PETER GOSE

Department of Anthropology
University of Regina
Regina. Saskatchewan
Canada S4S 0A2

The State as a Chosen Woman: Brideservice and the Feeding of

Tributaries in the Inka Empire

The Inka state was gendered in complex and apparently contradictory ways. In military contexts, it became masculine, em-
phasizing conquest us the basis of men's individual matrimonial claims and the Inka sovereign's right to "give" them
women. However, in its civilian tributary system, the Inka state assumed a female guise, providing food, drink, and cloth-
ing to dependent tributaries as an expression of its political-economic power, according to the Andean idiom of mink a. By
extending Collier and Rosaldo's notion of brideservice. this paper explores how these "opposed" genderings of the Inka
state actually implied each other and formed a single complex, [gender, consumption, labor, state. Andes]

I
n this essay I explore how the Inka state consolidated
and represented its power through the feminine activ-
ity of feeding its "dependent" tributaries. By providing
for their conquered subjects when they worked state lands,
the Inkas asserted their superiority through the Andean no-
tion of mink'a. according to which the feeder-proprietor
outranks the dependent laborer. Thus, the Inka state pre-
sented itself, however momentarily, as female in relation to
its subordinate male tributaries. To realize this strategy, it
controlled the food preparation of numerous "chosen
women" (aqllas), who were selected for their beauty as
girls, removed from their communities of origin and placed
in seclusion, where they wove fine cloth and prepared food
and drink for the Inka state. The Inka ultimately "gave"
most of these women back us wives to conquered male
subjects, and it was this "gift" that established male tribu-
tary obligations on the model of brideservice. During their
period of seclusion from the tributary population, however,
the "chosen women" underwent a significant elevation in
status that allowed them to partially personify the Inka
state and to constitute its tribute system around locally un-
derstood hierarchical principles.
Previous analyses of the Inka state have not emphasized
its feminine dimension. Silverblatt (1987: chs. 2-3) shows
that a key feature of Inka society was gender parallelism, rn
which women ;ind men had distinct but parallel descent
systems, ritual obligations, and political offices, including
the cfo\d, or queen, who was very much a female counter-
part to the Inka sovereign. Yet Silverblatt also argues that
this parallelism was being undermined by Inka conquests,
which institutionalized male domination. Vanquished peo-
ples were forced to surrendei their marriageable women, of
whom the "chosen women" were the most prized. Silver-
blatt suggests that when it seized these women from their
natal communities, exploited their productive and repro-
ductive capacities, and allocated them as wives or sacrifi-
cial victims, the Inka state acted as a patriarchal institution
(1987: ch. 5).1 This analysis ignores the ways in which
Inka domination was articulated through female activities
and is therefore one-sided, but 1 do not think it is wrong.
The Inkas undoubtedly appropriated and exploited these
women, just as they also identified with them and wanted
to be personified by them. I w ill discuss how these various
motives interacted, without privileging any one to the ex-
clusion of others. One of my goals is to move beyond the
simple dichotomy of equality versus male domination that
largely orients Silverblatt"s analysis of Inka gender rela-
tions. Feeding and conquest were strongly gendered activi-
ties, but they quickly lost any direct bearing on the "status"
of women or men, and did not augment their respective
powers in any simple or unidirectional way. Men benefit-
ted from the feminized modes of empowerment and appro-
priation to be discussed below, just as women achieved im-
portant social positions through "male" conquests. There
was a strategic complexity and relativity to the gendering
of the Inka state and the gendered interests it served. Fol-
lowing much recent literature (e.g.. Howell 1996; Meigs
1990; Ortner 1996), I will emphasize the multiplicity and
situational specificity of Inka gender constructs. The argu-
ment begins with the Inka tribute systemnot a general-
ized discussion of the "identities" of Inka women and
menprecisely to establish the contextual limits of this
analysis and that gender mediates and is mediated by other
social realities.

Against this by now orthodox anti-essentialism, how-
ever, 1 remain interested in how various partial structurings
of gender may have interrelated and formed a broader
whole. Postmodern nominalism has rightly insisted on a
more contextually responsible approach to gender, but this
attention to variation ironically implies a return, eventu-
ally, to totalizing accounts. We cannot appreciate how
multiple constructions of gender differ from each other
without discussing why each occurs in the context it does.
It is only through an encompassing framework that the dis-
tinctiveness of each construction comes into focus. With
the "chosen women," this challenge is particularly acute.
From one perspective, they embodied the state as benevo-
lent proprietor, in relation to the male tributary population.
From another perspective, they were merely pawns in the
Inka's politics of alliance, who provided unpaid services to
the state until they were given away in marriage or sacri-
fice. Although these analyses seem contradictory, neither
is simply wrong, and both must be reconciled in a larger
understanding. I will attempt to do so through a modified
version of the theory of brideservice developed by Collier
and Rosaldo (1981). This theory usefully brings together
multiple, gendered, and interacting points of view, while
situating political economy within the domestic, instead of
separating them. Although these authors developed the
theory of b ideservice in relation to "simple" or "classless"
societies, I vvill argue that it need not be confined to them
and that it acquires new dimensions when applied to a hier-
archical society such as the Inkas' that institutionally dif-
ferentiated the household from the state.
Inka Tribute: The Received Wisdom2
Conquest was the precondition of the Inka tribute sys-
tem. When the Inka incorporated previously independent
polities into his empire, he immediately claimed preemi-
nent right to their land, their herds, and their women, be-
fore returning some of each to local control in return for
tributary labor.3 Thus, the Inka and his (male) tributary
population were party to a somewhat stilted "pact of reci-
procity," whereby they labored to regain access to the land,
animals, and women he took from them on conquest. This
arrangement was most clearly expressed through marriage,
upon which a man received a wife, access to land, and a
claim to wool for clothing, but also the status of tributary
(hatun runa). Each married couple thus formed a separate
household, which was inscribed in the Inka "decimal sys
tern": a census that defined various levels of government
by the number of households they contained. Beyond tend-
ing the land and herds allotted to them in their communi-
ties, tributary households also worked local land and herds
that the Inka allotted to various cults and the state. In turn,
the state fed its tributaries during their period of service,
provided them with drink and music during agricultural
work, and also the tools and raw materials that their activi-
Gosu / Tin Si AI i. AS A Cnosi N WOMAN 85
ties might require (see Falcon [ 1567] 1918:152 and Polo de
Ondegardo [1571] 1916:60). Tributary households prob-
ably depended on this food for their subsistence. The Inka
state micromanaged the amount ol land available to its
tributaries through annual redistributions that ostensibly
accommodated the developmental cycle of domestic
groups but also kept household holdings small enough that
they were not self-sufficient (see Polo de Ondegardo
[1571 ]1916:69-70, 128). While most labor tribute was
performed locally, households periodically left their com-
munity to participate in war or imperial construction pro-
jects and were sometimes permanently resettled as colo-
nists or artisans (see LeVine 1987:15). Thus, the Inka labor
tribute system was known by the Quechua term mit'a
(turn), which denoted the rotating basis upon which tribu-
taries from any given locality provided such services to the
state.
Both Murra (1980:94-97) and Moore (1958:49) show
that the Inka state systematically asserted that it exacted
tribute only in labor and never in kind,4 often indulging in
legal fiction and pyrotechnics to uphold this principle. For
example, the fishermen of Lake Titicaca and the Pacific
Coast sent the Inka fish, but to avoid the impression that he
received tribute in kind, the Inka claimed ownership of all
fish in his dominion and then allowed fishermen to catch
them if they passed some on to him. Through this claim of
ownership, the Inka could hold that all he took from the
fishermen was the labor they expended in their catch, but
not the fish themselves. Similar reasoning was applied to
all the land and herds of the empire, such that the seasonal
influxes of produce and animals into Cuzco were juridi-
cally defined not as tribute in kind, but as a simple reclaim-
ing of life-forms that the Inka already owned. According to
the Inka, all he appropriated was the labor expended by
tributaries in raising his crops and animals.
According to Murra (1980:29) and Moore (1958:
21-22), the Inkas insisted on the "labor only" principle be-
cause it was key to the "pact of reciprocity" by which Inka
appropriation of land, herds, and women was normalized.
Murra also portrays marriage as a rite of passage that estab-
lished men's tributary obligations to the state (1980:98).
He adds that the Inkas attempted to clothe labor tribute in
an ambience of festivity by supplying food, drink, and mu-
sic, thereby emulating "the feeling-tone of community re-
ciprocal aid" (1980:98). In Godelier's hands, this observa-
tion led to the dubious argument that the Inka state
attempted to "hide" the exploitation of its tributaries by
adopting and adapting elements of their supposedly more
"communal" mode of production (1977:188-192). How-
ever, as Murra (1980:l)4) observes, none of these Inka fic-
tions were likely to have convinced subjects who had re-
cently been conquered and who remembered only too well
that they had once owned the land, herds, and women that
the Inka was now "generously" offering to share in return
86 AMI KICAN AN I URoroi.oGisr VOL. 102, No. I MARCH
for their labor. Whatever the cultural logic of this system
may have been, it can hardly have been about feigned
egnlitarianism in a situation that was overtly predicated on
conquest. Thus, 1 suggest that we stop searching for "ide-
ologies'" of "reciprocity" that would have convinced no
one and, instead, look at this material afresh for local idi-
oms of hierarchy.
With the benefit of more recent research on Andean so-
ciety, in both its Inka and modern forms, it is now possible
to offer two specific arguments. First, there is good reason
to suppose that the Inka labor tribute system incorporated a
community-level relation of production called mink'a, in
which the host-proprietor household provides food and
drink to the laborers who work on its lands. Second, the
Inka labor-tribute system was based on a model of affinal
hierarchy and brideservice, in which the state represented
itself as a wife-giver to all men and required labor-tribute
from them in return. In the remainder of this paper I will
explore each model in turn.
Mink'a
The first local form of hierarchy implicit in the Inka trib-
ute system came from the Andean labor recruitment rela-
tion known as mink'a. In mink'a, ownership of the land is
expressed by feeding those who work upon it. Conversely,
to labor on someone's fields and receive their food and
drink is to acknowledge their ownership of the land. There
is an unmistakable element of hierarchy in the "exchange"
of labor for food and drink that takes place in mink'a rela-
tions. To feed workers in mink"a demonstrates wealth and
power, whereas working for food expresses need and de-
pendency. The feeder-proprietor thus outranks the laborers
and directs their activity through the prospect of consump-
tion.5
Although none of our primary sources claim that mink'a
explicitly informed the Inka tribute system, this principle
nonetheless explains why the lnkas went to such lengths to
feed their tributaries and claim that they demanded only la-
bor from them, not tribute in kind. Had the Inka state been
perceived to collect tribute in kind from farming, fishing,
and herding communities, it would have admitted to being
fed by the peasants it ruled and, thus, that it was inferior to
them in the code of mink'a. It was precisely to avoid these
implications that the lnkas marshaled their considerable le-
gal ingenuity to represent themselves as proprietors who
fed the dependent communities that they had been gracious
enough to conquer. In short, the Inka tribute system ap-
pears to have incorporated the cultural assumptions of
mink'a, which explains the otherwise puzzling definitional
fanaticism of Inka tributary policies.
The main explanatory advantage of mink'a over a ge-
neric substantivist concept of "redistribution" should be
immediately obvious. Whereas the notion of redistribution
is indifferent to whether it is yoocls or services that are re-
2000
ceived and allocated, mink'a conforms to Inka tributary
principles in specifying that labor should be received and
food reallocated. The hierarchical relationship between the
state and its tributaries that resulted requires that we revise,
but not entirely abandon, Murra's arguments about how
Inka "redistribution" was based on preexisting forms of
"reciprocity" in local communities. Although mink'a was
not a particularly "reciprocal" relation, it was the predomi-
nant relation of production in pre-Columbian Andean
communities (see Rostworowski 1977b:343). Thus, the
lnkas could have found this local form of hierarchy already
in place and used it as a prototype for their tributary sys-
tem, as Murra suggested. Such a revision makes Murra's
argument even more direct and probable, since it no longer
requires us to believe that romantic versions of "reciproc-
ity" and "community" prevailed before the lnkas, who si-
multaneously appealed to and perverted them in putting to-
gether their empire. Rather, mink'a emphasizes that in
classic "Asiatic" fashion, the community was an embry-
onic form of the state. It also fits with the view that the Inka
tribute system remained a significantly local affair, in
which ethnic officials overseeing units of 100 and 1,000
households continued to be the primary economic deci-
sion-makers and supervisors (LeVine 1987:39).
An additional feature of mink'a is that the labors it
brings together are gender coded. As Skar (1982:216) has
argued for the contemporary Andes, mink'a is (among
other things) an exchange of the female labor of food and
drink preparation for male agricultural labor. This gender-
ing of the activities brought together in mink'a cannot be
uncritically projected onto the past but seems to have char-
acterized the pre-Columbian highlands.6 Thus, when the
Inka state presented itself as a benevolent proprietor to-
ward its conquered subjects, offering them food and drink
in return for tributary labor, it exercised power in a specifi-
cally female form. Male functionaries directed Inka tribu-
tary projects but did not prepare or present food and drink
for the state. What group of functionaries performed these
tasks? A peculiar weakness of both Murra and Moore's ac-
counts is that having noted that the Inka state made a point
of feeding its tributaries, they neglect to investigate this
question and therefore fail to provide a systematic exposi-
tion of how the tribute system actually worked. The time
has come to answer the question directly and in detail.
The "chosen women" (aqllas) were the ones who pro-
vided hospitality to tributaries in the Inka's name. Located
in virtually all settlements, they prepared food and drink
for laborers on state and cult lands.7 Thus, two of Guaman
Poma's famous drawings depict a woman (probably an
aqlla) serving corn beer to male tributaries during the
sowing ([1615]1980:250, 1053). Extensive archaeological
evidence from the provincial capital of Huanuco Pampa
confirms that brewing was one of the aqllas' major tasks
(see Morris 1979:2N). Alberti Manzanares (1985:557-568)
and. to a lesser extent, Murra (1980:72) treat the aqllas

primarily as artisanal weavers of fine cloth (cumbi). but the
chroniclers do not emphasize their weaving over cooking
and brewing. Yet of all the noted commentators on the
Inkas, only Rostworowski (1977a:241) makes this obser-
vation. For the purposes of this analysis it is extremely sig-
nificant, since it suggests that the lnka state did indeed or-
ganize the provisioning of its tributaries according to the
gendered logic of mink'a, whereby the benevolent proprie-
tor must be female. Unlike modern "housework," the
preparation of food and drink for lnka tributaries was a cul-
turally powerful act that signified the superiority and pro-
prietorship of the state.8 By providing these services, the
chosen women ensured that the lnka state outranked its
tributaries in the code of mink'a. Thus, they not only
served but also personified and helped constitute the lnka
state.
Most chroniclers agree that the "chosen women" (aql-
las) were selected for their beauty as preadolescents from
provincial plebeians and elites, but also the nobility of
Cuzco.4 These girls were secluded in various special build-
ings (aqllawasi) located throughout the empire, some of
which served the Sun and lesser deities, others of which
served the sovereign. Houses of seclusion in both catego-
ries were graded by the beauty, age, and social background
of the women they contained.111 Within these confines, all
chosen women were taught to spin, weave, brew, and
cook: some also learned to sing and play music, cultivate
fields, or perform rituals." Those who served the Sun or
other deities went through a novitiate, after which they had
the option of leaving or becoming aqllas for life as priest-
esses and wives for the deity.12 Those who served the lnka
prepared food, drink, and cloth for the lnka state, until they
were given away in marriage by the lnka governor of their
province, or more rarely, sacrificed.13 Every year, lnka offi-
cials recruited more chosen women to replace those thus
dispersed.14 For most chosen women, seclusion was an ex-
tended rite of passage that culminated in marriage and a re-
turn to life outside the aqllawasi. For some, it led to a ca-
reer as a priestess or a royal concubine. While they
remained aqllas, however, sex with men was forbidden:
transgressions were reportedly punished by death.15
The chronicles often focus on the elite or priestly ranks
of chosen women, who were found in important shrines in
Cuzco and elsewhere in the empire. Consequently, there
has been a tendency to view the institution of chosen
women as having been confined to major lnka settlements
(i.e., Alberti Manzanares 1986:158-170). It is easy to see
how the aqllas could have prepared food and drink for any
tributary projects that occurred in provincial capitals,
where their principal houses of seclusion were located. It is
far less clear how the aqllas could have provided this serv-
ice for the state in work parties on more remote state lands.
However, one of the earliest eyewitness sources on the
chosen women, Hernando Pizarro, notes that beyond the
(5l)SE / THI-. STATF-: AS A ClIOSliN WnMAN 87
aqllawasi of elite lnka settlements, all smaller towns h;id a
house of seclusion for women, who prepared drink for ihe
army ([1533] 1920:175: see also Munia [15^0] I94o:24o;
[1613] 1987:390). Similarly, Pedro Pizarro states that even
small provincial towns had houses in which unmarried
girls were collected, and that one of their tasks was to pre-
pare food and drink for tributaries ([1572] 1978:94-95).
Their claims that aqllas were also secluded in small provin-
cial towns are corroborated by the Anonymous Jesuit
([1590] 1968:170), Munia ([1613] 1987:393), and Guaman
Poma ([1615] 1980:299-300). Furthermore, several seven-
teenth-century idolatry trials in Cajatambo and Canta de-
nounce the virginal seclusion of women who made corn
beer for the "idols."16 Young women still offered sacrifices
to local "idols" and served them as wives in Maray during
1724 and in Cajatambo as late as 1725, almost two centu-
ries after the Spanish conquest.17 In short, aqllas were well
established at the local level, and it was geographically fea-
sible for them to have personified the lnka state in all of its
tributary projects.
Just as the geographic distribution of this institution has
been underestimated, so has its demographic scope. Pedro
Pizarro writes that after the age of ten, the lnka governor
controlled all girls, and affirms that they all served as aqllas
([1572] 1978:97, 94). Munia also confirms that all mar-
riageable women (sipas) were channeled into one of three
categories of chosen women ([1613]] 987:399). These
authors imply that all women were "chosen" for at least a
portion of their lives. If they are correct, the distinction be-
tween "chosen" and "unchosen" woman was relative at
best. After rank, age was responsible for most of the aql-
las's internal differentiation, and their life-cycle distinc-
tions were comparable to those that Munia ([1613] 1987:
399^00) and Guaman Poma ([1615] 1980:214-234) de-
scribe for women in general. Whether or not they were re-
moved to the aqllawasi at age four to seven (see Gunman
Poma [1615] 1980:300; Munia [1613] 1987:393), all girls
started learning to spin, weave, and make corn beer. The
only difference was whether they were taught by their
mothers or the mamaconas. a senior age-grade of chosen
women (see Guaman Poma [1615]19SO:2O5: Munia
[1613]1987:393;PolodeOndegardo[1571]19l6:91). Ca-
bello Valboa ([1586] 1951:348) states that chosen women
were recruited between ages 12 and 15, and that like all
girls of this age, they had to master the basic female skills
of preparing food, drink, and clothing. This later age of en-
try is compatible with the Anonymous Jesuit's description
of a three-year novitiate, after which the girl would have to
decide whether to remain in the aqllawasi or to leave it and
get married. He also mentions that the daughters of many
ethnic lords (kurakas) underwent this same secluded ap-
prenticeship though they were not aqllas ([1590]l%S: 171;
cf. de la Vega [1609]l%6:2()4; Munia [159()]194(>:250).
Thus, it appears that the aqllawasi was something of a
 AMI RICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST VOL. 102. No. I MARCH
ss
finishing school, which educated the women of the empire
in a broader sense, whether or not they were aqllas. Ar-
chaeological data from the provincial capital of Huanuco
Pampa suggest that gender-segregated residence was
widely practiced, and extended beyond the aqllawasi (see
Morns and Thompson 1985:95-96), which further blurs
the boundary between aqllas and other women.
Why did the Inka state remove these girls from their na-
tal households and communities, only to teach them the
same skills they would have learned there in any case? The
most obvious answer is that the Inkas wanted to appropri-
ate their food, drink, and cloth preparation services. The
Inka state and its tributary households were in competition
for female labor. By selecting and secluding many of its
girls and young women, and insisting that they remain
"virgins," the Inka state effectively delayed or prevented
the formation of domestic groups and thus established its
own (interim) claims to female labor. Like its provincial
lords, the Inka state required massive quantities of corn
beer to recruit labor and for diplomatic purposes, hence the
extraordinary significance of this beverage in Andean po-
litical economy (see Moore 1989; Morris 1979; Rost-
worowski 1977a:240-244). For a state that constituted an
important part of its power by providing food, drink, and
clothing for dependent tributaries, control over female la-
bor was vital, but complex and even contradictory in char-
acter.
On the one hand, the Inka state identified with the aqllas
and allowed itself to be personified by them to a limited ex-
tent, to take advantage of the mink'a framework. On the
other hand, its male functionaries could appropriate the
aqllas' powerful, hierarchy-generating activities by presid-
ing over and orchestrating them. As we have seen, chosen
women generally presented corn beer to tributaries on be-
half of the state in the provinces, and in so doing, personi-
fied it as host. In these same tributary contexts, however,
male local political authorities (kurakas) were also present
as supervisors (see Ortiz de Ziiniga [1562] 1967 1972
[ 1 ]:47, [2]:28) and represented the state in that capacity. By
telling the aqllas when to serve corn beer, they could in-
voke and harness the female-dominated framework of
mink'a. In provincial religious festivities, male priests also
ordered chosen women to prepare and distribute corn beer
(see Arriaga [1621] 1968:205-206). Similarly, during ritu-
als in the imperial center of Cuzco, many chroniclers state
that senior chosen women (mamaconas) distributed corn
beer and food, but some add that the Priest of the Sun (vil-
laoma) instructed them to do so.1** In diplomatic contexts,
Inka sovereigns sometimes ordered the chosen women to
serve corn beer to visiting dignitaries (see Xerez [1534]
1987:107) and at others served them personally (see Tru-
jillo [ 1571 ] 1 ()S7:2() 1). Thus, the aqllas who produced corn
beer were usually, but not always, those who distributed it.
Male lords might orchestrate and intervene in these female
activities and even assume the right to present com beer. In
2000
so doing, they could insinuate themselves into the domi-
nant position in a mink'a-like relationship despite their
masculinity. The same dynamic also occurred in weaving,
where the fine cloth (cumbi) that chosen women wove was
appropnated by the Inka sovereign and distributed in gifts
that established the dependence and subordination of those
who received them (see Murra 1980:75). When the Inka
state appropriated these women it also appropriated their
products and the hierarchical relations that could be engen-
dered by distributing them.
Inevitably, however, these appropriations feminized the
Inka state, which wanted the aqllas' labor not for its ab-
stract utilitarian value, but for the specifically female and
hierarchy-creating qualities that it had within the Andean
framework of mink'a. However indirectly, these female
mechanisms of power must have underwritten the exist-
ence of female offices as counterparts to male offices at
every level of the Inka political hierarchy (see Silverblatt
1987:54-66). The Inkas would not have exploited the aql-
las as they did if they did not also recognize and identify
with them as a source of power. This is why the aqllas en-
joyed high status in the empire. Removal and seclusion of
aqllas allowed the state to benefit from their labor, but it
also separated and elevated them from the tributary popu-
lation.19 These girls may have been bom in the provinces to
conquered people, but ties to their natal communities were
severed or at least suspended once they were removed to
the aqllawasi. While not ethnically Inkas, they became part
of the Inka state, and underwent a precipitous elevation in
status by being "chosen" (cf. Ortner 1996: ch. 4). The sac-
rifice of aqllas only confirmed and intensified this pattern,
since it converted them into oracular deities that mediated
between the Inka state and their communities of origin (see
Silverblatt 1987:94-100). Seclusion was thus akin to sac-
ralization and cannot be reduced to exploitation since it
also involved a significant degree of mutual identification
between the state and its aqllas. Hence, they were removed
and reeducated by a state with a genuine concern to control
and shape their socialization. The only male counterpart
was the removal of kurakas" sons to Cuzco for imperial
education, a practice that was much less massive in scope.
Clearly the Inkas were attempting to administer female so-
cialization far more comprehensively than by simply con-
trolling the sexuality and reproductive capacity of these
girls, as Silverblatt states (1987:107). Nothing less than de-
fining femininity would do for a state that presented itself
as a beautiful, superordinate female feeder-proprietor in its
labor tribute system.
By controlling the socialization of girls on such a mas-
sive scale and extending gender-segregated residence, the
Inka state created a counterpoint to the gender system of its
tributaries, which was oriented toward complementarity
and household formation. Although the Inkas codified the
conjugal household as the fundamental unit of their tribute
system, they could not be content with a gender system that

reinforced domestic autarky and left no room for the
claims of the state. Thus, it displaced married women with
chosen women as providers during tributary projects, so
that the state (not the household) could appropriate male
labor. This maneuver was largely parasitic on gender com-
plementarity at the household level, but it diverted male la-
bor to imperial ends.
Theoretically, the Inka state could have recruited mar-
ried women instead of chosen women to produce food and
drink for its tributary projects in the countryside. To the
best of my knowledge, no chroniclers report such an ar-
rangement.20 There are good reasons why the Inka would
have wished to avoid this option. By allowing tributaries'
wives to prepare food and drink, the Inkas would have ne-
gated the symbolic advantage they sought by feeding their
workers. Although wives were not themselves officially
part of the tributary population, in practice they performed
specific tributary duties such as spinning wool, which par-
tially identified them with the tributary status of their hus-
bands. Wives could not represent the state as an entity dis-
tinct from and superior to the tributary population as the
aqllas did. To allow them to prepare food for their hus-
bands would have underlined the self-sufficiency of the
community, not its dependence on the state. Thus, we re-
turn to mink'a as a fundamental reason for setting the cho-
sen women apart from the tributary population. Their spe-
cial status was key to the implementation of Inka property
claims.
Brideservice
A second form of local hierarchy that the Inkas incorpo-
rated into their tribute system was affinal: the wife-giver
outranks the wife-taker21 and is entitled to receive bride-
service from him. We have already seen that the Inka
claimed the right to allocate in marriage all the women of
his empire, which made him wife-giver to all his male sub-
jects. This right was far from purely nominal: sometimes
the Inka stopped marriages from occurring throughout the
empire (see Betanzos [1551] 1987:207). Generally, the
Inka delegated this right to his provincial governors, but
sometimes he refused to do so (see Murua [1613]
1987:136). Several chroniclers describe mass-marriages
orchestrated by Inka governors during the dry season,
sometimes involving men and women from different prov-
inces, who were not personally acquainted.22 A couple
might also take the initiative to arrange their own marriage.
The prospective groom would first secure the Inka gover-
nor's permission to marry the woman, then he and his kin
would approach her parents with small gifts, asking their
approval of the union, which if granted would be cele-
brated with food and drink provided by the groom's kin.23
Nonetheless, a bride's parents had to acknowledge the
Inka's ultimate authority to give their daughter in marriage
(see Murua [1590] 1946:241). It is not certain that imperial
COSE. / THE S I A I t AS A CHOSLN WOMAN 89
brideservjce was derived from local affinal relations. Cobo
([1653] 1956:249) mentions that in some areas, the groom
served his parents-in-law for four or five days following
the marriage, but otherwise the chroniclers provide re-
markably little information about brideservice at the local
level. If it was widespread prior to the rise of the Inka state
and its tribute system, brideservjce may have ceased to ex-
ist in an independent form thereafter.
As we have seen, Murra argues that marriage was a rite
of passage that established tributary obligations for male
subjects. Brideservice explains why marital and tributary
statuses were linked under the Inkas and why married men,
in particular, were tributaries par excellence. Households
were the tribute-paying unit, but it fell to the married man
(hatun runa) to ensure that the household's quota of work
actually got done. Women and unmarried children contrib-
uted significantly, and even had their own specialized
tasks, but were not personally accountable/4 Married men
owed labor-tribute to the Inka because he "gave" them
wives. No comparable discourse of female tributary obli-
gation seems to have existed. Yet marriage may not have
marked the shouldering of tributary duties in quite the way
Murra suggests: junior men often appear to have begun
their service to the state before marriage (see Ortiz de
Ziiniga [1562] 1967 1972 [2]:55). Both Murua ([1613]
1987:397-398) and Guaman Poma ([1615] 1980:193-195,
214) describe how the Inka periodically sent overseers into
the provinces to classify the population into age-grades.
Able-bodied men from approximately 25 to 50 years old
were classified as "masters of war" (auca camayoc), indi
eating that their primary tributary obligation was to the
army. Prior to entering this category, men could not marry
(see de la Vega [1609] 1966:252; Murua [1590] 1946:242).
Upon returning from the army to their provinces of origin,
these men were offered local "chosen women" in marriage
(see Guaman Poma [1615] 1980:339; Muriia [1590] 1946:
260, [1613] 1987:388-389).-' This implies that in order to
marry, a man had to demonstrate his willingness and abil-
ity to serve, not the reverse. Far from undermining the no-
tion of brideservice, however, this deferral of marriage
demonstrates one of its most basic features: the idea that
marriage is a male "accomplishment," a status that men
claim by demonstrating their prowess against other men
(see Collier 1988:23-26, 34. 41).
The "chosen women" were central to the brideservice
model of the Inka tribute system. As Silverblatt convinc-
ingly argues (1987:87-91). they were a preeminent expres-
sion of the Inka's right to allocate women in marriage.
Their cloistered, chaste existence was not a denial of mar-
riage but a prelude to it, one that heightened their value as a
gift from the Inka. Imperial brideservice institutionalized
the scarcity, inaccessibility, and attractiveness of marriage-
able women, all of whom were "chosen" to one degree or
another, and meant to be desired by male tributaries. This
 AMI-RICAN ANTHROPOI O(;IST Voi. 102. No. 1
cultural emphasis on female beauty is typical of the bride-
service complex (see Collier] 988:65-66). It helps explain
why married women were not recognized as tributaries in
their own right, despite the valuable work they performed.
Precisely because the lnka state already appropriated the
labor of unmarried women, it emphasized their beauty and
marriageability as a mode of incorporating single men as
tributaries, and a motive for married men to continue
working and fighting.
The role of women in imperial brideservice interacted
with and built on their proprietorial role in mink'a in sev-
eral important ways. The preeminence of women in
mink'a was underlined when they were appropriated and
elevated by the lnka, thus participating in his power. When
'"given" in marriage, women personified the superiority of
the wife-giving sovereign in relation to their husbands,76 a
superiority that was reaffirmed in mink'a. To serve as ve-
hicles of affinal hierarchy, women required an exaggerated
symbolic value that was established in mink'a. Just as
women's desirability was accentuated and institutionalized
through seclusion and brideservice, so the food, drink, and
clothing they prepared while in seclusion were also de-
sired. These products became substantive links and meto-
nyms through which men were allowed contact with "cho-
sen women," whose persons and marriageable status
became partly invested in the objects that they made and
distributed.27 Thus, the feeding of tributaries was not just
an assertion of hierarchy, but also an activation of desire as
a productive force: a basic premise of brideservice. Each
framework thus reinforced the other.
Tempting as it is to dwell on these previously ignored
female articulations of lnka state power, it would be mis-
leading to present them as absolute and unqualified by
other dynamics. Conquest was the basis of the Inka's
sweeping prerogative to dispose of all the women in his
empire, and it thoroughly infused all the frameworks in
which they participated. Following Zuidema (1964), Sil-
verblatt (1987: chs. 4-5) has shown that the Inkas, like
other Andean peoples before them, made a point of taking
wives from groups they conquered. Before lnka expansion,
other conquerors were content to place themselves atop lo-
cal and regional descent group hierarchies and to receive
wives from subordinate groups. Local social structures
throughout the northern and central highlands of Peru em-
bodied this pattern. So entrenched was the military appro-
priation of women that conquering groups stereotypically
represented themselves as male and vanquished groups as
female. There is nothing particularly unusual or remark-
able about this conquest coding except that it precisely in-
verted the gendering of the lnka labor tribute system by
equating men with the state, and women with vanquished
peoples.
On closer examination, some men had a greater stake in
conquest than did others. Only the lnka was allowed to
"take" wives from conquered people, not his soldiers. That
MARCH 2000
the lnka might subsequently "give" wives to some soldiers
perhaps allowed them to identify with the Inka"s appro-
priation of conquered women, but they were not allowed to
rape and pillage (see de la Vega [1609] 1966:255, 266).
The '"reward" of a wife came later, usually in the soldier's
province of origin, and always through the mediation of the
lnka sovereign. By capturing women for the lnka to allo-
cate, soldier-tributaries first and foremost reproduced the
conditions of their own subordination through brideserv-
ice. Thus, control over women also implied control over
men, a point that Silverblatt (1987) does not acknowledge.
"Men" as a social category did not have an unqualified in-
terest in conquest, only the lnka sovereign and his func-
tionaries. Yet once institutionalized, the imperial bride-
service system did give male tributaries a personal stake in
conquest, as a means of proving themselves to their wife-
giving superiors. To that extent, it promoted a conflation of
their interests with the Inka's, and lent a significant tinge of
male domination to the lnka state, as Silverblatt argues.
How are we to reconcile what looks like an outright con-
tradiction between the female-dominated tributary frame-
work discussed above and this male-dominated complex of
conquest? Depending on context, the lnka state asserted its
supremacy by being either male or female, a wife-taker or
a wife-giver. One possibility is to propose that gender and
affinal hierarchies were self-annulling and incoherent, or
that they became so in their use by the Inkas. This formula-
tion has the polemical advantage of challenging the rela-
tive essentialism of previous accounts, but quickly runs
into difficulties of its own. Why would the lnka state have
bothered to ground itself in gender and affinal hierarchies
at all if they simply lacked coherence? Presumably these
idioms exercised some structuring influence, even if they
could not be consistently totalized across all contexts. Al-
ternatively, one might suggest that the Inkas' partial and
interested use of local gender and affinal relations maxi-
mized the power of their state, not the coherence of the idi-
oms through which they worked. By alternately adopting
the position of woman or man, wife-giver or wife-taker,
the Inkas attempted to secure every possible symbolic ad-
vantage in making their state. Unlike the gender parallel-
ism that also existed in lnka society (Silverblatt 1987: ch.
3), these coexisting frameworks did not imply a segregated
formal equality of men and women, but a doubly hierarchi-
cal disequilibrium between them, one that gave the state
multiple resources with which to construct more encom-
passing social hierarchies. Clearly, any satisfactory ac-
count must come to grips with the complexity and relativ-
ity of these idioms. Instead of being monolithicallv aligned
with broader processes of political domination, gender is
fractured by them and often rendered contradictor.
We must abandon the search for any unidirectional flow o\'
power in Andean gender and affinal relations, or any un-
ambiguous gendered identity for the lnka state that har-
nessed them.

Arguably, the tribute system and conquest were sepa-
rated as distinct domains within Andean culture, so they
could appropriately receive opposed gender and affinal
codings. The difference between them might well have
been defined by the spatial frontier of the empire: all that
fell within these boundaries was subject to the female-
dominated administrative model of the tribute system,
whereas all that fell without was subject to incorporation
by the male dominated conquest model. As a polity was
subsumed by the Inkas, it experienced each of these strate-
gies in turn, and an inversion of gender and affinal hierar-
chies that not only maximized Inka advantage but also
showed that different moralities applied inside and outside
the boundaries of the empire. In war between polities, to be
a woman or a wife-giver was synonymous with defeat,
whereas within the polity it was synonymous with admin-
istrative power. Once we see how this inversion of gender
and affinal hierarchy coincided with incorporation into the
polity, it ceases to be a sign of incoherence and becomes si-
tuationally appropriate. Indeed, it was just another aspect
of the juridical redefinition of reality that the Inkas im-
posed on their conquered subjects, appropriating and then
giving back the land, the flocks, and the women.
It may be tempting to characterize the result as a limited
form of complementarity, in which women were economi-
cally paramount and men militarily paramount, but each
was subordinate in the other's domain. This complemen-
tarity would have been most powerfully expressed when
the Inka "gave" a chosen woman to a warrior: the classic
form of state-arranged marriage. He conquered the popula-
tions from which she was taken and then used to control
economically. Together, the warrior and the aqlla repre-
sented an imperialist totality: the conjunction of military
and civil domination of the provinces. In the warrior-aqlla
union, we might see the fruit of the Inka state's extensive
colonization of gender: a complementarity that was fully
mediated by (and emblematic of) the state, one that tran-
scended the peasant conjugal family even as it re-created it.
Such an analysis makes sense if we can assume that mili-
tary and tributary frameworks were fully coded and sepa-
rated by gender and applied sequentially to prevent contra-
diction.
Upon closer examination, however, no such compart-
mentalization existed. Rather, the two "domains" over-
lapped and interacted. Military service, which underwrote
conquests, was in fact part of the Inka labor tribute system.
Whereas some tributaries worked the state's fields or built
roads, others fought. The primary purpose of the civilian
tribute system was to supply the army, which was recruited
through, and made internal use of, the census and "decimal
system" of the tributary apparatus (see Cobo [1653] 1956:
131, 253-256). Furthermore, the chosen women accompa-
nied warriors into battle, preparing food and drink for them
much as they would for any other tributaries (see Munia
GOSF. / Tm STATI: AS A CHOSKN WOMAN 91
[1613]1987:39O; Pizarro [ 1533] 1920:175; Pi/arro [1572]
1978:9495). Warrior-tributaries may even have done bat-
tle on the demeaning basis of mink'a. Yet we also know
that by displaying valor in battle, soldiers might be re-
warded by the Inka with a chosen women as a wife. War
therefore simultaneously deployed both the mink'a model,
in which the chosen women represented the state, and the
conquest model, in which the chosen women were part of
the booty seized by the victor.
There were also moments when the conquest model
forcefully intruded into civilian tributary contexts. At the
beginning of the agricultural year, the Inka sovereign in-
augurated corn sowing with a golden foot plough, singing
triumphant war songs (haylli), after which the male nobil-
ity of Cuzco took their turn, then the provincial kurakas.
and finally all male tributaries (see Guaman Poma [1615]
1980:250-251; Molina [1553] 1968:82-83). These songs
portrayed the earth as "defeated" and "disemboweled" (see
de la Vega [1609] 1966:244; Goncalez Holguin [1608]
1952:157). Through the haylli, the Inkas commemorated
their conquest of Cuzco and metaphorically represented
agriculture as war (see Bauer 1996) so that even conquered
tributaries could participate vicariously in their glory. Ag-
ricultural work was celebrated in the same way as military
victory, with extended drinking of corn beer (see Anony-
mous Jesuit [1590] 1968:175), and the two activities were
conflated. This partially explains why the generic name for
young male tributaries became "master of war." Normally,
tributary labor in agriculture would have fallen unambigu-
ously under the female-dominated logic of mink'a, where-
by men affirm their subordination through labor. By repre-
senting male labor as warfare, an "attack" on the
agricultural frontier, however, this performance introduced
the rhetoric of conquest into agricultural labor, thereby al-
lowing men to dignify their tributary status by identifica-
tion with their conquerors. If only momentarily, this per-
formance collapsed the spatio-temporal separation that
normally existed between warfare at the boundaries of the
polity and tribute within them. Thus, the two erstwhile
"domains," each with their contrasting gender hierarchies,
were juxtaposed in a single localized performance. Pre-
cisely because there was no compelling utilitarian reason
for this metaphorical juxtaposition, we must take it seri-
ously as a purposeful, totalizing reflection upon the coexis-
tence of tributary and conquest models.
The theory of brideservice accounts for this intrusion of
the male-dominated conquest model into the otherwise fe-
male-dominated tributary context. As Collier (1988: ch. 1)
argues, male violence is not alien to the basic configuration
of brideservice but forms an integral part of it. From a pro-
spective husband's standpoint, brideservice is less about
"earning" a woman through toil than "winning" her against
the claims of rivals through a display of prowess. Junior
men in brideservice societies frequently assert themselves
92 AMI-RICAN ANTHROPOLOUISI V O L . 102. No.
in a manner that exceeds the mere ability to provide and
verges on a more violent modality that implicitly an-
nounces a willingness to take or hold women by force
(Collier 1988:24-20). Point of view may also play a role
here: the actions that prospective wife-givers might per-
ceive as "service," a prospective husband could portray as
an assertion of prowess and adult status.
The Inka case provides a particularly compelling illus-
tration of these general features of brideservice. The meta-
phorical leakage of war into agriculture was what pre-
vented tributary brideservice from becoming wholly
degrading for men. In a context that was otherwise domi-
nated by high-status unmarried women and the men who
might "give" them in marriage, the invocation of warfare
allowed male tributaries to salvage some dignity by assert-
ing the force that was key to their recognition within the
brideservice framework. By encouraging militaristic dem-
onstrations of male prowess in agriculture, the Inkas al-
lowed their tributaries to show that they were worthy of
having wives. Since the 2.5-50-year-old "masters of war"
typically did alternate between agriculture and the army
when performing tribute (see Guaman Poma [1615] 1980:
168-169; Munia [ 1613] 1987:399), there was a lived basis
for associating these activities. The representation of agri-
culture as war was more than just an ideology that led male
tributaries to misrecognize and accept their servile lot. The
warfare referred to was real enough and not only estab-
lished the marital claims of individual male warriors, but
also the right of the Inka ruler to act as a "generous" uni-
versal wife-giver. In short, conquest established the condi-
tions of brideservice and its relation to the labor-tribute
system. It cannot be dismissed as mere mystification and
was a structural force in its own right that partly offset the
subordination to which men were otherwise subject. To
enact this military imagery within the tributary context of
agriculture was highly significant, then, since it proclaimed
the ongoing salience of this distinct but related male di-
mension of Inka power.
To summarize, it is a general feature of brideservice so-
cieties that women appear simultaneously "as the power-
less and abused pawns of men" and as "autonomous"
(Collier 1988:54-55). A high degree of female economic
autonomy is typical of the brideservice complex (Collier
and Rosaldo 1981:285), and it was evident in the Andean
institutions of mink'a and chosen women. The conse-
quence, however, is that in brideservice societies, men
need marriage more than women do, regard it as a personal
"accomplishment," and will therefore resort to violence to
establish or defend their marital claims (see Collier
1988:16-17, 34). There was a dramatic asymmetry in how
marriage changed the lives of Andean women and men.
For women, it meant downward mobility, removing them
from the ranks of the aqllas in which they were identified
with the state, and returning them to obscurity in the ranks
of the tributary population. For men, however, marriage
MARCH 2000
was key in the status transformation from marginalized
bachelor into recognized adult (Collier 1988:21-22, 51).
Under the Inkas, married men assumed the title of "big
man" (hatun runa), which did not "hide" their tributary
subsumption by the state, but celebrated it and converted it
into a positive (but subordinate) social status. Thus, neither
gender had a single "status" that transcended or summa-
rized the life cycle, nor a social position that existed inde-
pendently of marriage, and the broader social relationships
it articulated. No sooner did a male tributary drag one cho-
sen woman down into marriage, however, than he set
about creating others through conquest, work, and father-
ing daughters. To give the last word to any one gendered
moment of this system over all others is therefore to deny
their interrelationship. Finally, the great merit of the bride-
service concept lies in its ability to unify and explain what,
from a gender-essentialist perspective, would be a dis-
jointed bundle of contradictions.
Conclusion
In arguing that Collier and Rosaldo's notion of bride-
service applies to the Inka case, and not just "simple" or
"classless" societies, this paper breaks with their lingering
evolutionism and their use of matrimonial obligations and
payments to typify entire societies. If brideservice can oc-
cur in foraging bands and conquest states, then we must re-
gard it as one constitutive principle among many in these
societies, not as a privileged part that defines the whole.
Nonetheless, it is striking that the brideservice complex as
theorized by Collier and Rosaldo was not only present but
in some ways accentuated in this context of political-eco-
nomic centralization. By establishing itself as a force capa-
ble not only of bestowing but also withholding women, the
Inka state politically actualized the "wife-giver" position,
as a bride's parents never could in "simple societies." In so
doing, the Inka state maximized the "intergenerational"
obligations and hierarchy that are always present in bride-
service. It also accentuated the high status of unmarried
women through the framework of mink'a and orchestrated
when and how junior men "earned" their marital claims,
channeling their displays of prowess through the army. If
brideservice usually emphasizes bonds created by feeding
or working for others, and makes these activities socially
visible, it has a significant potential for articulating class
relations, one which the Inkas realized. Thus. Inka tribu-
tary ideology was resolutely concerned to extract labor
from married men, not surplus product from direct produc-
ers. While the Inkas may have been unusual in the degree
to which they developed brideservice as a tributary rela-
tionship, they were hardly the only polity based on con-
quest and tributary extraction to practice brideservice. or to
establish political relations of dependency through the dis-
tribution of food: the Bemba are another example (see
Richards 1939:15-17, 45-W>. 13>-1S3). Such "exceptions"

start to make sense once we cease to view brideservice
only as an evolutionary baseline of social hierarchy, and al-
low that it might also be a regime of regulation and impov-
erishment that states impose upon tributary households.
Brideservice allowed the lnka state to intervene system-
atically in social reproduction, by controlling household
formation and linking it to census-taking, the extraction of
tributary labor, and the distribution of land. By conspicu-
ously providing its tributaries with food and drink, the lnka
state culturally elaborated its role as provider and partially
displaced the household as a unit of consumption. These
features of lnka brideservice amounted to nothing less than
a managerial strategy, one that allowed the state to accu-
mulate wealth, and systematically prevented tributary
households from doing so. Hastorf s observation that the
lnkas curtailed wealth disparities between provincial elite
and commoner households (1990:285) is consistent with
this pattern. Without in any way promoting an egalitarian
society, the lnka use of brideservice encouraged social lev-
eling by making all tributary households directly depend-
ent upon the state. Wealth was extracted from the forma-
tion of households, instead of being ploughed back into
them, as in Collier and Rosaldo's "bridewealth societies,"
whose social relations are mediated by the transfer of valu-
ables. Although the ayllus of rural Andean society resem-
bled corporate kin groups, they did not generate forms of
wealth that could be converted into marital claims. Store-
houses of food were their primary form of accumulation,
and they were distributed to reproduce local relations of hi-
erarchy without creating the more value-intensive spheres
of exchange typical of "bridewealth societies." They also
accumulated llamas and alpacas, but not for bridewealth
purposes, since they were commensurable with human life
only as sacrificial substitutes. Fine cloth, gold, and silver
were so valued by the lnka that he monopolized their accu-
mulation and did not allow them to circulate freely (see Or-
tiz de Ziiniga [1562] 1967-1972 [1]:26, 39), although he
did redistribute them as gifts. Even the lnka elite, who had
privileged access to these valuables, did not practice
bridewealth.28 Elite men were not tributaries, but they also
followed the brideservice pattern by establishing their mat-
rimonial claims through military service. Only in the mer-
cantile province of Chinchadid rulers make what appear to
have been bridewealth payments with flocks and precious
metals (see Castro and Ortega Morejdn [1558] 1974:98).
This is an exception that proves the Rile, for elsewhere, the
lnkas managed to suppress commodity exchange and con-
fine circulation to an hierarchical "redistributive" mode.
Thus, they prevented independent accumulations and con-
versions of wealth, which precluded bridewealth as a strat-
egy of social reproduction.-y Brideservice not only ac-
counts for the peculiarities of the lnka tribute system, then,
but it also helps explain the practices they attempted to
abolish.
(il)SF. / TH1 SlATl. AS A CHOSliN WliMAN 93
By making brideservice a vehicle of state policy, the
lnkas also prevented households from emerging as an
ideologically "private" domain. Marriages were orches-
trated by lnka officials and initiated not just an intensified
relationship between spouses but between a couple and the
state. Women were not identified with the domestic, nor
men with the extra-domestic. The female activities of feed-
ing and clothing others that most "modern" societies iso-
late and marginalize as "housework" were explicitly, cen-
trally, and indivisibly part of the political economy of the
lnka state. Similarly, men's tributary and military service
was represented as the basis of their marital claims, not
something beyond them. Households and the state formed
around the same gendered principles and competed for the
same gendered labors. They did not embody fundamen-
tally different social principles or moralities, as many
"modern" subjects believe our contrasting "domains" of
domesticity and political economy to do. Rather, they were
related as microcosm to macrocosm, in which the state ap-
peared as a "generous" super-household of the senior gen-
eration, with abundant land and daughters to distribute to
prospective sons-in-law. Modern states also commonly
draw on domestic imagery, particularly when they wish to
invoke solidarities of "blood" that contrast with "the mar-
ket." Yet the lnka case clearly followed a different dy-
namic, since neither the state nor its households were
treated as external to the prevailing political economic re-
gime, and therefore could not be contrasted to it. Far from
being primordial, however, this weakened differentiation
of the political from the domestic was itself an outcome of
state policy, which presupposed and partially sought to
overcome the initial differences between the two.
The molecular themes of femininity, masculinity, and
household that so dominated lnka tributary discourse
tended to foreshorten and even obscure other forms of po-
litical hierarchy. Andean society had multiple forms of so-
cial organization and sovereignty that existed between the
household and the state. Arranged in segmentary hierar-
chies, these intermediate levels cohered around shrines,
settlements, and political offices, all of which were :it least
as real and immediate as the lnka state (see Gose 1993). In
the language of tribute, however, lnka society appeared as
a collection of so many households. Intermediate levels of
social organization were discursively reduced to the status
of household aggregations within the "decimal system."
From this perspective, all intermediate levels of organiza-
tion were derivative and could easily disappear into a
heightened polarity between the household and the state.
These acts of rhetorical suppression betray a will to sim-
plify and centralize that was most clearly expressed in the
lnka sovereign's attempt to act as universal mediator of
every marriage in his realm. The lnkas made extensive use
of gender not just because they found it in place hut be-
cause it condensed, transmitted, ami articulated other kinds
 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST Vol.. 102. No. I MARCH 2000
of hierarchy, while also bypassing them. Instead of collud-
ing in this reductionism by remaining fixated on the rela-
tive statuses of women and men, we might ask why the
Inka state was so eager to suppress the politico-administra-
tive "middle ground" that lay between them and theirtnbu-
tariex. The answer has very little to do with women and
men, but much to do with empire.
Notes
Acknowledgments. The SSHRC of Canada funded most of
the research that lies behind this paper. I would like to thank
Frances Slaney. Vern Eichhorn, Rosemary Joyce, and an un-
usually generous set of anonymous referees for many con-
structive suggestions that improved this paper, and many more
that I was unable to incorporate.
1. Silverblatt (1987) does not use the term patriarchy, but
the concept is nonetheless present in her work, through her re-
liance on Engels, and her view that the Inka state was an in-
strument of expanded male domination. Although I criticize
this dimension of her work, Silverblatt herself has since noted
that the Inka state was gendered in complex and contradictory
ways (1991:150), anticipating some of the arguments offered
here.
2. Parts of this and the following section were originally
presented in Gose (1997).
3. See Falcon ([ 1567J1918:147-148), Polo de Ondegardo
([1561] 1940: 133-139. [1571] 1916:55-72). and Santillan
([1553]1927:34-35,45).
4. Here, the primary sources are Falcon ([ 1567] 1918:
144-145) and Polo de Ondegardo ([ 1561] 1940:136-137,
149-150, 165, [ 157J ] 1916:67, 72). Note that Santillan
([1553] 1927:38) does not stipulate that tribute was paid in la-
bor only, but rather that people paid tribute in only one item,
which was usually a productive specialization in their locality,
such as fish, cloth, or reed mats (cf. Munia [1613] 1987:96).
De la Vega ([1609] 1966:250-251) affirms both the labor-
only and productive specialization principles.
5. Such is the meaning of mink'a in modern Quechua. The
term had most of these semantic features during the early co-
lonial period, so 1 assume that it was available and important
in Inka times. Guaman Poma ([ 1615] 1980:251) and Arriaga
([ 1621 ] 196S:223, 214) use mink a to describe the convocation
of a large work party by offering food and drink. The testi-
mony in Ortiz, de Ziiniga repeatedly mentions people working
for local political authorities for food and drink ([1562]
1967-1972 [21:44. 49. 56. 59. 69. S4-S5. 121:28. 41). Simi-
larly, Cobo ([1653] 1956:25 1) writes that Andean people were
willing to work for food and drink provided by the owner of
the fields, and that this practice was observed among friends,
moiety divisions, and even entire towns. Gonzalez Holgui'n
([ 160SJ 1952:240) glosses mink'a as "renting" a person, noting
that it applied particularly to the contracting ofrilual services,
a poini that is well corroborated in scventeenth-cenlui v idola-
try documents (see Duviols 19X6:56-57, 244. 268. 2SI ).
6. When discussing corn beer brewing oulside of the Inka
context. Arri:iLi;i (1 162111968:206) notes that only in the high-
lands was it an exclusively female aciivuy, whereas on the
cojsi. it \v:is :i male prerogative. This is j useful warning that
not all Andean peoples may have assigned the same gender
coding to the labors brought together in mink'a. As a conquer-
ing highland group, however, the Inkas did impose such a gen-
dered division of labor within their realm.
7. See Guaman Poma ([ 1615] 1980:300;. Munia ([1613]
1987:390). Pizarro ([1533] 1920:175). Pizarro ([1572]1978:
94-95).
8. The female activities of cooking and weaving had simi-
larly high status in Aztec Mexico (see Brumfiel 1991:
244-245).
9. See Anonymous Jesuit ([ 1590] 1968:170), Cabello Val-
boa ([1586] 195 1:348). Cobo ([1653] 1956:231), de la Vega
([1609]1966:1195), Munia ([ 1590] 1946:246-260), Polo de
Ondegardo ([ 1561] 1940:139. [ 1571] 1916:91, 93). and San-
tillan ([ 1553] 1927:35).
10. See Cabello Valboa ([1586] 1951:348-349). Guaman
Poma ([1615] 1980:299-301). Munia ([ 1590] 1946:246-260.
[1613] 1987:390-396). and Santa Cruz Pachacuti ([1613]
1993:205).
11. See Anonymous Jesuit ([ 1590] 1968:171). Calancha
([1639] 1972; 132-135). de la Vega ([ 1609] 1966:196. 199).
Guaman Poma ([ 1615] 1980:299-300), Munia ([1613] 1987:
389-396). Pizarro ([1572] 1978:93-95). Polo de Ondegardo
([1571]1916:91). and Santillan ([ 1553] 1927:35).
12. See Anonymous Jesuit ([1590] 1968:170-173), Calan-
cha ([1639] 1972:128, 132-135). Cobo <[ 1653] 1956:169.
232), Pizarro ([1533] 1920:175). Pizarro ([ 1572] 1978:92-93),
Polo de Ondegardo ([ 1571] 1916:92). and Santillan ([1553]
1927:35)
13. See Cobo ([1653] 1956:134-135), Munia ([1590] 1946:
248. 260, [1613] 1987:390-394). and Polo de Ondegardo
([1561 ]1940:139).
14. Cobo ([1653] 1956:134) and Polo de Ondegardo
([ 1571] 1916:91) call these officials apopanaca. whereas Ca-
bello Valboa ([ 1586] 195 1:348). Munia ([1613] 1987:96.
388-389). and Guaman Poma ([1615] 1980) identify them as
tocricoc apo, while P. Pizarro simply calls them governors
([157211978:95).
15. See Anonymous Jesuit ([15901196S: 172). Cabello Val-
boa ([158611951:349). Cobo ([165311956:117. 232). de la
Vega ([1609)1966:199). Guaman Poma ([ 161511980:226).
and Munia ([1590] 1946:260).
16. See the trials of 1656 in Otuco (Duviols 1986: eh. 2).
1656 in Huamantanga (Archivo Arzobispal de Lima.
Hechicen'as e Idolatn'as. Legajo 3. Expediente 9). 1657 in San
Juan de Machaca (Duviols 1986:284). 1658 in San Pedro de
Hacas (see Duviols 1986:193). and San Francisco de Mangas
in 1662. during which ihese women are referred to as "daugh-
ters of the Sun" (Duviols 1986:340. 342. 359).
17. See Archivo Ar/obispal de Lima. Hechicerias y Idola-
tn'as, Legajo 1 1. Expediente 7. Legajo 1 2. 1-xpediente 2.
IS. See Cieza de Leon ([155311984:1X1). Cobo (116531
1956:215). Molina ([1553] 1%S:81-S2). Munia (1161311987:
392). and Sarmienlo de Gamboa ([1572] 1942:187;.
19. Alberti Man/Jiiares's speculation that the aqlkis were
organized according to the "decimal system" (1986:177-179)
implies that they were part of the tributary population. It has
no foundation in the chronicles, some of which explicitly state
thai ihcy were free from tribule (i.e.. Munki [ 15L>0] 1946:24S.
25S).

20. Pedro Pizarro ([ 1572] 1978:94-95) mentions that women
often accompanied their husbands when they served as sol-
diers or miners outside of the community, but it is unlikely
that they did so to provide them with food and drink, since the
aqllas served the army in this capacity.
21. Seventeenth-century Quechua referred to wife-giver as
kcika and wife-taker as masa or macssa (sec Duvrols
1974_1976: 284;Taylor 1987:354. 468, 504 500. 512-516).
22. See Betan/os ([155 1] 1987:62. 207): Castro and Ortega
Morcjon ([ 1558] 1974:97); Cobo ([ 1653] 1956:1 15. 248); de la
Vega ([1609)1966:205); Guaman Poma ([1615] 1980:257);
Murua ([1590)1946:244), ([ 1613| 1987:96): Ortiz de Zuiiiga
([1562|1967-1972 [1J42-43. 53. [2|:31), Pizarro ([1572]
1978:95), Polo de Ondegardo (11561 ] 1940.139). and Santillan
([1553] 1927:22. 35). Other accounts describe the ethnic lords
(kurakas) arranging marriages in the countryside, probably in
the name of the Inka (see Pizarro [1533J1920:175; Santillan
[1553] 1927:36).
23. See Cobo ([ 1653] 1956:248-249). Murua ([1590] 1946:
240-241, [1613] 1987:386-388), and Santillan ([ 1553] 1927:
36). Murra (1980:80) and Silverblatt (1987:222) suggesl that
these gifts constitute bridewealth payments, a notion that I re-
ject because of their relatively minor nature and because they
were not the primary mode of validating marriages.
24. Polo de Ondegardo ([1561] 1940:152) specifies that
women did not have formal tribulary obligations to the state
but were expected to help their husbands, who did. Santillan
([1553] 1927:4112) suggests that widows, as heads of ongo-
ing households, were a possible execprion to this rule. Polo de
Ondegardo notes that women typically did not work in the
fields but were expected to fulfill the weaving obligations of
the household ([ 1571 ] 191 n: 131; cf. Santillan f 1553] 1927:43).
Falcon ([1567] 1918:152) also writes that women, children,
and other householders helped a man fulfil his tributary obli-
gations. Murua ([ 1613] 1987:398-400) and Guaman Poma
([1615] 1980:203-230) give elaborate descriptions of women
and children's duties as part of an age-grade system. Their ac-
counts are compatible with ihe above bul could also mean that
people had obligations specific to their age-grade, irrespective
of their domestic status.
25. Murua clearly describes the monogamous marriages of
tributaries here, not the polygamous marriages of Inka "cap-
tains" that are frequently mentioned in the chronicles (e.g..
SarmientodcGamboa[1572J 1942:232).
26. Gillespie and Joyce (1996:202-206) make a similar ar-
gument for the Maya of the Classic period and afterwards, not-
ing that women personified the superiority of ruling, wife-giv-
ing groups.
27. Corn beer represented exactly such a link, since the vir-
ginal women who prepared it chewed and spat into the dough
from which it was made (see Anonymous Jesuit [ 1590] 1968:
74).
28. Thus, tributary brideservice did not result from "bank-
ruptcy" in a competitive bridewealth system practiced by
eliics: a common scenario that Collier (1988: ch. 3) has ana-
lyzed well.
29. The contrast between (hinchay and its Inka coni|iicrors
reinforces the derivalional linkage between commodity and
Gosi / THR Si AH. AS A CHOSI N WOMAN
reproductive :ift exchange persuasively argued by (icll
(1992).
References Cited
Alberti Manzanares, Pilar
1985 La influencia economica y polfiica dc- las acllacuna en el
incanato. Revista de Indias45/176:557-585.
1986 Unainstitucionexclusivamentefenieninacnlaepocain-
caica: Las acllacuna. Revista Kspafiola de Antropologfa
Americana 16:153-190.
Anonymous Jesuit
[1590] 1968 Relacion de las costumbrcs antiguas de los natu-
rales del Pini. In Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles. vol. 209.
Pp. 153-177. Madrid: Ediciones Atlas.
Arriaga, Pablo Jose de
[1621] 1968 Extirpacion de la idolatria en el Peru. In Bib-
lioteca de Autores Espanoles, vol. 209. Pp. 191 -277. Madrid:
Ediciones Atlas.
Bauer, Brian
1996 Legitimation of the State in Inca Myth and Ritual
American Anthropologist 98(2):327 -337.
Betanz.os, Juan de
[ 155 1] 1987 Suma y naracion de los Incas. Madrid: Ediciones
Atlas.
Brumfiel, Elizabeth
1991 Weaving and Cooking: Women's Production in Aztec
Mexico. In Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehis-
tory. J. Gero and M. Conkey. eds. Pp. 224-251. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Cabello Valboa, Miguel
[1586)1951 Miscelanea Antarctica. Lima: Universidad Na-
cional Mayorde San Marcos.
Calancha, Antonio de ki
[ 1639] 1972 Chronica moralizada del orden de San Augustin
en el Peru, con sucesos egenplares en esta monarquia. Mar-
drid: Consejo de Investigaciones Cientificas Insliluto Enri-
que Florez.
Castro. Cristobal de, and Diego de Ortega Morejon
[ 1558] 1974 La relacion deChinchaf 1558). Historiay Cultura
8:91-104.
Cieza de Leon. Pedro de
[ 1553] 1984 Obras complclas I. Madrid: Consejo Superior de
Invesligaciones Cientiliai.s. Institulo Gonzalo Fernandez
Ovicdo...
Cobo. Bernabe
[1653] 1956 Hisloria del Nucvo Mundo. Madrid: Biblioteca
de Autores Espanoles.
Collier. Jane
1988 Marriage and Inequality in Classless Si vieties. Stan ford.
( A: Stanford University Press.
Collier. Jane, and Michelle Rosaldo
1981 Politics and Gender in Simple Societies. In Sexual
Meanings. S. Ouner and H. Whitehead. eds. Pp. 275-329.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
de la Vega. Garcikiso
[1609] 1966 Royal Commentaries ()f ihe Incas and Geinial
I lis|or\ ol'Pcru. Austin: University ol"Texas 1'ivss
96 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST Vol.. 102. No. 1 MARCH 2000
Duv/ols, Pierre
1974-1976 Unc petite clironique rctrouvee: Enrores. ritos, su-
perstieiones y eeremonias de los Yndios de la Provincia de
Chjnehaycocha y otras del Pirn. Journal de la Societe des
Americanistcs 63:275-297.
1986 Cultuni Andina y represion. Cu/co: Centro de Estudios
Rurales Andinos Bartolome de las Casas.
Falcon, Franeisco
[1567J1918 Representacion hecha por el Lieenciado Fran-
cisco Falcon en el concilio provincial, sobre los dafios y mo-
lestias que se hacen a los Indios. In Coleccion de libros y
documentos referentes a la historia del Peru, vol. 9. Pp.
133-176. Lima: Imprenta y Libreria Sanmarti y Ca.
Gell, Alfred
1992 Inter-Tiibal Commodity Barter and Reproductive Gift
Exchange in Old Melanesia. In Barter, Exchange and Value.
C. Humphrey and S. Hugh-Jones, eds. Pp. 142-68. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gillespie, Susan, and Rosemary Joyce
1996 Gendered Goods: The Symbolism oI'Maya Hierarchical
Exchange Relations. In Women in Prehistory: North America
and Mesoamerica. C. Claassen and R. Joyce, eds. Pp.
189-207. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Godelier, Maurice
1977 Perspectives in Marxist Anthropology. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press.
Goncalez Holgui'n, Diego
[1608] 1952 Vocabulario de la lengua general detodo el Peru
llamado lengua Qqichua o del Inca. Lima: Imprenta Santa
Maria.
Gose, Peter
1993 Segmentary State Formation and the Ritual Control of
Water under the Incas. Comparalive Studies in Society and
History 35(3):48O-514.
1997 El estadoincaicocomounamujerescogida(ag//a/).- Con-
sumo, tributo en trabajo, y la regulacion del matrimonio en el
incanato. In Mas alia del silencio: Las fronteras de genero en
Los Andes. D. Arnold, ed. Pp. 457-473. La Pa/.: CIASE/
ILCA.
Guaman Poma de Ayala, Felipe
[ 1615] 1980 Nueva coronica y buen gobierno. Mexico: Siglo
XXI.
Hastorf, Christine
1990 The Effect of the Inka State on Sausa Agricultural Pro-
duction and Crop Consumption. American Antiquity 55(2):
262-290.
Howell, Signe
1996 Many Contexts, Many Meanings? Gendered Values
among the Northern Lio of Flores. Indonesia. Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute 2(2):2f>3-2(>9.
LeVine. Terry
1987 Inka Labor Service at the Regional Level: The Func-
tional Reality. Ethnohistory 34( 1): 14-46.
Meigs. Anna
1990 Multiple Gender Ideologies and Statuses. In Beyond the
Second .Sex. New Directions in the Anthropology of Gender.
P. .Sunday and R. Goodenougli. eds. Pp. 99 112. Philadel-
phia: University ol Pennsylvania Press
Molina. Cristobal de
[ 1553J1968 Relacion de muchas cosas acaescidas en el Peru.
In Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles, vol. 209. Pp. 56-95. Ma-
drid: Ediciones Atlas.
Moore. Jerry
1989 Pre-Hispanic Beer in Coastal Peru: Technology and So-
cial Context of Prehistoric Production. American Anthro-
pologist 91:682-695.
Moore, Sally Falk
1958 Power and Property in Inca Peru. Morningside Heights,
NY: Columbia University Press.
Morris. Craig
1979 Maize Beer in the Economics, Politics, and Religion of
the Inca Empire. In Fermented Food Beverages in Nutrition.
C. Gastineau et al., eds. Pp. 21-34. New York": Academic
Press.
Morris, Craig, and Donald Thompson
1985 Huanuco Pampa: An Inca City and Its Hinterland. Lon-
don: Thames and Hudson.
Murra. John
1980 The Economic Organization of the Inca State. Green-
wich, CT: JAI Press.
Munia, Marti'n de
[ 1590] 1946 Historia del origen y genealogia real de los re\es
Incas del Peru. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones
Cienti'ficas, Instituto Santo Toribiode Mogrovejo.
[ 1613] 1987 Historia general del Peru. Madnd: Histona 16.
Ortiz de Zuniga, Inigo
[ 1562J1967-1972 Visita de la Provincia de Leon de Huanuco
en 1562. 2 vols. Huanuco: Universidad Nacional Hermilio
Valdizan.
Ortner. Sherry
1996 Making Gender. The Politics and Erotics of Culture.
Boston: Beacon Press
Pizarro. Hernando
[ 1533] 1920 A los scnores oydores de Li Audiencia Real de su
Magestad. In Informaeiones sobre el antiguo Peru, Coleccion
de libros y documentos reterentes a la historia del Peru, tomo
III (2a. serie). H. Urteaga, ed. Pp. 167-180. Lima: Imprenta y
LibreriaSanmarti y Ca.
Pizarro, Pedro
[1572] 1978 Relacion del descubrimienlo y conquista de los
reinos del Peru. Lima: Ponlilleia Universidad Caiolica del
Peru.
Polo de Ondegardo. Juan
[ 1561 ] 1940 Informe del Lieenciado Juan Polo de Ondegardo
al lieenciado briviesca de munatones sobre la perpetuidad de
hisecomiendasen el Peru. Revista Histonca 13:125-2(K).
[157111916 Relacion de los fundamentos acerca del nolable
daiio que resulta de no guardar a los indios sus fueros. In In Ibr-
maciones acerca de la religion y gobierno de los Incas. vol. 1.
Pp. 45-188. Lima: Imprentay LibreriaSanmarti.
Richards. Audrey
1939 Land. Labour and Diet in Northern Rhodesia. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Roslworowski. Maria
1977a Etni'ay sociedad. Lima: I.E.P.
1977b Reflexiones sobre la reeiprocidud Andina. Revista del
Musco Nacional 42:341 -354.

Santa Cruz. Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamaygua, Joan dc
[1613] 1993 Relacion de antigiiedades deste reyno del Piru.
Lima/Cusco: lnsitut Francais d'Etudes Andines/Centro dc
Estudios Regionales Andinos Bartolome de las Casas.
Santillan, Hernando de
[ 1553] 1927 Relacion del origen, descendencia, politica y go-
biemo de los Incas. In Historia de los Incas y relacion de su go-
biemo, coleccion de libros y documentos referentes a la
historiadel Peni, vol. 9. H. Urteaga.ed. Pp. 1-124. Lima: Im-
prentay Libreria Sanmarti.
Sarmiento de Gamboa, Pedro
[1572] 1942 Historia de los Incas. Buenos Aires: Emece Edi-
tores.
Silverblatt, Irene
1987 Moon, Sun. and Witches: Gender Ideologies and Class
in Inca and Colonial Peru. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press.
1991 Interpreting Women in States: New Feminist Ethnohis-
tories. In Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge: Feminist
/ THI STATH AS A Cnosi;N WOMAN
Anthropology in the Postmodern Era. M. di Leonardo, cd. Pp.
140-171. Berkeley: University ot'CaliIbrnia Press.
Skar, Harald
19X2 The Warm Valley People. Oslo: Univcrsitelsvorlag.
Taylor. Gerald
1987 Ritos y tradieioncs de Huarochiri del siglo XVII. Lima:
IEP/IFEA.
Trujillo. Diego de
[ 1571J1987 Relacion del descubrimiento del reino del Peni
que hizo Diego de Trujillo en compani'a del gobernador don
Francisco Pi/arro y otros capitanes. desde que llegaron a Pan-
ama el aiio de 1530, en que refiere todas derrotas y sucesos.
hasta 15 de abril de 1571. In Verdadera relacion de la con-
quistadel Peru. F. de Xerez. Pp. 191-206. Madrid: Historia
16.
Xerez. Francisco de
[ 1534J1987 Verdadera relacion de la conquista del Peru. Ma-
drid: Historia 16.
Zuidema. R. T.
1964 TheCequeSysieinofCuzco. Leiden: Brill.