III. Inca Civilization
A. Political Organization

Inca society was strictly organized, from the emperor and royal family down to the peasants.

The emperor was thought to be descended from the sun god, Inti, and he therefore ruled with divine authority. All power rested in his hands. Only the influence of custom and the fear of revolt checked the emperor's power.

The emperor had one official wife, but he had many royal concubines and his children by these wives often numbered in the hundreds.

The emperor chose his most important administrators from among his sons.

Just below the emperor came the aristocracy, which included descendants and relations of all the emperors. These pure-blooded Incas held the most important government, religious, and military posts.

The nobles of conquered peoples also became part of the governing aristocracy and were considered Inca by adoption.

For administrative purposes the empire was divided into regions known as the "four suyus (quarters) of the world," with Cusco at its center.

The Incas called their empire Tahuantinsuyu, a Quechuan word meaning "Land of the Four Quarters."

One suyu, the Antisuyu, stretched to the east of Cusco and contained deep, forest-covered valleys that gradually descended into the jungles of the Amazon basin. Indian groups in this region, many of whom were only partially pacified, continued to launch attacks against the Incas.

Cuntisuyu included all the land west of Cusco, including the coastal regions of Peru from Chan Chan to Arequipa.

Collasuyu was the largest of the quarters. Located south of Cusco, it took in Lake Titicaca and regions of Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.

Chincasuyu contained the remaining land to the north of Cusco.

A blood relative of the emperor served as governor of each quarter.

The Incas further divided each quarter into progressively smaller units, with officials of descending rank overseeing the activities of these units.

Serving under each governor were ten district governors, each of whom ruled over a district containing about 10,000 peasants.

Another official, ideally a leader of a large village, ruled over a smaller area containing about 1000 peasants.

At the level below, ten foremen each supervised a total of 100 peasants. At the lowest organizational level, an official oversaw a group of ten peasants.

For every 10,000 people, there were 1331 officials.

Inca state affairs were complex and tightly controlled. Whole native populations were at times uprooted and resettled in other communities. Often groups were relocated to areas where they were needed for agricultural or mining activities.

Sometimes relocations were politically motivated. Placing Quechua-speaking populations in newly conquered areas impaired the ability of local groups to unite against the Incas.

Furthermore, these relocations facilitated the spread of Inca ideas and culture and promoted unity in the empire.

In order to deal efficiently with such matters, government officers kept strict accounts of all the people, gold, land, crops, and projects of the empire.

Since the Incas had no system of writing, they kept records by means of a quipu-a series of short, knotted strings hung at intervals from a long top string. By varying the colors and kinds of string used and the spacing of the strings and knots, the Incas could record populations, troops, and tribute, as well as information about their legends and achievements.

The quipu was a complex memory aid rather than a literal record, and only a trained quipucamayo, or memory expert, could create or interpret it. An oral comment accompanied each quipu and allowed the quipucamayo to make sense of its meaning.

Following the Spanish conquest and the introduction of records written in Spanish, the Incas lost the ability to read quipus.

Modern scholars still have not deciphered the codes used in the creation of quipus.

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