Friday, May 28, 2010

My Report For Social- Incas

I am doing my report on the history of the Incas. In my report I have information on the costumes and beliefs, their food how they hunted and farmed it, the places they lived, and the climate of that area. I will also tell you what their resources were, what explorer discovered the land they lived on and how being discovered impacted their lives.

The Incas ate many different kinds of food and they didn’t rely on just one. They did have their favorites like everyone, that favorite was potatoes. They used potatoes for every special event and most of the families would eat it at home just on a regular bases. They would harvest most of their food including corn, potatoes, an edible root called oca and a grain known as quinoa. When the crops were done they had to carry them up mountain sides. Since this was extremely hard, almost impossible to do they would cut terraces into the sides of the mountains or hills to help carry up the food. The other food they ate was food that they invented; this food consisted of beef jerky and popcorn. They ate this because it lasted for a long time. The other thing they ate was llama. This is pretty much the only meat they ate besides beef. To hunt these animals they sometimes used a bow and arrow but they mostly relied on the sling and stone.


The Inca people all had very different homes even though they lived in the same place. This place was the Andes Mountains of South Peru. In these mountains they lived in places such as Columbia, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina. The type of homes they ha all depended on their royalty. The royal lived in spacious decorated stone palaces that mostly consisted of two floors. The priests who were considered to be above average also lived in spacious houses but a majority of them did not have two floors in their homes. Then there were the poor who considered average because most of the population of the Incas did not have a lot of money. They built their homes in two ways one being the more common way of building homes for the indigenous people. The common way was using roots, grass, wood and dirt. This was also the easy way to make their homes. The other way was with as boulder. They would cut the boulder so that each house would fit together in a zigzag form. Even though most houses were built like this they still built a wall around the town using this same method so incase of attack not even a knife could fit through the wall.


Incas had many different beliefs and attended many different ceremonies and get togethers. Their ceremonies took place whenever they were called together. In these ceremonies they did different things but all these things revolved around mummies of the dead, gods, temples, holy historical places, springs, stones, and mountain peaks. The gods that the Inca people believed in consisted of the sun god and the god named Virococha who was believed to have created nature. There were also the goddesses that they believed in they included Earth and Sea. When they began these ceremonies they always started with the same things divination, offerings and also important and special events on the calendar. Divination is an attempt to gain knowledge through magic signs. They did this by looking at the study of animal organs and the movement of them, also by looking at the flames of the fire they started. They used divination for all government decisions and also to decide when it is good to plant crops, go to war and what different activities they wanted to do. After all of that they would dance, play games, listen to songs and have parades and feasts.

Sometimes the Incas would have very special ceremonies. In these ceremonies they would make human and animal sacrifices. In a humans case it was an honor to be chosen to be sacrificed. For the animals it was just to keep the good will of the gods. Most of the time the animal that got sacrificed was a llama but they also sacrificed other ones like deer and cow. When these ceremonies took place it was up to the women to prepare the food and also to make the clothes for the royal family, priests and people being sacrificed.

Even though they celebrated a lot of there beliefs in ceremonies they also had a lot of beliefs outside of them. Every house hold had a small statue which they cherished very much. There were also surgeons which would cut away pieces of the skull that belonged to the sick. This was to release out bad and evil spirits. This was one of the many ways people died back then. When important people died they were put above ground in chambers. Others were buried in pits caves and other types of graves. Either at their funeral or just on a regular day the Incas wore clothes made out of wool, cotton, or knitted textiles. They also spoke a language called Quechua; this language is still spoken in places today.

Like I mentioned before the Incas people lived in the mountains of South Peru. In these mountains they lived in parts of Columbia, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina. These places they lived all had different types of weather. The Amazon was very hot and humid it is known as the dry desserts of the West. Columbia and Ecuador are both very tropical but Ecuador can also me wet and humid depending on the part of the year. Chile gets lots of rain and Argentina depending of the type of year goes from extreme heat to pleasantly mild and can become rather cold.


The Incas used as many things as they could off the land. Their main recourse from the land was rock and stone. They used stone for building all shelters, making places to carry up food and making protection like walls incase of an attack. Another huge recourse they had was llama. They killed llama and ate it as meat. Then they used all the bones for spoons, arrows, and also a needle for sewing. They never let any part of the animal go to waste. If they didn’t use an animal for transporting food they would use mountain slopes because it was easy to walk up then. Silver, gold and different types of minerals were used to make jewelry and other decorations. Some other things they used which they got off the land were coco leaves for different drinks like tea, dirt for houses, wool for clothes, and other things like corn, fish and beef for food.


Francisco Pizzaro explored Peru of Southern Americas Central Pacific Coast. He was a Spanish explorer and he came for a few different reasons, the main reason being for conquest. The Spanish had lots of land but they always wanted more. Some other reasons were to take away their religion and make them believe in theirs. They also wanted the Incas wealth, gold, silver and crops. The Inca people had lots of gold and the Spanish wanted it to make them richer. Francisco came in 1532 and left after making all the things he wanted his. He destroyed many things including their culture, religion and the people overall.

When Francisco Pizzaro came he effected and destroyed the lives of many Inca people. The Spanish brought over a few different diseases. These consisted of small pox, Carrions disease, measles, and pneumonia. These diseases killed a lot of the Inca society. Besides the disease they also made other tribes join their culture, killed the Inca Empire, and used their gold and silver to build more cities.


In conclusion the Incas harvested most of their food and hunted their meat. The Incas main diet was potatoes, but they did eat other foods like beef jerky and an edible root called oca and a grain known as quinoa. They lived in many different homes depending on their status within their society. The royalty and priests lived in the nicest homes, while the peasants lived in huts made from boulders, dirt, wood, grass and roots. The Inca people believed in many things which all revolved around mummies of the dead, gods, temples, holy historical places, springs, stones and mountain peaks. They had many ceremonies that always began with divination and on special occasions they would make human and animal sacrifices. The Inca people lived in various parts of the Andes Mountains of South Peru. The climate of where they lived varied from humid, wet, dry, cold and tropical. They used the rocks and stones from their land to build homes and walls in the case of an attack. The Inca people were founded in 1532 by the Spanish explorer Francisco Pizzaro. He came to where the Incas lived for wealth, crops and gold. When he came he brought with him smallpox, Carrion’s disease, pneumonia and measles. The diseases that were brought to the Inca people ended up killing a major part of their population and many more Inca people were forced into the Catholic religion. This led to the extinction of the Inca people.

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