Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala (1550?–1616) came from a noble indigenous family in Peru. He spoke Quechua, Aymara, and Spanish and was baptized as a Christian. As an assistant to a Spanish friar and a Spanish judge, he saw firsthand the abuses of the Spanish authorities in what had been the Inca Empire. In the early seventeenth century he began writing and illustrating what became his masterpiece, a handwritten book of almost eight hundred pages of text and nearly four hundred line drawings addressed to the king of Spain that related the history of the Inca Empire and the realities of Spanish rule. He hoped to send the book to Spain, where it would convince the king to make reforms that would bring about the “good government” of the book’s title. (The book apparently never reached the king, though it did make its way to Europe. It was discovered in the Danish Royal Library in Copenhagen in 1908.) In the following section, Guaman Poma sets out certain traditional age-group categories of Inca society, which he terms “paths,” ten for men and ten for women.

“The first path was that of the brave men, the soldiers of war. They were thirty-three years of age (they entered this path as young as twenty-five, and left it at fifty). These brave men were held very much apart and distinguished in every manner possible. The Inca [the Inca ruler] selected some of these Indians to serve in his battles and wars. He selected some from among these brave Indians to settle as mitmaqs (foreigners) in other provinces, giving them more than enough land, both pasture and cropland, to multiply, and giving each of them a woman from the same land. He did this to keep his kingdom secure; they served as overseers. . . .

The Fifth Path was that of the sayapayac [those who stand upright]. These were the Indians of the watch, aged from eighteen to twenty years. They served as messenger boys between one pueblo and another, and to other nearby places in the valley. They also herded flocks, and accompanied the Indians of war and the great lords and captains. They also carried food. . . .

The Eighth Path was that of boys aged from five to nine years. These were the “boys who play” ( puellacoc wamracuna). They served their mothers and fathers in whatever ways they could, and bore many whippings and thumpings; they also served by playing with the toddlers and by rocking and watching over the babies in cradles. . . . The Tenth Path was that of those called wawa quirawpi cac (newborn babies at the breast, in cradles), from the age of one month. It is right for others to serve them; their mothers must necessarily serve them for no other person can give milk to these children. . . .

The First Path was that of the married women and widows called auca camayocpa warmin [the warriors’ women], whose occupation is weaving fine cloth for the Inca, the other lords, the captains, and the soldiers. They were thirty-three years of age when they married; up until then, they remained virgins and maidens. . . . These wives of brave men were not free [from tribute obligations]. These women had the occupation of weaving fine awasca cloth and spinning yarn; they assisted the commons in their pueblos and provinces, and they assisted with everything their titled noble lords decreed. . . .

The Sixth Path was that of those called coro tasqui-cunas, rotusca tasqui, which means “young girls with short-cropped hair.” They were from twelve to eighteen years of age and served their fathers, mothers, and grandmothers. They also began to serve the great ladies so that they could learn to spin yarn and weave delicate materials. They served as animal herders and workers in the fields, and in making chica [corn beer] for their fathers and mothers, and they assisted in other occupations insofar as they could, helping out . . . they were filled with obedience and respect, and were taught to cook, spin, and weave. Their hair was kept cropped until they reached the age of thirty, when they were married and given the dowry of their destitution and poverty.

The Seventh Path was that of the girls called flower pickers. . . . They picked flowers to dye wool for cumpis, cloth, and other things, and they picked the edible herbs mentioned above, which they dried out and stored in the warehouse to be eaten the following year. These girls were from nine to twelve years of age. . . .

The Ninth Path was that of the girls aged one and two, who were called llucac warmi wawa (“young girls who crawl”). They do nothing; instead, others serve them. Better said, they ought to be served by their mothers, who should be exempt [from tribute] because of the work of raising their children. Their mothers have to walk around carrying them, and never let go of their hands.”

Source: Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, The First New Chronicle and Good Government (abridged), translated by David Frye (Cambridge, Mass : Hackett Publishing Company, 2006). Copyright © 2006 by Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

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