Catherine Julien

How Inca Decimal Administration Worked

Understanding Inca decimal administration has been elusive because Spanish administrators recorded only partial descriptions of Inca practice and failed to grasp the logic and principles which guided it. Decimal administration can be reconstructed in broad outline from two native accounting records, pre- served on knotted devices known as quipos. Once an overview of the system is gained, the logic and principles which informed Inca practice become perceptible. This in turn enables an assessment of the impact of Inca authority on the politi- cal organization of the Andean area. The Incas did not simply reorient existing political organization to meet their own ends, but reorganized it to be the struc- tural equivalent of local authority elsewhere and, in the process, authored a new territorial configuration in the Andes. The Incas conquered and held a large territory during the century before the Spanish arrival in the Andes. That they organized the diverse An- dean population into decimal units for administrative purposes was not doubted by sixteenth-century Spanish writers, all of whom were aware of the magnitude of the task of running an empire in the Andes. Yet these writers, our nearest witnesses to Inca administration, say almost nothing about the operation of decimal administration. Four centuries later, and more than a century after the beginnings of ethnohistorical inquiry, we still have no workable idea about how the Incas organized their empire

ON THE BEGINNING OF THE LATE HORIZON

Abstract An argument is proposed for an earlier temporal placement of the beginning of the Late Horizon than the one made by John H. Rowe in 1945. Rowe followed Cabello Valboa (1586), who placed this event late in the rule of Thupa Inca Yupanqui and after the conquests of both Quito and Chile. The reading offered here is anchored instead in the Relación de Chincha (1558), collected from local sources in the Chinch a valley. The south coast, including Ica, appears to have been annexed at the time of the Inca Pachacut’s campaign in Soras. Thus, the event that marks the beginning of the Late Horizon can be placed fully a generation earlier than the Rowe placement, and near the beginning of Inca expansion outside of the Cuzco region.

The Shape of Inca History: Narrative and Architecture in an Andean Empire (review)

as we would expect any lament to be, but it is not alone among a certain kind of statement to emerge from Bolin’s discussion sessions, and it might repay further attention. With its festive focus, Rituals of Respect offers a wealth of close descriptions of a native Andean people partaking in rituals that are central to their existence. The book is illustrated by beautiful photographs, which make its cast of memorable characters and themes even more vivid. It is an accessible and informative ethnography that should appeal to scholarly and general readers alike.