Inca Culture at the Time

This section of the Handbook deals with the culture of the Andean region between Ecuador and the northern border of Aymara territory as it was observed by the Spanish conquerors in the 16th century and recorded in surviving documents. This area includes the whole of the desert Coast of Perti and the broken valleys of the Peruvian Highlands, a region which was the home of many different tribes, nations, languages, and cultures before it was superficially unified by its incorporation into the Inca l Empire (map 1, No. 4). It would be obviously impossible to include a complete account of each tribe in the Handbook, even if the necessary information existed. With minor exceptions, however, the whole of the literature now available which deals with this part of the Andean area refers to Inca culture in .the region around Cuzco, so that it is only for the Inca that a complete cultural description is possible. The account that follows, therefore, is specifically an ethnographical description of the Inca culture, although differences in other parts of the area are indicated when the limitations of the source material permit. The area covered by this section lies only a small distance from the Equator, but cold ocean currents make the dry coast almost temperate, and most of the mountain valleys are at an elevation of 7,000 to 12,000 feet (2,000 to 4,000 m.) above sea level, where the elevation counteracts the effects of the low latitude. Throughout the area, the climate varies more with elevation than with distance from the Equator, so that hot low valleys are only a short journey from, cold plateau country where little can be grown except potatoes. As a result, it costs the inhabitants relatively little effort to vary their diet and dress with the products of another climate, and this incentive is as much of an encouragement to local travel as the broken mountain and desert barriers are a hindrance. Rainfall is light in the mountains and almost absent