THE INCAS OF PERU 33
tual aid in agricultural tasks, in the construction
of dwellings, and in other projects of a private or
public nature. The Inca rulers took over this com-
munal principle and utilized it for their own ends
in the form of corvée, or unpaid, forced labor. In
the words of the anthropologist Nathan Wachtel,
“The imperial Inca mode of production was based
on the ancient communal mode of production
which it left in place, while exploiting the principle
of reciprocity to legitimate its rule.”
Gender parallelism, beginning with paral-
lel lines of descent, played a key role in ayllu kin-
ship organization and ideology. Women regarded
themselves as descendants through their moth-
ers of a line of women; men viewed themselves
as descending from their fathers in a line of men.
“This organization of gender relations and kin ties
through parallel descent,” writes Irene Silverblatt
in her remarkable study of gender relations in An-
dean society, Sun, Moon, and Witches, “was inher-
ent in the ways Andean women and men created
and re-created their social existence. The values
and tone of gender parallelism were continuously
reinforced in the practical activities through which
they constructed and experienced their lives.”
Parallel transmission ensured that women,
through their mothers, enjoyed access to land,
herds, water, and other resources. Gender paral-
lelism also defi ned the division of labor in Andean
society, with certain activities considered more ap-
propriate for men or for women. Weaving and spin-
ning were considered women’s work, and plowing
and bearing arms were considered men’s tasks, but
all of these activities were viewed as complemen-
tary, as equally important.
After the Inca conquest, however, notes Sil-
verblatt, “The imperial ideal of Andean male-
hood became the norm.” “Soldier” was the title
given to a commoner man when, as a married
adult, he was inscribed in the imperial census
rolls; “soldier’s wife” was the equivalent category
for a woman. Evidence exists that before the Inca
conquest, women, inheriting rights from their
mothers, sometimes held leadership positions on
the ayllu level. However, the Inca imperial norm
“attaching masculinity to political power and
conquest skewed the balance of gender relations
as the empire expanded, as men fi lled positions of
authority in the Inca administration and military
which were denied to women of an equivalent so-
cial station.” But the Andean tradition of parallel
descent allowed Inca noblewomen to claim access
to their own resources, with rights to land in the
Cuzco region passing down from noblewoman to
noblewoman.
Before the Inca conquest, the ayllu were gov-
erned by curacas (hereditary chiefs) who were as-
sisted by a council of elders, with a superior curaca
or lord (jatun curaca) ruling over the whole people
or state. Under Inca rule, the kinship basis of ayllu
organization was weakened through the planned
removal of some of its members and the settlement
of strangers in its midst (the system of mitimaes). A
varying amount of land was taken from the villages
and vested in the Inca state and the state church.
In addition to working their own lands and those
of their curaca, ayllu members were required to till
the Inca state and church lands. The Inca govern-
ment also used the forced labor of villagers to create
new, arable land by leveling and terracing slopes.
This new land was often turned over as private
estates to curacas and Inca military leaders and
nobles who had rendered conspicuous service to
the Inca state. The Inca himself possessed private
estates, and the descendants of dead emperors also
owned estates and used them to maintain the cult
of these former rulers. These private estates were
not worked by ayllu members but by a new servile
class, the yanacona,^4 defi ned by Spanish sources as
“permanent servants.” Each ayllu had to contrib-
ute a number of such servants or retainers, who
also worked in the Inca temples and palaces and
performed personal service.
In addition to agricultural labor, ayllu mem-
bers had to work on roads, irrigation channels,
fortresses, and in the mines, in a system called the
mita, which was later adopted by the Spaniards for
their own purposes. Another requirement was that
villages produce specifi ed quantities of cloth for the
state to use in clothing soldiers and retainers. All(^4) A plural term in Quechua but treated by the Spaniards as
singular.