A man prepares to hurl his sling during a ritual battle in the province of Canas,
Cuzco, Peru. Daniel Huillca. TAFOS Photographic Archive/PUCP, Lima, Peru.Ritual battles occurred on various occasions in Cuzco. For instance, during the
month following the initiation of noble youths, which took place at the time of
the December solstice, the newly initiated young men met on the plaza in the
center of Cuzco. There, dividing themselves into the two social-political groups
of hanan (upper) and hurin (lower) Cuzco, they set about pelting each other with
a hard cactus fruit, called tunas, or pitahayas. The conflict often intensified, and
the boys commonly came to blows, testing their strength against their opponents.
These formalized clashes of recent initiates, noted the chronicler Bernabé Cobo,
served to demonstrate who was the strongest and bravest. It is also reported in
the chronicles that sham battles were staged to prepare the young men for
warfare.
Another chronicler, Fernando de Montesinos, described a most unusual form
of what could be described as a “ritual battle.” He stated that, if the king wanted
to learn the outcome of some battle that was going on at a distance, a priest
placed maize kernels in a ceramic container. The grains of corn were named after
the captains engaged in the distant battle. The chronicler continues: “The grains
themselves then had a great fight, some against others, until the conquered were
driven out of the vessel, and then the wizard [priest] told the outcome [of the
actual battle] as if he had seen it” (Montesinos 1920 [ca. 1644], see Divination).
As for the antiquity of ritual battles, the practice may go back into the pre-Inca
past, perhaps as early as the Initial Period (see Chronology, Pre-Inca). Tinkuys
continued through the Colonial period, and in some communities they still occur
today. These contemporary battles primarily pit the men of one community
against those of a neighboring community, although cases have been reported of
ritual battles between hanan and hurin segments of communities. Present-day
participants assert that the objective is at least to draw blood (if not to kill an
opponent, which does occur occasionally). The spilled blood is said to fertilize
the earth and to be a good omen for the fertility of crops and herds.
Further Reading
Cobo, Bernabé. Inca Religion and Customs. Translated and edited by Roland Hamilton. Austin: University
of Texas Press, 1990 [1653].
D’Altroy, Terence N. The Incas. 2nd ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2014.
Montesinos, Fernando de. Memorias antiguas historiales del Perú. Translated and edited by Philip
Ainsworth Means. London: Hakluyt Society, 1920 [ca. 1644].