The Quest of the Incas
"The cradle of the Incan Empire is an area situated far from the sea, without any navigable river, afflicted with a harsh climate and a barren soil, broken up by mountains and torrential streams, and surrounded by deserts and virgin forests." This description is one of the many critiques of the Incan Empire made by Europeans in order to describe the poor atmosphere the Incan Empire was located in. Even though this empire did have to deal with a lot of location problems, the resourcefulness of the Incas showed through their actions. This part of the empire was very well described in the chapter from Across the Centuries textbook. On the other hand, some important factors like dates and the simplification of language did not make this chapter a perfect account of the Incas.
In order to condense a lot of facts into a visible short chapter these items were omitted. The chapter of the Incas was contrasted against the civilization of the Aztecs. This was done in order to get children thinking about civilizations that had been living with organized government, and terrace farming even before the conquest of the Spaniards. The chapter of the Incas had both strengths and weaknesses, it is important to notice the descriptive way that some areas, such as the structure of the government, were described, while some facts were omitted, even though the level of complexity would have been acceptable for the grade level reading it.
One of the strengths from this chapter is the great description of the way the Incas organized their people in order to keep control of their expanding empire. As it is stated in the primary source written by Pedro de Cieza de Leon, the rules of the Incas were so strictly enforced that,"Šan infant had not yet left its mother's breast before they began to teach it the language it had to know"(Andrea & Overfield 407). The Social Studies textbook states that Inca rulers totally controlled most of the aspects of people's lives. Their ideology, found in Across the Centuries was that, "Their ruler was lord of all things- the land, the animals, the water, and the people. Everything belonged to him. A rigid social structure helped the emperor exercise this control." This idea is also mentioned in another book that discusses Power and Property in Inca Peru. It describes the structure of the power as a pyramid,
The Inca sits at the top of his official hierarchy; below him are four "apocunas" who ruled the four quarters of the empire and below them the "t'oqrikoq" who each ruled 40,000 families. Below these are increasing numbers of officials, each governing smaller and smaller subunits, the rulers of 10,000 families (hunu), of 1,000 families, of 100 families, and of 10 families (chunca)"(Moore 99).
Even though it would not be a good idea to put this much description on the sixth grade textbook, a visual aid such as a chart that shows the structure of power in a simple way, in which the children can just look at it as see how clearly divided the empire was, would have been a helpful addition.
Another positive aspect from this chapter was the display of expressive culture in pictures. Items from everyday life were shown in order to show the children how the empire functioned. It was interesting to see that the same picture of "quipu" threads designated to record different items, was found in two different books, "The different colors of quipu thread designated the different items recorded: population, animals, textiles, weapons, and perhaps even rulers and notable events of their reigns"(Bentley & Ziegler, 490). The only factor that would improve this illustration even more would be the addition of color to the "quipu" threads picture. This threads were important to the Incas because they were a way for them to communicate with each without a writing system.
This information was found in both the Across the Centuries textbook and The Traditions and Encounters textbook which is designed for a much older audience. In order to emphasize the point that the Incas had built a great empire that it in their eyes had expanded to the "four quarters of the world" the chapter included pictures of Machu Pichu. It is described as a city that sits one and a half miles high on a mountain top in Peru, in the words of Hiram Bingham, who rediscovered it in 1911, " It fairly took my breath away." This was an important section because it displays the magnificent way the elite lived during their time. The purpose of Machu Pichu is still argued today, since the Incas provided no written record of their lives, but only artifacts that may be used as tools to figure out this mystery. Archeologists believe that it was a special religious city while others believe that it was a special resort for Inca nobles, called "Orejones," by the Spaniards, because of the large ear plugs they wore.
A negative aspect that I found in this chapter is the omission of some important facts. The idea of the two class divisions was presented and there was not much description about it. The chapter mentioned that the Incan Empire was divided into two class divisions it states in the Across the Centuries textbook, "The Inca had two classes- the nobility and the commoners. Most of the people in the empire were commoners." It then goes on to talk about what the lives of the commoners, but mentions very little about the elite. It would not have been difficult to incorporate in the textbook a more descriptive section about the lives of the elite class. In the book called A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru by Louis Baudin the division is stated and discussed in depth, in a manner that is still not very difficult to understand. It talks about how, "without a constituted upper class, no civilization could have been brought without being, no empire could have existed."
Another negative aspect in the chapter is also the simplification of the language. It is strange to notice in no part of the chapter is the definition of the word "Inca" given, as one can find in the book Empire of the Inca, the word is in Quechua and it means "Lord." It makes sense for the textbook to be an easy read since it is primarily directed at a sixth/seventh grade level, but the definition of a word that is used throughout the whole chapter should have given. It is not until the end of the chapter that the language used by the Incas is even mentioned. Their language was called Quechua.
A negative aspect that the reader would not catch on to unless they were reading the chapter in a critical manner, is the lack of dates used. Even if it difficult to give exact dates for all the facts, it would have been helpful for the children to know at least some time frames. In the beginning of the chapter the 1400's are mentioned in order to mention when the massive stone fortress of Sacsahuaman were built by the Incas. Dates are only mentioned in major sections in the beginning of the chapter. Dates are important to include in a textbook because the child can then have an idea to compare to what was occurring in different areas of the world during this time frame.
As mentioned before, the Across the Centuries textbook is one with both strengths and weaknesses. Most of the facts stated are valid and supported with information. The weaknesses mostly come from the omission of what is actually relevant information. Even though this textbook had to simplified in order for the target audience (sixth and seventh graders) to catch the main concepts, the ideas that are omitted could have been included in some creative ways, such as charts and more pictures in order to give the child a more complete view of this empire.