TY - JOUR
T1 - Capac Women and the Politics of Marriage in Early Colonial Peru
AU - Vicuña Guengerich, Sara
N1 - Funding Information:
This article is the result of research for a book in progress titled Daughters of the Inca Conquest: Indigenous Noblewomen in Colonial Peru. I would like to thank the Texas Tech University New Faculty Research Funds and the Newberry Library, which facilitated this research. I also would like to thank Kimberly Gauderman, Jane Mangan, David Noble Cook and Alcira Dueñas for their insightful comments, suggestions and help during the writing process. However, I take responsibility for the interpretations of these historical events.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Taylor and Francis on behalf of CLAR.
PY - 2015/4/3
Y1 - 2015/4/3
N2 - During the major Inca civil wars, Atahualpa had almost exterminated Huascars kin. Only a few capac women, those who descended from Manco Capac, the founder of the Inca dynasty, remained alive. Atahualpa had planned to take them as his principal wives since only this type of marriage could successfully maintain the authority of the Incas over a large Andean territory. The Spanish arrival in 1532 interrupted his plans, but it did not eliminate Inca claims of sovereignty through marriage. In fact, it was through marriage that Atahualpa aimed to establish political alliances with Francisco Pizarro. While both Incas and Spaniards understood marriage on their own terms, there were many instances in which both were willing to redefine their own concepts of marriage in their struggle for power. In all of these, the women engaged in these unions were not only conscious about their political roles, but agents in the main historical events of this period.
AB - During the major Inca civil wars, Atahualpa had almost exterminated Huascars kin. Only a few capac women, those who descended from Manco Capac, the founder of the Inca dynasty, remained alive. Atahualpa had planned to take them as his principal wives since only this type of marriage could successfully maintain the authority of the Incas over a large Andean territory. The Spanish arrival in 1532 interrupted his plans, but it did not eliminate Inca claims of sovereignty through marriage. In fact, it was through marriage that Atahualpa aimed to establish political alliances with Francisco Pizarro. While both Incas and Spaniards understood marriage on their own terms, there were many instances in which both were willing to redefine their own concepts of marriage in their struggle for power. In all of these, the women engaged in these unions were not only conscious about their political roles, but agents in the main historical events of this period.
KW - Inca
KW - conquest
KW - lineage
KW - marriage
KW - women
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84941220066&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10609164.2015.1040275
DO - 10.1080/10609164.2015.1040275
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84941220066
VL - 24
SP - 147
EP - 167
JO - Colonial Latin American Review
JF - Colonial Latin American Review
SN - 1060-9164
IS - 2
ER -