I was excited to read a text this week that elaborated more into Inca culture and social structure. I thought that the Garcilaso de la Vega reading provided some historical context that really helped situate me into the contents of other texts that we have read thus far. I especially enjoyed reading the Inca creation story as recorded by la Vega, as I felt that I learned much about the values and beliefs of the Inca from this.
Something that had actually surprised me about this text was how many parallels there were between the Inca creation story and other religious dominations, such as Cathlolism. Mirroring between an all mighty god, a promise land, and two first people put on earth, were characteristics connecting both the Inca and Catholic creations story.
Although there were aspects that I found quite beautiful within the Inca story (such as the journey with the gold wand to find settlement in a land with soft soil) I was surprised to find colonial parallels within the Inca creation story as well. The pursuit of a settlement as instructed by the Inca sun god also entailed leading “savages” to “civilization.” This sentiment in the story made me feel a little uncomfortable. It had never occurred to me that perhaps the Inca partook in colonization under the premise of religion as well. The idea of these people being welcoming of a foreign religion as easily as implied in the Inca story felt very similar to colonial narratives pushed by the Spanish in their pursuit of settlement in Latin America.
I’ve really been sitting with the question brought up in class today. “What advantage did Rome have over Cusco?” In my academic journey thus far, it has come up quite often how academia (and really any other institution) value written history over oral story tellings. I’ve always believed this to be as systematic attempt to control colonial narratives in these realms, and discredit Indigenous ways of knowing. However, I hadn’t considered that the sharing of oral history would also result in my discovery of the Inca empire having also held colonial beliefs.
Having learning this information, I feel there is much more I would like to know about the history of the Inca empire. This is something alongside more history of surrounding Indigneous groups that I would like to explore more. I have now also been reflecting about the idea of different types of colonialism and how these compare and contrast in differing contexts.
5 replies on “Blog Post #5: A Colonial Uncovering”
When thinking about the Inca empire, I think about how it really only ‘lasted’ 95 years. It astonishes me how much they accomplished in such a short amount of time, and how many of their foundations still stand even after [re]construction and destruction. But through this thought-process, I also feel a tension about how they might’ve accomplished everything, about the manpower they possessed and how it came to be that way. It’s interesting to compare the Incan Empire with the Roman Empire, because–**from what I know**–the Roman empire seemed to me to always be adjacent to shambles. With colonialism, of course there are different types with different goals/intentions, but I often think about effective colonialism vs. (uselessly) destructive colonialism–which I have been comparing with Incan vs. Roman/western/european colonialism/imperialism, respectively. Ethically, I have qualms with this line of thinking, but it persists in my head nonetheless.
Replying to both Grace and Jasmine here, I have also been sitting with the comparison/contrast between Rome and Cusco. When Jon posed the question in class, my immediate thoughts were about slavery and labour, conquest, architectural innovation, law, and religion, my main associations with the Roman Empire. As I cycled through each of those aspects, I was struck by the similarities between the two, specifically regarding slave labour. From what I have read, it is hotly debated whether the Incan system of compulsory government labour (Mit’a) was in fact slave labour or not. But seeing the ruins, and reflecting on the colonial narratives Grace is writing about, and the manpower question Jasmine touches on, I also feel a tension about the methods used by the Inca to achieve such amazing innovations.
I loved the blog and the answers you gave. It is a wonderful, honest and generous dialogue. But just to further complicate the topic, already complex in the terms in which Grace expresses it, I leave you with a well-known quote from one of my favorite thinkers: “There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism. And just as such a document is not free of barbarism, barbarism taints also the manner in which it was transmitted from one owner to another.”
Unfortunately humans are kind of the worst. Although we like to tell pretty stories and have nice times, as Daniel mentions above, there is no humanity without barbarism it seems. The parallels between Christian colonialism and Incan colonialism to me lends even more credence to just how similarly “advanced” the two societies were. The narrative that the Incans were docile etc comes from the false descriptions (with specific intentions) of Columbus/other conquistadors and infantilizes the population. Looking forward to hearing more about your reflections!
Grace, this is a super insightful post! I was also struck by the parallels between Garcilaso’s account of the Inca religion and Catholicism! My suspicion is that Garcilaso was trying to make the Inca religion seem more like Catholicism, and therefore less barbaric to a Catholic audience.