Encyclopedia of the Incas

(Bozica Vekic) #1

public humiliation, exile, and torture, to death by hanging or by being thrown
into a prison and mauled by wild animals.


In  this    drawing from    the chronicle   of  Martín  de
Murúa, a thief is whipped. Murúa, Martín de.
Códice Murúa—Historia y Genealogía de los
Reyes Incas del Perú (Códice Galvin). Madrid:
Testimonio Compañía Editorial, S. A., 2004
[1590–1598].

Cobo provides us with a range of crimes and their punishments. Rape was
punishable by having a stone dropped on one’s back at the first offense; the
second offense resulted in death. Robbery spelled certain exile to the coca fields
of Antisuyu. If someone on duty at a tambo (way station) failed to turn over his
load to the head of the tambo, then his village was punished, because the village
was responsible for the service to that tambo. Stealing irrigation water before it

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