of battle. The Sun made his figure shine so that his image “wounded the eyes” of
onlookers, making it easy for Atahualpa’s generals to seize him.
Atahualpa, too, consulted oracles. He stopped while in the north at the well-
known shrine of Catequil in Huamachuco, where he asked about the outcome of
the war. The oracle replied that there had been too much bloodshed already. An
outraged Atahualpa beheaded the attendant and knocked the top off the oracle’s
image. Then he decided to dismantle the constructions and flatten the site. As his
forces leveled Catequil’s sanctuary, Atahualpa learned of the arrival of Pizarro
and his men. He decided to meet them in Cajamarca, a nearby ceremonial center
(see Invasion, Spanish). Meanwhile, Huascar also had been informed. Both he
and his brother independently remarked that the tall, bearded strangers must be
the gods or their messengers who had answered his prayers and supplications
and come to aid him in his struggles.
But, their initial interpretations proved faulty. Huascar was already a captive
by the time that Atahualpa had met Pizarro in the plaza of Cajamarca and been
imprisoned himself. During the next few months, Atahualpa tried to buy his
freedom, promising Pizarro a rich ransom of gold and silver. Atahualpa also
ordered the murder of Huascar after learning that he had offered Pizarro twice
his ransom. Atahualpa himself was garroted when rumors circulated that he had
ordered his troops to amass and wipe out the Spanish invaders.
Pizarro named two successors before arriving in the southern ceremonial
center of “the Cuzco,” the capital of the realm. Eventually, one fled and
established a rump government in the jungles of Vilcabamba. But, the days of
the Sapa Inca, the unique, unquestioned, and omnipotent Inca, son of the Sun
god, had been eclipsed.
Further Reading
D’Altroy, Terence N. The Incas. 2nd ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2014.
Pease, Franklin. Los últimos Incas del Cusco. Madrid: Alianza América, 1991.
Ramírez, Susan Elizabeth. To Feed and Be Fed: The Cosmological Bases of Authority and Identity in the
Andes. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005.
■SUSAN ELIZABETH RAMÍREZ
WEALTH
The Incas did not recognize wealth in the form of general-purpose money or
traffic in commodities such as precious metals or spices. Even so, certain things
conferred wealth on the owner or had a special value. They included having
access to a large labor force, owning large camelid herds or other productive