not been confirmed with other lines of evidence. Soft tissue evidence of Chagas’
disease, common in some regions of modern Peru, is an infection caused by the
protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and was found in an Inca mummy from
Cuzco. It is likely that many people suffered from Chagas’ disease, but
unfortunately the disease does not leave diagnostic evidence on the skeleton.
Although they have not been observed on Inca human remains, several diseases
endemic in modern-day Peru, Carrion’s disease (bartonellosis) and
leishmaniasis, also likely afflicted people and probably caused considerable
illness among the Incas. Endoparasites, such as intestinal worms, and
ectoparasites, such as lice, probably also plagued the Incas and may have
weakened an individual’s immune response and increased susceptibility to
nutritional deficiencies and diarrheal disease. Soft-tissue and bony tumors have
also been observed in mummies and skeletons, so the Incas likely suffered from
these conditions as well, although not as commonly as the infectious diseases
discussed.
Several chroniclers speak of the use of medicinal plants and herbs to treat
illness and cure various ailments. Various preparations and applications of the
fruit, leaves, bark, and resin of the molle tree (Schinus molle), for example, were
used to treat gout, leishmaniasis, wounds, eczema, joint pain, and bladder and
stomach ailments, among other afflictions. Maize, quinoa, and coca leaf were
also used medicinally. Ethnobotanical research among modern medical
specialists and healers from the Central Andes list hundreds of medical plants
and herbs, so it is likely that the Incas used far more medical plants and herbs
than those that were recorded by the chroniclers.
Prior to the devastating impacts of epidemic diseases, such as smallpox,
introduced by the Spaniards (see Diseases, Foreign), the Incas were afflicted by,
and often survived, numerous endemic and rare diseases and ailments.
Bioarchaeological research indicates that communities closer to the Inca capital
of Cuzco were healthier than people living on the peripheries of the Inca
heartland and those in the distant provinces.
Further Reading
Allison, Marvin. “Paleopathology in Peruvian and Chilean Populations.” In Paleopathology at the Origins
of Agriculture, edited by Mark N. Cohen and George J. Armelagos, 515–29. New York: Academic Press,
1984.
Andrushko, Valerie A. The Bioarchaeology of Inca Imperialism in the Heartland. PhD diss., University of
California, Santa Barbara. Ann Arbor: UMI, 2007.
Andrushko, Valerie A., and Elva C. Torres. “Skeletal Evidence for Inca Warfare from the Cuzco Region of
Peru.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 146:361–72, 2011.