Inca Culture and Cultural History

The Inca culture is part myth and part Peruvian history. Without any written records, the Inca culture becomes almost like a legend. Here's a people that existed for a three hundred year span and ruled almost all of South America for about one hundred years. The real name of the Inca culture is the Quechua culture.

It's important to clarify that Inca or Sapan Inca was the name of the king, the emperor or supreme authority of the kingdom. Quechua was the Incas language and based in the name of the language that they spoke; the real name of the Incas culture should be, the Quechua culture. The original way to spell Quechua was, Queswa.

The Queswa culture or culture of Inca for us was born in the 1100 AD. They were a simple Inca Tribe, where everything belongs to the Inca king. Work for the kingdom was compulsory and one third of what your work produce has to be offer to the Inca king.

The Inca government shares all products around the kingdom providing food to the hungry and clothing to the people that need it. They also provide health, agriculture technology, hydraulics and all necessary materials to improve the living conditions of the families that work for the Inca king.

Model of Inca Culture

The Inca culture model was clear and simple; it was a free of hunger society. They offer protection to the communities. The Hatunruna or standard citizen knew that he and his family will receive help in case of natural disasters. He knew that all his basic needs were guarantee by the Inca government. The advance Inca Agriculture, the great administration and the evolve Incas society; were the reasons of why they were so quickly accept.

The official language of the empire was Quechua, although hundreds of local languages and dialects of Quechua were spoken. The Inca referred to their empire as Tawantinsuyu which can be translated as The Four Regions or The Four United Provinces.

There were many local forms of worship, most of them concerning local sacred "Huacas", but the Inca leadership encouraged the worship of Inti - the sun god - and imposed its sovereignty above other cults such as that of Pachamama. The Incas considered their King, the Sapa Inca, to be the "child of the sun."

Inca Civilization

As ancient civilizations sprang up across the planet thousands of years ago, so too the Inca civilization evolved. As with all ancient civilizations, its exact origins are unknown. Their historic record, as with all other tribes evolving on the planet at that time, would be recorded through oral tradition, stone, pottery, gold and silver jewelry, and woven in the tapestry of the people.

The Inca of Peru have long held a mystical fascination for people of the western world. Four hundred years ago the fabulous wealth in gold and silver possessed by these people was discovered, then systematically pillaged and plundered by Spanish conquistadors.

The booty they carried home altered the whole European economic system. And in their wake, they left a highly developed civilization in tatters. That a single government could control many diverse tribes, many of which were secreted in the most obscure of mountain hideaways, was simply remarkable.

No one really knows where the Incas came from that historic record remains carved in stone for archaeologists to unravel through the centuries that followed.

More info on- Incan Traditions and Customs, Religion and Religious Beliefs