Women and ritual conflict in Inka society

Abstract

The European world first encountered the Inka empire of Tawantinsuyu² when a band of invaders led by Francisco Pizarro disembarked at Tumbes in 1531. Writing later of the battles with the Inka, Spanish historians made frequent mention of women on or near the battlefields, and even of Inka women fighting with weapons. However, the conquistadores changed the very notion of ‘war’ for the Inka people; and although women were indeed present at ‘battles’ in traditional Inka society, both the roles of the women and the roles of the conflict itself were significantly different from those envisaged by the Spanish. Our information on pre-conquest Inka society is unfortunately limited, and the description here is built up from scattered records of Inka society and rituals; traditional Inka art; some insights glimpsed through the Spanish accounts; and various post-conquest sources, including comparative ethnographic material. The intention here is not only to give some indication of women’s involvement in conflict in traditional Inka society, but also to show how this society and its values were, sometimes wilfully, misinterpreted by the Spanish.

The modern orthography ‘Inka’ is used throughout in preference to the more traditional but less accurate rendering ‘Inca’.