5. The Substructure: The Agrarian Community

5 The Substructure: The Agrarian Community 1. The Clan The basis of all regional organization, the agrarian com munity, was invested with such importance before the time of the Incas that Cunow and his disciples regard it as the very foundation of the social system of the empire. 1 This co~munity appears to have been the result of a centuries-old evolution. Its origin is lost in the ages before the dawn of history, and in many parts of South and Central America we find it still today virtually unchanged. Through it the empire of the Incas thrust its roots deeply into the past and continues to maintain a kind of penumbral existence in the present within the framework of modern legislation. The primordial cell of Peruvian society was the ayllu) a clan made up of all the descendants of a common ancestor, real or sup posed. Every ayllu had its totem (pacarisca) the engendering being). Garcilaso reports that the common people believed them selves to be descended from animals-puma, condor, snake 2-and, indeed, some of the Nazca pottery represents beasts so stylized that they seem human. 3 But the totems were not only living crea tures; sometimes they comprised inanimate objects, such as moun tains or rivers, and sometimes natural phenomena like thunder and lightning. 4 56 The Substructure: The Agrarian Community 57 For the Indian, men, animals, vegetables, and minerals were all divided into ayllus. 5 Markham, Cunow, Joyce, Bandelier, and Saavedra agree in be lieving that the ayllu is of very ancient origin and that it rests upon a religious foundation. The group had its guardian deities, the huaca~ which were distinct from those of the family properly so called, the conopaJ and its own ancestors, which it confounded neither with those of the family nor with those of the tribe or group of ayllus. 6 These ancestors were themselves divinities, and their mummies were the objects of a cult. The religious character of the ayllu and the Indians' veneration of the deceased and of the aged are traits still found today on the inter-Andean plateau. Thus, at the present time ritual ceremonies precede community toil in the province of Huarochari in the region of Casta,7 and Europeans are astonished by the authority of ancestral tradition and the re spect inspired by the aged which they observe in upper Peru, "as opposed to the situation in so many country districts." 8 Was it from this family community, this kinship group, that the village community sprang? Saavedra maintains that this is the case.9 Even before the time of the Incas, according to him, the ayllu by lineage was becoming slowly modified; it was gradually losing its personal character and tending to assume a territorial dimension. When an association of families settles in a given area, the soil comes to replace the ties of consanguinity as the basis of social organization. 1o In the Aymara language, the term ayllu de notes either a family or a territorial association; but the bond created by place of residence did not eclipse the bond created by blood, because the Aymara family had two classes of members-the original kin who formed the ancient ayllu and the members by adoption. Thus, in ancient times, perhaps in the Tiahuanaco era, the ayllu was already an economic and territorial association.

It must be acknowledged, however, that the Incas were an ex ception. Their ayllus remained pure kinship groups-which is natural, since their territory comprised the entire empire and the maintenance of racial purity was one of their essential preoccupa tions. But this ayllu of the Incas grew and multiplied according to a rule that was peculiar to it. The heir detached himself from his 58 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru ancestral stock as soon as he took power and founded a new ayllu. In other words, every Inca gave his name to an ayllu that included all his descendants except his heir, 'who in turn formed an ayllu in his own name. This is the reason why the goods of the deceased sovereign passed to his ayllu and not to his reigning successor, who was obliged to have a new palace built and to acquire, by tribute or as gif'ts, whatever articles he needed. 1! Although this evolution of the ayllu seems probable, in spite of what Ugarte may say of it,12 great uncertainty nonetheless prevails on the subject of the marca-an Aymara word which, by a sur prising coincidence, is identical with a German word of analogous meaning. According to Saavedra, the marca represents the final phase in the evolution of the ayllu: it is the ayllu concentrated in the village. Payne holds the same view.1s Ugarte, on the contrary, sees in the marca an association of ayllus, most often two;14 and for Markham the marca is the arable land of the community.15 As for eunow, he identifies the ayllu with the Inca household unit of one hundred (pachaca), of which we shall speak later, and calls the marca its territorial division. 16 From the multiplicity of expressions used by the chroniclers to translate the word marca it maybe concluded that the meaning of this term is very close to that of ayllu) yet is not interchangeable with it. The marca) as we understand it, denotes the village and its land, comprising one or more ayllus. 17 The division of the people into ayllus undoubtedly existed in the cities as well as the rural areas. Each of these groups would establish itself in a particular block of buildings in one of those large square enclosures containing a series of courtyards and dwell ings that De Rivero and Tschudi have taken for palaces.1s In Machu Picchu each ayllu occupied from six to ten houses, and every such group of houses was distinguished by some particular characteristic, chiefly in the way the stones were dressed. 19 The association of a large number of ayllus formed a tribe. 20 Finally, families continued to exist as such within the ayllu. The Inca organization, which respected the community, was in no way destructive of the family, in spite of what Suarez says to the conThe Substructure: The Agrarian Community 59 trary.21 As we shall see, children assisted their parents to the ex clusion of other members of the group; assessments were always made by households; and the head of a family was the unit in terms of which the statistics were compiled. The family tie was also apparent in the common law, 'which expressed the customary practices of the land~ children orphaned at an early age would be taken in charge by the eldest brother, or, if there was no brother, by the next of kin;22 and a widow would be entrusted to the care of her son, or, if she had no son, to that of her brother-in-Iaw. 23 The ayllu continued to exist after the Spanish conquest, but as a territorial unit. It was essentially an agrarian community, its characteristic feature being collective land tenure. When an ayllu moved from one place. to another, it took with it the name of its original home. In Coni, for example, there is an ayllu called Tiahuanaco. 24 It is this agrarian system that we propose to study now.

As is natural in a country where the soil is poor and the population is constantly increasing, agriculture presented a very important problem in Peru. The Inca himself on certain days would take the plough in his hands-as the Emperor of China used to do-and, accompanied by a numerous entourage, would work the field of Colcampata, which was consecrated to the Sun. Every official would follow the ruler's example in his own province. 2.5 In the Peruvian calendar, several divisions of time bore names that alluded to agricultural tasks.26 When an Indian died, a little bag of seed would be left beside him so that he might be able to sow his field in the next world. "What the Indians love above all is the land," wrote Francisco de Toledo;27 and Cobo marveled to see that the artisans of his time, in spite of the objurgations of the Spaniards, could not resist the pleasant temptation of going to the assistance of their neighbors as they 'worked in the fields when the time for ploughing came. 28 If the physiocrats had known Peru, they would no doubt have praised it even more highly than they did China!

60 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru 2. Collective Ownership of the Soil The juridical form of land tenure corresponds to the group's degree of individualization. Collective ownership by the clan is in keeping with the structure of the clan as a social cell. The char acter of the land in Peru assured the cohesion of the clan; for, in order to obtain produce from the soil, it was necessary to perform tasks in common, especially in carrying on large irrigation projects. The same condition. brought about the same result in Java; the Javanese family community, the dessa) exists to this day by virtue of the necessity of undertaking the irrigation of the rice planta tions, and these remain common property. Thus, the agrarian system of the Incas is not to be thought of as a necessarily provi sional regime. The Peruvian method of land tenure has been described as "communist" by several writers, but such an appellation is inap propriate. In fact, three different kinds of collective land tenure need to be distinguished. The first consists in the common cultiva tion and distribution of products according to need. In general, the members of the community are assumed to have equal needs and a consequent right to equal shares in the crops. This system was still in existence at the end of the nineteenth century in some parts of Spain, notably in the northwest of the province of Zamora and in upper Aragon. It is communism in the true sense of the word.

The second type of organization involves the right of each mem ber of the community to enjoy for life the fruits of the soil pro duced on the land allotted to him and to dispose of the produce of his labor as he sees fit. Consequently, inequalities arise among the members of the community in accordance with their strength, in dustry, or foresight. This is the type of certain Swiss allmende. The third form of collective land tenure consists in a periodical redistribution of the land, with private cultivation of the allotted parcels for the benefit and at the risk of each individual. This is the type of the Russian mir29 and of the collective land of Morocco. It was also that of the Indian community of Peru.

The Substructure: The Agrarian Community 61 This was evidently far from being communistic. It necessarily involved submission to a chief or to a council responsible for the maintenance of order. It also gave rise to certain inequalities be cause of differences in productivity between the industrious and thrifty families, on the one hand, and, on the other, the families who worked little or badly and were wastefuL !These inequalities were held within limits, however, by periodic allotments. Before the establishment of the Inca system of centralization, there existed among the Peruvians, generally speaking, both pri vate property (house, paddock, orchard, personal possessions)30 and collective property, owned by the ayllu) which was used either in common (pastures and woodlands) or by each family through a method of periodic distribution (tillage). In addition, there were some commodities that all the Indians owned in common, really constituting wealth without a proprietor: sea salt, fish, wild fruits, the fiber of vegetable plants.

This system was similar to that which obtained among a great many ancient peoples. In the Germanic Mark one part was held in common, and one part, made up of arable lands, was divided into lots and distributed to families. In the Hebrides, Ireland, Scotland, Russia, North Africa, India, Mexico, and northern Italy,S! one also finds this system of periodic redistribution of the collectively owned land. I t may be that a fiscal idea to some extent determined the Inca policy. Perhaps the agrarian communities were respected by the Peruvian monarchs because, thanks to the joint and several re sponsibility of their members, they were excellent collectors of taxes. Historically, this has been a motive sufficiently powerful to induce certain peoples to preserve groups that 'were threatened with extinction, as the Turks did in the case of the Jugoslav zadrouga~ or even to lead them to create entirely new associations, as happened in the province of Kaga in Japan in the feudal age of Tokugawa or in Russia when the lords made the mir general in the reign of Peter the Great. In Peru, at least, although the sover eigns laid a very heavy burden of taxation upon their subjects, they sought first to put them in a condition to support its weight. In order to obtain abundant revenue from taxes, one must begin by 62 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru increasing the supply of goods that can be taxed. This is a truth it is well to remember at all times.

The slightest exaction imposed on groups wresting a poor living from unproductive soil 'would have been equivalent to a sentence of death. The principle of population was the basis of the Incas' agrarian policy. 3. Agrarian Policy To understand this policy, let us put on the cushma} or In dian shirt, and follow one of the last Incas, who has just conquered a province on the plateau and who, after great festivals at which he has fraternized with the vanquished, announces that he is about to organize their territory in such a way as to make it as rich and prosperous as the other lands that have already submitted to his power. At first nothing is changed. The curaca} or local chief, still re tains his position, and the ayllus keep what belongs to them. But soon a swarm of government officials arrives from Cuzco and sets to work. Before distributing the lands, they must enlarge their extent, and this means a struggle against the environment that continues in intensified form.

The Inca's representatives begin by collecting into villages those Indians who have withdrawn to isolated areas, to pucaras or fortified positions, either through fear or from the wish to be close to some venerated spot.32 This is the same operation 'which the Spaniards were later to attempt under Francisco de Toledo and which they were to call the reduccion de los pueblos de naturales ("settlement of the native population").33 Then the surveyors, by means of strings and stones, proceed to the measurement of the arable lands, and the statisticians to the enumeration of the inhab itants. Men, women, children, animals, houses, woodlands, mines, salt pits, springs, lakes, streams-everything is duly noted down and counted, and a relief map of the entire area is drawn. 34 In the light of these data the Inca decides 'whether there is reason to send to the district colonists, teachers, materials, or sup plies of seed, and what public works it would be suitable to underThe Substructure: The Agrarian Community 63 take there. Then the engineers call the natives together and have them build terraces and dig canals. Along the slopes of the moun tains the land must be leveled by means of embankments supported by uncemented stone walls from two to three yards high and a yard thick, with a slight backward inclination so as better to resist the pressureof the retained earth. In this way a series of terraces is constructed in successive tiers-the sucre of the Quechuas, the andenes ("platforms") of the Spaniards-which are connected with one another by stone stairways.35 The Indians were not only there by adding to the acreage that could be cultivated; they were also avoiding the devastating effects of the rains that would wash away the seeds. No doubt this system of cultivation antedated the period of the Incas, for it is found in Malaya and Polynesia and, in America itself, in regions where the sovereigns of Cuzco never penetrated and where it seems to go back to very ancient times. But the terraces of the Incas were of better construction than any of the others. 36 Where the mountainsides are steep, the building of terraces demands great skill. 37 Alonso Ramos Gavilantells how the terraces built on Titicaca Island for coca planting collapsed and buried the plantations. 38 Today's trav eler is still amazed to see how the slnallest parcel of land was util ized and what prodigies of labor were sometimes performed to bring water to such tiny patches.

For it was not enough to make arable land available; the neces sary water had to be procured to make it fertile. The importance of hydraulics here can be understood when 'we consider that the water to irrigate the upper terraces on the slopes of the high moun tains had to be transported from a great distance in jars carried on men's backs.39 The works of irrigation carried out by the Indians are such as to appear to us nothing short of fantastic. Canals sometimes more than sixty miles in length were cut in the rocks, sent through tun nels, and carried across valleys on aqueducts fifty to sixty feet long. Often they were fed by reservoirs like that of Nepefia, which was formed by a stone dike built across a gorge and measured some 4,000 by 2,700 feet. On Mount Sipa, opposite Pasacancha, subter ranean canals formed a system of communicating basins. 40 64 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru Here again, in canalizing water, the Indians had started well be fore the Incas came. The Calchaquisand the Caras seem to have been very expert in this operation, as were the Chimus, since the Incas were obliged to destroy certain aqueducts in order to reduce them to the point of surrender. 41 The use of the water brought to the fields at such great cost was very strictly regulated. Each Indian had to avail himself of the precious liquid for a certain time and at a moment fixed in ad vance. If he neglected to do so, he would be punished. 42 This ra tioned usage recalls that of the Spanish comunidades de aguas: HThere is nothing better in Murcia," Acosta wrote. 48 Irrigation ditches and canals were constructed not only in the dry regions of the Inca empire, but also in rainy areas, 'where their object was to prevent damage from floods. By requiring the execution of common tasks and a stern regimentation, water was everywhere a factor in cementing solidarity.

Once the acreage of arable land had been increased and the fields irrigated, the next step was to fix the boundaries of the fields. To avoid any confusion, the experts sent by the Inca would give a name to each rise in the land or confirm that already in existence. Then they would put up markers to indicate the limits of each community's territory.44 All they had to do after that was to distribute the land. 4. Distribution of Land and Livestock In theory} the territory of each community was divided into three parts: the first was assigned to the Sun} the second to the Inca} the third to the community itself. Such a division is to be found also among other peoples. Even in Spain there were in cer tain provinces royal and manorial lands that the inhabitants were obliged to cultivate,4.5 and lands dedicated to the uses of worship (hermandades 6 cofradias de tierras) which were improved by the members of the community, and the produce of which served to cover the costs of religious festivals, funerals, and the saying of Masses.46 There is no doubt about this tripartite division. Some authors, The Substructure: The Agrarian Community 65 such as Reclus, Wiener, Lorente, and Pret, mistakenly speak of four parts, adding to those we have just mentioned either the ter ritory assigned to widows, orphans, and the sick, or that allotted to the local chiefs. 47 But were these three parts equal? A number of writers believe that they were: Algarotti, Marmontel, Spencer, Markham, and Lindner.48 Martens is more guarded, affirming merely that they were "just about" equa1.49 Reclus asserts that the four parts that he envisages were equal and that "the Inca was, in consequence, the actual owner of half the national territory." 50 These judgments seem to us to be erroneous.

Let us first go back to the sources. Ondegardo declares that the portions varied according to the quality of the land and the num ber of the inhabitants,51 and Cobo repeats what Ondegardo says.52 In the second place, the inequality of the three parts is in ac cord with the spirit of the Inca system. The sovereign's first con cern was to allot to each community enough land for its people to sustain life. It follows that the portions assigned to the Sun and the Inca would remain relatively small in heavily populated re gions where the sterility of the soil did not permit of an increase in the acreage of arable land. Where this was not the case, these portions would be more considerable. Acosta is explicit on this point. He writes: "The Inca gave the community a third part of the land. Now, although it cannot be truly said whether this por tion was larger or smaller than that of the Inca himself or that allotted to the Sun, it is certain that care was taken to make it large enough to feed the inhabitants of every village." 53 Finally, the fact that the tripartite division of the land was un equal becomes clear from the manner in 'which the share allotted to the community was parceled out. The acreage recognized as sufficient to feed a married couple with no children was an eco nomic unit called a tupu) an Aymara word meaning "measure."

The distribution was thus based on needs which were assumed to be uniform, but this distribution was applied to the means of production, not to the products. On the day when the Indian took a wife, he would receive a tupu and would no longer be supported by his parents. He would receive another for each son and for each servant and only half a tupu for each daughter. 54 66 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru What exactly was the tupu? Prescott remarks that, according to Garcilaso, it amounted to a fanega and a half of land, which 'was as much land as could be planted with a hundredweight of maize.55 Beuchat writes that a tupu was a unit of area equivalent to a Spanish fanega) or about seventy-seven square yards (SiC).56 J. de la Espada and Markham assert that the tupu was sixty paces long and fifty paces across.,57 Castonnet des Fosses estimates it at 6,900 square yards, and Perrone at 7,700 square yards. 58 If one accepts these statements, the tupu seems to have been somewhat elastic, and so it probably 'was.,59 It is our conviction that the efforts of the historians to estimate the area of the tupu are futile because this measure was bound to be variable. It would have been absurd to standardize the areas of parcels of land in regions that were so different from one another.

The acreage that would have provided subsistence for a family in a fertile area would have been altogether insufficient in a barren region. The tupu was simply the parcel of land necessary for the sustenance of a <!:lildlesshousehold) as we have said, and no figure should be used to define it. This iswhy Ondegardo writes merely that the allotments did not greatly exceed what 'was neces sary for bare subsistence. 6o We find a confirmation of this point of view in the system adopted in our own day in the neighborhood of Casta in Peru. The job to be done, in this case a canal, is divided into a number of topo equal to that of the workmen involved, but varying in extent according to the difficulty of the terrain and the age and strength of each worker. It is thus not treated as a fixed unit of measurement. 61 This method of distribution by tupu shows that in reality it was the community that was served first, since its portion had to be equal to the number of its members multiplied by the area of the tupu needed to provide a livelihood for each one. The Sun and the Inca got what was left, the surplus of available soil. (This agrarian policy is curiously similar to that which France has adopted in Morocco and which may be considered as the last word in modem colonialism.)62 The surplus thus obtained was divided between the Inca and the Sun, not, it seems, in accordance 'with any precise rule, but simply according to circumstances. In the The Substructure: The Agrarian Community 67 VICInIty of the temples, for example, the larger portion of the land would be reserved for religious use, whereas around citadels and strongholds it was the state that was favored.

Garcilaso points out that the Inca's portion consisted to the greatest possible extent of lands that had been made available for cultivation as a result of terracing undertaken by the conquerors themselves-a wise policy that shows the pains the sovereign took not to appear before his subjects in the role of a despoiler. 63 Let us see, finally, how the apportionment by tupu was carried out among the members of the community. When the terrain was of varied character, the tupu would consist of several parcels at some distance from one another, so that each of the coparceners might have land of different kinds to cultivate. The same is true in our own day on the shores of Lake Titicaca, where every Indian receives at the same time a parcel of land by the lakeside, where he will sow his grain, another on the slope of the hill, where quinoa can ripen, and a third on the heights, where nothing but potatoes will grow. 64 The division of land among the members of the pre-·Columbian community in Peru granted no rights beyond that of usufruct. The distribution took place every year, and all heads of families, able bodied or not, shared in it; that is to say, they participated as con sumers, not as producers. Although all authors agree that the allotted parcels could not be alienated in any way, whether by sale, exchange, or gift, since their holders 'were only usufructuaries, there are, nevertheless, certain modern writers who do not accept the view that the land was redistributed every year. Prescott in particular sought to anticipate an evolution that seemed to him inevitable, by a hypothesis that has nothing to justify it: "It is probable," he writes, "that under the influence of that love of order and aversion to change which marked the Peruvian institutions, each new partition of the soil usually confirmed the occupant in his possession, and the tenant for a year was converted into a proprietor for life." 65 The ancient chroniclers, however, are explicit on this point. "The land belonging to the community was parceled out every year," says Acosta.66 Ondegardo repeats this and adds that in his time these annual redistributions were still being 68 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru made "in the greater part of the kingdom." 67 Garcilaso speaks to the same effect,68 and Cobo tells of having been present at such partitions in certain provinces. 69 It should occasion no surprise that such a custom should have prevailed in a country where the land was left to lie fallow for long periods of time. What interest could the Indian have had, in fact, in getting back and cultivating once again the identical plot of ground that had been assigned to him four or five years previously?

Here again the Peruvian system did not differ greatly from that which obtained among many ancient peoples. In Germany land was redistributed annually, but as the country was thinly pop ulated, every family received as much acreage as it wanted. 70 The periodic redistribution of collectively owned land took place in Spain in the nineteenth century as often as every two or three years in the district of Sayago in the province of Zamora. 71 In Morocco the tribal assembly (djemaa) apportioned the land every four or five years among the douars, and the assembly of each douar would, in turn, make an annual distribution among the heads of families. When the population of the Peruvian community increased, where would the necessary supplement to the tupu come from? Trimborn, who sees the Incas only as conquerors, maintains that in this case the communities would have no recourse but to clear more land or intensify the cultivation of what they already had.

In a country with an increasing population, like Peru, such a system would soon have resulted in mass starvation. But the Incas have given too many proofs of their desire to provide their people with the means of livelihood for us to believe that they would have allowed this to happen. When times were hard, the people were fed from the stocks in the Inca's own granaries. What would he have gained, then, by preventing them from getting the extra land they needed when the scarcity of food threatened to become permanent? We prefer, rather, to follow Garcilaso in believing that the new lUpus were deducted from the acreage allotted to the sovereign. 72 The actual distribution of the land was probably carried out by The Substructure: The Agrarian Community 69 the community itself. 73 Once the different tupus had been desig nated, they were marked off by encircling rows of stones. 74 Similar regulations applied to the distribution of the livestock.

However, the number of animals allowed each Indian was very small indeed, while those at the disposal of the ruler and the priest hood was considerable. In the division of the pasture lands, the share assigned to the communities was smaller than the portions allotted to the Sun and the Inca. 75 Every head of a family received a pair of llamas, which he was obliged to take care of and which he was not allowed to kill except when they became old. In Collao, however, where these animals were always very numerous, there was no such prohibition, and the people were permitted to cure the meat and sell it.76 In addition, a few communities kept flocks of llamas which were not subject to distribution, but whose wool was divided among their members. At certain periods some of these beasts would be slaughtered and their meat eaten. 77 However, to draw from these facts the hasty conclusion that the Inca reserved the lion's share of the livestock for himself would be wholly to misunderstand the character of the system. The sum total of what was set aside for the Indian in the manner here described constituted, strictly speaking, his subsistence minimum} and the surplus reserved for the Inca was not consumed by the sovereign alone. It reverted in great part to the Indian himself, not only by way of gifts, but also through the distribution of accumulated stocks. We shall later return to these two methods of disseminating wealth, but we mention them at this point in order to avoid giving the reader a false impression. Thus, the Inca would bestow upon the curacas or upon deserving individuals flocks that were known as "poor flocks" in contradistinction to the "rich flocks" of the monarch. 78 In reality, these last were the flocks of the state and constituted "a national reserve set aside for breeding} to tneet the needs of the entire population.

Each flock was distinguished by its color. When a young animal differed in color from its dam, it would be removed from the flock and placed in one where it would be indistinguishable from the rest. The cord in the quipu had to have the same shade as that of the flock.

70 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru The grassy plateau served as pasture land, since all the soil that could be irrigated was under cultivation. 5. The Cultivation of the Soil Once the work of reclamation had been completed and the land parceled out, the cultivation of the soil would begin. Plough ing started at the end of July, and sowing was done in September and October, when all other work would be suspended so that nothing might keep the Indian from this task. The potato and the quinoa, however, had to be sown as early as August or September in order to be ready in time to be gathered in the general harvest, which took place in the month of May. Finally, in June, the crops were garnered in the houses and public granaries. 79 Theoretically, every Indian family cultivated its own tupu, but the neighbors would lend their aid in case of need. This practice of mutual assistance (minca) has continued into our own day.so The fields of the sovereign and those of the Sun, on the other hand, were cultivated by the whole population of the community work ing in concert under the guidance and direction of their chief. It must be noted, however, that in order to prevent each member of the community from a shirking reliance on the work of the rest, even this cooperative enterprise necessarily gave rise to a division of labor and the allocation of specific tasks to particular in dividuals. "When several groups of Indians undertake a piece of work," says Ondegardo, "they begin by dividing and subdividing the job so that each individual gets his share, which is called a suyo. The first man to finish does not give any assistance to the rest, who otherwise would do nothing at all, since each of them would be counting on his neighbor and would laggard as much as possible." 81 The suyo or suyu, then, consisted of long, narrow, parallel strips of land assigned to the hatunruna on the fields belonging to the Inca and the Sun. These plots must not be confused with the tupu, which were taken out of the communally owned land and the produce of which belonged to those who cultivated them.

It is greatly to the credit of the Inca that he made this work in The Substructure: The Agrarian Community 71 the fields a real pleasure. "The Incas had arranged and regulated this service in such a way that the Indians treated it as a form of recreation and diversion," says Cobo, adding further on: "Work on the land was the occasion of the greatest celebrations and fes tivities." 82 The cultivation of the sovereign's fields in particular took on the aspect of a veritable jubilee. The Indians, decked out in their gayest apparel, would sing the praises of the monarch as they 'went through the labors of the day. We can well understand the astonishment of the Spaniards, who were little accustomed to regarding work as a pleasure. Never has Fourier's dream of the "attractions of labor" been more perfectly realized in this world. 83 6. The Order of Cultivation The order of cultivation, as indicated by Garcilaso, was as follows: 84 First, the fields of the Sun. The divinity had first place. This was as it should be. It must be remembered that it 'was for the divinity, and not for the priests, that these lands were set aside. The priests could have the use of the harvests of the Sun only during the time that they took their turn in the service of the temple. When the priests were not on duty, they had to work their own lands, and they received allotments for this purpose just like the other Indians.

The fields of the Sun should properly be called "fields of wor ship" or "fields of religion," for the Sun was not their only bene ficiary. All sorts of secondary gods and local idols had a share in the produce. 85 Secondly, the fields of the incapacitated-those whom the Spani ards called impedidos ("handicapped"): 'widows, orphans, the dis abled, the blind, the ill, and soldiers absent on military duty. All those who could not or who could no longer work thus had a right to assistance. In each comtTIunity certain Indians were designated to take charge of these lands. When they judged the moment oppor tune, they would climb to some elevated spot, sound the trumpet, and summon the able-bodied inhabitants to work.

72 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru Thirdly, the fields of the capable Indians., that is, all those who were able to work. Fourthly, the fields of the curacas) military leaders) and high officials. Fifthly, the fields of the Inca. The labor service thus exacted constituted the chief tax paid by the people to the sovereign. It was no innovation, for the sinchis of earlier days had generally demanded it of their subjects. 86 This order of cultivation is very remarkable in that it gave those unable to attend to their own concerns priority over those who were fit and placed the needs of the common people before those of the officials and the monarch. However, several of the chron iclers are not in accord with Garcilaso in regard to this point. Ondegardo maintains that the Indians worked on their own lands after those of the gods and the sovereign, and Cobo repeats the same statement. From these discrepant accounts no conclusion can be drawn. 87 During the time that this work was being performed, the workers lived at the expense of the beneficiary. This practice was universal and extended, as we shall see, to all fields of production. Whoever held the land, even a god, 'was obliged to support those who worked on it for as long as they remained on the job.

7. The Methods of Cultivation The Incas strove not only to extend the area of cultivation, but also to intensify it. Whenever they brought a new province under their rule, they would have studies made of the nature of the terrain to determine the kind of cultivation for which it was best suited. Unfortunately, the poor soil of the plateau often had to be allowed to lie fallow for long periods of time. Even today the fields around Lake Titicaca are left untilled for as many as three, four, seven, or ten years,88 and in the Carangas district of Bolivia this period may· extend as long as twenty or even thirty years.89 Agricultural implements 'vere very primitive. The ploughshare (taklla) consisted of a piece of tough wood about a yard long, flatThe Substructure: The Agrarian Community 73 tened at one end, to which were attached two crossed sticks. The ploughman would press his foot on these sticks to drive the flat end into the soil. As Beuchat remarks, this was, in fact, a kind of spade. 9Q The laya in use among the Spanish Basques is similar to the taklla except that it is made of metal. 91 The ploughman's wife accompanied him, picking up pebbles and breaking the sods either by hand or with a curved stick, a stone, or a piece of metal.

The Indians did not cut a furrow with their taklla. As Father Cobo says, they turned up camellones 92-a picturesque word well known to everyone who has traversed the virgin forests of South America. Camellones are the deep and regular depressions beaten into the ground by the feet of animals along 'well-trodden paths; they mark the trail of animals in very much the same way as ruts mark the route of carriages. The Indian would make a line of these holes with a skill that surprised the Spaniards. 93 While they labored at these tasks, the Indians chanted songs, as, indeed, they did while performing most of their duties, regulating their movements to the rhythm of the music and breaking the ground in measured strokes in time with its beat. When they worked together, they arranged themselves in a single file-each one, if possible, in his own suyo-and drove their spades into the ground in concert with the cadences of their song. Bingham gives us a picture of this communal ploughing as he saw it near La Raya in upper Peru: The men, working in unison and in a long row, each armed with a primitive spade or "foot plough," to the handle of which footholds were lashed, would, at a signal, leap forward with a shout and plunge their spades into the turf. Facing each pair of men was a girl or woman whose duty it was to turn the clods over by hand. 94 The other agricultural labors-hilling potatoes, weeding the sown fields-were performed by hand or with a kind of hoe. 95 Only men between the ages of twenty-five and fifty were liable to agricultural service, with the exception of the orejones) curacas) and yanacuna. The children had the task of protecting the seeds by chasing away the birds. To keep wild animals away, the Indians 74 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru surrounded their fields with a hedge of quinoa, and to prevent frost they burned leaves and dry plants so that the wind would spread the smoke over the area under cultivation. 96 The ancient Peruvian husbandmen were by no means unac quainted with the different kinds of fertilizers. At first they used human excrement and animal manure, but when the Incas con quered the land along the Pacific coast, they had at their disposal the famous guano, still so highly prized today, and they exploited this with the same methodical and provident care which character ized everything they did and which is so rarely to be encountered among governments of the present day. The Chincha Islands, where these valuable deposits of bird droppings were to be found, were parceled out among the different provinces of the empire, so that no one province could establish a monopoly for its own bene fit. It was forbidden, on pain of death, to kill the birds or even to disturb them by setting foot on the islands during the season for breeding. 97 Another fertilizer much used in the seaboard provinces was fish, which was abundant all along the coast.98 Cultivation would pro ceed by sinking a number of deep pits into the ground until a layer of dampness was reached. The earth would then be buttressed with brick walls, and the sowing would be done by digging holes with a sharp-pointed stake and burying in each of them two or three grains of maize with several fish heads. 99 Such, in brief, is that agrarian system which Count de Carli and Florez Estrada regard as the best ever known, and which is in no way communistic, as so many writers have averred. loo Privately owned goods included the produce of the tupu J homes, farmyards, orchards, some domestic animals, and personal property consisting largely of household utensils. Landed property limited to the home and the adjoining garden was also known among many ancient peoples-the Romans of antiquity, the Germans, the Javanese, and the Russians. lol All these goods no doubt constituted but a "paltry estate," as Lorente says, but others of greater value could be added to them at the sovereign's 'will, as we shall shortly see.102 The Substructure: The Agrarian Community 75

8. Private Property A mong the Elite The principal source of private property was gifts from the Inca. The sovereign alone could graft upon the existing regime, which he had not altered, a new form of ownership that he him self devised. These gifts included wives, lands, llamas, clothing, and various articles of value. They were designed as a reward for services rendered-exemplary conduct in war, for instance, or the construction of important public works. lo3 Such grants might also have a political object when they were made to the curacas.104 Land thus received as a gift was not transferable. It could be handed down as a legacy, but could not be divided among the heirs. The latter possessed the property collectively, but one of them, representing the deceased, would be responsible for its ad ministration, according to Ondegardo,lo5 and would make a per capita apportionment of the produce of the land so that each descendant 'would have an equal share. This was typical of the way in which property was transmitted. 1Q6 The children of the deceased were considered as having equal rights, but this did not mean that the property itself was divided into equal parts and distributed among them. Everything was held in common. Only the produce was divided, and this had to be done even if the descendants be came so numerous that each of them received only one ear of maize. But this system in no way involved any relaxation of the rule that no one could share in the enjoyment of a product thal he had had no part in producing) save in those exceptional cases pro vided for by Inca law. Whoever was absent at the time of the sow ing had no right to any portion of the crop.l07 As the Inca was especially generous toward his orejones) who for the most part lived in or around Cuzco, it naturally followed that the closer land was to the capital, the more likely it was to be privately owned. The Incas as a class, then, had no special sym pathy for agrarian collectivism.

The Peruvian system, contrary to that proposed by Plato, re served the right of private ownership to the elite.

76 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru It is possible, however, that private property may have had another source. Among the Indians, as among the ancient Germanic peoples, whoever cleared an untilled and unappropriated piece of land had a right to the exclusive use of it.lOS But the acquisition of usucapionary rights by way of this kind of appropriation must have been rare in Peru, where there was a scarcity of arable land. The chroniclers do not speak of it. Latcham regards it as a present survival from the past.109 According to him, private ownership of land must have been instituted. for the benefit of the curacas before the Inca conquest and naturally continued to exist under the rule of these sovereigns. Property that comes from gifts is indeed private property, but in Peru it presented some special characteristics that distinguish it from quiritarian ownership under Roman law, since title to it was not absolute. At the same time, it remained very different from collectively owned property, for the lands thus held were excluded from the periodical redistributions and were handed down to the descendants of the owner.

Two pitfalls must be avoided in examining the history of property rights in Peru: that of trying at any cost to discover in the facts an application of the classical law of evolution-an orderly succession from common to collective to family and finally to individual ownership-and that of denying entirely the ex istence of such a law on the ground that it cannot be clearly or un failingly verified. On the whole, it would seem that an evolution did take place that, in its general outlines, conforms to this law, but it proceeded spasmodically and was interrupted by partial re versals.110 Valdez de la Torre, a defender of the classical thesis, points out that the right of inheritance was, more widespread in the province of Huanuco than in the provinces of Cuzco and Char cas.lll What does this mean if not that in the first district, con quered at a later date by the Incas, certain institutions had con tinued to evolve, while this evolution was suspended in the other territories, which had come earlier under the rule of the Peruvian sovereigns? It must be emphasized that there were two different lines of development: the property of the masses was socialized; the elite, on the contrary, was in the process of acquiring privately The Substructure: The Agrarian Community 77 owned holdings by way of donation. 112 The opposition between these two classes of the population was thus accentuated.

Velasco maintains on two occasions that among the Caras of Ecuador, land was privately owned and transmitted by inheritance; but he con fines himself to making this statement without offering any explana tion, and we consider this information suspect. The author has ob viously not appreciated the importance of his assertion; he is trying to establish a contrast between the Caras and the Incas. Here are the two passages: "The right of [private] ownership was usual, and houses and furnishings were transmitted by inheritance," and HIn the kingdom of Quito the lands had formerly been [privately] appropriated, and the same inequalities and miseries were to be seen there as everywhere else in the world; that is why the inhabitants adapted themselves to the new institution, not only without aversion, but even with pleasure." 113 The last part of this second sentence is manifestly misleading; for the people of Ecuador put up a desperate resistance to the Incas and were not reconciled to them even at the time of the Spanish conquest; it is therefore probable that the first part of his statement has no more validity than the last. Moreover, if property had been individually owned among the Caras, the Incas would not have made it collective, since they allowed local customs to continue as they were. The people of Quito, in consequence, would not have been obliged to "adapt them selves to a new institution."

Cevallos 114 and Suarez reiterate Velasco's assertions, but the former is generally lacking in critical acumen, and the attitude of the latter can be explained by his confusion of agrarian collectivism with the socialist organization set up by the last sovereigns of Cuzco. It seems to him that the Caras before the conquest would naturally have known nothing whatever of the socialist system established by the Incas and that, in the absence of conclusive evidence to the contrary, we must believe in the existence of private property among them. This, at least, is the sense in which we understand the word indudablemente ("un doubtedly") which appears in the statement of that eminent historian: "The oppressive communism of the Incas had not been established among the Caras, and individuals undoubtedly enjoyed the right of private ownership, possessing their own property and leaving it to their heirs." 115 Suarez draws no distinction at all between the "op pressive" socialist regimentation and the system of the agrarian com munities. The first is peculiar to the Incas; the second, on the other 78 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru hand, is to be found among all peoples. The Caras were ignorant of the one, but not of the other.

According to Restrepo, among the Chibchas of Colombia land was privately owned. Both real and personal property passed by inheritance to wives and sons; only the woodlands remained common property.116 Piedrahita adds that the sovereigns of Bogota inherited the property belonging to those of their subjects who died without legitimate heirs. 117 But these indications are inadequate, since the Spanish histo rians, as Beuchat remarks,118scarcely paid any attention to anyone ex cept the "caciques," and the right to own private property and to inherit it might well have applied only to the members of the upper class. In some parts of Chile the private ownership of land had gained a certain foothold before the Inca conquest, but it was not absolute, for the owner could sell his land only to another member of the same community. Latcham cites the curious declarations made by witnesses at a trial which took place about 1560 and which referred back to conveyances effected before the arrival of the Spaniards. These prop erty rights were maintained, like other local institutions, under the rule of the Incas.llD Taken as a whole, this Peruvian system was very complex.

The Spaniards could scarcely have been surprised at the collective land tenure they found in America, since it existed in their own country at that time; but they must sometimes have been puzzled, at least at first, by the multiplicity of "rights" that they encoun tered. A certain number of them asked themselves whether, in the last analysis, it was not the Inca who was the actual owner of all the land in the empire, retaining the right of eminent domain and ceding only usufructuary rights (domaine utile). This theory had the advantage of making it possible for the Spanish government to regard all lands as vacant property after the Inca's death and to dispose of them as it saw fit. It 'was a doctrine that would naturally have been upheld by Don Francisco de Toledo, and it is set forth explicitly in the conclusions of the report on the inquiry carried out under this viceroy.12o A great many authors have repeated it such as Anello Oliva, Beuchat, and Brehm-simply because it fitted into the framework of their conception of an autocratic state.

The Substructure: The Agrarian Community 79 Hanstein writes that "all land, all property, all produce of the soil belonged to the Inca," and C. Mead says: "Everything in the empire belonged to the Inca." 121 But other writers, such as Cunow and Trimborn, anxious to show that rights anterior to the Inca's rule continued in force and that this monarch's sole objective was to collect taxes, consider that it was the ayllus that were the true proprietors of all the soil of Peru. 122 It does seem, in the first place, that the common lands belonged to the ayllus. Father Cabo expresses the belief that the Inca owned these lands and the people enjoyed only usufructuary rights. 123 But Falcon, who was trained in the law, is positive on the subject. "Those who contend that the Inca gave and took back lands as he wished are mistaken," he writes, and a little farther on he points out that if the Indian communities had not been the owners of their lands there would have been no strife among them on this matter and no lawsuits tried before the Inca's tribunals. 124 Onde gardo likewise observes that in the early days of the Spanish con quest conflicts in regard to landed property used to break out among the various village communities (pueblos).125 Secondly, as regards the other lands, we find very clear informa tion in the account of Damian de la Bandera. According to him, the lands spoken of as the Inca's did not belong to the monarch at all, but were the property of the village communities. 126 P. Rodri guez de Aguayo declares that the tax paid to the Inca was not due to him as rent, since the soil belonged, not to him, but to the caciques and the Indians. 127 Ondegardo too asserts that the lands whose produce 'was used in paying taxes were the property of the inhabitants and declares it an injustice to give possession of these lands to the Spaniards. 128 It was only with the coming of the Europeans that the question whether the Inca enjoyed a sort of eminent domain became a live issue. So long as the sovereigns of CUlCO held sway, their property rights, if any, remained as purely theoretical as the principle in England that all land belongs to the Crown. These rights were probably never even defined; and controversies on this point are therefore very likely to prove quite futile. 129 80 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru To sum up: there were three coexistent kinds of land tenure, of which the third was by far the least considerable.

First, national (state) property: public buildings, fields, pastures, forests in districts where there was little woodland, coca planta tions, and mines. Secondly, land held collectively by the communitYJ either to be used in common (forests in thickly wooded districts, pastures) or to be cultivated by families (arable lands). When several ayllus inhabited the same village, it is probable that the forests and per haps also the pasture lands were common to all these ayllus J i.e., to the marca.lSO Thirdly, private property-houses, farmyards, etc., and lands received as gifts.lsl 9. The Agrarian Community After the Spanish Conquest At the time of the discovery of Peru, a school of thought arose in Spain that sought to have the right of eminent domain rec ognized over all territory under the jurisdiction of the Crown. Gregorio Lopez, Pedro Belluga, and Jacobo Cancer held that the sovereign had the right of expropriation without compensation; Sepulveda, Herrera, and Cevallos, applying these doctrines to the new possessions overseas, proclaimed the Peruvian soil to be the property of the King of Spain; and it was in vain that Covarruvias, Acosta, and Las Casas called attention to the fact that the Bull of Pope Alexander VI conferred upon the Spaniards the right to convert the Indians, not to despoil them of their possessions.ls2 The regulations that the King, as owner of all the land, promul gated in conformity with the terms of the Decree of November I, 1591, were nevertheless exceedingly moderate. In principle, he himself kept the domains of the Inca and delivered those of the Sun to the Catholic Church, a division that has continued to exist into our own time in the province of Puno under the name of aymas del Estado J aymas de Iglesia.lss The lands and pastures be longing to the communities 'were left alone. ls4 In fact, however, the institution of the repartimientos upset everything. The King of Spain parceled out the lands among his The Substructure: The Agrarian Community 81 subjects with the proviso that they be cultivated by the native population.

As soon as Peru was discovered, this system was replaced by that of the encomienda, by which the King ceded to privileged grantees (encomenderos), by way of reward, his rights and duties in the allotted domain. The encomienda involved real cooperation be tween the Spaniard and the native. The encomendero was obliged to guide and protect his Indians and instruct them in the Catholic faith; the latter had to work for their teacher and protector. This royal delegation of power was merely temporary. It could last only during the lifetime of the grantee and of his heir. "La encomienda era por dos vidas" ("it was valid for two lifetimes") and could be granted only to persons of merit. 135 The encomendero was obliged to live on the land that had been assigned to him; and if he mis treated the Indians, his privilege would be revoked. 136 This system, 'which was imported into Peru at the time of the conquest, was in force during the sixteenth century, in spite of two temporary abrogations, first in 1523 and then again in 1542.

In fact, however, the encomenderos took unfair advantage of their position to reduce the Indians to servitude, in spite of .. the protec tive measures taken by the Crown and the efforts of the clergy. Francisco Pizarro gave his brother Gonzalo, as a repartimiento J the entire district of Charcas, which contained the mines of Porco and Potosi. It was such abuses that gave rise to the orders of the Spanish sovereigns to reduce the excessive size of the repartimien toS.137 The tendency of the encomenderos was to take full posses sion of the land and to regard the Indians as chattels to be rented or sold along with it. 138 As a result, the communities were absorbed by the great Spanish landowners and saw their rights of ownership transformed into the right of collective use.139 But the communities continued to exist and to remain attached to their native terri tory.140 Nevertheless, it often happened that an encomendero would profit by his position to possess himself of a part of the collective domain and evict the lawful owners completely. This was the regular practice when an Indian died without heirs, and it per petuated itself in spite of the official provisions of the Decree of 82 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru July 12, 1720. In such cases, the encroachments of the white men could finally lead to the disintegration of the community.

Even more destructive was the system known as the mita) which involved obligatory personal service assigned by rotation-whence its name, which, in the Quechua language, means "turn." In prin ciple, one-seventh of the inhabitants., or sometimes one-sixth or one-fifth, could be employed by turns for a maximum period of one year.141 The mitayo would 'work in the mines, postal service, and coca plantations. He could not be employed at more than a certain distance from where he lived, and when his time was up, he had to be paid and sent home. But often he was wrongfully retained under some pretext or other, his wages would be com pletely consumed by the exorbitant price of the food supplied by his employer-what we should call today the "truck system"-and the worst consequences would ensue: an excessively high incidence of mortality in the mines, the flight of the Indians, and the depopu lation and destruction of the agrarian communities. 142 The mita fell into decay rather quickly as a result of the negli gence of the Spanish officials; yet the viceroys made constant efforts to preserve this institution, which they considered of vital im portance. In 1608, the Marquis of Montesclaros required the cor regidors to deliver to the chief of each group of mitayos who were leaving their district a signed list of its members so that they could be kept under surveillance.

In spite of everything, however, the community continued to exist under the domination of the Spaniards, and the viceroy Fran~ cisco de Toledo officially recognized it in 1581.143 It was the RepUblic of Peru that dealt the Indian system its hardest blows. A pronounced trend toward individualism made its appearance at the time of the War for Independence, and com munal associations were abolished by Bolivar in the decrees of April 8, 1824 and July 4, 1825, although the great South American statesman was not unaware of the dangers involved in such a measure. Abruptly thrust upon his own with no one to protect him, improvident and dazzled by his good fortune, the native was an easy prey for the foreign speculator. All experience with the divid ing up of land has demonstrated that, side by side with the prudent The Substructure: The Agrarian Community 83 and the energetic, who see in the possession of property a motive for exertion and a means of progress, there are the weak, the in dolent, the incompetent, who sell their portions and, once detached from the soil, drift through life like boats that have slipped their moorings. Private property, like liberty, requires an apprentice ship and can bring only disasterto people who are not ready for it. 144 Accordingly, Bolivar limited the Indians' property rights by forbidding them to sell their lands for a period of twenty-five years -a measure similar to that which the French, after some bitter experiences in Algeria, have applied in Morocco. 145 But the Peru vians did not understand how prudent the Liberator's provisions were. A law of March 31, 1828, declared that the Indians who knew how to read and write might sell their lands freely, and the Civil Code of 1852 established quiritarian ownership and the equal division of inherited estates. Abuses inevitably followed, giving rise to complaints and even to threats of rebellion. It must be admitted that in this respect the viceroys of Spain had been im measurably wiser than the republican assemblies of Peru.

Happily, the power of tradition is so strong in South America that agrarian communities have continued to exist in spite of the statutes that have condemned them to annihilation. At the end of the nineteenth century the law persisted in ignoring these associa tions, but at least the government was no longer bent on destroy ing them. It has thus been possible for the Indians themselves to develop a kind of common law based on custom,· which jurists have studied. The family has remained an enterprise of collective labor in which the children, even after they come of age, continue to be dependent upon the father so long as they are unmarried. Little by little, meanwhile, theories have had to give way before facts. The comunidades de indigenas (native communities) have had the benefit of favorable decisions handed down by the Supreme Court (March 31, 1909; July 1, 1911; April 2, 1912; December 6, 1917; and May 1, 1918). Special laws (Article 235 of the Water Code) have been passed on their behalf, and, finally, Article 58 of the Constitution of 1920 recognized their existence, and Article 41 declared that their property is imprescriptible. 146 Since then 84 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru there have been a number of new provisions that concern these communities: a decree of July 24, 1925, prescribed the surveying of all lands collectively owned; a decree of August 28 of the same year established an official register of the communities; and a decree of January 8, 1926, regulated the irrigation of lands belong ing to these associations. 147 No law at that time provided for the legal representation of the communities. An action against a community had to be directed against all those who composed it, and no member could make a contract on the others' account; for example, no one could obtain a loan by mortgaging the common land. Consequently, when dis agreements arose among the members of the community, the group found itself paralyzed, and internecine quarrels broke out by which strangers tried to profit in order to gain possession of the parcels of land. 14s In complete reaction against the policy previously followed, the Constitution of March 29, 1933, confers legal existence and jurid ical personality upon the communities, guarantees the integrity of community property, and declares it imprescriptible and inalien able. It empowers the state to procure lands for communities that do not have enough to meet their needs and to expropriate private property for this purpose after payment of due compensation. By the terms of the Civil Code of August 30, 1936, elected delegates who can read and write are empowered to represent the groUp.149 We are thus witnessing a curious~ reversion of the Peruvian econ omy to its pristine form.

While preserving its own character, the community has under gone a certain internal evolution by reason of the extension of the principle of free elections.1.50 However, in the region of Casta today it is under the direction of a council of elders, who delegate their powers to those members of the community that have shown out standing intelligence. Most· often it is the elected authorities who allot the lands every year; and sometimes they reserve certain por tions for new purposes, as, for example, to cover the expenses of legal actions. The parcels allotted are not always equal, the most considerable being assigned to those among the joint owners who have rendered service to the community. Every piece of land is The Substructure: The Agrarian Community 85 cultivated by the head of a family, assisted by his wife and children and, if need be, by his neighbors. Very often, when the distribution is being made, the Indian will ask to cultivate the same lot as was previously assigned to him, thereby building up a sort of usufruct for life, which can sometimes be transmitted to his heirs; but the community itselfalwaysreservesthe right of ownership.

The communities in Peru have been urged to inscribe them selves in a special register, and a survey of them has been planned, but in 1938, only six hundred and fifty such associations were in scribed in the official report of the Department of Native Affairs (created by a law of June 11, 1937, in the Ministry of Public Health, Labor, and Social Insurance). Their actual number is esti mated at anywhere from two thousand to forty-five hundred. 151 In Bolivia, the communities were abolished several times, but the law remained a dead letter in many of the districts. McBride reckons that sixty-seven per cent of the Indians of the high plateaus of that country-that is to say, in the five provinces of La Paz, PotosI, Oruro, Cochabamba, and Chuquisaca-live in such com munities and that they cultivate one-twentieth of the territory of the republic. 152 On the shores of Lake Ti ticaca, in the Aymara region, the head of a family hands down his allotment of land to his heirs, who keep it undivided. 153 At Susques, in the Atacama area, the land is the property of the community, but this may be a creation of the Jesuits. 154 Bande lier reports that every Indian family of Titicaca Island receives from the cacique a plot of land which he cultivates for a year and which is then left to lie fallow for several years.155 McBride notes the existence of communities that cultivate the soil in common to the northwest of Lake Titicaca; and at La Collana, near La Paz, in a location difficult of access, he cites a group whose system of land tenure is identical with the one that we have just been studying: pastures held in common and the periodic redistribution of parcels suitable forcultivation. 156 Ac cording to Tello and Miranda, the tupu is now a family heritage in the region of Casta. The repair of irrigation ditches is a community project. Dressed in festive array, with a band to lead them, the inhabi tants assemble for work, and their labors are punctuated by songs and dances. 157 In the district of Coporaque, along the Apurimac River, the 86 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru lands are redistributed every five, eight, ten, or twelve years, accord ing to their quality.15SIn brief, we find on the plateau a whole series of different forms of tenure, corresponding to different stages of devel opment ranging all the way from collectivism to individualism. 159 Does this mean that the system of agrarian communities is to be considered superior to any other? By no means. Often in Peru, the lands belonging to collectives are less well cultivated than those in private hands. 160 The proverb, "Property in common is property doomed," is true everywhere. Having little interest in the construction of terraces or the digging of irrigation ditches by which others will benefit, the temporary possessors do not im prove the parcels of land they receive. The communal system greatly encourages the natural indolence of the natives. It main tains a part of the population in idleness while hands are needed in South American industry. This consequence is all the more serious in that those Indians who by their industry and thrift do succeed in laying by a little capital are obliged to bear the ex penses of the religious festivals. 161 Deprived of the stimulus of per sonal interest, the communities frequently remain backward and incapable of adopting modern agricultural methods and they have taken hold particularly in areas where the soil is poor, in the puna.

Yet these arguments do not justify us in concluding that private property is superior to collective ownership in the South American countries, for we have to take into account the mentality of the inhabitants. The Indians who are left on their own do not know how to protect themselves, and collective ownership of land has the great advantage of keeping them from sinking into the condi tion of a proletariat. It is the only thing capable of arresting the encroachments and usurpations of the white men, and especially of the mestizos, who are always ready to take advantage of the inex perience and apathy of the native to despoil him of his patch of land. 162 Collective ownership is a guarantee of life and inde pendence for the peasant of the Andean plateau. "The Indian question in Peru," says Means, "is that of the native commu nity." 163 All authors realize that the community system has its dis advantages I but they all acknowledge that it would be unwise to The Substructure: The Agrarian Community 87 suppress it outright and that the Spanish viceroys 'were well ad vised in preserving it.164 One is tempted to repeat, apropos of Peru, what Sir Henry Sumner Maine said of the village community of British India: "Conquests and revolutions seem to have swept over it without disturbing or displacing it, and the most beneficent sys tems of government in India have always been those which have recognised it as the basis of administration." 165 The Incas acted no differently, but the problem did not present itself in the same way in their time. The disadvantages of collective ownership-the premium placed on laziness, the exhaustion of the soil-did not exist in an era when work was compulsory and strictly supervised; they are the results of a regime of freedom.

Let us recognize, then, the wisdom of the agrarian policy of the ancient rulers of Peru. It is in vain that eunow tries to dim the Incas' glory by explaining that the foundations of their much acclaimed organization had been laid before their day. On the contrary, it is greatly to their credit that they preserved within the framework of an empire institutions that had been established in parochial societies. But something more than these survivals from an earlier day remains to be studied in the Peruvian system.166 6 The Superstructure: State Socialism The essence of the state is to be the power of reason expressed by law, and not of the perverse impulses of individual caprice. -Dupont-White, L'ndividu et I'etat, Introd. It is because of the existence of these agrarian communities that a -great many authors have chosen the term "socialist" to describe the Inca empire. No doubt the community, as organized and maintained, does appear to be a collectivist association, since it involved the common ownership of the means of production; but it was the resultant of a long, natural evolution, the origin of which is lost in prehistory. It was a spontaneous development, and not a reasoned creation; a system to which man yielded, not one that he deliberately willed.