Encyclopedia of the Incas

In addition to the broadly applied labor taxes, the Incas committed significant
numbers of people to specialized statuses or institutions. Among the most
important were the women’s orders, the acllacuna and the mamacuna (see
Acllacuna). Aclla were girls reaching adolescence, who lived in sequestered
quarters at state installations. There, they learned the finer arts of weaving and
brewing chicha, maize beer, before being awarded in marriage to distinguished
men or selected for sacrifice (see Capac Hucha). The mamacuna were a
religious grouping of mature women dedicated to weaving the finest textiles, and
to activities surrounding worship of the Moon and ritual hospitality, among other
things. Yanacona made up another specialized labor category: individuals cut off
from their home societies, often as a punishment, and committed to life-long
service for the state or aristocrats.
The Inca aristocracy also benefited from dedicated labor service. Each emperor
ostensibly had an estate in every province, staffed by individuals and families
resettled for that purpose. Because the emperor’s descendant kin held his estates
in perpetuity, each successive ruler created his own sets of workers. The scale
could be enormous, as Topa Inca Yupanqui installed 1,000 gold miners and
5,000 support families in just one mine in Bolivia. Estates in the Urubamba
valley near Cuzco also boasted thousands of workers, not just farmers and
household servants, but metalsmiths and weavers as well, among other
specialists.