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24 - State and religion in the Inca Empire

from Part V - State formations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

By
Sabine MacCormack
Edited by
Benjamin Z. Kedar  and
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Benjamin Z. Kedar
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
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Summary

Documents produced by Spanish officials containing demographic, administrative and economic information supplement these accounts, regarding the provinces of the Inca Empire. Pachacuti's victory over the Chancas and the incorporation of the Chanca settlements under Inca rule that followed led to further campaigns that, combined with diplomatic overtures, brought increasingly distant polities into the framework of Tahuantinsuyu. The combination of diplomacy and warfare, which is a theme in the crónicas that narrate the conquests of Pachacuti and his successors Tupa Yupanqui and Guayna Capac, is adumbrated in two distinct strands in the Inca myth of origin. The Incas endeavoured to impose a certain uniformity on these different regions and peoples, at least in principle. As for Inca administration, populations were organized into age groups and decimal units of households, sometimes with intermediate subdivisions, the units being adjusted periodically in accord with demographic fluctuations. The chapter explains the Inca religion in detail.
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History , pp. 638 - 664
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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References

Further reading

Bauer, Brian S. Ancient Cuzco. Heartland of the Inca. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2004.Google Scholar
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Zuidema, Tom. El calendario Inca. Tiempo y espacio en la organización ritual del Cuzco. La idea del pasado. Lima: Fondo editorial del Congreso del Perú, 2010.Google Scholar

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