Introduction "Man has no nature but (...) history"; very significant sentence of who par excellence can be considered the most influential Spanish philosopher of the 20th century. And it is that the accent put by Ortega y Gasset in the always elusive meditation on the past persuades us to point out core aspects concerning a somewhat curious criminal figure if we listen to it from our westernized perspective, but which, on the other hand, was wisely regulated. in a law founded on custom, as was the Inca, through proverbs, whose presence can still be verified today in many places in this part of the continent.}
Labour power in the Inca Empire The labor force was, without a doubt, the referent of wealth par excellence in a society whose economy was based mainly on agriculture, livestock and mining. Consequently, the fact of assigning the father of the family a portion of land for each child born was not so much estimated for the land itself, but for the labor force that one more member represented in the production process. Hence the strict regulation built around work, which, in turn, was carried out subject to a collective regime, which not only indicated – as Franklin Pease G. Y. rightly points out – the participation of the entire ayllu community, but also this participation was simultaneous[1]. In addition to this, work was compulsory, which is why the inhabitants of Tahuantisuyo had some work to do, even when their action seemed useless. In this regard, the historian María Rosworowski points out that in some extremely poor valleys where production was extremely scarce, the Inca established that they be taxed with joints of live lice[2], both to ensure hygiene in the town and to keep people busy in some way. task. In this sense, as Villavicencio rightly mentions, leisure, vagrancy, unemployment, were not known in the society of the Incas. The fact of birth implied certain rights, but above all the duty to work. Therefore, everyone worked, from the Inca to those in the lowest social strata, with the sole exception of children, the sick and the elderly. Although in this last sense, Guamán Poma partially differs, insofar as he mentions that children were assigned tasks appropriate to their age, such as grazing, spinning, gathering flowers, etc. And for the older ones, many others such as raising small animals or weaving ropes. Those who suffered from some physical or psychological defect were entrusted with tasks based on the abilities they possessed (weaving, taking care of houses, etc.). Finally, the work showed its reciprocal nature through two modalities, which, for the purposes of The present gloss, it is only necessary to mention, the mitta and the minga, is manifested in the solidarity work between the members of the ayllu, and that in the work that was carried out in the lands of the Sun and the Inca.
Idleness as a serious crime Now, having traced, in broad strokes, the characteristics that work had in Tahuantinsuyo, it is our desire to present the reasons why we believe that idleness was considered a crime, so serious that it ultimately deserved capital punishment. .The power of Cusco began its accelerated expansion, beyond the valley in which it initially settled, in the first half of the fifteenth century, with the advent of the Inca Pachacutec, winner of the Chancas. This process merited the assistance of an administrative, religious and military apparatus, which, in turn, were sustained by the product of the population's workforce. In other words, the tasks of conquest required dairy farms stocked with food, clothing and weapons for the armies, or in their case with sumptuous articles, if the annexation of some new territory to Tahuantinsuyo was carried out peacefully through reciprocity, through public ceremonies in which, in addition to eating and drinking, the Inca, together with the conquered lords, gave them women and luxury items, the fruit of the work of the artisans who were transferred to Cusco from different regions of the nascent State. Another important aspect is the one of the redistribution that, of the fruits of the work in the lands of the Inca, was made in favor of the towns that suffered from famines, product of natural phenomena such as droughts or floods of the cultivated land. To this, perhaps it is necessary to add that the officials dedicated to the cult fulfilled an ideological task of domination, since we must not forget that the one who wore the mascaipacha on the person chosen for the government was the Vila Oma, that is, the high priest, as a sign divine approval of the new ruler. All these officials were supported by the production of the lands of the Sun. What has been said up to this point leads us to maintain that the workforce of the population was the primary source of support for the power of Cusco, from which we can only deduce the importance of keeping people busy, even when it is in tasks that do not deserve, at first glance, the greatest importance; however, such arguments in no way dent the constructive character of the maxim that ordered the inhabitants to move away from idleness, which is, after all, the mother of all vices, and in itself lies its consideration as a crime in ancient Peru. .
How was idleness punished? Next, we only have to deal with the sanctions derived from the compulsory nature of the work. According to Murúa, three types of punishment were applied:in the first degree, public punishment, which could be carried out through a public reprimand, then, torture, and finally the death penalty in cases of recidivism, or if it was the son of some principal lord who did not want to learn a trade. The severity that betrays the sentence applied in this last case has to do with the special position of the accused, since being part of the ruling class he had, with greater reason, to be solicitous in the fulfillment of some task as an example for the governed. Capital punishment was carried out by hanging the condemned man by his feet until he died (also applied to adulterous women), and if she was a noblewoman, she was beheaded, as this was considered the most honorable of punishments, and could also be commuted. of the same for life imprisonment. However, since he was a non-customary lazy person, corporal punishment was applied to him, such as whipping or cutting of the hindquarters of his fingers. Finally, we must say that, in addition to our great fondness for legal historiography, to the reflection on idleness, the considerations that have been made about it through the legislation against vagrancy that came to light in the first years of the last century, as a result of the explosive and "ephemeral" influence of criminological positivism, which Today it swarms in our environment disguised as a meek lamb, the same one that postulated the repression of vagrancy as a preventive measure to combat crime, a circumstance that in many cases gave rise to an extreme performance of the secondary criminalization of which the professor speaks Zaffaroni in his monumental Manual and that, in turn, was denounced by the no less illustrious Mariátegui. However, such reflections will be the subject of a future work, if the director of the magazine allows it.
Taken from Contranatura, the magazine. Faculty of Law of the National University of Arequipa, year 1, no. 2, August 2009.
[1] Pease G.Y., Franklin. “Approach to crime among the Incas”, in Law, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, no. 29, Lima, 1971, p. 57.
[2] Rostworowski, Maria. Pachacutec. Inca Yupanqui, Complete Works I, First Edition, IEP, Lima, 2001, p. 206.