Child+Sacrifice

The Inca performed many rituals of sacrifice, however, it was not a characteristic feature of Inca society much like it was for the [|Aztec](Bray 5). A few days prior to a Capacocha ceremony, the Inca ruler issued a gathering of young boys and girls aged between 4-10 from all parts of the empire; some were the children of Inca lords but for the most part many of these children were offered voluntarily by their parents, the ones that were selected were physically flawless and it is said their face couldn't have even a single tiny blemish and of course they were virgins (Bray 5-6).



The children, usually a boy and a girl were interred as a couple and many times gold, silver, and shell was buried along with them. These Capacocha sacrifices are usually found on the high summits of the Andes, making it extremely easy for their bodies to stay well-preserved for even hundreds of years. It seems most likely that the combination of both sexes and precious metals being offered in these mountaintops were meant to pay homage to the male Sun and female Moon (D'Altroy 170).

One sacrificed child found in one of the best described sites, Nevado Ampato, nicknamed Juanita (depicted above), was found by Reinhard and his colleagues (D'Altroy 171). She was a teenage girl and was adorned with fine textiles of bright colors and threads made of alpaca. Juanita was buried along with female statuettes, coca leaves, and maize. Scientists concluded that she was struck in the head while in a drunken stupor, ultimately leading to her voluntary death (D'Altroy 171).



Recent studies even suggest that great care was taken of these children prior to their death as far as diet; tests show they were fed up to twelve months prior to their death with an overabundance of maize and potatoes. Some accounts explain how some children who were too young to eat, breastfed from their mothers because "it was said they did this so that [they] would not be hungry or when they reached the place where the Maker was" (Cobo 112). Many chroniclers have explained that the Inca's intent behind sacrifice was to ensure that humanity was sent to join their deities and past rulers in the afterlife in order to accompany them in death (D'Altroy 172). Conclusion: The Inca took careful consideration into choosing who was 'fit' for sacrificial offering to the Sun, Moon, and Maker, not to mention all the time they invested in choosing a summit, building a shrine on the mountaintop, and traveling there along with the offerings; they believed all this effort would satisfy their higher power and also, would in turn help "reinforce the legitimacy of their lineage, Cuzco's social structure, and pan-Andean shrine networks" (D'Altroy 172). Many of these sacrificial events took place in high elevated mountain sites near trans-mountain roads, which suggests that these sacrifices were made in association with the expansion of the Inca civilization itself (Clark). What better way to expand an empire than by creating a shrine network on the highest peaks of a mountain range that houses a vast amount of people in its valleys and north-south running ranges?