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| Inca civilization |
| Inca society |
| Education · Religion · Mythology |
| Architecture · Road system · Army |
| Agriculture · Andean cuisine |
| Inca history |
| Inca Empire |
| Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire |
Andean civilizations were predominantly agricultural societies; the Incas took advantage of the soil, overcoming the adversities of the Andejuian terrain and the weather. The adaptation of agricultural technologies that had been used previously allowed the Incas to organize production of a diverse range of crops from the coast, mountains, and jungle regions, which they were then able to redistribute to villages that did not have access to the other regions. These technological achievements in agriculture would not have been possible without the workforce that was at the disposal of the Sapa Inca, as well as the road system that allowed them to efficiently store the harvested crops and to distribute them throughout their territory. These practices were so effective that many experts believe that if they were readopted today, they would solve the nutritional problems of Andean people for many decades.[1][2]
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Farming tools
Farming was celebrated with rituals, sacrifices, and songs. Teams of seven or eight men, accompanied by a like number of women would work in line to prepare fields. Men used foot plows, chakitqlla, to break the soil. Women followed, breaking the closes and planting seeds. This work was accompanied by singing and chanting, striking the earth in unison. By one account Spanish priests found the songs so pleasant that they were incorporated into church services.[3]
Fertilizers
Several types of fertilizers were used across the Inca Empire. In coastal regions, small fish such as Peruvian anchoveta and sardines were buried with maize kernels to spur their growth. This practice was represented in the walls of the Pachacamac temple, where maize plants were shown germinating out of small fishes. Coastal farmers also used guano produced by the thousands of marine birds that nested on offshore islands and isolated parts of the littoral. In the rest of the empires, farmers had to resort to other types of fertilizers, including manure from domesticated camelids and fallen leaves from trees such as guarango.
Land use
The land was divided into 3 pieces: one for the aristocracy, another for the religious establishment, and the last for the farmers themselves, who were obligated to farm for all three groups. Among the staple crops grown were quinoa, potatoes, and maize.[4]
Inca farmers had to deal with the difficult terrain of the Andes as usable land was mainly limited to the narrow valleys carved by rivers between the mountains. More flat terrain was afforded by plateaus, but their high altitude and cold weather severely limited their usefulness for farming. To expand the available land, Incas used several Andean techniques which allowed farming on hillsides and at high altitudes; these included the following:
Andenes
The andenes are agricultural artificial terraces that serve to obtain useful land for sowing in the steep Andean hillsides. They allowed the Incas to take advantage better of the water, in rain and in irrigation, making it circulate across the channels that were connecting their diverse levels, whilst avoiding at the same time the erosion of the soil. The andenes were not only used for corn crops, but also for the crops of different agricultural products, and for different purposes: for sown fields, to avoid erosion and for the wash of mineral salts. Although they demanded the mobilisation of large quantities of workforce, the Inca state could realize this demand with relative ease.
Camellones
They were artificial areas constructed in the banks of the lake Titicaca. They were treating of mounds of land that they were allowing to store and to take advantage better of the water in places of frequent floods to cusa of the rains. They used a series of agricultural technologies in the ridges, among them, the tracing of artificial ruts to give protection to the plants, to facilitate the drainage during the rains, floods, irrigation, as sources of credit and, specially, to diminish the cold night in the heights, avoiding thus the frosts.
In pre-Hispanic times the "cochas" or artificial lagoons were created in the punas used to cultivate and to give something to drink to the cattle. These lagoons can be round, elongated or rectangular, and are composed by a great number of symmetrical ruts that gather the water of the rains and lead it among the ruts.
Cochas
- Cochas or articial lagoons, were dry puddles that filled in with rain. It was used on the coast.
Also there is highlighted the technology of improvement of species, they knew the major influence of the temperature of the soil than the temperature of the air on the plants, since Moray's laboratory testifies it.
See also
References
- ^ (Spanish) http://www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/xml/1/5541/lcl1413_Cap8-10.pdf
- ^ (Spanish) http://www.cusichaca.org/PDF/2.%20%20Presentacion%20de%20la%20Institucion%20CUSICHACA.pdf
- ^ The Incas. by Terrence N. D'Altroy. Blackwell Publishers Inc. 2002. pages 198, 199. ISBN 0-631-17677-2.
- ^ Earle, Timothy K.; Johnson, Allen W. (1987). The evolution of human societies: from foraging group to agrarian state. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-1339-1.
Bibliography
- (Spanish) Rostworowski, María: Enciclopedia Temática: Incas. ISBN 9972-752-00-3.
- (Spanish) Editorial Sol 90: Historia Universal: América precolombina ISBN 9972-891-79-8.
- (Spanish) Muxica Editores: Culturas Prehispánicas ISBN 9972-617-10-6.
- Rivero Luque: The use of the chakitaqlla in the Andes, 1987.
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