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The achievements of the Inca empire are easy to appreciate because they were, above all, practical. The complexities of Mesoamerican calendar systems and the intricacies of their artistic representations can be grasped only by sustained study. Anyone, on the other hand, can immediately appreciate the engineering feats of the Inca empirethe system of mountain roads and relay communications, the swinging bridges thrown through the sky across yawning Andean gorges, the walls made of many-sided stones that interlocked for anti-seismic effect. The grandeur of Mesoamerican pyramids is dimmed, in modern eyes, by the sacrificial uses to which many were put. It is easier to admire Inca administration of imperial resources to promote general welfare, such as the systematic storage and distribution of grain to alleviate famine. A paper on the Incas can explore these achievements without idealizing the Inca empire, as many have done. Andean history contains recurrent idealizations of the Inca empire for students to consider, however. Quechua-speaking indigenous people often looked to their Inca past for inspiration under Spanish rule. Tupac Amaru II embodied that impulse in the 1790s. And in the 1920s, a Peruvian Marxist intellectual named José Carlos Mariátegui idealized the Inca empire as an example of a state committed to the welfare of its people.
Questions for Analysis and Further Reflection:
- What means (taxation, warfare, labor structures) were employed to hold the Inca empire together?
- What was the Inca social hierarchy like, and how did this social order play into the process of colonization? How did the Encounter in the Andes compare with the meeting of Spaniards and indigenous populations in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean?
- How do "uses" of the history of the Inca Empire compare with interpretations of Maya civilization or the Aztec empire deployed to achieve a certain end in Guatemala, Mexico, and even the U.S.?
Bibliography: (Titles with ** are good starting places.)
Bauer, Brian S. Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inca. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004.
A scholarly study of the Cuzco valley from the time of its first inhabitants to the fall of the Inca empire.
** D'Altroy, Terence N. The Incas. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002.
D'Altroy's recent survey of the Incas and the empire is one of the most thorough in English. Though more geared for a scholarly audience, the narrative is readable and, overall, the book is a good source for undergraduates interested in the topic.
** Davies, Nigel. The Incas. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 1995.
Designed for a general audience as well as specialists of the Andes, Davies' overview traces the history of the Incas and the empire they built from its origins to its decline, making it an especially good starting point for further research.
** Malpass, Michael A. Daily Life in the Inca Empire. The Greenwood Press Daily Life
Through History Series. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996.
Written with the undergraduate student in mind, this book provides an excellent overview of the Inca empire.
Mariátegui, José Carlos. Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality. Translated by
Marjory Urquidi. With an introduction by Jorge Basadre. Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1971.
The first three chapters of this collection of essays, originally published in newspapers during the first half of the twentieth century, exemplify the ideological uses of the Inca past in Peru.
Niles, Susan A. The Shape of Inca History: Narrative and Architecture in an Andean Empire.
Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1999.
Niles surveys the nature of sources for Inca history and suggests possible ways to make sense of the evidence.
Patterson, Thomas C. The Inca Empire: The Formation and Disintegration of a Pre-
Capitalist State. Oxford: Berg, 1991.
Patterson presents an anthropological take on the development and decline of the Inca state, looking closely at social class, the mechanics of the empire, and the formation of colonial society in the 1500s.
Other Resources:
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