34 CHAPTER 1 ANCIENT AMERICA
able-bodied commoners between certain ages were
subject to military service.
No trace of socialism or a welfare state can
be found in these arrangements, which favored
not the commoners but the Inca dynasty, nobil-
ity, priesthood, warriors, and offi cials. Many of the
activities cited as refl ecting the benevolence and
foresight of the Inca state were actually traditional
village and ayllu functions. One such activity
was the maintenance of storehouses of grain and
cloth by the community for times of crop failure.
The Inca state merely took over this principle, as
it had taken over the principle of cooperative labor
for communal ends, and established storehouses
containing the goods produced by the peasants’
forced labor on state and church lands. The cloth
and grain stored in these warehouses were used
primarily to clothe and feed the army, the crown
artisans, the conscript labor for public works, and
the offi cials who lived in Cuzco and other towns.
The relations between the Inca and the peas-
antry were based on the principle of reciprocity,
expressed in an elaborate system of gifts and coun-
tergifts. The peasantry cultivated the lands of the
Inca, worked up his wool and cotton into cloth,
and performed various other kinds of labor for
him. The Inca—the divine, universal lord—in turn
permitted them to cultivate their communal lands
and in time of shortages released to the villages the
surplus grain in his storehouses. Since the impe-
rial gifts were the products of the peasants’ own
labor, this “reciprocity” amounted to intensive ex-
ploitation of the commoners by the Inca rulers and
nobility. We must not underestimate, however,
the hold of this ideology, buttressed by a religious
world view that regarded the Inca as responsible
for defending the order and very existence of the
universe, on the Inca peasant mentality.
At the time of the Conquest, a vast gulf sepa-
rated the regimented and laborious life of the com-
moners from the luxurious life of the Inca nobility.
At the apex of the social pyramid were the Inca
and his kinsmen, composed of twelve lineages.
Members of these lineages had the privilege of
piercing their ears and distending the lobes with
large ornaments—hence the name orejones (big
ears) assigned to the Inca kinsmen by the Span-
iards. The orejones were exempt from tribute la-
bor and military service, and the same was true
of the curacas, who had once been chieftains in
their own right, and of a numerous class of spe-
cialists—servants, retainers, quipu keepers and
other offi cials, and entertainers. Side by side with
the Inca state, which drained off the peasants’ sur-
plus production, regulated the exchange of goods
between the various regions, and directed vast
public works, there arose the incipient feudalism
of the Inca nobility and curacas. Their loyalty and
services to the Inca were rewarded with rich gifts
of land, llamas, and yanacona. Their growing re-
sources enabled them to form their own local cli-
enteles, achieve a certain relative independence of
the crown, and play an important role in the dis-
putes over the succession that sometimes followed
the emperor’s death.
Inca rule over the peasant masses was largely
indirect, exercised through local chieftains. It prob-
ably did not seriously affect the round of daily life
in the villages. The typical peasant house in the
highlands was a small hut with walls of fi eldstone
or adobe and a gable roof thatched with grass. The
scanty furniture consisted of a raised sleeping plat-
form, a clay stove, and some clay pots and dishes. A
man’s clothing consisted of a breechcloth, a sleeve-
less tunic, and a large cloak over the shoulders with
two corners tied in front; the fi neness of the cloth
used and the ornamentation varied according to so-
cial rank. A woman’s dress was a wraparound cloth
extending from beneath the arms to the ankles, with
the top edges drawn over the shoulders and fastened
with straight pins. An ornamented sash around the
waist and a shoulder mantle completed the woman’s
apparel. Men adorned themselves with earplugs and
bracelets; women wore necklaces and shawl pins.
On the eve of the Spanish Conquest, the Inca
state appeared all-powerful. But, like the Aztec Em-
pire, it was rent by deep contradictions. Frequent
revolts by conquered peoples were put down with
ferocious cruelty. Even the outwardly loyal cura-
cas, former lords of independent states, chafed at
the vigilant Inca control and dreamed of regaining
their lost freedom.