| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Daily Lives

Page history last edited by Kate Ngooi 14 years, 2 months ago
 

Inca Daily Life

 

The upper class and lower class Incans had their differences; however, they did have a few things in common. The lower class Incas spent most of their day out on the fields farming where as the upper classes work wasn’t as hard. The houses the common people lived in were small with one room and no windows or a chimney. The wealthy people stayed in bigger houses with more rooms. Even though the upper class had such great houses, both classes, even the Sapa Inca, slept on the floor around a fire. Their clothing was very similar, except that the Sapa Inca wore a gold fringe around his head to show his status in the social structure. The lower class had to farm to provide food for the families, the state and state religion. Unlike the lower class the upper class didn’t have to pay taxes and was allowed to have more that one wife. The upper class had special privilege to land and llamas. They gave the lower class citizens land or extra food for the sick or old, in return for their hard work.

 

The common people were divided into groups called Ayllu. An Ayllu was just families living together sharing the same animals, crops and land. Everyone belonged to an Ayllu. To show what Ayllu you belonged to the men would fix their hair a certain way. There were three classes inside an Ayllu. There was the Ayni class who were the people who just stayed around the village to do the farming. Next there was the Minka and this class was taken out for a while to farm on the land of the Inca King. The last class that followed was the Minta. These people were taken out of their community and transported around the kingdom building roads, temples and aqueducts. The women who never returned to their Ayllu were the women who were chosen to serve at temples. The most beautiful ten-year-old girls were selected to go to school. Some boys were hired by the Inca Sapa to be his slave. Being the Sapa Inca’s slave gave them an opportunity to reach a high social class in the future. You were born into one and then died within the same one.

 

Every Incan person had to work for the government for a certain period for free, to make huge constructions possible. The system the Incan government came up with was called Mita. The term Mita meant turn. Once someone turned fifteen it was required to participate in the Mita until  he or she turned fifty. When it was someone’s turn they would go and join the Mita group. This group of people would be taken around to build highways, houses that belonged to the Sapa Inca or nobles, fields, monument, bridges, temples, fields that belonged to the Sapa Inca and mines. The Inca government carefully calculated the time each person was entitled to working for Mita. All the empires fields were divided into four different categories, Field of the Sapa Inca, field of the temple, field of Curacas (the high ranked women) and field of the people. The field of the people belonged to sick or old people, widows, wives of the soldiers and the soldiers themselves.

 

inca-clothing.jpg
 
 
 
Citations:
Fowler, William R. "Society." Inca Empire. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2010. 
     <http://www.angelfire.com/realm/shades/nativeamericans/incaempire3c.htm>. 
 
"Inca Civilization." Crystalink. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2010. <http://www.crystalinks.com/ 
     incan.html>. 
 
Inca Clothing. Peru Travel. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2010. 
     <http://www.peru-travel-confidential.com/inca-clothing.html>. 
 
"Inca Mita : Best Pubilc Service System." Peru Travel Diary. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2010. 
     <http://www.machupicchu-inca.com/inca-mita.html>. 
 
"Inca Mita : Best Pubilc Service System." Peru Travel Diary. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2010. 
     <http://www.machupicchu-inca.com/inca-mita.html>. 
 
"Inca Society." Peru Travel. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2010. 
     <http://www.peru-travel-confidential.com/incas-society.html>.
      

 

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.