cultureChildren over five years of age had the responsibility of carrying water up to the fields where grown-ups were growing crops. And women older than fifty had to weave cloth for making clothes. Even the physically and mentally disabled were given daily tasks that were attuned to their capabilities. One of these tasks was chewing maize or corn and spitting it back into a big bowl. By letting this substance ferment the Inca made their own special corn beer called Chicha which they drank on festive occasions.a system called the Quipu. It was an intricate form of communication using colored strings tied into knots. This was the Inca alternative to writing since they did not develop a written language of their own. Emperor Pachacuti also created religious holidays for his people. Six times a month the entire empire was shut down for festivities, lectures and parades.
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daily lifeThe Inca never invented the wheel, and the commoners were not allowed on the roads, so the only travel over these bridges were the animals that hauled food, warriors, the road runners, who carried messages using a relay system, the nobles, and government officials. and of the estimated ten million people living in the Inca empire at the time of the Spanish conquest in 1533, the vast majority were working people. In many ways, the Inca rulers were keen psychologists people who study human thinking and behavior who created a system to ensure that their people had neither the time nor the energy to rebel, commit crimes, or avoid their duties to the empire, their religion, their families, or their ayllus (extended families who lived in the same area, shared their land and work, and arranged for marriages and religious rituals as a group). Beyond obliging people to work very hard, the Inca government invited everyone to participate in lengthy festivals and other ceremonial activities directed by the empire. At these festivities—perhaps the only break from their toil that common workers ever received—the commoners often indulged in heavy drinking with nobles. Many experts believe the festivals provided the cement that held the empire together.
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