1. Just as the central elements of dynastic elevation and Divine Kingship used familiar ayllu principles to construct an ideology of power, so imperial administration of the provinces also utilized local strategies of village organization to base their political control and effective economic management.
2. The Empire on a very important level was conceived as a super-ayllu and run accordingly, with elders/Inca lineage at the summit, and the peoples of the empire being the various more junior kinship groups, all bound together in principles of affinity. Thus leaders of subjugated groups were incorporated into the Inca lineages as Inca-by–privilege and became, together with their groups (junior lineages), part of an all-encompassing kin-based society. As such they owed reciprocal obligations to their imperial community just as community members did at the local level.
3. State management in the provinces was controlled by royal governors based in provincial administration centers or in some cases local rulers who were deemed loyal by the central authority and became regional governors themselves on behalf of the Inca. These centers served as the centers of imperial power, wielded on behalf of Cuzco by a governor or puppet ruler, garrisons, provincial production centers for ceremonial products (chicha beer, textiles), centers of imperial ritual and ceremonial feasting and storage centers food required by state workers,
4. The administrative centers were the places where the state government in its role as head of the super-ayllu provided its reciprocal duties to its subjects through feasts and gifts. Just as the asymmetrical redistribution of agricultural products at the village level provided surpluses for the leaders within a conception of equality, so the Inca leaders provided the ritual and feasting that “paid” for the state-obligated labor taxation and agricultural tribute required of subjugated peoples. Great festivals held in the plazas of administrative centers and food, drink and textiles produced at these centers were the ritual gifts that cemented the imperial connection.
5. The administrative centers were linked by an extensive road system along which runners carried the orders of the central government to the provinces either verbally or recorded on quipus. Small stations or tambos along the roads between the centers provided nourishment and rest for the state officials.
1. The various subjugated communities carried out their obligations to the state primarily through labor taxation and agricultural tribute.
2. Community land under the empire was apportioned in “thirds:”
3. One portion to the ruler for support of his retainers and soldiers; much of this was stored in state storage complexes, often adjoining the administrative centers.
4. A second portion of community lands was designated for the use of Viracocha (state religion) and his rituals. Thus corn was used to produce ritual beer at great festivals and rituals and the food by which the rulers reciprocated as “cargo” holders on behalf of their community.
5. Local communities retained the third - community - land portion for their own use in the traditional manner. While the amount of food available for local use was less, given the state contribution, the amount needed was also less because a significant percentage of the population was engaged in labor tax to the state and therefore sustained by state food (the emperor’s third).
1. Everyone in the empire owed mita tax (labor) to the imperial community just as they did at the local village level.
2. Men worked for a certain time period on state agricultural fields, road construction and maintenance, architectural construction, and army service.
3. Women worked on chicha preparation, food preparation for festivals and rituals and wove fine textiles. Textiles were, and are, very important in Andean social life. They are signs of personal status and mark the rank and position of the wearer; in the past this importance was carried after death when the quantity and type of decorated textile buried with an individual marked his social role in life and in the ongoing spiritual community. Textiles also mark the group affiliation of the wearer, establishing ethnic identity. Finally, textiles were a valued form of ritual gift, given by imperial and local rulers to cement obligations and to mark alliances. Thus the textile makers or aclla wasi in addition to providing labor taxation gained high status through this work. They were chosen for the physical and social qualities and served in important roles in religious ritual as well as textile makers, ultimately being married to important personages.
4. In some cases whole communities were transplanted from their home regions to other parts of the empire to provide labor for undeveloped or newly- conquered lands as well as to separate potentially rebellious subjects from their bases of power. These were the mitamaq colonies, moved in a system that expanded the concept of the vertical archipelago with its separated colonies retaining membership in the original community (now the imperial community.)