[Aztlan] Follow up on Inca servant class at Machu Picchu

[michael ruggeri]

Listeros,

In a follow up story to the discovery that permanent servants at  
Machu Picchu came from all over the Inca empire, National Geographic  
posts these new details;

The servant class came from as far away as the Pacific Coast,  
northern highlands and close to the Bolivian border. By taking people  
from all over the Inca empire, Inca rulers broke ties of allegiance  
between villagers and their local authorities. The new class of  
servants or "yanacona" were treated with honor being given gifts like  
textiles and land. Their bones show no signs of hard physical labor.  
They performed farm work and bureaucratic jobs and defense.

If the Inca needed labor, they could utilize the yanacona and not  
draw on workers from their imperial area. Without the yanacona, the  
Inca empire may not have happened. The Yanacona work was the  
foundation of Inca productivity.

National Geographic has the story here;

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081027-machu-picchu- 
diverse.html

A tiny URL;

http://tinyurl.com/6c4cl6

Mike Ruggeri


Mike Ruggeri's The Ancient Americas Breaking News
http://web.mac.com/michaelruggeri