Encyclopedia of the Incas

laborers, to five such groups totaling 50 laborers, to two groups of 50 composing
groups of 100 (pachaca) workers, and on up, through units of 500; 1,000; 5,000;
and so forth, to the largest unit of state labor organization, that of 10,
workers, referred to as a hunu. The decimal system seems to have been in place
in the region around Cuzco, as well as in the large quarter of the empire
northwest of Cuzco, known as Chinchaysuyu.
To the southeast, however, in the large quarter known as Collasuyu, (including
present-day Bolivia), the decimal system appears to have met considerable
resistance, especially among Aymara-speaking populations around Lake
Titicaca. The large confederations of different ethnic groups in central Bolivia
were among the empire’s most rebellious populations, and one form of resistance
to Inca control was persistent attempts on the part of these peoples to disregard
decimal organization. (An analogy to this reaction against attempts at change
and standardization in fundamental values might be the way North Americans
have consistently evaded efforts to impose the metric system!)
People in the capital and those throughout the hinterlands also shared a
reverence for the ancestors. In the case of the Incas in Cuzco, this took the form
of ritual celebration and worship of the mummified bodies of the dead Inca
kings. Unlike ancient Egyptian mummies, which were hidden away in deep
royal tombs, the mummies of Inca kings were kept in the temple of Coricancha
(“enclosure of gold”) in Cuzco, and were frequently carried on litters to the main
plaza of the city where they participated in ceremonies and festivals with their
living descendants. In the countryside, the ayllu kin groups also mummified and
worshipped their ancestors. Ayllu ancestral mummies were commonly kept in
machays (“caves”), or in chullpas (“burial houses”), located near the settlements
occupied by their descendants, who regularly visited the ancestors, changed their
ancestors’ clothing, and offered them food and drink. Ancestor worship was
organized hierarchically across the empire, with the mummies of the Incas
receiving the highest ritual priority, followed by the mummies of high-ranking
ayllus, and the mummies of lower-ranking commoner ayllus at the bottom and
worshipped only by people in local settlements. Ancestor worship represented an
important focus of religious practice shared by the Incas and their subjects.
The Incas grafted onto ancestor worship another level of state religion,
overseen by a hierarchy of priests, that focused on a pantheon of deities,
including the creator-deity (Viracocha) and the Sun (Inti) at the top,
accompanied by a host of deities linked to powerful natural phenomena, such as
Lightning, the Rainbow, and Thunder. The commemoration and worship of these