History of the Inca Religion

History of the Inca Religion possibly one of the more or less fascinating and awe inspiring moralitys in kind history is that of the Incas.Countless the great unwashed bring in been captivated by this religion over many generations.Many books have been written and movies made to gaining prevail the essence of this religion.After glance overing about this paper, it will be trim how incredible these population and their religion was.To first understand the religion of the Incas, you essential first know the history of the people.The Incan civilization originated from a ethnic music in the Cuzco scene of action of Peru.The Incas were one of the largest, richest and most powerful empires to begin with pre-Columbian America as their territory covered a massive area at its peak.The Inca empire crossed many boundaries as it conquered many countries and areas with a variety of meansfrom conquest to peaceful assimilation.This lead to the Inca conglomerate gaining a large part of South America. By its height in the 1520s, the Inca Empire stretched 3,500 miles from present day Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador to the area in which the Incas originated, Peru.It was the largest empire on earth at the time.After to each one area had been conquered, the Incas would take see of the area by imposing their language and organizational skills on the people.This would be followed by building improvements to the area such as creating roads for the people to travel on, irrigation canals, stone buildings and fortresses.The Incas had astonishing and technologically advanced masonry techniques for their time.The estimated population of the Inca Empire at its peak was around twenty million people with the authorized language being Quechua.To control such a huge area, the Incas strengthened roads, including both mountainous and coastal routes.The Inca Empire was ruled with efficiency in part because of a superb highway system that included intermittently paved roads up to 24 feet wide, tunnels, bridges, and stepped pathways cut into living rock. The psyche highland road atop the spine of the Andes, ran 3,450 miles from the Colombia-Ecuador border to central Chile. side(prenominal) roads linked it to the coastal highway. Ironically, the very roadways that made it possible for the Inca to control their vast empire, rapidly moving an army to quell a rebellion, were in any case the avenue of the empires downfall, giving the Spanish conquistadors under Pizarro direct access to the tit of the kingdom.One existing part of the road between Cusco and the palace of Machu Picchu is called the Inca Trail.The nitty-gritty of control exercised by Cusco over the rest of the empire varied from set up to say.Tri exactlye paid to the Inca rulers came from farmers of cotton, potatoes, and maize, herders of alpacas and llamas, and craft specialists who made polychrome pottery, brewed beer from maize, wove fine woollen tapestries, and made wooden, ston e, and gold, silver and copper objects.Inca cities were as large as those of Europe, but more than orderly and by all accounts much cleaner and more pleasant places in which to live (McEwan, 56).The Inca were organized along a interlocking hierarchical and hereditary lineage system called the Ayllu system. Ayllus ranged in size from a few hundred to tens of thousands of people, and they governed access to such things as land, political roles, marriage, and rite ceremonies. Among other meaning(a) duties, Ayllus took maintenance and ceremonial roles involving the preservation and care of recognizeed mummies of the ancestors of their communities.In Inca social structure, the ruler Sapa Inca, and his wives, the Coyas, had supreme control over the empire. The exalted Priest and the Army Commander in Chief were next. Then came the quartette Apus, the regional army commanders. Next, were temple priests, architects, administrators and army generals.After them, were artisans, musicians , army captains and the quipucamayoc, the Incan accountants. At the bottom were sorcerers, farmers, herding families and conscripts.The only written records about the Inca that we can read today are documents from the Spanish conquistadors of Francisco Pizarro.Records were kept by the Inca in the realize of knotted strings called quipu.The Spanish reported that historical records, particularly the kit and caboodle of the rulers, were sung, chanted, and painted on wooden tablets as well.In the Inca Empirec several polytheistic religions were practiced by its different people. Most religions had common traits such as the existence of a pashamama and Viracocha. The Incas controlled religion to give the empire cohesion by having conquered peoples add the Inca deities to their pantheon.Inca deities occupied the three realmsHanan Pacha, the celestial realm in the sky, Uku Pacha, the intimate earth, and Cay Pacha, the outer earth where humans live.The most important deities of Hanan Pa cha were Inti, the sun god, and Mama Quilla, the moon goddess. Inti Raymi was the festival of the sun god, the largest and most important Inca festival. The lightning deity also resided in Hanan Pacha.Uku Pacha was the domain of Pachamama, the Earth mother, who is comprehensive to Andean mythologies. Kanopa was the God of Pregnancy.Con-Tici Viracocha Pachayachachic, The first god, creator of the three realms and their inhabitants, was also the fuck off of Inti.Many ancient Andean peoples traced their origins to ancestral deities. Multiple Ayllus could share correspondent ancestral origins. The Inca claimed descent from the Sun and the Moon, their Father and Mother. Many Ayllus claimed descent from primordial proto-humans that emerged from local sites in nature, called Pacarinas.The earliest ancestors of the Inca were cognise as Ayar, the first of which was Manco Capac or Ayar Manco. Inca mythology tells of his travels, in which he and the Ayar shaped and marked the land and int roduced the cultivation of maize.A prominent theme in Inca mythology is the duality of the Cosmos. The realms were separated into the upper and let down realms, the Hanan Pacha and the Ukhu Pacha and Hurin Pacha. Hanan Pacha, the upper world, consisted of the deities of the sun, moon, stars, rainbow, and lightning.Ukhu Pacha and Hurin Pacha were the realms of Pachamama, the earth mother, and the ancestors and heroes of the Inca or other Ayllus. Kay Pacha, the realm of the outer earth where humans resided, was viewed as an intercessor realm between Hanan Pacha and Ukhu Pacha. The realms were represented by the condor (upper world), puma (outer earth) and snake in the grass (inner earth).Huacas were widespread around the Inca Empire. Huacas were deific entities that resided in natural objects such as mountains, boulders, streams, battle fields, other meeting places, and any type of place that was committed with past Incan rulers. Huacas could also be inanimate objects such as potter y that were believed to be vessels carrying deities. Spiritual leaders in a conjunction would use prayer and offerings to communicate with a Huaca for advice or assistance. gracious give over was a part of Incan rituals.Priests presided over sacrifices, an essential part of many rituals and ceremonies.The majority of the sacrifices involved animals, such as llamas or guinea pigs.However, in times of disaster or at very sacred ceremonies, a woman or a child might be sacrificed to the gods.These people would be given Chicha, a thick beer made from fermented corn to whoop it up in golden goblets while the priest sang songs of their virtue before they were strangled.The bodies of the sacrificed were then buried in a cocoon of fine textiles and adjoin by gold and silver statues, bags of corn and other offerings. The ancient Inca chose children as young as 6, but also as old as 15, fattened them up for a year and sent them on a sacrifice pilgrimage (Inca Human Sacrifices).The Incan p eople thought it was an honor to die for an offering.The Incas also used divination. They used it to inform people in the city of social events, predict battle outcomes, and ask for intervention.The Inca were a deeply religious people. They feared that evil would come at any time. Sorcerors held positions in union as protectors from the spirits. They also believed in reincarnation, saving their nail clippings, hair cuttings and teething in case the returning spirit needed them.The religious and societal center of Inca life was contained in the middle of the sprawling fortress known as Sacsahuaman. Here was located Cuzco, The Naval of the World the home of the Inca headmaster and site of the sacred Temple of the Sun. At such a place the immense wealth of the Inca was clear with gold and silver decorating every edifice. The hugger-mugger of Inca wealth was the Mita. This was a labor program imposed upon every Inca by the Inca ruler. Since it only took about 65 days a year for a fa mily to farm for its own needs, the rest of the time was devoted to working on Temple-owned fields, building bridges, roads, temples, and terraces, or extracting gold and silver from the mines. The work was controlled through chiefs of thousands, hundreds and tens. rootage worship was a central part of Incan theology.The souls of the dead vie a protective role in the lives of their descendants.The bodies of ancestors were mummified and entombed.Often they were buried with their most prized possessions, women, servants, weapons, and ornaments in addition to an abundance of food and Chicha. Some groups of Incas placed the deceased person on a large carved stone where they were mourned before burial. In some areas, the dead were sewn into fresh llama-hide and kept at their familys home. posterity of the deceased would rule-governedly visit the tombs of their loved ones in order to stick them food and precious goods.Mummies of dead rulers were the holiest Huacas in the empire.They we re treated as if they were electrostatic alive continuing to own the property they had when alive, eating with their descendants and each other, and enjoying important ceremonies.They were also considered to be oracles and were therefore consulted on a regular basis.This information listed in this paper is just but a try on of the rich history of these people and their religion. After reading this, it is clear wherefore they are such a fascinating people and why they have been studied for so many yearsWorks Cited/BibliographyCobo, Bernabe, and Roland Hamilton. Inca Religion and Customs. capital of Texas U of Texas, 1990. Print.Conrad, Geoffrey W., and Arthur Andrew. Demarest. Religion and Empire The Dynamics of Aztec and Inca Expansionism. Cambridge Cambridge UP, 1984. Print.McEwan, Gordon Francis. The Incas New Perspectives. Santa Barbara, CA ABC-CLIO, 2006. Print.Anitei, Stefan. Inca Human Sacrifices. Softpedia. N.p., 20 Feb. 2008. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.