![[Pasted image 20250201170759.png]] The Inca people worshipped their lord who, as a member of a semi-divine ruling class, had absolute authority over every aspect of life. Much like feudal lords in Europe at the time, the elite class lived off the labor of peasants, accumulating vast wealth that that they hoarded believing it would accompany them as they went, mummified, into the next life. The Inca farmed corn, beans, squash, quinoa (a grain cultivated for its seeds), and the indigenous potato on terraced land they hacked from the steep Andes mountains. Farmers in the [Altiplano](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altiplano), the high Andean plateau, developed potatoes over 9,000 years ago and the village markets of Peru and Bolivia are still crowded with varieties of potatoes the rest of the world has never seen. Peasants were allowed to keep only one-third of their crops to feed their families. The Inca ruler required a third, and the final  third was set aside in a kind of welfare system for those unable to work. Huge storehouses were filled with food for times of need. Each peasant also worked for the Inca society a number of days per month on public works projects, in a labor requirement known as the [[Mita]]. In return, the Inca overlord provided laws, protection, and relief in times of famine. ![[Pasted image 20250201170901.png]] --- Next: [[1.14 Machu Picchu]] Back: [[1.12 The Inca]]