Encyclopedia of the Incas

Each of the scholars noted above was instrumental in advancing the field of
studies known as ethnohistory, the anthropologically informed study of the
chronicles and documents produced by Spanish administrators, soldiers, and
priests who produced written accounts of the Andean world in the decades
following the Spanish invasion of the Inca Empire in 1532. The anthropological
slant to these scholars’ historical studies came from ethnographic research they
conducted in Andean communities as well as from their involvement—either
personally or via their students—in archaeological research. Through these
scholars’ publications, and those of other Inca scholars, many of whose works
are referenced in the bibliographies in this encyclopedia, we are vastly better
informed about the Inca world today than we were in the mid-twentieth century.
This wealth of knowledge, built on archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork in
Andean communities and ethnohistorical research in archives and libraries in
Latin America, the United States, and Europe, is the foundation on which the
Encyclopedia of the Incas is built.
How did we decide which topics to include as entries and whom to invite to
write the entries? We began by reviewing the tables of contents and indices of
several recently published textbooks and monographs on the Incas. Next, we
drew up a list of basic topics, individuals, and issues that we felt should be
covered in the encyclopedia. We aimed at a middle ground in drawing up the
final list of entries represented in the table of contents. Had we included entries
on all people, places, events, and so forth, named in the Spanish chronicles, this
work would have come to resemble a dictionary more than an encyclopedia. Our
task was to produce the latter type of work; that is, we aimed not simply to
define terms and identify individuals, but rather to provide knowledgeable,
extended commentary on what we have judged to be the most important, central
items concerning the civilization of the Incas.
As for the Spanish chroniclers whom we have selected for inclusion, we have
generally limited these to the earliest and most deeply informed observers of the
Inca world who arrived in the Andes from the time of the conquest through the
early decades of the establishment of the Spanish colony. This generally takes us
through the major chroniclers who wrote up through the middle of the
seventeenth century (e.g., Bernabé Cobo, 1653). In addition, we felt that it was
important to focus on the principal Spanish sources that have been translated into
English and that therefore will be readily accessible to the readers of the
Encyclopedia of the Incas. This edition of the encyclopedia is aimed primarily at