The Importance of Initiatory Ordeals

Kinship and Politics in an Inca Narrative

Bibliographic Data

ID2735196
AuthorsIsabel Yaya (corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume55
Issue1
Pages51-85
Publication date2008-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnohistory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0014-1801 • E-ISSN: 1527-5477
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00141801-2007-046
OpenAlexW2013128248
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited20

Among all the Inca sovereigns whose memory had been preserved by the Spanish chroniclers, Yahuar Huacac holds a unique position. He is famed for having shed tears of blood as a child when a foreign lord kidnapped and maltreated him. Surprisingly, his sufferings ended with matrimonial alliances binding the Inca and the main actors of this drama, all important figures of three foreign chiefdoms. Through both a historical and an anthropological approach, this article analyzes the narrative's structure of interwoven ritual events and kinship patterns. It examines how the stages of the heir's journey over many territories forged a distinctive relationship between the Inca elite and the provincial lords, enlightening the meaning of the final unions

Art · Chiefdom · Drama · Elite · Epistemology · Genealogy · Kinship · Literature · Meaning (existential) · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics) · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · History · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Latin American history and culture · Law · Philosophy

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub