Inca Child Lifestyle

Hair samples taken from child mummies suggest the ancient Incas ´fattened´ up children chosen for ritual sacrifice. A chemical analysis of four mummies found high in the Andes Mountains also indicates the Incans took the children on a lengthy pilgrimage prior to the killings. They began this process of ‘fattening’ at least 12 months before the killings. The researchers analyzed hair samples up to 25 cm (nearly 10 inches) long in the children aged 6 to 15. This length represented about two-and-a-half years of hair growth, which gave researchers a picture of the doomed children's' lives over a fairly long period of time. In the earliest samples showed, the children were fed a steady diet of vegetables typical of a peasant background, but in the 12 months prior to sacrifice, the diet suddenly changed to food reserved for the elite such as maize and meat, likely representing the children's elevated status as offerings to the gods, the researchers said. In their final three or four months, the children began a pilgrimage to the mountains, likely from the Incan capital Cuzco after receiving ritual haircuts. The research suggests that the children were fed a ceremonial diet before being marched to a shrine 82ft (25 metres) from the top of the 22,110ft (6,739 metres) volcano Llullaillaco, where they were suffocated or left to die from exposure. It is thought that the children were given maize beer or chicha and coca leaves, both to alleviate the symptoms of altitude sickness and to drug them into compliance with their fates. Byproducts of coca metabolism have been found in the hair of the children. With evidence, it seems the children were led up to the summit shrine in the culmination of a year-long rite, drugged and then left to succumb to exposure.

The first Incas who had united in a tribal federation at the beginning of the 13th century (some scholars say it occurred a bit later) lived in the Puna highlands of the Andes, their economy and

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provision was based mainly on farming and keeping of livestock as most of the other local Andean populations. From this time period, archeologists have identified pottery and objects of silver, copper, bronze and gold. The vessels contained stored food, like chuño (dried potatoes), charqui (sun dried meet) and chicha, a kind of beer brewed from corn used both for ceremonies and as a soft drink. The Incas' plain diet consisted of Gacha - gruel of corn or other cereals. Characteristic for the Incas pottery was the pointed amphora with two handles and the painted, wooden quero (kero) goblets. The metalwork was clearly inspired by the chimú and other capable craftsmen of tradition. The Incas had great respect for specialists (camayoc), and as the empire grew later on these craftsmen from other cultures were put into Inca service. Large earpieces of gold were used by the élite as a sign of status. These ear decorations known as pacu gave the warrior nobles one of their name, pacuyoc, and because of their pierced and enlarged ears the Inca nobles would later be known as orejónes - "long ears" - to the Spanish. Metals were used for religious objects like effigies, ritual tools, decorations, jewelry and weapons of bronze. Metal objects originating from the Incas have been found as far away as Panamá and the Brazilian coast, revealing how well developed the pan-American trade was in the 15th century.

The clothes of the Incas were mostly made from wool from alpacas and vicuñas (llamas were mainly used as carriers and bred for their meat). The rich could also wear clothes woven from cotton. The woolen compi (cumbi) fabric was vividly colored and in many cases inspired by the textiles from the paracas. Men wore tunics - Uncu, and women wore llicllas and Añacos, often embroidered with intricate tocapu patterns. The soft woolen cloth kept them warm on the windy Andean mountains, and the light cotton garments kept the summer heat away. Building technique were inspired by various cultures, the ordinary commoners and farmers - Hatanrunas - lived

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in dwellings made of clay, claystone (Adobe) and rocks (Pircu). The roof was made of ichu-grass, similar to straw. Public buildings were made of cut rock, the technique derived from the skillful Aymarás - the descendants of the Tihuanaco Empire. Their technique of cold-masonry of blocks of tight fitting and intricate cut blocks without any mortar was an adaptation of stable construction needed in the volcanic-active Andes. Towns were strictly planned with central squares with ushnu-platforms in the centre, where the rulers sat during official occasions and from where celestial observations were made by the Llayca - astrologers.

The Incas were always close to their strong religious beliefs which permeated their lives. It was mainly a worshiping of the ancestors; people of high status were mummified and kept at the family's dwellings. This was the case with the royal mummies - the Malqui (literary "Fruit bearing trees") - stored in a special temple. The ancestors' earthly remains needed food, new clothes and social company, and they where always consulted by huatoc oracles before the living would engage in any important activity or actions. According to Inca legend, the sun Inti had sent his two children to earth in order to help the primitive humans. They have given them clothes, corn and houses, and the ruling Incas were the sons of the Sun Inti, and therefore they had absolute power. The moon was named Mamaquilla (Mother Moon) there was Pachamama (Mother Earth), the Mamasara (Corn Goddess), Mamaqocha (the Mother ocean) and the thunder was Illapa ('llap'a). The Incas would later adopt the aymará creation God - Con Tici Viracocha ("original creator") with his high seat at ancient Tihuanaco. Sacrifices of food and animals were made regularly; only seldom did the Incas decide to sacrifice young children (Capacocha) to consult the Gods. Priests officiated the sacrifices, and special hamurpa oracles examined the sacrificed animals' entrails for predicting the future. The Incas also worshiped the nature, both animals like jaguars, condors and

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pumas, and natural sites like sacred mountains (Apus or Apó - "Lords") and Huacas (sacred sites and stones). The chronicler Cobo tells us that there where in all 350 special huacas around the capital Cuzco, and they were connected with the sun temple Coricancha by more than 40 imaginary sacred lines - ceque. The stars and sky was also considered sacred, and celestial predictions were made by astrologers. The year was divided into 12 months after the lunar movement. Important festivals were the Inti Raymi (Intip Raymin) celebration of the sun (still vividly practiced today) which took place in June, the Huarachicuy in December, where adolescents were initiated into manhood and the citua - where the evils of the cities was expelled. It's important to remember that the Incas were the last great civilization of pre-Columbian South America, and their technology and culture was the refined result of centuries of heritage from earlier civilizations, who had adopted their skills to confront the harsh environment of the Andean high plateau. The Incas never had any form of writing or scripture, but would deliver coded messages on quipus - sets of strings with knots which represented words and figures, the initiated - quipumayocs - could even tell historical events from them. Their stories and laws were taught by heart and passed on orally through the generations, sometimes the stories were sung by a Haravec- poet. Also found among the remains of the Incas are their skulls, sometimes deformed deliberately by flattening the head from early childhood. Trepanation was also conducted among the Incas, even though the treatment itself had been practiced by earlier cultures. The physicians were known as Collahuaya.

The Incas were a distinct people with a distinct language living in a highland centre, Cuzco. They were an ancient people, but had been subject to the regional powers during the entire history of South American urban cultures. They began to expand their influence in the twelfth century and in the early sixteenth century, they

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exercised control over more territory than any other people had done in South American history. The empire consisted of over one million individuals, spanning a territory stretching from Ecuador to northern Chile.

Unlike the military empires in Central America, the Incas ruled by proxy. After conquering a people, they would incorporate local rulers into their imperial system, generously reward anyone who fought for them, and treated well all those conquered people who cooperated. So, in reality, the Inca "empire," as the invading Spanish called it, was not really an empire. It was more of a confederation of tribes with a single people, the Incas, more or less in control. Each of these tribes was ruled independently by a council of elders; the tribe as a whole gave its allegiance to the ruler, or "Inca." The "Inca" was divine; he was the descendant of the sun-god.

The social structure of the Incas was extremely inflexible. At the top was the Inca who exercised, theoretically, absolute power. Below the Inca was the royal family which consisted of the Inca's immediate family, concubines, and all his children. This royal family was a ruling aristocracy. Each tribe had tribal heads; each clan in each tribe had clan heads. At the very bottom were the common people who were all grouped in squads of ten people each with a single "boss." The social unit, then, was primarily based on cooperation and communality. This guaranteed that there would always be enough for everyone; but the centralization of authority meant that there was no chance of individual advancement (which was not valued). It also meant that the system depended too much on the centralized authority; once the invading Spanish seized the Inca and the ruling family, they were able to conquer the Inca territories with lightening speed. Conquered people were required to pay a labor tax (mita) to the state; with this labor tax, the Incas

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built an astonishing network of roads and terraced farmlands throughout the Andes.

Agriculture was tough business in the Andes. The Incas actively set about carving up mountains into terraced farmlands—so successful were they in turning steep mountainsides into terraced farms, which in 1500 there was more land in cultivation in the Andean highlands then there is today. The Incas cultivated corn and potatoes, and raised llama and alpaca for food and for labor.

Of all the urbanized people of the Americas, the Incas were the most brilliant engineers. The Huari-Tiahuanaco performed amazing feats of fitting gigantic stones together, and the Nazca designed mind-numbingly huge earth-drawings that still exist today. But the Inca built massive forts with stone slabs so perfectly cut that they didn't require mortar—and they're still standing today in near-perfect condition. They built roads through the mountains from Ecuador to Chile with tunnels and bridges. They also built aqueducts to their cities as the Romans had. And of all ancient peoples, they were the most advanced in medicine and surgery.

The language they spoke was Quechua which they imposed on all the peoples they conquered. Because of this, Quechua is still spoken among large numbers of Native Americans throughout the Andes. They had no writing system at all, but they kept records on various colored knotted cords, or quipu.

The central god of the Incan religion was the sun-god, the only god that had temples built for him. The sun-god was the father of the royal family. There were many gods among the Incas, but the sun-god outshone them all. The Incas also believed that there was a heaven, a hell, and a resurrection of the body after death.

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At its height, the Inca civilization crashed into the European expansion. In 1521, Herman Cortés conquered the Aztecs; this conquest inspired Francisco Pizzarro to invade the Incas in 1531. He only had two hundred soldiers, barely enough to walk the dog. However, he convinced the ruler of the Incas, Atahualpa, to come to a conference at the city of Cajamarca. When Atahualpa arrived, Pizzarro kidnapped him and killed several hundred of his family and followers. Atahualpa tried to ransom himself, but Pizzarro tried to use him as a puppet ruler. When that failed, Pizzarro simply executed him in 1533. Over the next thirty years the Spanish struggled against various insurrections, but, with the help of native allies, they finally gained control of the Inca Empire in the 1560's.

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