of Peru and Chile, while raising the Andes 60 00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:15.680 Mountains. The highest snow cap in the America's Mount Akungagu is six thousand, 61 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:24.079 nine hundred and sixty meters tall and lies along the Chile Argentina border. Plate 62 00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:30.560 tectonics have also created three active volcanic zones along the spine of the mountains from 63 00:06:30.600 --> 00:06:35.680 central Columbia to central Chile. The Andes, as a result, are much 64 00:06:35.759 --> 00:06:42.920 richer in terms of mineral deposits than the central Mexican valley of Cidian abounds, 65 00:06:42.959 --> 00:06:47.600 and there are deposits of copper and tins scattered about, making Chile and Peru 66 00:06:47.839 --> 00:06:54.759 prime locations for mining stills a day. In terms of climate, there are 67 00:06:54.759 --> 00:07:00.839 two major trends in western South America. Number one, the eemperate zone in 68 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:05.759 Chile from the south to the tropics in Columbia to the north, and two, 69 00:07:06.279 --> 00:07:13.519 the arid west to the humid east. Offshore. The Chile Peru Trench 70 00:07:13.839 --> 00:07:18.439 provides a conduit for the frigid waters of Antarctica to flow north, making the 71 00:07:18.480 --> 00:07:26.040 waters rich in fish, everything from anchovies to sea bass. Both the rocky 72 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:30.360 and sandy shores provided homes for many kinds of shellfish. In some areas, 73 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:35.759 the remains of these are piled up to five meters deep in ancient sites. 74 00:07:38.439 --> 00:07:43.920 From the northern reaches to Peru to central Chile, the entire coast is essentially 75 00:07:44.040 --> 00:07:49.000 a coastal desert where very little grows. Slightly further inland, it's possible to 76 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:55.000 grow stable crops such as corn, squash, and cotton. Above the coastal 77 00:07:55.079 --> 00:08:01.240 zone is the warmer yungus zone, which produces crops like peppers and cocoa for 78 00:08:01.319 --> 00:08:07.240 chocolate. But the most productive zone is the Quechua band, defined as three 79 00:08:07.240 --> 00:08:13.839 thousand, one hundred to three five hundred meters above sea level. Here is 80 00:08:13.879 --> 00:08:18.800 where you would find native grains like quinwa, and here is where the potato 81 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:24.879 was born. Above this zone is the Sunni zone up to four thousand meters 82 00:08:24.879 --> 00:08:28.920 above sea level, which features cold hills, bridges, and deep valleys. 83 00:08:30.120 --> 00:08:33.320 Above this is yet one more zone, the Puna zone up to five thousand 84 00:08:33.320 --> 00:08:37.799 meters, which is the natural habitat for the only beasts of burden in the 85 00:08:37.840 --> 00:08:46.840 Americas before the arrivals of Europeans, Yamas and alpacas. Down the eastern Peruvian 86 00:08:46.879 --> 00:08:54.600 slopes lie the Upper Amazon Brew speaking from personal experience, is a truly remarkable 87 00:08:54.600 --> 00:09:00.440 place. You can go from frigid mountains to humid jungles in a day. 88 00:09:00.600 --> 00:09:05.039 In some places, the upper edge of the Amazon is known as the Sia 89 00:09:05.080 --> 00:09:11.679 de Silva or eyebrow of the Jungle. During the height of the Incan Empire, 90 00:09:11.159 --> 00:09:16.279 it was cut and terraced there he could produce corn, cocoa, fruits, 91 00:09:16.279 --> 00:09:22.879 and peppers. While we do not have much information about how this zone 92 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:28.879 fit into the Incan Empire, without a doubt it was important economically. To 93 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:35.360 the north are the coastal mangrove swamps and western woodlands of Ecuador. This would 94 00:09:35.360 --> 00:09:41.600 have been the border of the Incan Empire, for the Inca never managed to 95 00:09:41.639 --> 00:09:48.440 bring this region under its control. Traditional communities today in the Andes are based 96 00:09:48.480 --> 00:09:54.440 on kin groups called ailu. Members of this group believe that they share a 97 00:09:54.440 --> 00:10:01.039 common ancestor. They hold resources collectively and allocate according to family size and status. 98 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:07.720 Whenever possible, a n ailu would have access to all the growing zones 99 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:13.559 in the Andes regions. Ailu usually contained two or three opposing parts or divisions 100 00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:20.000 you might think of them. Members typically take their spouse from the opposite division 101 00:10:20.679 --> 00:10:26.559 and thus keep resources within the larger group. The INCA used this same kin 102 00:10:26.679 --> 00:10:33.759 group system to take advantage of the varied natural environment and achieve self sufficiency. 103 00:10:33.919 --> 00:10:41.159 Communities sought to distribute their members across the landscape. For every ailu. It 104 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:45.840 was very advantageous to have different members of the kin group in all the different 105 00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:50.919 farming zones. Has also helped to maximize labor because the growing period in each 106 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:56.960 of the zones was different. By using irrigation, farmers could move up their 107 00:10:56.960 --> 00:11:05.120 planting seasons and their especially in the higher zones, beat the frost. The 108 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:09.919 system was intelligent but very straightforward. Everyone would work on the land in the 109 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:16.559 highest zone first and then keep moving down with the seasons. That way, 110 00:11:16.759 --> 00:11:22.559 Anaelu could be efficient with its labor pool and ensure that there were always fresh 111 00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:31.000 crops about to be harvested. Pastoralism augmented farming. Evidence suggests that drovers have 112 00:11:31.120 --> 00:11:35.399 been taking caravans of yamas and alpacas to the coast for thousands of years, 113 00:11:35.399 --> 00:11:41.039 and we're certainly doing so during the Incan imperial period. Recently, archaeologists have 114 00:11:41.120 --> 00:11:48.559 made great strides and identify and explaining the major changes that occurred in Andean prehistory, 115 00:11:48.919 --> 00:11:52.679 or readily admit that we still have a long way to go and accounting 116 00:11:52.679 --> 00:11:58.679 for the emergence of complex society theories tend to focus on a few key issues 117 00:11:58.080 --> 00:12:03.360 in seeking for the explanations for the rise of early states. Among the most 118 00:12:03.399 --> 00:12:11.919 important our population growth and the concentration of people in more urbanized settlements. As 119 00:12:11.960 --> 00:12:18.960 societies expanded and nucleated, their interactions made it harder and harder to maintain social 120 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:24.440 order and obtain adequate food. On the other hand, the close interaction of 121 00:12:24.519 --> 00:12:28.360 large numbers of people, and this is the case generally everywhere, offered a 122 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:35.279 setting that fostered intellectual life and creativity. Increases of food production, specialization of 123 00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:43.159 labor, and coordination of labor for tasks ranging from erecting monuments to warfare were 124 00:12:43.200 --> 00:12:48.879 also crucial. When found together, they indicates a society had centralized leadership and 125 00:12:48.919 --> 00:12:54.879 that its members were interdependent for their livelihoods in ways that fed back on one 126 00:12:54.879 --> 00:13:03.519 another. Socially, the most important change was the appearance of inherited status differences. 127 00:13:05.080 --> 00:13:11.279 This shift signaled differences in access to power and prestige that were ascribed at 128 00:13:11.320 --> 00:13:18.879 birth and laid the foundations for class society. Formalized ideologies explained humanity's place in 129 00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:26.840 the cosmos, provided rationales for life, But the beliefs also legitimized social inequality 130 00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:33.759 by proposing separate origins for the elite and common members of society. The religions 131 00:13:33.799 --> 00:13:41.559 thus simultaneously bonded societies and justified disparities in rank and power. The beliefs were 132 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:48.279 also given physical form in monumental architecture such as pyramids, palass and open spaces, 133 00:13:48.919 --> 00:13:52.080 in art, and in ceremonies that sometimes venerated the dead as if they 134 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:58.000 were still among the living. In terms of political life, the creation of 135 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:03.320 offices with specific duties allowed a privileged few individuals or kin groups to control the 136 00:14:03.320 --> 00:14:11.039 accumulation of information and thus wield disproportionate power within societies. Those individuals gathered and 137 00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:16.399 guarded information, set policy, and made day to day decisions. All those 138 00:14:16.440 --> 00:14:24.320 actions were advanced by the invention of standardized recording systems. Each of these features 139 00:14:24.919 --> 00:14:31.039 was well established in the Andes more than one thousand years before the rise of 140 00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:37.559 Inca power. Following a period of slow development, things really started to take 141 00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:43.039 off in the Andes about twenty five hundred BC. Around two thousand, five 142 00:14:43.159 --> 00:14:48.519 hundred, simple foraging began to give way to farming, and small scale corporate 143 00:14:48.600 --> 00:14:56.200 architecture starts to emerge, think like small pyramids. This era also saw major 144 00:14:56.240 --> 00:15:01.840 advances in craft technology. Pottery improved, metallurgy developed. The head of loom 145 00:15:03.039 --> 00:15:07.960 was invented. From one hundred to seven hundred CE, the first state and 146 00:15:09.159 --> 00:15:16.639 urban societies developed along Peru's northern coasts. By fourteen hundred CE, a group 147 00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:22.840 called the Chimu had united the entire region. Next week, I'm going to 148 00:15:22.919 --> 00:15:28.039 talk about the political life of the Incan Empire, so I'll leave that particular 149 00:15:28.080 --> 00:15:33.240 thread dangling for just a moment, but suffice it to say that by one 150 00:15:33.320 --> 00:15:41.840 thousand CE, the Incas were still living in hundreds of fragmented societies. As 151 00:15:41.879 --> 00:15:48.200 I mentioned before, the language of the Incas was Quechua, but its speakers 152 00:15:48.200 --> 00:15:54.799 would have known it as run Assimi, or translated literally human speech. By 153 00:15:54.840 --> 00:16:02.080 fifteen thirty two, Quechua was the Lingua Franca of the Andes. The Spanish 154 00:16:02.120 --> 00:16:06.679 and their writings referred to it as the main language of the land. The 155 00:16:06.679 --> 00:16:11.519 Inca, like the rulers of many ancient societies, promoted an official ideology. 156 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:18.799 The tenets of state religion were intended to justify both incas supremacy and the supremacy 157 00:16:18.840 --> 00:16:25.759 of their rulers. However, like any time that politics and dogma collide, 158 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:30.879 they're bound to be contradictions. For example, the Inca worship the Sun, 159 00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:37.480 the divine line of kings, and sacred landmarks, but at the same time 160 00:16:37.440 --> 00:16:45.519 they consciously manipulated that same past to legitimize their rule. For the Inca tradition, 161 00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:53.399 history and politics were interwoven with belief. The Inca religion was quite decentralized, 162 00:16:55.639 --> 00:17:00.440 despite the fact that Cusco was the political capital of the Inca. Religious 163 00:17:00.480 --> 00:17:07.039 practice tended to revolve around local deities, shrines, and myths. Even into 164 00:17:07.119 --> 00:17:12.079 the sixteenth century. The Spanish, as they were in Mexico, were slow 165 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:19.200 to recognize the complexity of Inca religious belief and practice. To them, it 166 00:17:19.240 --> 00:17:26.400 all looked like devil worship. The Spaniards recognized that the Inca worship the sun 167 00:17:26.920 --> 00:17:32.720 and believed their rulers were divine, but not much beyond that. It took 168 00:17:32.720 --> 00:17:37.720 the Spanish about fifteen years to begin to unravel anything more complex than that. 169 00:17:38.279 --> 00:17:45.519 Sadly, that was about fifteen years after the last major Son ceremony. I 170 00:17:45.640 --> 00:17:51.079 say sadly because I don't think there's a person alive today who would not want 171 00:17:51.119 --> 00:17:56.119 to know exactly what went on during that ceremony. Now, when we talk 172 00:17:56.200 --> 00:18:02.359 about Incan creation myths, most begin at lake and run something like this. 173 00:18:03.319 --> 00:18:07.960 In ancient times, before there was a light, the Creator or Alpachica, 174 00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:11.960 fashioned a race of giants to see if it would be good to make humans 175 00:18:11.960 --> 00:18:15.079 at that scale. He saw that they were too large, however, and 176 00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:19.920 so he made humans in his own size. But they were filled with hubris 177 00:18:19.920 --> 00:18:26.400 and greed. So the Creator turned some to stone and others to diverse forms, 178 00:18:26.920 --> 00:18:30.079 and some were swallowed up by the earth or the sea, and he 179 00:18:30.119 --> 00:18:34.960 caused a great flood to cover the land, destroying all that was upon it 180 00:18:36.079 --> 00:18:40.200 save for three men, whom he saved to help him create humans anew. 181 00:18:41.240 --> 00:18:45.480 Obviously, you're going to notice a lot of connections between other creation myths. 182 00:18:47.039 --> 00:18:49.759 Later, on an island in Lake Titicaca, he caused the sun, moon 183 00:18:49.839 --> 00:18:55.319 and stars to come forth. The Sun was jealous that the Creator had made 184 00:18:55.319 --> 00:19:00.279 the Moon brighter than he, so he cast ashes in her face. Thus 185 00:19:00.279 --> 00:19:06.759 she remains with her brilliants dimmed. The Creator then crossed over the dry land 186 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:11.319 at Tiwanuka, where he carved and drew images of all the nations he thought 187 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:17.759 to create on some larger stones. He ordered his two servants to memorize the 188 00:19:17.839 --> 00:19:21.240 names of the people and the places where they were to appear on the earth. 189 00:19:22.240 --> 00:19:25.279 Then he sent one of them to the coast and the other to the 190 00:19:25.319 --> 00:19:30.799 eastern slopes. Waika himself took the central path, calling out the people from 191 00:19:30.839 --> 00:19:36.519 the lakes, springs, valleys, caves, trees, caverns, and mountains. 192 00:19:37.559 --> 00:19:40.799 He appeared to be a man of normal size, dressed in a white 193 00:19:40.839 --> 00:19:44.920 robe, hearing his staff and a book in his hands. At Cuzco, 194 00:19:45.359 --> 00:19:49.400 he called forth the Incan nobles, gave Cusco its name, and continued north. 195 00:19:51.279 --> 00:19:56.200 Finally he reached the Ecuadorian coast, where he told his servants that his 196 00:19:56.279 --> 00:20:00.960 messengers would return one day, and then together they walked out over the water 197 00:20:00.039 --> 00:20:07.079 until they appeared beyond the horizon. Worship of the Sun was a centerpiece of 198 00:20:07.079 --> 00:20:11.799 official Inca religion. Incan emperor's claimed to direct genealogical link to the Creator through 199 00:20:11.799 --> 00:20:17.440 the Sun, but of course there were other gods. The patron god of 200 00:20:17.480 --> 00:20:21.960 empire and conquest was called Inti. The Inca as I mentioned in the Creation 201 00:20:22.039 --> 00:20:25.640 myth, worshiped the moon as well, who was considered the wife of the 202 00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:30.920 Sun. Into Ilappa was the thunder god, but also the god of lightning, 203 00:20:30.279 --> 00:20:37.759 the rainbow, and basically all other meteorological phenomena. The Inca's annual calendar 204 00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:45.279 was based on solar cycles, while festivals were largely built around twelve lunar cycles. 205 00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:49.440 The Incas knew that twelve lunar months fell short of a solar year, 206 00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:56.279 so they made a correction at the winter solstice. Historians aren't ane hundred percent 207 00:20:56.319 --> 00:21:00.400 sure about this, but they believed that the Inca used a thirty day month. 208 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:07.319 Inc and ceremonies were tied to both solar and lunar cycles, as well 209 00:21:07.319 --> 00:21:14.960 as irregularly scheduled rituals. For example, Inti Rami or quote unquote warriors cultivation 210 00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:18.599 took place in the month that coincided with the June solstice. Whatever month that 211 00:21:18.680 --> 00:21:25.480 happened to be that year, but the biggest festival was the Inca Festival of 212 00:21:25.519 --> 00:21:30.720 the Sun, which lasted eight to nine days and was considered a grand state 213 00:21:30.839 --> 00:21:38.640 ceremony. According to one Spanish official quote, they brought out all the effigies 214 00:21:38.680 --> 00:21:44.039 from Cusco's temples onto a plane at the edge of Cusco, toward the area 215 00:21:44.119 --> 00:21:48.240 where the sun dawned. The effigies with the greatest prestige were placed beneath rich 216 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:55.000 finally worked feather canopies, which had an elegant appearance. The space between the 217 00:21:55.039 --> 00:22:00.079 canopies formed an avenue of over thirty paces wide, and all the lords and 218 00:22:00.200 --> 00:22:06.680 other principal figures of Cusco stood in it. End quote. But as I 219 00:22:06.759 --> 00:22:11.000 mentioned, the Inca religion was not at all centralized. Across Peru. Still 220 00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:15.599 today are the remnants of hundreds of shrines and miniature temples. The Inca believed 221 00:22:15.640 --> 00:22:22.839 the land around them positively teemed with spirits. But fascinatingly, all of these 222 00:22:22.839 --> 00:22:29.279 shrines are not randomly placed, not random at all. The Inca based everything 223 00:22:29.319 --> 00:22:33.799 on the Temple of the Sun in Cusco. From there, they literally on 224 00:22:33.839 --> 00:22:37.880 a map, drew lines emanating out in different directions. All of the smaller 225 00:22:37.960 --> 00:22:45.359 shrines fall on one of these lines. Now, as to human sacrifice, 226 00:22:45.880 --> 00:22:49.920 suffice it to say that the Inca did not practice human sacrifice as regulariously as 227 00:22:49.960 --> 00:22:56.920 the Mexica. That being said, they did practice human sacrifice. For the 228 00:22:56.960 --> 00:23:04.839 Inca, however, human sacrifice was a limited religious component, generally practiced only 229 00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:10.400 during the festival of the Sun, after a major military victory, or after 230 00:23:10.440 --> 00:23:15.960 the death of an emperor. Certainly, that's still a lot of human sacrifice, 231 00:23:15.160 --> 00:23:19.680 but one might, of course argue that one human sacrifice is too many. 232 00:23:19.799 --> 00:23:23.039 But it's not even close to the level that the Mexica engaged in such 233 00:23:23.039 --> 00:23:30.799 practices. Likewise, the rationale for human sacrifice isn't laid out as well for 234 00:23:30.920 --> 00:23:34.480 us in the Inca sources as it is in the Mexican sources. The best 235 00:23:34.519 --> 00:23:38.920 we get in Peru are fleeting references to needing to join the Creator, the 236 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:45.039 Sun, and other deities after death. For the vast majority of people, 237 00:23:45.079 --> 00:23:52.359 though, life revolt around kin, not major festivals or human sacrifices. These 238 00:23:52.400 --> 00:23:57.319 were the people with whom you shared social ties and economic risks. Most of 239 00:23:57.319 --> 00:24:06.200 the highland societies headed by hereditary local lords called kuraka, now as I will 240 00:24:06.200 --> 00:24:11.200 discuss more next week. In any portion of the empire, the Inca themselves 241 00:24:11.200 --> 00:24:15.480 and I mean the ethnic Inca, were at the top of the social pyramid. 242 00:24:17.079 --> 00:24:22.200 While the Inca conquered and subjugated new peoples around them, just like the 243 00:24:22.279 --> 00:24:27.079 Mexica, they did not incorporate them into the imperial structure. There was the 244 00:24:27.119 --> 00:24:33.279 Inca and then there was everyone else. The Inca were at the top of 245 00:24:33.319 --> 00:24:37.880 the social pyramid, and from there what mattered was your proximity to the royal 246 00:24:37.960 --> 00:24:45.319 family. The closer you were, the higher your status. From there, 247 00:24:45.799 --> 00:24:49.720 your value actually broke down based on your stage of life. The Inca did 248 00:24:49.720 --> 00:24:56.039 not keep track of people's specific age. Rather, they kept track of where 249 00:24:56.039 --> 00:25:00.839 they were in their stage of life, though in the middle stages were of 250 00:25:00.920 --> 00:25:08.799 the highest status. Because the Inca very much valued labor, the Inca also 251 00:25:08.920 --> 00:25:15.880 valued large families. Women were encouraged socially to have as many children as the 252 00:25:15.960 --> 00:25:22.279 land might support. This was, of course a pre industrial society. As 253 00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:26.960 a result, more were hers meant that more land could be put into cultivation, 254 00:25:27.440 --> 00:25:32.640 and we have no evidence that the Incan Empire ever suffered from some of 255 00:25:32.640 --> 00:25:40.440 the overpopulation problems that confronted. Late medieval Europe. Women in fact, worked 256 00:25:40.599 --> 00:25:44.920 pretty close up to childbirth from the moment the mother went into labor. However, 257 00:25:45.240 --> 00:25:49.640 she was prohibited from visiting the farm fields for religious reasons. Children were 258 00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:56.920 treated sternly from the word go. Famously, newborn infants were dipped into icy 259 00:25:56.000 --> 00:26:02.440 streams as a sort of rude welcome to their old and somewhat inhospitable mountain world. 260 00:26:03.359 --> 00:26:07.799 Consider the following account quote. Every morning, when the baby was wrapped 261 00:26:07.839 --> 00:26:11.519 up, it was washed in cold water and often exposed to the night air 262 00:26:11.559 --> 00:26:17.759 and do The mothers never took the babies into their arms or on their laps, 263 00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:21.680 either when giving suck or at any other time. They said that that 264 00:26:21.759 --> 00:26:25.359 made them cry babies, and encouraged them to want to be nursed and not 265 00:26:25.480 --> 00:26:30.400 stay in the cradle. The mother reared the child herself, never gave it 266 00:26:30.400 --> 00:26:33.359 out to nurse, even if she were a great lady, unless she were 267 00:26:33.400 --> 00:26:37.519 ill. During this time, they abstained from sexual intercourse, considered that it 268 00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:42.759 spoiled the milk and caused the baby to grow weak. End quote. Now, 269 00:26:42.759 --> 00:26:47.680 as usual, the children of the nobility were treated differently. If you 270 00:26:47.680 --> 00:26:52.440 were an inca young boy you'd receive the most formal education available. You'd learn 271 00:26:52.720 --> 00:26:56.680 the use of weapons, how to speak a Quechua, religious historical studies, 272 00:26:57.000 --> 00:27:02.680 how to read and write. If you were the son of a local non 273 00:27:02.839 --> 00:27:07.359 Inca noble, then you would be sent as a hostage to Cuscoe to ensure 274 00:27:07.400 --> 00:27:15.119 the good behavior of her father. However, once in Cuscoe, you generally 275 00:27:15.160 --> 00:27:22.640 received the same education as the sons of Incan nobles. Both boys and girls 276 00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:26.839 went through the rights of passage in their early teens, which marked their transition 277 00:27:27.079 --> 00:27:33.839 from childhood to adolescence. A girl celebrated individually at her first menstruation, which 278 00:27:33.880 --> 00:27:41.000 occurred then by the age of thirteen or fourteen. Although a girl's ceremonies were 279 00:27:41.079 --> 00:27:47.039 less elaborate than the boy's collective affairs, they were equally valued. She was 280 00:27:47.119 --> 00:27:51.799 required to fast and seclusion for three days, on the last of which she 281 00:27:51.920 --> 00:27:56.240 received just a little raw corn. On the fourth day, her mother washed 282 00:27:56.240 --> 00:28:00.839 and dressed her in fine clothes made for the occasion. The relatives then came 283 00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:04.519 to visit for a couple of days, during which the girls served them food 284 00:28:04.519 --> 00:28:11.319 and drink. Her most notable uncle gave her an adult name, counseled her 285 00:28:11.519 --> 00:28:18.119 to live right and serve her parents well. Favorite names in Incan society generally 286 00:28:18.160 --> 00:28:22.240 emphasize beauty and purity. For example, there were names like q Lore which 287 00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:29.599 means star, wrong too which means egg oslo which means pure, Shimpo which 288 00:28:29.640 --> 00:28:36.839 means mark, and gold which means auri. The ceremonies concluded as he the 289 00:28:36.920 --> 00:28:42.039 uncle and the other relatives gave her gifts according to their means. Boys maturation 290 00:28:42.160 --> 00:28:48.039 ceremonies were probably very simple for common people, but were extremely elaborate for the 291 00:28:48.079 --> 00:28:55.279 sons of Inca aristocrats. The right of adolescent passage was celebrated once a year 292 00:28:55.359 --> 00:29:00.039 for a community in Cusco. This always coincided with the December Solstice festival. 293 00:29:02.359 --> 00:29:06.599 Boys would reach the age of about fourteen were given their breechcloth at this time, 294 00:29:06.599 --> 00:29:11.200 which was woven by their mothers. They also received adult names during these 295 00:29:11.240 --> 00:29:17.200 rites. Preferred name for Inca boys in English this time are things like condor, 296 00:29:17.319 --> 00:29:22.759 snake, and hawk. Marriage marked the passage into full adulthood. The 297 00:29:22.839 --> 00:29:27.359 marriage ceremonies were simple and varied from one Ayulu or clan to the next. 298 00:29:29.720 --> 00:29:33.640 Generally, there was some form of gift giving ceremony. The groom presented the 299 00:29:33.680 --> 00:29:37.559 future mother in law with a bag of cocao leaves, and when she accepted 300 00:29:37.599 --> 00:29:42.279 it, the marital bond was done. The new couple would then take up 301 00:29:42.279 --> 00:29:48.720 residency in their own household. The Inca views on afterlife were different from the 302 00:29:48.839 --> 00:29:53.279 Mexica. In the Andes, a person's status changed when he or she died, 303 00:29:53.720 --> 00:29:57.759 but they didn't descend or ascend into a sort of heaven where hell. 304 00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:03.359 Instead, the spirit of the ancestor still inhabited the land, which is why 305 00:30:03.359 --> 00:30:07.960 the streams, valleys, and so on and so forth had quasi magical properties. 306 00:30:11.640 --> 00:30:15.160 Not to some extent, farming practices in parts of the Andes haven't changed 307 00:30:15.240 --> 00:30:22.000 much since fifteen thirty two. The final year of the Inca land was divided 308 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:26.279 out based on the size, needs, and prestige of the Ayulu or clan. 309 00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:32.599 One Spanish source in fifteen thirty two wrote that each newly married couple received 310 00:30:32.640 --> 00:30:38.400 a quote tupou of May's land that was supposed to be the amount necessary to 311 00:30:38.440 --> 00:30:44.200 feed the couple for a year. In modern terms, if we do the 312 00:30:44.279 --> 00:30:48.440 math, a tupoo comes out to about one point five acres or one half 313 00:30:48.440 --> 00:30:55.960 a hectare. The Inca were also different from the Mexica in that they had 314 00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:02.920 beasts of burden alpacas and yamas. To that end, most of their clothing 315 00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:07.519 was made of wool from their animals. And that being said, there's very 316 00:31:07.519 --> 00:31:14.440 little evidence to almost no evidence that either animal was consumed regularly for its meat. 317 00:31:15.119 --> 00:31:21.039 The elite might consume alpaca on special occasions, but by no means was 318 00:31:21.079 --> 00:31:29.279 it a regular occurrence. Now, thinking about the economy, local autonomy remained 319 00:31:29.359 --> 00:31:33.440 the ideal, but it was not always possible. Depending on what eco zone 320 00:31:33.480 --> 00:31:37.920 you were in, you might not be able to produce everything for your family. 321 00:31:40.440 --> 00:31:45.039 This is where the greater Ayulu comes in. Exchange networks in the Incan 322 00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:52.759 Empire were based on connections between eco zones, so, by no means was 323 00:31:52.839 --> 00:32:01.240 this capitalism. This was a form of cooperation intended to assure mutual revival goods. 324 00:32:01.480 --> 00:32:06.960 We're not really traded, and certainly not traded for luxury items. They 325 00:32:06.960 --> 00:32:12.759 were exchanged for other essentials and often just within your kin group or clan. 326 00:32:14.599 --> 00:32:20.519 And a particular good example of this is a form of cooperation that was help 327 00:32:20.799 --> 00:32:25.839 during military service. We will discuss the inc And military system more next time, 328 00:32:27.799 --> 00:32:31.920 but when inc And peasants were called up for military service. The expectation 329 00:32:32.720 --> 00:32:37.880 was that if their neighbors were not called up, then they would assist in 330 00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:44.839 cultivating the fields of those who went. So production never dipped. Outside of 331 00:32:44.880 --> 00:32:51.240 farming, household life revolved around family care, cooking, and weaving. Now 332 00:32:51.279 --> 00:32:58.079 these are all one hundred percent essential items, and as a result, within 333 00:32:58.160 --> 00:33:02.160 the household, the woman was the minute figure. The idea was that each 334 00:33:02.160 --> 00:33:07.720 household would produce whatever it needed. When that was not possible, people leaned 335 00:33:07.759 --> 00:33:15.359 on familial connections through the ayulu. A typical inc and household included husband, 336 00:33:15.559 --> 00:33:22.759 wife, their children, an unmarried or widowed adult kin. During the days, 337 00:33:22.119 --> 00:33:25.799 the women and girls spent a lot of time collecting wood or yama dung 338 00:33:27.240 --> 00:33:31.319 to be used as cooking fuel. Again, this was not a task that 339 00:33:31.440 --> 00:33:37.279 was in any way looked down upon. Fire was essential to life in the 340 00:33:37.319 --> 00:33:45.519 Andes, so these female tasks revealed as just as important as male farming duties. 341 00:33:47.400 --> 00:33:52.559 Potatoes and kenwalk were the essential staples of the Highland diet. They were 342 00:33:52.559 --> 00:33:58.640 flavored with herbs and peppers from different ego zones, while stews with fish were 343 00:33:58.680 --> 00:34:02.480 also popular, But meat, as I mentioned, was reserved for special occasions. 344 00:34:05.160 --> 00:34:10.320 Tools were produced, but generally produced only for local use. To the 345 00:34:10.360 --> 00:34:15.639 best of our knowledge, there was no larger market exchange for produced and finished 346 00:34:15.679 --> 00:34:20.920 goods like metal tools. Now. I'm going to go into this more next 347 00:34:20.960 --> 00:34:24.119 time, but I wanted to talk a little today about how the Incas structured 348 00:34:24.159 --> 00:34:30.239 their rural societies. Here is one account from a Spanish priest during the era 349 00:34:30.400 --> 00:34:36.559 immediately after Pizarto's conquest. Quote. When the Inca settled a town or reduced 350 00:34:36.559 --> 00:34:39.559 one to obedience, they would set up markets on its boundaries and divided the 351 00:34:39.599 --> 00:34:44.880 fields an arable land within its territory into three parts in the following way. 352 00:34:45.920 --> 00:34:50.519 One they assigned to religion and the cult of his false gods. Again, 353 00:34:50.599 --> 00:34:54.880 this is a quotation from a Spanish priest. Another he took for himself. 354 00:34:55.599 --> 00:35:00.000 A third they left for the common use of the people. It has not 355 00:35:00.159 --> 00:35:05.639 been possible to determine whether these parts were equal in any towns and provinces. 356 00:35:06.440 --> 00:35:09.440 However, it is known that in many places the division was not equal, 357 00:35:09.880 --> 00:35:14.039 but depended on the availability of the land and the density of the population. 358 00:35:15.599 --> 00:35:21.199 The Inca had the same division made of all the domesticated livestock assigning one part 359 00:35:21.239 --> 00:35:24.599 to religion, another to himself, and another to the community. He did 360 00:35:24.639 --> 00:35:29.599 the same with the grazing lands and the pasture in which the live stock was 361 00:35:29.639 --> 00:35:32.599 pastured, so that the herds were indifferent pastures and could not be mixed. 362 00:35:32.760 --> 00:35:37.320 End quote. Now, when it comes to how they set up their rural 363 00:35:37.400 --> 00:35:42.719 society, the good news is that the Inca didn't have a large urban population 364 00:35:42.760 --> 00:35:46.559 to support in Cusco, nor could they ever have hoped to move bulk goods 365 00:35:46.559 --> 00:35:52.119 over great distances in the Andes to sustain such a population. So this wasn't 366 00:35:52.159 --> 00:35:57.880 like a Rome situation, wherein the capital becomes a sort of parasite on the 367 00:35:57.920 --> 00:36:04.079 provinces. What the Inca wanted was it necessarily tribute goods. So they're also 368 00:36:04.239 --> 00:36:09.159 different from the Mexica in that regard. What they wanted was labor. The 369 00:36:09.159 --> 00:36:15.760 Incan conquests gave new lords access to millions of new workers, and their goal 370 00:36:15.239 --> 00:36:22.159 was to maximize this labor. The Incas chose to intensify the highland economies they 371 00:36:22.239 --> 00:36:30.920 knew best and left the more integrated systems largely alone. Traditionally, as a 372 00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:37.599 result, the Inca economy by historians has been described as quote supply on command 373 00:36:37.920 --> 00:36:42.960 end quote. When the Inca conquered upheaval, they took over the land, 374 00:36:43.920 --> 00:36:50.039 then they sort of gave back or least back the land in return for labor 375 00:36:50.119 --> 00:36:55.960 duty. This is essentially similar and the same as the French corvet system, 376 00:36:57.280 --> 00:37:02.039 which'll talk about eventually when we get to the French Revolution, which designated the 377 00:37:02.039 --> 00:37:08.840 heads of household for rotating labor service. In Quechua, the system is called 378 00:37:09.199 --> 00:37:15.800 mitta, which translates literally to quote take a turn end quote. So in 379 00:37:15.840 --> 00:37:23.519 the Incas system, the labor provided was the tax. Individuals provided a number 380 00:37:23.519 --> 00:37:28.639 of hours of labor each year in lieu of cash or goods in kind. 381 00:37:30.559 --> 00:37:36.440 To make things work. Officials required current information about the size of the tax 382 00:37:36.480 --> 00:37:44.280 paying population and the natural resources at their disposal. This labor tax was levied 383 00:37:44.320 --> 00:37:50.599 on the head of households called the hatoun runa. These were married men who 384 00:37:50.639 --> 00:37:54.519 belong to an age category that corresponded to about twenty five to fifty years of 385 00:37:54.559 --> 00:38:00.719 age, so middle age. All in all, this mounded to somewhere between 386 00:38:01.159 --> 00:38:07.400 fifteen to twenty percent of the empire's total population, which was required to provide 387 00:38:07.559 --> 00:38:14.679 two to three months of work per year. This was the backbone of the 388 00:38:14.719 --> 00:38:22.159 Incan Empire and their political structure. Rome was based on tribute cash or in 389 00:38:22.280 --> 00:38:30.679 kind. The Incan Empire based itself on compulsory labor. Even though the labor 390 00:38:30.800 --> 00:38:37.239 tax was assessed for the head of household, traditionally everyone in the family helped 391 00:38:37.239 --> 00:38:43.880 with the job to get it done more quickly. All taxpayers were supposed to 392 00:38:43.920 --> 00:38:50.280 render some kind of labor, but in practice many were exempt from the traditional 393 00:38:50.360 --> 00:38:57.119 labor service. The Urus who lived on the edges of Lake Titicaca were an 394 00:38:57.119 --> 00:39:04.000 example of a whole people who were exempt from labor service. Sadly, the 395 00:39:04.039 --> 00:39:10.000 Inca chose to exempt these people because they considered them totally inept. Instead, 396 00:39:10.159 --> 00:39:15.440 these folks provided you know, cash or a tributing kind, mostly cloth, 397 00:39:16.239 --> 00:39:22.000 even those communities who provided absolutely nothing, and I do mean absolutely nothing. 398 00:39:22.440 --> 00:39:27.960 The Urus provided cloth, but some communities just couldn't get stuff together enough to 399 00:39:28.039 --> 00:39:36.199 provide any sort of service. But the Inca still made those people provide labor. 400 00:39:37.320 --> 00:39:43.639 And I mean that. There are examples of whole communities being forced to 401 00:39:43.679 --> 00:39:50.880 provide full baskets of lice, which were of course immediately discarded, And the 402 00:39:50.960 --> 00:39:57.119 Inca did this just so that these folks could learn the value of imperial service. 403 00:39:59.159 --> 00:40:05.400 What we know is that over time this corvet like system became increasingly specialized 404 00:40:05.840 --> 00:40:08.760 as the income became more adept at learning what their subjects were good at. 405 00:40:10.199 --> 00:40:15.880 Now, of course, it's really hard to say exactly what everyone did. 406 00:40:16.199 --> 00:40:23.719 Not every job left a mark for archaeologists to study. Forty percent of people 407 00:40:23.760 --> 00:40:30.039 performed portage services or acted as guards at various guard posts, and this obviously 408 00:40:30.519 --> 00:40:37.320 left no archaeological imprint on the land. We do know that one out of 409 00:40:37.320 --> 00:40:43.440 every nine compulsory workers made pottery, which historians love and are able to track 410 00:40:43.559 --> 00:40:50.559 quite easily. Furthermore, one of roughly every four hundred workers was assigned to 411 00:40:50.599 --> 00:40:55.559 go to Cusco, though precisely what they did when they got their historians aren't 412 00:40:55.559 --> 00:41:04.599 sure. Some people worked on large collective farms. These were called farms of 413 00:41:04.639 --> 00:41:09.760 the State and farms of the Sun. Farms of the State grew food for 414 00:41:09.960 --> 00:41:15.800 royal administrators and for the army. Farms of the Sun supported the temple and 415 00:41:15.880 --> 00:41:22.400 the priests. The products of these farms were separated both physically and administratively. 416 00:41:22.840 --> 00:41:29.159 As the quotation I read earlier indicates, the vast majority of The labor on 417 00:41:29.239 --> 00:41:35.840 these farms was provided by the compulsory labor system. Now, farms of the 418 00:41:35.880 --> 00:41:40.239 Sun were supposed to be set aside in every province, and both Sun and 419 00:41:40.440 --> 00:41:46.840 state farms were distinct from royal and aristocratic lands worked by the peasants. The 420 00:41:46.880 --> 00:41:55.039 most extensive of these farms historians know of were at Cochabamba in Bolivia. As 421 00:41:55.079 --> 00:42:04.119 many as fourteen thousand workers labored on fields there at one time. These massive 422 00:42:04.239 --> 00:42:09.719 farms were divided into seventy seven narrow strips across the valley, with groups assigned 423 00:42:09.840 --> 00:42:19.360 to each strip. Alpacas and llamas were a major part of the economy. 424 00:42:19.440 --> 00:42:24.039 However, in this situation, the Inca couldn't just conjure up new herds. 425 00:42:25.440 --> 00:42:31.719 Instead, they had to maximize animal husbandry in the places that had already existed. 426 00:42:34.239 --> 00:42:37.679 Again, as with the farms, there were private herds, herds of 427 00:42:37.679 --> 00:42:45.400 the state, and herds of the Sun. It's very difficult to tabulate total 428 00:42:45.480 --> 00:42:50.599 numbers today, but let's give it a try. In fifteen sixty seven, 429 00:42:51.159 --> 00:42:58.119 a sort of middle of the road local lord had about fifty thousand animals at 430 00:42:58.119 --> 00:43:05.320 his disposal. Thus an estimate of hundreds of thousands or maybe even millions of 431 00:43:05.360 --> 00:43:09.880 alpaca and yama in total across all the herds of the state, and sun 432 00:43:10.360 --> 00:43:16.639 is no way out of the question. In order to try to increase these 433 00:43:16.719 --> 00:43:22.800 numbers, the INCA did make efforts to try to introduce flocks into areas where 434 00:43:22.800 --> 00:43:27.559 they had been unknown previously. But how successful these efforts were, well, 435 00:43:28.320 --> 00:43:32.719 we just can't say. The primary use of all these herds was for the 436 00:43:32.840 --> 00:43:40.400 military. Armies on the move regularly used trains of thousands of yama's and alpaca 437 00:43:40.599 --> 00:43:45.800 to pack supplies, and then they could be used as meat when they were 438 00:43:45.840 --> 00:43:52.360 no longer needed. Reportage. While the INCA had the manpower and beasts of 439 00:43:52.400 --> 00:43:58.079 burden to move goods over great distances, they did not have the capacity to 440 00:43:58.239 --> 00:44:06.639 move everything without stopping. The Incan state needed different items at different times across 441 00:44:06.679 --> 00:44:14.199 what was a very long empire. It was too difficult to move items from 442 00:44:14.239 --> 00:44:22.039 one central location across jungle mountains and desert to another in one fell swoop, 443 00:44:22.440 --> 00:44:28.800 so the INCA developed a vast storage system to provide a bridge between production and 444 00:44:28.960 --> 00:44:37.440 need throughout the empire. Most of state storehouses, called kolko, were built 445 00:44:37.559 --> 00:44:44.280 in one of three places. One near Cusco, two along main roads, 446 00:44:44.360 --> 00:44:51.159 and three next to state farms. A Peruvian historian gives us a sense of 447 00:44:51.159 --> 00:44:55.400 the scale that was involved. Quote, in the more than twelve hundred leagues 448 00:44:55.400 --> 00:45:00.119 of coast they coverned, they had the delegates and governors, and many lodgings 449 00:45:00.119 --> 00:45:07.880 in great storehouses full of necessary things which were for provisioning the soldiers, because 450 00:45:07.920 --> 00:45:10.639 in one of them there were lances, and in others darts, and in 451 00:45:10.760 --> 00:45:15.320 others sandals, and then the other remaining arms that they had. Moreover, 452 00:45:15.840 --> 00:45:21.000 some storehouses were filled with rich clothing, and others with more goods, and 453 00:45:21.079 --> 00:45:24.840 others with food and all manners of supply. In this manner, once the 454 00:45:24.880 --> 00:45:30.239 lord was lodged in his housing and his soldiers nearby, not a thing, 455 00:45:30.719 --> 00:45:34.880 from the most trivial to the greatest was lacking, because it could be provided. 456 00:45:37.679 --> 00:45:40.280 Certainly. When the Spanish saw all of this, they were impressed. 457 00:45:42.039 --> 00:45:46.880 A contemporary road as follows. Quote from the fortresses above Couscoe, one can 458 00:45:46.960 --> 00:45:51.440 see many houses, and many of these are the houses of pleasure, and 459 00:45:51.480 --> 00:45:55.239 the rest of past rulers, and others are of the leaders or chiefs of 460 00:45:55.320 --> 00:46:00.760 all the land, who now reside in the city. The others are houses 461 00:46:00.960 --> 00:46:06.119 or storehouses full of blankets, wool, weapons, metals, and clothes, 462 00:46:06.480 --> 00:46:09.960 and everything that has grown or made within this realm. And there is a 463 00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:15.840 house in which are kept more than one hundred thousand dried birds, for from 464 00:46:15.880 --> 00:46:21.239 their feathers articles of clothing are made. There are shields, beams for supporting 465 00:46:21.280 --> 00:46:24.559 tents, knives and other tools, sandals, and armor for people of war, 466 00:46:25.119 --> 00:46:30.840 in such quantity that it is not possible to comprehend how they had been 467 00:46:30.880 --> 00:46:37.840 able to tribute so many different things end quote. These storehouses epitomized ink and 468 00:46:37.920 --> 00:46:45.039 state planning. The overall design of the system greatly facilitated accounting, since it 469 00:46:45.119 --> 00:46:52.599 was easy to determine and catalog the items in said storehouses. Storehouses came in 470 00:46:52.719 --> 00:46:58.199 two models, circular or rectangular. Of course, it goes without saying that 471 00:46:58.239 --> 00:47:01.599 these two models were contoured to the land so as to ensure that they were 472 00:47:01.639 --> 00:47:08.559 always as close to the road as possible. Exactly how much of which supplies 473 00:47:08.599 --> 00:47:15.880 were kept in the storehouses remains a bit of a mystery, although logic dictates 474 00:47:15.320 --> 00:47:21.400 that food was probably the highest percentage good in any storehouse at any time. 475 00:47:22.880 --> 00:47:30.079 Remarkably, the incas storage system continued to run and function for decades in some 476 00:47:30.199 --> 00:47:40.280 areas even after the empire collapsed. It's very difficult to say how much of 477 00:47:40.320 --> 00:47:46.480 an impact on the household economy the state labor system had. Certainly, if 478 00:47:46.480 --> 00:47:52.000 you lived in an area designated as either a state farm or a farm of 479 00:47:52.039 --> 00:47:55.000 the sun, you were going to have to move. That would have been 480 00:47:55.039 --> 00:48:04.079 a major disruption, but for everyone else the disruption was probably minimal. In 481 00:48:04.159 --> 00:48:10.519 many cases, any disruption was probably offset by the relative security the empire provided. 482 00:48:12.840 --> 00:48:16.920 Valleys and terraces, which prior to the Inca were too tempting of targets 483 00:48:16.960 --> 00:48:24.880 for local marauding groups, became effective locations for intense agriculture. There probably would 484 00:48:24.960 --> 00:48:30.480 have been a labor shortage or at least a pinch during the planting and harvesting 485 00:48:30.519 --> 00:48:37.519 periods. After all, state farms and sun farms would have needed planting and 486 00:48:37.599 --> 00:48:43.119 harvesting at the same time as communal plots, so families were probably, to 487 00:48:43.199 --> 00:48:47.519 use a modern term, a bit short staffed during those two periods. Again, 488 00:48:49.119 --> 00:48:52.239 how much this affected people during the time that the Inca ruled is very 489 00:48:52.239 --> 00:48:59.480 hard to say. Certainly, though, when the Spanish arrived, they discovered 490 00:48:59.480 --> 00:49:07.039 a civilization far beyond mere subsistence levels. One conquistador wrote as follows quote. 491 00:49:07.480 --> 00:49:13.280 In one cave they discovered twelve centuries of gold and silver, of the size 492 00:49:13.280 --> 00:49:19.960 and appearance of those of this country, extraordinarily realistic. There were pitchers half 493 00:49:19.960 --> 00:49:23.679 of pottery and half gold, with the gold so well said into the pottery 494 00:49:24.119 --> 00:49:28.880 that no drop of water escaped when they were filled, and beautifully made. 495 00:49:29.599 --> 00:49:34.960 A golden effigy was also discovered. This greatly distressed the Indians, for they 496 00:49:34.960 --> 00:49:38.440 said it was the figure of their first lord who conquered this land. They 497 00:49:38.480 --> 00:49:43.079 found shoes made of gold, of the type women wore like half boots. 498 00:49:43.920 --> 00:49:47.480 They found golden crayfish such as live in the sea, in many vases, 499 00:49:47.840 --> 00:49:52.679 on which were sculpted and relief, all the birds and snakes that they knew, 500 00:49:52.199 --> 00:49:58.320 even down to spiders, caterpillars, and other insects. All of this 501 00:49:58.760 --> 00:50:02.039 was found in a large cave that was between some outcrops of rock outside Cusco. 502 00:50:02.920 --> 00:50:08.719 They had not been buried because they were such delicate objects. The Inca 503 00:50:08.800 --> 00:50:15.519 commanded thousands of metalsmiths, weavers, carpenters, sandal makers, potters, and 504 00:50:15.599 --> 00:50:21.840 dyers, amongst other more specialized craftsmen. The INCA do not seem to have 505 00:50:21.840 --> 00:50:28.320 created many works just for display, in contrast to the Mexica INCA production centered 506 00:50:28.360 --> 00:50:36.679 around creating simple objects for mass consumption. That these products were so consistent suggests 507 00:50:36.880 --> 00:50:42.760 that there must have been some state control and state supervisors. But I don't 508 00:50:42.800 --> 00:50:47.039 want to confuse you. This wasn't a Soviet style command economy. Most of 509 00:50:47.079 --> 00:50:54.000 these goods were still produced and consumed locally, but controlling INCA obtained most of 510 00:50:54.000 --> 00:51:00.639 their goods by compelling a certain amount of labor from artisans rather than a specified 511 00:51:00.639 --> 00:51:06.960 amount of tribute. The most common material made by artisans in those circumstances was 512 00:51:07.079 --> 00:51:12.920 cloth, cotton, and wool. The INCA did not force their people to 513 00:51:12.960 --> 00:51:16.760 come up with the raw materials for these goods. However, each year, 514 00:51:17.360 --> 00:51:22.559 families of weavers received wool from these state stockpiles, which they then spun into 515 00:51:22.559 --> 00:51:30.199 cloth. This wasn't an overly complicated process. In the Andes, prepared wool 516 00:51:30.559 --> 00:51:35.760 was spot into cloth using a simple distaff, which requires a lot of skill 517 00:51:36.280 --> 00:51:40.679 but not a lot of technological innovation. Most inc and weavers then used a 518 00:51:40.760 --> 00:51:45.400 simple horizontal loom consisting of two rods attached to poles set in the ground. 519 00:51:47.159 --> 00:51:52.760 Like other civilizations, the Inca had very different levels of quality for their finished 520 00:51:52.760 --> 00:51:58.760 cloth. The coarsest of this was called choosy. A single length of choosy 521 00:51:59.280 --> 00:52:04.480 served as a bed roll and blanket. More elegant, finer cloth was called 522 00:52:04.679 --> 00:52:12.320 chompi and was made from both cotton and finer woolves The military was probably the 523 00:52:12.400 --> 00:52:19.039 major consumer of cloth and other woven goods such as bags. The Incas also 524 00:52:19.079 --> 00:52:24.119 consumed large but still unknown quantities of textiles for religious activities, especially sacrifices. 525 00:52:25.960 --> 00:52:32.960 Textiles were also used expressly for political purposes. For example, the only way 526 00:52:32.960 --> 00:52:38.400 a non Inca could wear a garment made from the finer cloth chambre was if 527 00:52:38.400 --> 00:52:46.679 an Inca gifted it to them. Clothing therefore signified group identity and social status. 528 00:52:47.800 --> 00:52:52.360 Quote. The men and women of each nation and province had their insignias 529 00:52:52.400 --> 00:52:57.920 and emblems by which they could be identified, and they could not go around 530 00:52:57.960 --> 00:53:02.400 without this identification or exchanged their insignias for those of another nation, or they 531 00:53:02.400 --> 00:53:08.559 would be severely punished. They had this on their clothes with different stripes and 532 00:53:08.599 --> 00:53:14.719 colors, and the men wore their most distinguishing insignia on their heads. Each 533 00:53:14.840 --> 00:53:21.159 nation was identified by their head dress end quote. In the cold, both 534 00:53:21.199 --> 00:53:27.760 sexes dressed in layers of simple, untailored wool clothing. Cotton then, was 535 00:53:27.840 --> 00:53:32.639 much more common in warmer weather. The production of so many textiles required tens 536 00:53:32.679 --> 00:53:38.320 of thousands of people working at coordinated tasks. The raw materials came from state 537 00:53:38.400 --> 00:53:45.440 or church farms, or herds, or gathered resources. In some instances, 538 00:53:45.840 --> 00:53:52.079 the weavers and herders lived nearby. Elsewhere, the raw materials were accumulated, 539 00:53:52.159 --> 00:53:57.760 stored, and dispensed to the artisans as needed. Many of the tasks involved 540 00:53:57.760 --> 00:54:01.639 in making textiles were restricted by gender, but just about everybody in the family 541 00:54:01.840 --> 00:54:07.920 could get involved in some way. Young boys, for example, collected bird 542 00:54:07.960 --> 00:54:14.000 feathers, and girls the dye stuffs. Different kinds of cloth were woven by 543 00:54:14.000 --> 00:54:19.400 women and men. While male weavers wove many of the finer grades of cloth 544 00:54:19.679 --> 00:54:25.800 and the feathered textiles. The women's made the finest and most valued compeis for 545 00:54:25.920 --> 00:54:34.199 sacrifices, idols, and the ruler himself. Other women holding special rank also 546 00:54:34.280 --> 00:54:38.960 made textiles. The wives of lords, even those of the inca themselves, 547 00:54:39.000 --> 00:54:45.519 also wore fine cloth, As one Spaniard reported, quote, there was no 548 00:54:45.599 --> 00:54:51.360 one who was an administrative official who did not send the Anca every year a 549 00:54:51.400 --> 00:54:55.760 set of garments made for his person by the hands of the official's wife end 550 00:54:55.840 --> 00:55:01.400 quote. To meet the nearly insatiable demand or clothing, the Inca set entire 551 00:55:01.519 --> 00:55:08.199 communities to weaving. Sometimes this might mean as many as one thousand households in 552 00:55:08.199 --> 00:55:15.639 a community working on weaving. The Inca were also skilled metal workers. People 553 00:55:15.719 --> 00:55:21.880 had been working metal in the Andes for thousands of years before the Incan Empire 554 00:55:22.039 --> 00:55:27.960 was established, so the Inca were drawing on existing knowledge. This is not 555 00:55:28.039 --> 00:55:32.159 like the end of the Bronze Age, when iron workers brought the tradition with 556 00:55:32.239 --> 00:55:38.199 them as they moved. The Inca used a lot of simple copper tools, 557 00:55:38.239 --> 00:55:44.760 like needles, and some of these were even bronze smelted with arsenic. These 558 00:55:44.760 --> 00:55:50.960 items were not particularly prized, suggesting that they were common obviously, though the 559 00:55:51.039 --> 00:55:57.719 Spanish didn't come to Peru looking for copper needles. What they wrote home about 560 00:55:58.440 --> 00:56:05.400 was the gold. The Inca, especially in Cusco, had massive amounts of 561 00:56:05.440 --> 00:56:12.320 gold. The entire interior of the Temple of the Sun was covered in gold 562 00:56:12.360 --> 00:56:19.480 plates. Each nearly a yard by a yard in length. Consider this account. 563 00:56:19.800 --> 00:56:23.920 Quote. These buildings were sheets with gold and large plates on the side 564 00:56:23.960 --> 00:56:28.480 where the sun rises, but on the side that there was more shaded from 565 00:56:28.519 --> 00:56:31.039 the sun, the gold in them was more debased. The Christians went to 566 00:56:31.079 --> 00:56:35.199 these buildings, and with no aid from the Incas, who refused to help, 567 00:56:35.239 --> 00:56:37.199 saying it was a building of the sun and they would die, the 568 00:56:37.280 --> 00:56:45.000 Christians decided to remove the ornament with some copper crowbars end quote. The conquering 569 00:56:45.039 --> 00:56:50.239 Spanish removed seven hundred of these plates, each weighing around two kilograms, and 570 00:56:50.360 --> 00:56:54.639 melted them down. Today, the gold alone, not the artistic value, 571 00:56:54.760 --> 00:57:01.199 which would have been immense and incalculable, would be at eleven million dollars. 572 00:57:02.719 --> 00:57:07.679 Because the Spanish hunted down inc and gold treasures so thoroughly, only a few 573 00:57:07.719 --> 00:57:15.360 pieces survive from museum collections. When it came to mining, the Inca made 574 00:57:15.360 --> 00:57:20.840 a blanket claim to all mineral resources, but that was more of an assertion 575 00:57:20.880 --> 00:57:25.400 of sovereignty than reality. Quote. Some of these mines were worked at the 576 00:57:25.440 --> 00:57:31.360 expense and under the auspices of the Inca themselves, and others constituting the majority 577 00:57:31.679 --> 00:57:36.519 were worked at the expense of local lords of the districts in which the mines 578 00:57:36.559 --> 00:57:39.960 were located. This was so that they would have things to give as presence 579 00:57:40.199 --> 00:57:47.280 to the Inca. End quote. Mining techniques were simple and extremely dangerous. 580 00:57:49.199 --> 00:57:53.360 Chafts were tiny and only one person could enter at a time. Fall Ins 581 00:57:53.400 --> 00:57:58.199 were common at the time, but this was the only way to extract any 582 00:57:58.239 --> 00:58:02.519 sort of metal ore. Given that the Inca obtained a tribute through hours of 583 00:58:02.599 --> 00:58:07.199 labor, you can bet that they assigned workers to the mines without much regard 584 00:58:07.320 --> 00:58:13.079 for their personal safety. Now, for most people, mining was a seasonal 585 00:58:13.199 --> 00:58:19.000 job. At higher elevations, workers just couldn't work in the winter months, 586 00:58:19.039 --> 00:58:22.719 and in general everyone needed to be available to work the fields during planting and 587 00:58:22.920 --> 00:58:30.599 harvesting, which greatly restricted when mining could happen. However, during the Incan 588 00:58:30.679 --> 00:58:37.039 Empire, local lords generally and slowly lost control over the mines. These, 589 00:58:37.280 --> 00:58:45.039 like state farms, were transferred to imperial control. Now, historians and archeologists 590 00:58:45.440 --> 00:58:51.280 love, and I do mean underline love pottery. Trust me, it's all 591 00:58:51.320 --> 00:58:55.760 over any book from the ancient world. I'm not going to bore you, 592 00:58:57.360 --> 00:59:00.960 but just understand the Inca. We're very evative when it came to ceramics. 593 00:59:02.320 --> 00:59:10.119 Cusco style polychrome pottery is the archeological benchmark throughout the Andes. When you go 594 00:59:10.159 --> 00:59:15.280 to a museum and you see a piece of South American pottery with ornate geometric 595 00:59:15.320 --> 00:59:22.760 designs, it's almost certainly Incan. They also made those distinctive vessels with the 596 00:59:22.840 --> 00:59:28.840 flared rims, so these have like long, skinny necks that flare out at 597 00:59:28.840 --> 00:59:35.760 the top. In addition to being pretty, Inca pottery was also a high 598 00:59:35.800 --> 00:59:42.840 technical quality and regularity. Hence most of the pottery from the Incan Imperial period 599 00:59:43.360 --> 00:59:47.480 looks the same. Still, you should know that the Inca did not consider 600 00:59:47.559 --> 00:59:54.320 ceramics an essential job on their hierarchy. It is listed below weaving, featherwork, 601 00:59:54.599 --> 01:00:01.679 and metallurgy. Now, finally, the Anko we're also fantastic stone workers. 602 01:00:02.880 --> 01:00:07.000 And what I mean here is that the Inca we're about on par with 603 01:00:07.079 --> 01:00:12.320 the ancient Egyptians. They crushed stone, they broke it, and they fitted 604 01:00:12.320 --> 01:00:19.559 it perfectly. Their techniques were essentially ancient. But that being said, despite 605 01:00:19.599 --> 01:00:27.880 repeated earthquakes, most inc And buildings remain undamaged still today. So I'm going 606 01:00:27.920 --> 01:00:31.199 to leave it there for this week. Next week we're going to talk about 607 01:00:31.239 --> 01:00:36.599 the foundations of the Inca Empire and take a really close look at its political 608 01:00:36.639 --> 01:00:39.679 and military structure, because those are the things that are going to be highly 609 01:00:39.800 --> 01:00:45.559 relevant when it comes to Pissaro's invasion, which we're going to get to in 610 01:00:45.760 --> 01:00:51.000 very short order. Here now, as I always say, in the link 611 01:00:51.000 --> 01:00:52.360 in the show notes, or a couple of ways that you can support the 612 01:00:52.400 --> 01:00:58.360 show. There's a link to the Patreon page. For one dollar a month, 613 01:00:58.719 --> 01:01:01.800 one dollar twelve dollars a year, you can support the show make it 614 01:01:01.840 --> 01:01:07.039 easier for me to get books and storage space and all the things that we 615 01:01:07.119 --> 01:01:12.360 need to keep this story going. And as a bonus, you'll get an 616 01:01:12.360 --> 01:01:17.039 ad free version of the show every single week. Of course, there's also 617 01:01:17.400 --> 01:01:22.599 Western CIV Two point zero. We're deep into Philip and Alexander the Great at 618 01:01:22.679 --> 01:01:25.639 this point. If you'd love to come back and get the second round, 619 01:01:25.920 --> 01:01:30.559 there's a free trial that's available there. Link is in the show notes, 620 01:01:30.360 --> 01:01:36.880 And if you're interested in any additional content, teaching resources are otherwise check out 621 01:01:36.880 --> 01:01:39.840 the links to the website Western CI podcast dot com. So, with that 622 01:01:39.920 --> 01:01:59.039 being said, until next week,