Maize was the most important crop to the Incas, and was used both as a food
and a drink when fermented into chicha. Like coca, chicha had ordinary and
ritual uses: it was both a beverage to slake one’s thirst and a ceremonial drink.
Vast fields of maize were cultivated in all regions of the empire, and new fields
were often opened up specifically for its production (see Cuisine).
The relatively flat topography of the coastal plains allowed people to work
large fields, but the fields required irrigation due to lack of rainfall. Cultivated
crops included maize, beans, squashes, manioc, and cotton. Before the Incas,
local lords controlled the fields (see Economy, Domestic), but after their
conquest of the coastal valleys, the Incas either continued to use the existing
political system, if it was present, or installed their own lords to oversee farming
and other activities.
Farming was the economic basis of the Inca Empire. Planting crops was an
important complement to herding and fishing, but it played a more central role.
The kinds of plants cultivated, the different systems of agriculture, and the
processing of the products all contributed to the success of the Incas in feeding
the millions of workers who served the empire.
Further Reading
Murra, John. “El ‘control vertical’ de un máximo de pisos ecológicos en la economía de las sociedades
andinas.” In Visita de la Provincia de Léon de Huánuco, by Iñigo Ortíz de Zúñiga, vol. 2: 429–76.
Huánuco, Peru: Universidad Hermilio Valizán, 1972.
Masuda, Shozo, Izumi Shimada, and Craig Morris, eds. Andean Ecology and Civilization: An
Interdisciplinary Perspective on Andean Ecological Complementarity. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press,
1985.
■MICHAEL A. MALPASS
FEASTS, STATE-SPONSORED
Anthropologists have long recognized the prominent role of food and feasting in
the emergence of social hierarchies and the negotiation of power and identity.
Centering on the communal consumption of food and drink, feasting is a form of
extraordinary public activity that is distinguished in some way from day-to-day
commensal events. Feasts are often differentiated from everyday meals on the
basis of the types or quantities of foodstuffs served, the methods of preparation
employed, the tableware used, the location or context of the event, excessive
consumption or inebriation, or the presence of entertainment, such as singing,
dancing, or oratory. It is the broader public and communal aspects of feasts and
feasting that make them significant arenas of political and social action. The fact
that feasts are typically hosted—be it by an individual, a clan, a community, or a