Encyclopedia of the Incas

production, but were obligated to work for the Incas as a condition of keeping
their own resources.
The relationship between humanity and the land also had a direct effect on the
implications of labor service. Many features of the landscape were considered
animate beings, forming their own society, with whom people maintained active
relationships. Among those beings were the living ancestors, often identified
with a particular place or feature, along with mountain peaks, rock formations,
and springs (see Worship, Ancestor). Both water and the earth itself had
vitality. As a result of this perspective, people and the land’s sentient actors were
integrated into a single social framework. Labor performed to yield products was
not a simple exploitation of raw materials; it was a perpetually negotiated
relationship, among humans and between people and the living landscape. In this
context, the Incas’ exaction of labor service was part of an effort to dominate
humanity’s relationship with the other forces of their world.