The Incas Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ayllu

Common citizens in the Inca Empire were grouped into 'ayllus' or family-based communities with several families living and working together. They spent most of their time in the 'ayllu' and were only allowed to leave under two circumstances. They could leave to join the army in times of war and when they were called upon for their 'mita'. The 'mita' was their obligation to work a certain numbers of days each year on construction projects for the empire or to work in the mines.

Since the Incas placed importance on the collective, the 'ayllu' was very important. One example of this was the marriage celebration. Each 'ayllu' held one marriage celebration a year where everyone who was getting married that year did so at the same time, as a group.

Answer: Quechua

Quechua is also called 'Runasimi', meaning 'people's language'. As the Incas established their empire, many of the conquered peoples would learn or begin to speak Quechua, but many of them continued to speak their own languages as well. There are several dialects of Quechua still spoken in the Andes region of South America, and it has the most native speakers of any of the indigenous languages still present in the Americas.

Answer: Inca

We use the word 'Incas' today to refer to the members of the civilization, but the word was only used to refer to the members of the royal family. They believed that the royal family was descended from the sun god, Inti. The Incas referred to their empire as 'Tahuatinsuyu', meaning 'Land of the four parts', which referred to the four main divisions of the empire.

Answer: Coya

The Incas believed that Inti, the Sun, took pity on primitive man and sent one of his sons and one of his daughters to civilize them and teach them. These two were Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo and they were considered to be the ancestors of the ruling family. Since the Incas believed that the royal family were descendants of the sun, they needed to keep the line pure. An emperor might have many concubines, but his official wife was called the 'Coya', and she would be one of his sisters.

When it came time to pick a successor to the throne, he would pick one of the sons he had with the 'Coya'.

Incest was not normally permitted, but this exception was allowed to keep the bloodline pure. Regular citizens were only allowed to have one wife.

Answer: Puric

The 'puric' was an ordinary citizen. Since Inca society placed more emphasis on the collective well-being instead of the individual, 'purics' didn't have much freedom and spent most of their time in the 'ayllu'. They were given a small parcel of land to cultivate for their family, but their first obligation was to the community. If a man didn't find a wife by the time he turned twenty, then the other members of the 'ayllu' would choose one for him.

The Incas had a rigid social structure, based on a system of ten. Every ten 'purics' had one overseer, and each ten overseers had a boss called a 'curaca', which was usually a member of the nobility. This pattern continued up to the provincial governor. The empire itself was divided into four groups of provinces, whose leaders answered only to the emperor himself.

Answer: Cusco

When the sun god, Inti, sent his children to lead the Incas, he gave them a golden staff and instructed them to look for a place where the staff would sink into the ground with ease. This would indicate where they should establish their court. According to the Incas, they found this place in the valley where Cusco was built. Cusco was built in the 13th century and was the capital until the conquest of the Incas by the Spanish in the 16th century.

Answer: Chasqui

One of the greatest accomplishments of the Inca Empire was the development of an efficient road system and communication network. The road system consisted of two different roads than ran parallel along the empire, one on the coast and one in the mountains.

The roads would have 'tampus', or supply stations, set up along the road which provided food and water to anyone traveling on official business for the empire. A 'chasqui' would run only run for about half a mile before handing off any messages to the 'chasqui' at the next 'tampu', which meant that news and information could travel 250 miles in one day!

Answer: Quipu

We know that 'quipus' were used for record keeping, but the ability to read them has been lost. 'Quipus' were a system of knots on a set of strings that would represent some type of information. The placement of the knots on the strings, the size of the knots, and the color of the string would represent different pieces of information.

Answer: Amauta

The Incas did not have a written language, but they did communicate through 'quipus' as well as through art. According to the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, the 'amautas' had great intellectual ability and were capable of composing theatrical works to be presented on religious days and at celebrations.

These works displayed military victories and triumphs, and they could be tragedies or comedies. The 'amautas' also served as teachers to the noble children. They would instruct them on religious and moral subjects, as well as many other subjects, like math, science, history, and art.

Answer: Machu Picchu

One of the Incas' most notable achievements was their architecture. They were able to perfectly place together large stones without the use of mortar. Machu Picchu is perhaps the most famous and well-preserved example of Inca architecture. It was built in the mid-15th century, but it had been abandoned before the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire not even a full century later.

There have been several theories as to its exact purpose, but one of the more agreed upon is that it was built as a royal estate.

Another possible theory is that it was a military fortress. It is remote and almost inaccessible as it sits high in the mountains at an altitude of about 2,000 feet.