Garcilaso de la Vega’s Defense and Criticism of his Inca Heritage and Culture to the Spanish

Why this book was written: Land and Wildlife Management: Writing and How the Inca Viewed it The author, Garcilaso de la Vega, wrote the A complex and highly organized management Native Incas viewed writing with awe as it Royal Commentaries to convince his European system existed before Spanish contact. Each year represented an alternative to speaking. By placing audience that traditional Inca culture was not 20-30 thousand Native hunters were recruited to knowledge outside of the human body it could be savage and simple. He was in a position to collectively scour an area of 20-30 leagues. The preserved far longer than human minds. Native represent the Incas to European audiences game was then divided among the populace leaders were swift to realize the close connections because he was the son of a Spanish according to family size, and portioned to last a full between writing and power. They also realized Conquistador and an Inca mother of royal blood; a year. Special provisions ensured that the elderly, that Europeans notions of truth were tied to the Mestizo with a Western education. sick, and disabled received their share too. written word. As such, native leaders saw writing The whole empire was divided into four as a weapon against the invaders. Thesis: provinces, with the annual hunt rotating between In the early years of European contact writing Because the Incas lacked a writing system provinces each year. This way the animal appeared almost divine in nature to many of the when they were conquered by the Spanish, they population in each area had been given three native population. Because the Spanish used were unable to record their own written accounts years to be naturally replenished. writing in their administration it became necessary Arrival of the Spanish, Found in the Royal of the invasion until their Mestizo descendants Commentaires, C. 1688 Each family received a plot of land for raising for many natives to learn both written and verbal Illustration of a llama caravan. Found in the Royal began to write accounts in defense of Inca society. crops that was proportional to the family size. The Commentaries, c. 1688 Spanish to avoid being scammed and tricked by plots, called tupu were of a set measurement, and those Spaniards who manipulated the language each family received an additional plot for every barrier. son, and ½ plot for every daughter. In years of This book is significant because Vega was one scarce rainfall the irrigation was rationed so each of the first people of Inca descent to become well family received equal time to water their crops. enough versed in Spanish rhetoric to act as a mediary between the two cultures. Sacrifices and Religion: Illustration of the city of Cusco, Found in the Royal Commentaires, C. 1688 The Inca empire included many different ethnic groups which all held their own beliefs and had Background and Explanation: their own gods. The Spanish portrayed these The author was raised in Peru among his mother’s beliefs as primitive, but in reality a complex moral family, but was given a classic Spanish education. and belief system existed. A common belief When he was 20 he moved to Spain and among many of these groups was that the gods attempted to claim his place as his father’s demanded sacrifices, though what they sacrificed legitimate inheritor. He was denied by the courts varied. Sacrifices included many different meats A colored image representing and decided to devote his life to literature. the Inca Quipucamayoc and skins of beasts, feathers of birds, and various originally from c. 1615, colored in 1936 Through his writing, he attempted to show that drinks. Some groups even sacrificed their own people of indigenous heritage were capable of blood or offered living sacrifices of war captives. Bibliography intellectual thought and high culture. Eventually he Vega, Garcilaso De La. The royal commentaries of Peru, in two parts : The first part. Treating of the The author points out that the Incas had banned original of their Incas or kings: of their idolatry: of their laws and government both in peace and war: wrote the Royal Commentaries as a more direct human sacrifices and cannibalism by the time the of the reigns and conquests of the Incas. London: Miles Flesher, 1688. argument for the nobility of the Native Americans. Bauer, Ralph. An Inca Account of the Conquest of Peru by Titu Cusi Yupanqui. Boulder, Colorado: Spanish arrived. University Press of Colorado , 2005. The Spanish original was first printed at Lisbon in He also includes passages about the Inca belief Hamilton, Roland. Inca Religion and Customs by Father Bernabe Cobo. Austin: University of Texas 1609, during the last decade of his life. In it, he in immortal souls and a divine creator of the Earth, Press , 1990. used the Inca’s natural resource management Livermore, Harold V. Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru Part One by in an effort to show similarities between Garcilaso de la Vega. Austin & London: University of Texas Press, 1966. practices and their religious beliefs and practices indigenous beliefs and Christianity. Smith, Brian S. Bauer & Vania. The History of the Incas by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa [1572]. as evidence of their stewardship and virtue. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007.

Spanish conquest, Found in the Royal Spanish Betrayal, Found in the Royal Commentaires, Commentaires, C. 1688 C.1688

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