They circulated through market networks, which did not form a part of the Inca
imperial economic system.
A second form of wealth, found along the far north coast of Peru and into
Ecuador, were copper-alloy hachas, axe-shaped objects found in north coast
tombs. They were organized into decimal series by weight, and seem to have
served as media of exchange. Like the beads, they were not employed directly
by the Incas, but their use was also not impeded.
Further Reading
D’Altroy, Terence N., and Timothy K. Earle. “Staple Finance, Wealth Finance, and Storage in the Inka
Political Economy (with Comment and Reply).” Current Anthropology 25:187–206, 1985.
Hosler, Diane, Heather Lechtman, and Olaf Holm. Axe-Monies and Their Relatives. Studies in Pre-
Columbian Art and Archaeology, no. 30. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1980.
Murra, John V. The Economic Organization of the Inka State. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1980 [1956].
Salomon, Frank L. “A North Andean Status Trader Complex under Inca Rule.” Ethnohistory 34, no. 1: 63–
77, 1987.
■TERENCE N. D’ALTROY
WEAVING AND TEXTILES
The Incas and their subjects inherited a long and varied weaving tradition that
went back to Andean societies that flourished millennia before the time of the
Inca Empire. Given that virtually all clothing (see Costume) in the empire took
the form of woven textiles, it is best to talk about spinning and weaving and
textile structures as a single, unified tradition of skills, practices, and
preferences. A handful of excellent Colonial sources shed light on the
technology of weaving and the qualities, classification, and uses of different
types of textiles. These include the mestizo (mixed Spanish/native ancestry)
chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega who, growing up in immediate postconquest
Cuzco, was familiar with weaving techniques in the capital; Felipe Guaman
Poma de Ayala, a Native chronicler from the Lucanas region of Peru who wrote
about and produced drawings of spinners and weavers, as well as numerous
illustrations of both elite and commoner clothing; and the mid-seventeenth-
century chronicler Bernabé Cobo, who lived in Cuzco more than a century after
the conquest but who observed weavers and clothing and who may have had
access to the work of Garcilaso and other chroniclers. Accounts from these
knowledgeable chroniclers, as well as preserved fabrics from coastal burials and
a handful of highland sites give us a remarkably clear picture of the art of
weaving and the clothing and headdress styles of the Inca Empire.