Inca policies and institutions relating to the cultural unification of the empire

Rowe, John Howland

essay

Inca policies and institutions relating to the cultural unification of the empire

inca and aztec states, 1400-1800 : anthropology and history • New York • Published In 1982 • Pages: 93-118

By: Rowe, John Howland.

Abstract
John Rowe shows how Inca policies devised to prevent revolt unified the state more comprehensively than the architects of those policies realized. YANACONA, CAMAYO, and MITIMA statuses, which were all initially created to expropriate labor for the state, eventually undercut traditional provincial loyalty. YANACONAS raised in the personal retinues of the Inca ruler or Inca governors often gained further honors through administrative positions reserved for the state's most loyal subjects. CAMAYOS could perform skilled labor for the state as they did before the Inca conquest, but now their hereditary status led them to identify closely with the state, whatever their place of residence. MITIMA relocation exculsively undercut provincial loyalties. In these, and other ways, the Inca transformed organized government of the provinces and spread their ideology of supremacy (p. 93).

Domestic service

Settlement patterns

Occupational specialization

Status, role, and prestige

Prophets and ascetics