With social and civil structures so clearly defined, laws in the Inca Empire were few but were strictly enforced. The basic laws were:
• Do not be lazy.
• Do not lie.
• Do not steal.
• Do not commit murder.
• Do not commit adultery.
People of higher social status who committed crimes were punished much more severely than commoners were; a better lifestyle demanded better behavior. Failure to comply was not acceptable, and punishments could be dreadful. The most gruesome was, perhaps, being hung over a deep ravine by the hair. When the hair roots gave out, the victim plunged to certain death on the rocks below.
Says Michael Malpass in Daily Life in the Inca Empire, “Adultery among commoners was punishable by torture; but if the woman was a noble, both parties were executed. Crimes against the government were treated with special severity. Stealing from the fields of the state was punishable by death. If a curaca put a person to death without permission of his superior, a [heavy] stone was dropped on his back from a height of three feet. If he did it again, he was killed. Treason was punished by imprisoning the person in an underground prison in Cuzco that was filled with snakes and dangerous animals.”
District officials acted as judges, trying crimes committed in their regions. Crime at any social level was rare, since the perpetrator was sure to be caught and punishment was swift and harsh. Trials usually took place within five days of the criminal being caught, and sentences were carried out immediately.
Death sentences were common for murder, adultery with a noble, and theft of property from the sapa inca or the religious warehouses. Commoners were bludgeoned to death with stone clubs or thrown over the side of a cliff. The punishment of having a heavy stone dropped from a three-foot height might bring death or serious injury.
The punishment of being jailed in the “Place of the Pit” was a death sentence reserved for nobles and government leaders. The pit was a maze filled with poisonous snakes, spiders, scorpions, and hungry pumas. The walls and floor had jagged rocks and metal shards embedded in them, so the prisoners could find no rest. Of course, water and food were not provided.
A starving person who stole food received a lesser punishment than a person who stole food he did not need to keep himself and his family alive, and the penalty for the local government administrator was even more serious. Under Inca rule, no one was expected to go hungry; thus, a starving person showed that the local administrator was not doing his job. His punishment could be loss of rank, public insult, or, in serious situations, banishment to the coca fields on the eastern slope of the Andes.
For commoners, the code of life was, Ama sua, ama llulla, ama checklla (Do not steal, lie, or be lazy). A lazy woman who kept a slovenly home was forced to eat her own household dirt. Her husband, also held responsible for a poorly kept home, had to eat dirt or drink the waste water left after his dirty family bathed. A lazy field worker might be tortured or whipped for failing to work, and repeated laziness meant a death sentence by clubbing.
Even marriage had its set of regulations, overseen by civil government officials. The Incas did not believe in divorce or separation; marriage lasted a lifetime. If a husband tried to cast aside his wife, he was forced to take her back. A second offense meant public punishment for the husband, and casting a wife aside three times meant death for the husband by clubbing or being thrown off a cliff. Marriage laws applied to all citizens. Even nobles, who were allowed to put aside a secondary wife, had to keep their primary wife for life.
Such punishments were rare because crime was rare. Since the standard punishment for most crimes was a painful death, few people became career criminals. Inca citizens learned from birth that their lot in life was work, work, work. They expected nothing else, so they rarely rebelled against the government’s expectations.
CONNECTIONS >>>>>>>>>>>>>
World History
