wives, and the novel dictates of sexual purity and control. The aclla’s sacred
standing in imperial organizations belied, perhaps, the empire’s most
extraordinary intrusion into the lives of “the conquered.” The aclla, as an
institution, deprived “conquered” ayllus control over their own continuity, their
autonomous creation and existence. The aclla’s significance in the Andes was
tied to the particular way in which gender symbolism, sexuality, and relations of
conquest were fused to structure—and consecrate—Inca preeminence. Through
imperial transformations of the conquest hierarchy, Cuzco’s political rule was
gendered and sexualized (see Women). The aclla were called “sainted” women,
but they were “chosen” by Inca men, bestowed by Inca men, and granted to
highly ranked men, as gender and sexual regulation gave form—and sanctity—
to the Inca Empire’s dominion over other Andean peoples.
Further Reading
Gose, Peter. “The State as a Chosen Woman: Brideservice and the Feeding of Tributaries in the Inka
Empire.” American Anthropologist 102, no. 1: 84–97, 2000.
Silverblatt, Irene. Moon, Sun, and Witches: Gender Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987.
■IRENE SILVERBLATT
ACOSTA, JOSÉ DEJosé de Acosta was born in Medina del Campo, Castilla la Vieja, Spain, in
1540, and trained at the Jesuit college of Alcalá de Henares, where he taught
theology before coming to Peru in 1572. He lectured in theology at Lima’s
University of San Marcos and later traveled to Cuzco, Arequipa, La Paz,
Potosí, and Chuquisaca (Sucre), learning some Quechua and collecting
material for his book. In 1576, Acosta was named head of the Jesuit order in
Peru, and in 1579 he founded a parish in Juli, on the shores of Lake Titicaca.
In 1586, he returned to Spain via Mexico, where he lived for a while. He died
in Salamanca in 1600.
Although Acosta wrote a treatise on evangelization, he is best known for his
Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias (Natural and Moral History of the
Indies), published in 1590. The first part of his chronicle deals with the
natural history of the New World and the place of the Americas in global
history, while other chapters cover the history of the Incas and the Aztecs. In
the final section, the curate-chronicler tried to demonstrate that the natural