INKA ROAD
Valley view from the heights of Puka Pukara, on the way to the Antisusu.
THE EXHIBITION O
HUAYNACAPAC’S ABSENCE FROM CUSCO – SACRED CITY AND CENTER OF ADMINISTRATIVE EQUILIBRIUM – SIGNALED A POWER VACUUM THAT WOULD USHER THE EMPIRE’S DESTRUCTION. IN 1527, A NEW DISEASE (LIKELY SMALLPOX) REACHED HIS NORTHERN COURT, JUST AHEAD OF THE SPANISH CONQUISTADORES.
P
achacutic’s sucession was as orderly and efficient as his reign. As he aged, he slowly introduced a favored and proven son, Topa, to the reins of
government. Topa Inka Yapanqui, who ruled from 1471 to 1493, consolidated his father’s dominions, quashing rebellious provinces along the way, as he expanded the empire to the north and east, traveling and building on the Antisuyo road to secure precious woods, fine feathers, coveted plant medicines and gold of the tropical Amazonian foothills. He next went north beyond his father’s Tomebamba to the “Edge of the Kingdom of Quito,” which he besieged and conquered. He consolidated the central coast by a negotiated conquest of the Empire of Chimu. Topa Inka took his exploits south to the
Maule River, building roads deep into today’s central Chile. At the Maule, the Inka army met its match in the fierce resistance of the Mapu- che warriors, defining “the edge of his [Topa Inka]’s empire; and the dominions of the Inka never passed that line, then or after.” Topa Inka’s son, Huaynacapac, “the last
true Inka,” according to Cobo, took seriously the patrilineal mandate to expand his own
30 AMERICAN INDIAN SUMMER 2015
portion of the Empire. He did so by “incorpo- rating much of what is now modern Ecuador as well as the northeastern Peruvian Andes,” writes Gordon F. McEwan. A brilliant gen- eral, Huaynacapac spent so much time in his northern military campaigns that the central governmental fabric was seriously strained. The now vast empire suffered from his dis- tance from Cusco, while the Inka appeared to set up a rival court in the northern Inka center of Tomebamba. Huaynacapac’s absence from Cusco – sa-
cred city and center of administrative equilib- rium – signaled a power vacuum that would usher the empire’s destruction. In 1527, a new disease (likely smallpox) reached his northern court, just ahead of the Spanish conquistado- res. It rapidly killed the Inka along with many high-ranking generals and officials, and most tragically for the empire, his designated heir. The lack of orderly succession opened doors to chaos and a ruinous civil war into which walked the Spanish conquistador, Francisco Pizarro and his band of soldiers.X
Jose Barreiro is assistant director for history and culture research, NationaI Museum of the American Indian, and co-curator of the exhibition The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire.
ur purpose in examining the Qhapaq Nan has been to contemplate the sophisti- cated splendor of the Inka road
system – focusing on the masterful civil and social engineering that went into its design and construction.
The new exhibition gathers cutting-edge scholarship and commissioned writings on varied aspects of the Inka Road from nearly 30 experts from 10 countries and numer- ous disciplines. It examines the nature of Inka expansion – which tapped into the rich customs and culture of the Andean highlands’ kinship-based communities, the ayllus – showing how major state institutions incorporated community cultural concepts. The deep sense of duality and symmetry, inherent in community life and ritual, also was useful in designing the state. The equally acute sense of reciprocity
expressed in the Andean concepts of ayni and mink’a (exchanging labor) was the basis of a highly productive social organization, which could support a major achievement in civil engineering. A vast empire, meeting the essential definitions of the term – a central sovereign, dominion over many regions and cultures – Inka governance was also unique in developing a polity informed substantially in these Andean reciprocity protocols. Ever since gifted photographer Megan Son
suggested an exhibition, and Museum associ- ate director Tim Johnson asked Andeanist Dr. Ramiro Matos of the National Museum of the American Indian to take up the challenge, I have been fortunate as co-curator to join a wonderful caravan of experts in the compila- tion of this unique study of the Inka Road. We invite all people to join us as we explore the minds of the Inka leaders as they sought to fulfill their solar mandate to bring order out of chaos and create a brilliant, stark and highly integrated vision of the Andean world. The exhibition The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire opens in the W. Richard West, Jr. Contemporary Arts Gallery at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., on June 26 and runs through June 1, 2018. It will be accompanied by a richly illustrated book of the same title, edited by Ramiro Matos and Jose Barreiro, and published by the National Museum of the American Indian in association with Smith- sonian Books. For more information about the book, or to purchase a copy, visit the Museum’s online bookstore at www.nmaistore.
si.edu or call 800-242-NMAI (6624).
– Jose Barreiro
PHOTO BY RAMIRO MATOS MENDIETA
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