Encyclopedia of the Incas

necessary to “feed” them with sacrificial offerings. Coca was an essential
component of virtually all these sacrifices; it was burned with maize and shells,
pulverized and blown as a powder, and even offered as a masticated quid. Coca
was also used in divination; ritual specialists would burn a mixture of coca and
llama fat and predict the future based on the appearance of the flames. The
Huarochirí Manuscript (a narrative of native Andean religion, compiled around
1600; see Avila, Francisco de) recounts how that region’s paramount huaca,
Pariacaca, commanded the people to supply coca for his son (another local
huaca) before chewing it themselves. Dancers performed for Pariacaca three
times a year carrying large leather bags of coca contributed by their home
communities. Presumably this coca was left with Pariacaca’s priests for use in
offerings as well as for their own consumption.
It is unclear to what extent access to coca leaf was controlled under Inca rule.
Many Spanish chroniclers state that its consumption was strictly limited to the
aristocracy, and the Incas clearly did try to control the cultivation and
distribution of coca among their subject peoples. After conquering the Chillón
valley on Peru’s central coast, for example, they sent mitmacuna (colonists from
other ethnic groups) to commandeer tupa coca plantations and cultivate them for
the Cuzco nobility and priesthood of the Sun. Other mitmacuna were sent to
coca-growing regions in Bolivia. On the other hand, eminent historians such as
John V. Murra and María Rostworowski argue that the Incas were not
completely successful in establishing a monopoly on coca.
Even under Inca subjugation, local polities maintained access to coca through
long-standing exchange relationships. While people of higher status, such as
curacas and priests, had more access to the leaf than people of lower rank,
commoners did consume coca; in fact, the chronicler Juan de Betanzos says
they always had it in their mouths. While Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala
depicts rulers, queens, and military leaders carrying coca bags, his chronicle also
includes a drawing of simple horticulturalists sharing coca leaves. Travelers
chewed coca to ward off fatigue, and when crossing a pass they would rub their
coca quid on a ceremonial mound of stones (apacheta), asking for a safe and
prosperous journey. If resting or sleeping overnight in a cave, they rubbed coca
quid on the cavern ceiling, imploring, “Cave, do not eat me” (i.e., “do not
collapse”). Another early chronicler, the priest Molina el Almagrista, also
implies that coca chewing was a daily practice, commenting that whenever the
Natives chewed coca they would offer some to the Sun; if they passed a fire,
they would reverently throw in a few leaves as an offering.