An expert and vivid guide to the history of the Inca civilization, exploring the native peoples of Peru and the Andes, their mythologies and ancient belief systems, the detail of their everyday lives, and the beauty of their art and architecture. ,
The Historia del Nuevo Mundo, set down by Father Bernabe Cobo during the first half of the seventeenth century, represents a singulary valuable source on Inca culture. Working directly frorn the original document, Roland Hamilton has translated that part of Cobo's massive manuscripts that focuses on the history of the kingdom of Peru. The volume includes a general account of the aspect, character, and dress of the Indians as well as a superb treatise on the Incas—their legends, history, and social institutions.
History of the Inca Realm, by Maria Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, is a classic work of ethnohistorical research which has been both influential and provocative in the field of Andean prehistory. Rostworowski uses a great variety of published and unpublished documents and secondary works by Latin American, North American, and European scholars in fields including history, ethnology, archaeology, and ecology, to examine topics such as the mythical origins of the Incas, the expansion of the Inca state, the organization of Inca society, including the political role of women, the vast trading networks of the coastal merchants, and the causes of the disintegration of the Inca state in the face of a small force of Spaniards. At each step, Dr Rostworowski presents her own views, clearly and forcefully, along with those of other scholars, providing her readers with varied evidence from which to draw their own conclusions.
Discover the remarkable history of the Inca Empire...In the space of less than one hundred years, the Inca people expanded from being a small kingdom in the highlands of Peru to becoming one of the largest and most powerful empires in the Americas. At the height of its power, the Inca Empire stretched for more than one thousand miles down the Andes Mountains and the west coast of South America. It incorporated more than two hundred distinct ethnic groups and somewhere around fourteen million people were ruled by a much smaller number of Incas. Inca engineers designed and built an extensive and sophisticated system of roads and created buildings and walls from massive blocks of worked stone. Inca temples were opulent and featured the abundant use of gold, silver, and precious stones. Massive Inca armies won victory after victory as they steamrollered potential competitors. The Inca government controlled every aspect of the lives of its subjects, from the food that they ate to the clothes that they wore. By around 1500 CE, the Inca Empire had reached its greatest extent and looked set to persist for a very long time indeed. Instead, within little more than thirty years, it had been reduced to a small rump state, and within seventy years, it had vanished entirely. This is the story of the rapid rise and sudden fall of the mighty Inca Empire. Discover a plethora of topics such as Origin of the Incas The Kingdom of Cuzco The Rise of the Empire Life in the Inca Empire The Spanish Conquest The Fall of the Inca Empire And much more! So if you want a concise and informative book on the Inca Empire, simply scroll up and click the "Buy now" button for instant access!
The Incas is a captivating exploration of one of the greatest civilizations ever seen. Seamlessly drawing on history, archaeology, and ethnography, this thoroughly updated new edition integrates advances made in hundreds of new studies conducted over the last decade. • Written by one of the world’s leading experts on Inca civilization • Covers Inca history, politics, economy, ideology, society, and military organization • Explores advances in research that include pre-imperial Inca society; the royal capital of Cuzco; the sacred landscape; royal estates; Machu Picchu; provincial relations; the khipu information-recording technology; languages, time frames, gender relations, effects on human biology, and daily life • Explicitly examines how the Inca world view and philosophy affected the character of the empire • Illustrated with over 90 maps, figures, and photographs
Explore daily living inside the Inca empire, the largest empire in the western hemisphere before European colonization. The Incas' subjugation of all types of cultures in western South America led to a wide variety of experiences, from military leaders to ruling class to conquered peoples. Readers will uncover all aspects of Inca culture, including politics and social hierarchy, the life cycle, agriculture, architecture, women's roles, dress and ornamentation, food and drink, festivals, religious rituals, the calendar, and the unique Inca form of taxation. Utilizing the best of current research and excavation, the second edition includes new material throughout as well as a new chapter on Machu Picchu, and a day in the life section focusing on an Inca family and a servant family in Machu Picchu. Concluding chapters discuss Inca contributions to modern society and the dangers of present destruction of archaeological sites.
Documents the epic conquest of the Inca Empire as well as the decades-long insurgency waged by the Incas against the Conquistadors, in a narrative history that is partially drawn from the storytelling traditions of the Peruvian Amazon Yora people. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.
Astronomy in the Inca Empire was a robust and fundamental practice. The subsequent Spanish conquest of the Andes region disrupted much of this indigenous culture and resulted in a significant loss of information about its rich history. Through modern archaeoastronomy, this book helps recover and interpret some of these elements of Inca civilization. Astronomy was intricately woven into the very fabric of Andean existence and daily life. Accordingly, the text takes a holistic approach to its research, considering first and foremost the cultural context of each astronomy-related site. The chapters necessarily start with a history of the Incas from the beginning of their empire through the completion of the conquest by Spain before diving into an astronomical and cultural analysis of many of the huacas found in the heart of the Inca Empire. Over 300 color images—original artwork and many photos captured during the author’s extensive field research in Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley, Cusco, and elsewhere—are included throughout the book, adding visual insight to a rigorous examination of Inca astronomical sites and history.
Originally published in 1901, the following description comes from the first edition: This work, although of a scientific nature, has not been written exclusively for scientists, for the theme is of so universal a scope as to be worthy the attention of all who are concerned in lessening the trials of humanity, or who which to shape the necessities of life through a more useful and consequently a more happy being. Centuries before the introduction of cocaine to anaesthetic uses, the world had been amazed by accounts of the energy creating properties ascribed to a plant intimately associated with the rites and customs of the ancient Peruvians, and first made known through the chroniclers of Spanish conquest in America. The history of this plant, known as Coca, is the history of the Incan race and is entwined throughout the associations of the vast socialistic Empire of those early people of Peru. The characteristics and botanical peculiarities of Coca, and the economic uses of plants of the family to which it belongs are described, and an effort is made to harmonize the early uses of the substance -- which are now shown to been of necessity, and not of luxury -- with its present employment, through facts of modern physiology. No effort has been made to make this work in any sense a book of Coca therapy, but a study of the early necessities and the hypothesis here advanced as to the rationale of its empirical uses will doubtless be ample to impress the true status of Coca, and will suggest its application in the affairs of modern life for conditions similar to those which originally demanded.