Warfare and Human Sacrifice in the Inca Empire: - Smu

(Topic 11)
Warfare
and Human
Sacrifice in
the Inca
Empire:
AD 1438-1532 1438 1532
Quito
Huánuco Hu nuco Pampa
Machu Picchu
Cuzco
Mt. Ampato

Quito
Huánuco Hu nuco Pampa
Machu Picchu
Cuzco
Mt. Ampato
Maule River

Growth of the
Inca Empire: the
Conquerors
Pachacuti
1438-1471
Tupac Inca
1471-1493
Huayna Capac
1493-1527
Inca Empire
Length:
4300 km (2670 mi)
(1,835,000 km²) km
Chanca
Chumpivilca
Approximate
original area of
Quechua speakers
Colla
(pre-AD (pre AD 1438)
Cuzco
Origins of the Inca State:
POSSIBLE CAUSES:
ideology (‘civilizing ( civilizing’ the Andes)?
politics (split inheritance)?
initial population pressure?

Growth of the
Inca Empire: the
Conquerors
Pachacuti
1438-1471
Tupac Inca
1471-1493
Huayna Capac
1493-1527
Inca Empire
Length:
4300 km (2670 mi)
(1,835,000 km²) km
Split
inheritance
&
civilizing …?
Chanca
Chumpivilca
Population pressure &
civilizing …?
Approximate
original area of
Quechua speakers
Colla
(pre-AD (pre AD 1438)
Cuzco
Origins of the Inca State:
POSSIBLE CAUSES:
ideology (‘civilizing ( civilizing’ the Andes)?
politics (split inheritance)?
initial population pressure?
… RESULT:
WARFARE !!!

Inca cultural diagnostics …

Sacsahuamán
Sacsahuam
Coricancha

Sacsahuamán
Sacsahuam

Growth of the
Inca Empire: the
Conquerors
Pachacuti
1438-1471
Tupac Inca
1471-1493
Huayna Capac
1493-1527
civil Atahuallpa
war Huáscar
First
contact
between
Spaniards
& Incas,
AD 1532
Inca
Empire
Demise
of the
Inca State
Causal factors:
Inca side
Spanish side
Results …

Francisco Pizarro

168 Spaniards & 37 horse
vs.
Inca army of 30,000-60,000

Inca militarism:
1. The legendary founders of the Inca state, Manco Capac and his wife,
Máma ma Oqllu, and their followers invaded the Cuzco area and took it
over by force, assimilating, not killing off, the former inhabitants
inhabitants
(Inca wars were for conquest, not annihilation of a people).
2. The strategy for moving the army, carrying out conquests, and
integrating conquered provinces into the empire included: included
a. road system and bridges
b. locating tambo way stations along the roads (every several km.)
c. locating administrative centers along the roads (at 4-5 4 5 day’s day
travel apart)
d. hierarchizing the army into decimal units
(5,10,50,100, 500,1000, 5000,etc.)
e. sending out spies to gather intelligence in advance of the army

3. Conquests of provinces were not definitive: the Inca had to take tak
strategic measures to keep them under control—including
control including:
a. mitimaes
b. incorporating local chiefs (curacas) into the state hierarchy
c. taking chiefs’ chiefs sons hostage to Cuzco
d. taking local ‘idols, idols,’ or gods, hostage to Cuzco
e. admitting chiefs’ chiefs daughters to the Houses of the Chosen Women
(Acllahuasi) whereupon they became part of the Inca cult of the
Sun God, Inti
4. Imperial “taxation taxation” policy: policy
a. provincial men and women owed labor service (mit’a) (mit a) to the
state—men state men both to the army and state lands and projects,
women to state lands and projects
b. citizens owed allegiance to the state cult of the Sun God
c. provinces were required to offer adolescent males and females
as Capacocha (Capa Cocha) to the empire for sacrifice

5. Organization of the army: army
a. every able-bodied able bodied man under 30 was subject to conscription
b. younger men (age 10-18) 10 18) were drilled in the use of Andean
weapons
c. on the march, soldiers were not permitted to pillage or abuse
local people
d. each tribal (provincial) group was permitted to use its own dress dress
and insignias
e. desertion was a capital crime
6. Divination was carried out by the priests to foretell outcome of a
military campaign: campaign
a. ‘reading reading’ the signs on the entrails of llamas
b. also, maize kernels—seen, kernels seen, it seems, as ‘little little people’—were
people were
placed in a bowl over a fire by a diviner, who by nudging them
with a little rod forced them to do what he wanted (“the the
grains then had a great fight, some against others, until the the
conquered were driven out of the vessel”); vessel ); this procedure
guaranteed success of the campaign.

“In comparison to the horses and weapons of the Spanish,
the Inca army was poorly equipped. But in Andean terms
this was a very impressive fighting body.”
Source: www.soltec.net/~ruskin/Meet_the_Incas/

Weapons included:
braided slings for hurling stones
bolas
thrusting spears
spear throwers and darts
swords of hard chonta wood
maces
Protective gear included:
quilted cotton tunics
round metal plates on chest and back
quilted or wood helmets
shields made of chonta palm covered
with deerskin or textile

ECUADOR
COLOMBIA
PERU
(NASA photo of the Central Andes)
CHILE
BRAZIL
BOLIVIA
(area of photo)
Inca Road
System:
23,000 km.
Main sierra
road:
4000+ km
Capac
Ñan an

Ingapirca (Cuenca)
Ingapirca, Ecuador

“El primer nueva
corónica y buen
gobierno conpuesto
por don Phelipe
Gvaman Poma
De Aiala”
[~AD 1615]

Guaman Poma de Ayala and parents The author sets out out
on his travels

organization of the empire …
Aqllacuna ‘monjas monjas’ (chosen women) The governor of the imperial bridges bridges

organization of the empire …
“CO CONTADOR MAYOR Y TESORERO” “CORREÓN MAYOR Y MENOR”
Contador (accountant) with quipu strings Chasqui runner blowing conch shell

Punishment of death by stoning
for an adulterous couple
imperial laws …
Punishment of death for a young
couple that has fornicated

ocks?
idol
The seventh captain, Inca Maytoc,
attacks a fort in the Bolivian provinces
war in the south …
“Indios Indios de Chile” Chile
The eighth captain, Abo Camac Inca,
fights an army from Chile

The tenth captain, Chalco Chima Inca,
fights in Quito and other northern areas
war in the north …
The eleventh captain, Rumi Naui, a
traitor, kills Inca Illescas in Quito

The ninth Inca, Pachacuteq Inca,
dressed for battle
emperors and captains in war …
A war leader holding the
severed head of an enemy

Growth of the
Inca Empire: the
Conquerors
Pachacuti
1438-1471
Tupac Inca
1471-1493
Huayna Capac
1493-1527
Chanca
Chumpivilca
Cuzco
Colla
Inca
Empire

Paracas &
Nazca, ca.
1000 B.C.
to A.D. 500
Casma Valley,
ca. 1500 B.C.

Body of Huayna Capac (d. 1528)
is taken to Cuzco
The arrival of the Spaniards …
“donzellas donzellas presenta a los cristianos” cristianos
Rumi Naui presents two Inca girls to
Pizarro, trying to get him to leave Peru

Pizarro attacks Atahuallpa
in Cajamarca
Spaniards vs. Atahuallpa …
The Spaniards execute
Atahuallpa

Spanish captain kills an Inca
in the conquest of Lima
Spaniards vs. Inca citizenry …
Pizarro sets an indigenous
house in Lima on fire

Santa María Mar a appears during a
battle and scares off the Inca soldiers
a little help from the Spanish deities …
“MILAGRO MILAGRO”
St. Santiago appears in battle
to help the Spaniards

Diego de Almagro, of the same
name as his father, kills Pizarro
Spaniard vs. Spaniard …
Gonzalo Pizarro, brother of the
conqueror, kills Diego de Almagro

Urubamba canyon en route to Machu Picchu

1-meter meter ridge …
1-bounce bounce slope down… down
1-hour hour slope up …
2000 ft.
wider sloping ridge

1-meter meter ridge …
1-bounce bounce slope down… down

Band-level Band level ‘defensive defensive’ works Village-level Village level palisaded settlement
(gender relations: essentially non-violent)
non violent) (gender relations: violent)

gender relations …?
fort
dwellings
of
‘commoners commoners’
Chiefdom society fort and settlement, Santa Valley

(gender relations: essentially non-violent)
non violent)
Inca State

Inca
Capacocha
Cuzco
Nevado Ampato
Volcán Volc n Llullaillaco
Cerro Plomo

Cerro Plomo, Chile
Life magazine, April 5, 1954

Cerro Plomo

(Volcán (Volc n Llullaillaco)

Volcán Volc n Llullaillaco,
Argentina

Nevado Ampato, and Juanita, ‘the the ice maiden’
maiden

Spondylus shell
(Ecuador)

Detail of vessel shown upper left.
Pumice fused to the handle shows
it was struck by lightning after the
burial was sealed.

fracture

(from Time
magazine
June 3, 1996)

“I’ll ll take the fifth
on that one!” one!
“Heh, Heh, heh …
just wait till
we get home, Bob!”
Bob!

“…or, “…or,
Monica,
will you be
my mummy?” mummy?
“Bill, Bill, don’t don t make
me hurt you!”
you!

Andeans & Inca
Sacrifice as a religious &
ideological indication of
demographic pressure …
(Bernab Bernabé Cobo, Cobo,
Inca Religion
and Customs, ~1653: ~1653:
… llamas were sacrificed to ensure
the health and well-being well being of
humans, and to the Sun God, Inti
vs.