The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas Volume I, II, and III

824 Maria Rostworowski & Craig Morris
them. They might ritually transfer soil from their home villages to the
plazas of their new stations. Because they maintained their customs and
costumes, state administrators could recognize and easily distinguish the
mitmaq from the local populations.
According to Cieza de Leon, there were three kinds of mitmaq, all of
whom "contributed greatly to the upkeep and conservation of the kingdom,
and even to its settlement. First, there were those who colonized a
recently conquered area, to "teach the natives and inhabitants how they
were to serve and comport themselves." Second, the Inka sent mitmaq to
guard frontier regions, such as the rebellious Chachapoyas area or the
recently conquered areas north of Quito, "so that no tribe should be in
a position to make war or quickly organize a rebellion or conspiracy."
Third, mitmaq were sent to a conquered area that was "fertile and had a
good climate, and was empty of people." 86
Although at the onset the mitmaq worked lands close to their places
of origin, this custom changed during late Inka times, as increasing
numbers of people were mobilized ever greater distances to fulfill the
state's needs. In its final years Tawantinsuyu was a kaleidoscope of
mitmaq: peoples from as far away as Guayaquil in Ecuador or from Piura
and Trujillo in northern Peru worked fields in the Abancay Valley near
Cusco, where they cultivated chili pepper, coca, yuca (sweet manioc),
and cotton. In the Urubamba Valley there were Qulla from Lake Titicaca,
Canari from Ecuador, and mitmaq from Chumbivilcas. Some areas
such as Ecuador's Canar province (whose natives were often sent as police
troops), or Ayabaca and Cajabamba provinces in northernmost Peru,
sent out so many contingents — virtual involuntary diasporas — that one
wonders how their home economies survived at all.
The most ambitious mitmaq project of all, however, was that of
Wayna Qhapaq in the Cochabamba Valley, today Bolivia. The emperor
reorganized the valley, claiming large tracts of prime land for the state
and ordering 14,000 mit'a and mitmaq laborers brought in to engage in
large-scale maize production. According to sixteenth-century land litigation
documents studied by Wachtel, the maize was intended to feed
Wayna Qhapaq's army, then engaged half a continent away in conquering
the northernmost reaches of Tawantinsuyu. Although some local
groups such as the Sipa Sipa, who served the Inka as llama herders, were
allowed to remain in the area, others were displaced to make way for the
M Cieza [1553] 1959: 57-62.
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