hierarchical manner, with certain ayllus and their curacas being superior to
others.
Members of an ayllu, or kinship group, work together to thatch a roof in Ayaviri,
Puno, southern Peru. Gabino Quispecondori. TAFOS Photographic Archive/PUCP,
Lima, Peru.Ayllu also appears in a different form, particularly as it related to the social and
political organization of the city of Cuzco. That is, 10 of the social groups that
made up the population of the capital city were referred to as ayllus. These
groups were understood by some Colonial informants to have been made up of
the descendants of several different groups of people who lived in or near
Pacariqtambo, the mythical place of origin of the first Inca king, Manco Capac
(see Myths, Origin). These groups of people accompanied the Inca ancestors to
Cuzco at the beginning of time. Within the fully evolved political system in the
Inca capital, the ayllus of Cuzco were attached to certain of the ceques of the
city; as such, the members of the ayllus of Cuzco were related but subordinate to
the 10 groups in the city who were descended from Inca royalty. The latter,
descendants of Inca nobility, made up the 10 panacas of Cuzco’s ceque system.
It should be noted, however, in what is a particularly confusing feature of our