Aclla ( Quechua : aklla ), also called Chosen Women , Virgins of the Sun , and Wives of the Inca , were sequestered women in the Inca Empire . They were virgins , chosen at about age 10. They performed several services. They were given in marriage to men who had distinguished themselves in service to the empire; they produced luxury items, weaving fine cloth, preparing ritual food, and brewing the chicha (beer) drunk at religious festivals; and some, the most "perfect," were selected as human sacrifices for religious rites. Others lived out their lives in a monastic environment.
65-477: The Inca Empire (1438-1533) created, or adopted from earlier cultures, several institutions to manage the labor of the people in the territory it ruled. Among the institutions were the mit'a , the yanakuna , and the aclla . Each year the Inca government sent out representatives, called apupanaca , to collect girls eight to ten years old from the provinces as tribute for the state. The girls selected were mostly from
130-511: A building is characterized as “segmented” construction. The construction of Huaca del Sol is determined to have used over 143 million adobe bricks and the platforms from the Luna are estimated to have required over 50 million adobe blocks. The only uniform characteristic of these adobe bricks, in regard to their dimensional shape, is that "they are wider than they are high." Bricks in the same segment were relatively similar in shape and size, however, there
195-434: A chosen aclla would be raised in social status. The acllas themselves would honour the main Inca gods and be honoured in return. Those not sacrificed at Cuzco might be returned to their own communities and be sacrificed there. This would create a ritual bond between Cuzco and the local region; Cuzco had taken a member of the local community and made them a representative of the central state. The aclla had been blessed by
260-486: A common cultural influence held the Inka empire together: " It can be argued that the sacred nature of huacas represented the primary connection between Andean ideologies and Inca ideology. Both Andean and Inca ideologies considered huacas as manifestations of both the natural and the supernatural world such as springs, stones, hills and mountains, temples, caves, roads, or trees (D‟Altroy 2002:163). " The Inka believed in using
325-603: A good wife or priestess. Their services are considered to be a foundation for Inca conceptions of hospitality. This point was made clear by the Inca Pachacuti , who ordered the creation and expansion of acllawasi for the purpose of strengthening “the generosity of the administration.” However, their labor may have even been more specialized and nuanced than this general understanding of their role. Some sources suggest that there were many different types of acllas with specific titles. These included Guayrur acllas who served
390-430: A large presence of acllas who had access to the extensive storehouses of corn and grain to make chicha. It was important that they were present at the site because chicha could not be stored for long periods of time; it had to be made more or less on the spot. While less common, there is some evidence that acllas were used in human sacrifice. This was tied to their role as gifts and the system of reciprocity throughout
455-429: A limited effect. The Inca and Spanish mita's served different purposes. The Inca mit'a provided public goods, such as maintenance of road networks and sophisticated irrigation and cropping systems that required intercommunity coordination of labor. The majority of Inca subjects performed their mit'a obligations in or near their home communities, often in agriculture; service in mines was extremely rare. In contrast,
520-438: A monument of some kind. The term huaca can refer to natural locations, such as immense rocks. Some huacas have been associated with veneration and ritual. The Quechua people traditionally believed every object has a physical presence and two camaquen (spirits), one to create it and another to animate it. They would invoke its spirits for the object to function. Huacas are commonly located in nearly all regions of Peru outside
585-586: A point of unification of ethnically and linguistically diverse peoples. They helped to bring unity and common citizenship to often geographically disparate peoples. Since pre-inka times the people developed a system of pilgrimages to these various shrines, prior to the introduction of Catholicism . Two of the greatest huacas built by the Moche were the Huaca del Sol and the Huaca de la Luna . While both of these buildings were built with mud adobe bricks, many characteristics of
650-491: A preexisting system of religious veneration of the peoples whom they took into their empire. This exchange ensured proper compliance among conquered peoples. The Inka also transplanted and colonized whole groups of persons of Inka background ( Mitmaq ) with newly adopted peoples to arrange a better distribution of Inka persons throughout all of their empire in order to avoid widespread resistance. In this instance, huacas and pacarinas became significant centers of shared worship and
715-626: A quarry, and he ordered that it be placed on this ceque and that sacrifices be made to it. " Some huacas were described as shrines, monuments, or temples that were associated with religion. Other huacas were physical aspects of the landscape, such as mountains or large boulders that still held religious and cultural significance. Since the huacas could have been a part of the landscape, this made it difficult for archaeologists to find and identify them. Shrines and shrine candidates were promptly photographed and compared to other known huacas. Interviews with local village officials helped researchers ensure that
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#1733084517480780-566: A state institution called "Cooperación Popular" (Popular Cooperation) was launched, strongly inspired by the strategy of labor tribute in the Incan mit'a . During the 10 years this institution operated, more infrastructure projects were accomplished in Peru than in most of the 140-year Republican era (from 1821 to 1963). The results were hundreds of kilometers of roads, aqueducts , communal and municipal works and other infrastructure pieces. The principle of
845-445: A wife also received all of the skills she could provide which allowed that person significant power. Acllas given in service for religious purposes conferred importance in a similar way because of their skills in creating the necessary means for rituals, namely the brewing of chicha that was integral to religious ceremonies. Their presence is noted at the ritual site of Huanaco Pampa, where the structures that have been excavated suggest
910-481: Is considered to be the ancient and original version of mandatory state service. The Spanish mit'a system had severe impacts on the native population, which was of able-bodied workers at a time while their communities were experiencing demographic collapse. It also resulted in natives fleeing their communities to evade the mit'a . With fewer workers able to work the fields, the farming production went down, resulting in famine and malnutrition for many native communities in
975-552: Is not to be confused with the related Inca policy of deliberate resettlements referred to by the Quechua word mitma ( mitmaq means 'outsider' or 'newcomer') or its Hispanicized forms, mitima or mitimaes (plural). That involved transplanting whole groups of people of Inca background as colonists into new lands inhabited by newly conquered peoples. The aim was to spread awareness of & involvement in Inca systems, and to distribute loyal Inca subjects throughout their empire to limit
1040-453: Is unlikely that these farmers simply do not wish to participate in the market. In the case of Peru , throughout the 1980s, Shining Path , as part of their Maoist ideology, attempted to turn farmers away from commercial farming; their efforts were largely unpopular and met with resistance. More recently, in 2004, residents of Ilave , a mita district, lynched their local mayor, in part for his inability to follow through with promises to pave
1105-520: The yanakuna . Acllas were a diverse group in terms of their functionality in Inca society. The general understanding of acllas ’ societal role is that they were split into two groups: those who were involved with religious rituals and those who were given to men as wives. Within these roles, the assignment of acllas was divided by status. Higher status acllas (those who were considered to be more beautiful, more skilled, and who came from high status families) were either sent to Cuzco in service to
1170-435: The mit'a to do public services. This remained mandatory until the age of fifty. However, the Inca rule was flexible on the amount of time one could share on the mit'a turn. Overseers were responsible to make sure that a person after fulfilling his duty in the mit'a still had enough time to care for his own land and family. The construction of bridges and oroyas was the responsibility of the local ethnic groups, who divided
1235-399: The mit'a . A relative of mit'a (federal work) is the modern Quechua system of Minka or faena , which is mostly applied in small-scale villages. The Minka was adopted during the 1960s on large-scale federal projects of Peru . The Incas elaborated creatively on a preexisting system of not only the mit'a exchange of labor but also the exchange of the objects of religious veneration of
1300-421: The road network , bridges, agricultural terraces, and fortifications in ancient Peru. Military service was also mandatory. All citizens who could perform labor were required to do so for a set number of days out of a year (the basic meaning of the word mit'a is a regular turn or a season ). The Inca Empire's wealth meant a family often needed only 65 days to farm; the rest of the year was devoted entirely to
1365-489: The Emperor and became the guardian of the local huacas . This signaled the entrance of the empire into local tradition and religion. Acllas were an extremely important tool of statecraft for Cuzco. They figured heavily in the system of reciprocity that kept the empire running without a formal monetary economy. Redistributing women was an extremely successful way of gaining the loyalty of those who had just been conquered by
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#17330845174801430-417: The Emperor, Kurakas (Curacas) , and People. Fields of the people were fields that belonged to the sick, widows, the elderly, wives of the soldiers and that of his own land. At the beginning of plowing time, people started to work first at the fields of widows, of sick people and of wives of the soldiers under the direction of the village overseers. Then, they worked on their own field. Next, they worked on
1495-447: The Inca because it conferred status to the families of selected women and helped to build trust between officials and locals. Their service was also essential for establishing the Inca culture across the empire. The labor that they provided in the form of textiles was used in gift giving to help form alliances and they themselves were also used as a kind of gift that helped to confer status on the recipient. Those who received an aclla as
1560-556: The Inka empire, it's important to understand that both the Andean people of the Andes region and the Inka shared many beliefs when it came to huaca ideology. Pre-empire Inka had a hard time gaining land control in their constant fights with the Andeans, and only peace was made when the Inka materialized their huacas into a state-controlled system that was common throughout the empire. A common system and
1625-498: The Spanish mit'a acted as a subsidy to private mining interests and the Spanish nation, which used tax revenues from silver production largely to finance European wars. A 2021 study in the Journal of Economic History found that the colonial mita system in Peru caused the decimation of the male native-born population. The Spanish conquistadors also used the same labor system to supply
1690-473: The Temples fields and Kuraka fields and finally, they set to work on the Emperor's fields. While they worked on the Emperor's field, they typically wore their best dress and men and women chanted songs in praise to the Inca. When people were engaged in war, their fields were cultivated by people engaged in mit'a . That way, soldiers would go to war with their fields and family secured and protected, which enhanced
1755-440: The bricks differ between the two huacas. Thus, symbolizing two distinct eras in Inka architecture. The bricks varied in many ways such as dimensions, maker marks, soil composition, and mold marks. With that being said, both buildings were constructed in similar ways. Adobe bricks were laid into vertical columns adjacent to one another. Continuing to lay adobe brick columns next to one another in order to construct different sections of
1820-399: The capital of the empire, and might become secondary wives or concubines of the Inca emperor and other noblemen. A few were destined to be sacrificed in a religious ceremony called capacocha . Several archaeological contexts for aclla have been identified, specifically at Huánuco Pampa . Their status and function in society is sometimes compared to a similar role that men occupied called
1885-534: The commission returned to South Korea and rolled out their own modern version of the Incan mit'a to Korean production systems, including the manufacturing industry. The results obtained in Korea were even more positive than those obtained in Peru due to a different development approach. Huacas In the Quechuan languages of South America , a huaca or wak'a is an object that represents something revered, typically
1950-539: The competition the state faced in accessing scarce mita labor. It was the hacienda elite that possessed the political connections required to secure public goods such as roads. The hacienda elites were the ones who were lobbying for roads as many haciendas as possible, and empirical evidence links roads to increased market participation and higher household income. The fact that farmers from mit'a districts do not have greater access to paved roads means that they are unable to transport crops to larger, regional markets. It
2015-450: The deepest parts of the Amazon basin in correlation with the regions populated by the pre-Inka and Inka early civilizations. They can be found in downtown Lima today in almost every district, the city having been built around them. Huacas within the municipal district of Lima are typically fenced off to avoid graffiti . A huaca could be built along a processional ceremonial line or route, as
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2080-545: The dry mit'a and the rainy mit'a . The day mit'a succeeded the night mit'a in a repetition that reflected an ordering of time that the natives conceptualized as a cyclical organizational system of order and chaos. During the Inca period people were mostly dependent on the cultivation of their land. All the fields of the Empire were divided into four categories: the Field of the Temple,
2145-417: The empire, their influence and significance reached much further than just an item to be traded. In fact, many of them tended to benefit socially from their position as an aclla as those who were married to provincial leaders were given their own land and command over the laborers who worked the land. The use of acllas was tied to kinship and the maintenance of hegemony within the empire. The family of
2210-411: The entire empire due to their economic significance. In a ritual context, they were an extremely valuable sacrifice because they represented the capacity for so much potential wealth through the use of their skills in weaving, the brewing of chicha, and hospitality. They also represented a connection between Cuzco and the peripheral regions that it had conquered. This tying of the centre to the periphery
2275-551: The expansion of infrastructure in Peru. In 1964, the government of the Republic of Korea became aware of the significant results achieved in Peru, and sent a commission to meet with the Peruvian government. The commission studied the methodology and organization of the Peruvian labor tribute institution and the feasibility of applying it to the Republic of Korea. After a few months in Peru,
2340-548: The feasts which they celebrated for me in Cuzco." Upon her return home, Tanta’s father became the curaca of his ayllu . Tanta was deified and her “sacrifice... ritually asserted her father’s, and father’s descendants’, new role as a nexus between Urcon and Cuzco while dramatizing the community’s subordination to Cuzco.” The overwhelming amount of knowledge of them suggests that a majority of them were women. This meant that they were subjected to specific rules and expectations. One of
2405-743: The higher social classes, frequently coming from the families of non-Inca provincial leaders of the kuraka class. They were chosen based on their beauty, skills, and intelligence and were sent for training in provincial centers to live together in complexes of buildings called acllawasi (house of the chosen women) which might have up to 200 women in residence. Only the highest status individuals were sent to Cuzco for their training. The girls were trained for about four years in religion, spinning and weaving, preparation of food, and brewing chicha. They then became mamakuna (priestesses) and were married to prominent men or assigned to religious duties. The most skilled and physically perfect were sent to Cuzco ,
2470-463: The huacas as the main agents of sacred and supernatural structural affiliation in their culture, while also using them as political and social tools for manipulation of other cultural groups around them. In the Cusco ceque system , most, if not all, of the huacas facilitated communication with the supernatural world or had some connection with chthonic powers that were thought to have shaped certain aspects of
2535-426: The huacas found on the ceques were legitimate. The location of the huacas aided archaeologists in determining what they were used for and what religious ceremonies may have occurred there. Special compounds were erected at certain huacas where priests composed elaborate rituals and religious ceremonial culture. For instance, the ceremony of the sun was performed at Cusco ( Inti Raymi ). The Inka elaborated creatively on
2600-485: The indigenous people of the empire prior to the introduction of Catholicism . Enormous construction of highways and structures were possible in part only by the use of the mit'a . All the people worked for the government for a certain period of time. This labor was free for the Inca Rule. During the Inca period, men were required to work 65 days in the field to provide food for his family. When someone's turn came, he joined
2665-501: The institution was quite simple: given the rather scarce economic resources of the Peruvian State in the early 1960s, the public works that this institution would do should have been "co-financed" by the beneficiaries, namely through contributions of labor. In any given public works project in Peru, it is estimated that between 60 and 70% of the cost goes to the acquisition of materials, and the remaining 30–40% are labor costs. Applying
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2730-472: The loyalty and the focus on the part of Incan soldiers. Under the Viceroy Francisco de Toledo , communities were required to provide one seventh of their male labor force at any given time for public works, mines and agriculture. The system became an intolerable burden on the Inca communities and abuses were common. Complaints and revolts occurred and new laws were passed by Philip III but they only had
2795-442: The most notable ways that they differed from not only the rest of the population but also from the yanakuna was through their role in reproduction. Acllas were required to remain celibate and failure to do so was punishable by death. This requirement was a uniquely Inca need as Andean natives did not require celibacy from women. In fact, sexual relations prior to marriage and trial marriages were encouraged. This same requirement
2860-448: The peoples whom they took into their empire. This exchange ensured proper compliance among conquered peoples. In this instance, wak'as and paqarinas became significant centers of shared worship and a point of unification of their ethnically and linguistically diverse empire, bringing unity and citizenship to often geographically disparate peoples. That eventually led to a system of pilgrimages throughout all of these various shrines by
2925-474: The principle of the Incan mit'a , the government fronted the acquisition of goods, and the beneficiaries provided the labor services without salary; this allowed the Peruvian state to save 30–40% for public works during this period – these savings were invested in further public works projects. The beneficiaries in turn contributed their communal workforce in exchange for accelerated development of their communities and
2990-640: The purposes of agriculture and ceremony and record keeping). These ceque lines bear significant resemblance to the processional lines among the Maya ( sacbe ), the Chacoans, and the Muisca (Suna). In the Inca (Inka) Empire, huacas were involved more in prominent monuments, such as the Huaca del Sol and the Huaca de la Luna . As stated above, they were also found along the ceque system (or siq'is lines). When talking about huacas in
3055-410: The region's people. While the Inka huacas were mainly stationary, some of the Andean huacas were actually portable. There are references to huacas being taken into battle or being physically transported to Cusco, capital of the Inka empire. One such huaca is described below: " The ninth guaca (huaca) was named Cugiguaman. It was a stone shaped like a falcon which Inca Yupanqui said had appeared to him in
3120-428: The region. Research by Melissa Dell found that the mining mit'a resulted in negative long-term effects for the regions where it occurred. This included lower levels of education and household consumption, less developed road networks, and a decrease in public good provision (due to there being very few haciendas , whose owners generally supported greater provision of public goods). The mit'a labor tribute
3185-467: The repercussions of this disparity have persisted past the end of the mita system as mita districts were less integrated with the greater road network. The only example of re-applying the Inca-style Mit'a in a modern state, as a government policy, occurred in Peru during the two Popular Action governments under President Fernando Belaúnde Terry (1963–1968 and 1980–1985). Under this government,
3250-434: The señorio of Chincha, the fishermen numbered ten thousand, and went to sea in turns, the rest of the time enjoying themselves by dancing and drinking. The Spaniard criticized them as lazy drunkards because they did not go to sea daily and all at once. The mining mit'a was also fulfilled at the level of ayllus, of the local lord, and, in the last instance, of the state. The significance of the term mit'a goes beyond that of
3315-544: The speed that the Spanish crown had requested. Under Toledo's leadership, the first mit'a recruits arrived in Potosí in 1573 from the regions directly surrounding the Potosi mine. At its peak, recruitment for the Potosi mit'a extended to an area that was nearly 200,000 square miles (520,000 km ) and included much of southern Peru and present-day Bolivia. The conquistadors used the concept of mit'a to suit their own needs. Mit'a
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#17330845174803380-481: The state armies. All labor in the Andean world was performed as a rotational service, whether for maintaining the tampus , roads, bridges or for guarding the storehouses or other such tasks. The craftspeople enjoyed a special status in the Inca state. Although they worked for the state, they did not take part in the agricultural or war mit'a . The agrarian mit'a was distinct from the fishing mit'a , and these labor groups never intervened in each other's occupations. In
3445-405: The sun and moon, Uayror aclla sumacs who were dedicated to the principal huacas , and aclla chaupi catiquin sumacs who wove clothes and worked on chacras. Other sources suggest that they may have had more responsibilities than they are typically ascribed. Due to their unique position in society, they may have also had a role as scribes. While acllas are often thought of as commodities within
3510-536: The sun at the Coricancha or they became secondary wives of the Inca. Lower status acllas typically stayed in their regions of origin and were placed in the service of lesser religious cults or were given as gifts to Inca nobility. Despite the differences in where they ended up, the services they provided tended to be very similar; acllas were tasked with creating textiles, preparing food, brewing chicha for ritual consumption, and any other skills they would need to make
3575-518: The system for organizing labor. It contains a certain Andean philosophical concept of eternal repetition. The constellation of the Pleiades, called cabrillas ('little goats') by the Spaniards, were known as unquy (Quechua for 'disease', Hispanicized oncoy ) during the rainy season mit'a , and as qullqa (Quechua for 'storehouse') during the season of harvest and abundance. The seasons were divided into
3640-424: The threat of localized rebellions. Mita districts historically achieved lower levels of education, and today, they remain less integrated into road networks. Finally, data from the most recent agricultural census document that residents of mita districts are substantially more likely to be subsistence farmers since haciendas , rural estates with an attached labor force, were banned in mita districts to minimize
3705-410: The town's access road and build a local market. Overall, former mita districts suffer from lower economic performance, as demonstrated by generally lower household consumption and increased rates of stunted growth. Without haciendas to compete with the more exploitative Spanish system, mita districts were subjected to greater economic and health pressures from their labor. Melissa Dell has shown that
3770-416: The various works that used the mit'a . A communal type of elemental provisions and needs was set up in order to care for the families of those who were absent for mit'a . People worked in building highways, the construction of homes for the emperor and nobility, monuments, bridges, fields belonging to priests and the emperor, and mines. All males starting at the age of fifteen were required to participate in
3835-413: The work according to the mit'a system, with the population divided into hanan and urin or ichuq (ichoc) and allawqa (allauca) (upper and lower, left and right). During viceregal times, the Andean method of distributing labor obligations among the ethnic groups was preserved, which permitted the continued maintenance of these public works. The war mit'a took men from their ayllus to serve in
3900-429: The workforce they needed for the silver mines, which was the basis of their economy in the colonial period. Under the leadership of Viceroy Francisco de Toledo, who was dispatched to Peru in 1569, the mit'a system greatly expanded as Toledo sought to increase silver outputs from the Potosí silver mine . Toledo recognized that without a steady, reliable and inexpensive source of labor, mining would not be able to grow at
3965-445: Was done for the enactment of sacred ritual within the capital at Cusco . Such lines were referred to as ceques . The work of Tom Zuidema and Brian Bauer (UT-Austin) explores the range of debate over their usage and significance. These lines were laid out to express the cosmology of the culture and were sometimes aligned astronomically to various stellar risings and settings. These pertained to seasonal ceremonies and time keeping (for
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#17330845174804030-409: Was little symmetry between segments. Many sections of Luna show greater deviation than later columns and structures. As the Inka empire grew in strength and size, adobe bricks became increasingly ubiquitous. Many segments of Luna saw an abundance of deviation from one another. Conversely, Sol, which was built after Luna, has a more well-defined uniformity between adobe bricks used between segments. While
4095-464: Was mandatory service in the society of the Inca Empire . Its close relative, the regionally mandatory Minka is still in use in Quechua communities today and known as faena in Spanish. Mit'a was effectively a form of tribute to the Inca government in the form of labor, i.e. a corvée . Tax labor accounted for much of the Inca state tax revenue; beyond that, it was used for the construction of
4160-553: Was not placed on the yanakuna . Related to this was their association with a kind of “holy status.” However, this notion may be related too closely with a colonial understanding of their function. Many colonists were fascinated by the aclla but tended to equate them with European understandings of their function. They were often thought of as a virgin cult or a parallel to nuns. This does not accurately represent their position in their unique cultural context. Mit%27a Mit'a ( Quechua pronunciation: [ˈmɪˌtʼa] )
4225-469: Was one of the most important aspects of the sacrifice of acllas . The story of Tanta Carhua is one such account of the process of binding the centre and the periphery together. Colonial documents contain a record of Tanta Carhua, who was sacrificed as a capacocha in her home ayllu of Urcon. After visiting Cuzco and being honoured by the emperor, Tanta Carhua was credited with saying: “You can finish with me now because I could not be more honoured than by
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