Why
Blame Smallpox?
The Death of the Inca Huayna Capac and the Demographic Destruction of
Tawantinsuyu (Ancient
Robert
McCaa, Aleta Nimlos, and Teodoro Hampe Martínez
For a pdf version of this paper click here
Será
hombre como de cuarenta años, de mediana estatura, moderno
y con unas pecas de viruelas en la cara…
—description of Inca Titu Cusi Yupanqui, 18 June1565[1]
Introduction
Smallpox is
widely blamed for the death of the Inca Huayna Capac and blamed as well for the
enormous demographic catastrophe which enveloped Ancient Peru (Tawantinsuyu). The historical canon now teaches that
smallpox ravaged this virgin soil population before 1530, that is, before
Francisco Pizarro and his band of adventurers established a base on the South
American continent.[2] Nevertheless the documentary evidence for the
existence of a smallpox epidemic in this region before 1558 is both thin and
contradictory. In contrast to
We advocate a
more skeptical approach to assessing the causes of both the Inca’s death and
the demographic destruction of Tawantinsuyu.
While the continued scrutiny of early colonial chronicles may yet
provide conclusive evidence, we urge historians to take greater account of a
wider-range of unconventional sources, such as linguistic evidence from early
Quechua dictionaries, lessons learned from the World Health Organization’s
global campaign to eradicate smallpox, physical descriptions of native peoples,
and the examination of mummies for signs of smallpox, or the lack thereof. As in the epigraph, early descriptions of
native peoples, which remark on the presence of pockmarks, may settle the
question regarding the first appearance of the dreaded disease in the
From our
re-examination of early chronicles (see table 1), linguistic evidence in three
early dictionaries (table 3), physical descriptions of pock marked native
peoples (or the lack thereof before 1558), we conclude that, as in the
Caribbean also in the Andean region, the preponderance of the evidence points
to a late introduction of smallpox—a quarter center after initial contact (in 1518
and 1558, respectively), after an enormous demographic devastation had already
occurred.[3] In
The Death of Huayna Capac
The Inca Huayna
Capac’s sudden death, at the peak of his wealth and power, is unique because no
other Inca ruler was reported to have died so mysteriously. The demise of
Huayna Capac is quite remarkable. Of all
the great Incas only his is told with such an abundance of details, although
the evidence is rather scanty and conflicting when compared with the death of
the Aztec ruler Cuitlahuatzin, whose death from smallpox is unquestionable.[5] As was customary for Inca rulers, Huayna
Capac’s body was embalmed on the spot with the heart and other internal organs
removed. The mummy was dressed in
precious mantles and adorned with feathers and gold, before being conducted on
a litter to
Francisco Pizarro and his troop first received
word of Huayna Capac’s death around October 1531 while encamped on the
The most
important early chroniclers writing on the decades of conquest agree that
Huayna Capac died suddenly of a mysterious illness, but there is remarkable
uncertainty regarding the cause or symptoms.
According to our count, smallpox is the explanation given by six of the
seventeen chroniclers who state one or more causes (see Table 1). Fever is favored by three, measles by two, severe
rash or inflammation of the skin by two, and one each writes of boils, “perlesía”,
“romadizo”, pain, or melancholy.
Clearly Huayna Capac’s death was considered important to most
chroniclers, but the exact cause or symptoms were puzzling. Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, Martín
de Murúa and the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega constrain their descriptions of the
cause with phrases such as “cuentan que”,
“unos dicen … otros dicen”, and “aunque otros dicen”. Were chroniclers who used this sort of phrasing seeking
to caution the reader that the author was unable to judge and instead was
relying on hearsay?
Table 1 near here (20 early
chronicles)
Interpreting the chronicles
The
linguistic challenge faced by the chroniclers, all of whom were “cristianos” writing in Spanish was considerable, even though
native quipucamayocs, amautas, and relatives of the Incas were
claimed as informants. Illness and pestilence was well known in Ancient
Peru. Guaman Poma, for example, explains
that September was the month for getting rid of “pestilencias y enfermedades”,
“when all the houses and streets were flooded with water and cleaned throughout
the kingdom” (p. 255). The author’s
mother tongue was Quechua and his 1200 page manuscript incorporates an
extensive Quechua vocabulary, including several terms regarding illness (cf. p.
255, “oncuy”, “uncuy”, “oncoy”, etc.)/
The earliest testimony regarding the death of Huayna Capac is that of
the Inca Atahualpa himself, as related by Francisco de Xerez, who described
Huayna Capac as dying of “aquella enfermedad” (see Table 1). It is a pity that Xerez allowed this
ill-defined demonstrative pronoun to enter the record.
One of the most-trustworthy early chroniclers, Juan de Betanzos, was
married to a niece and adopted daughter of the Inca Huayna Capac.[9] Betanzos’ opus, which attributes the Inca’s
death to “una sarna y lepra”, was completed in 1552 but not published in its
entirety, including the chapter on Huayna Capac’s death, until 1987. Historians only recently gained the
opportunity to take into account the complete narrative. Given the early date of the chronicle, its
reliance on the Inca’s immediate family as informants, and the author’s
extraordinary zeal for knowledge of the Inca past, one might expect that his
testimony that the Inca died of “una sarna y lepra” might have called for a
re-assessment of the smallpox thesis.
Unfortunately this has not been the case. Cook argues that “sarna” could be mistaken
for smallpox, and that Betanzos’ text “parallels” that of the widely cited
Cieza de Leon (Cook 1998:76-7). To permit readers to examine the narrative
directly, we quote Betanzos’ text in extenso in Appendix B. The key phrase is reads (p. 200):
“...le dio una enfermedad la cual enfermedad le quitó el
juicio y entendimiento y dióle una sarna y lepra que le puso muy debilitado...”
Note that the chronicler uses here the indefinite article “una” with respect to
“sarna”. This connotes a nonspecific nature or vagueness of identity, as
opposed to the use of the very specific “la” in connection with the words sarna
and lepra. Is the author using
lepra as an adjective to describe the cutaneous eruptions of smallpox, measles,
typhus, verruga, or other disease involving eruptions of the skin? Or is he attempting to describe something
like sarna and lepra, a severe inflammation of the skin, but not smallpox,
measles or any other disease common to the vocabulary of a mid-16th
century Spanish writer? Covarrubias defines lepra as
“un género de sarna que cubre el cuerpo” and sarna as “una especie de
lepra”. He also writes that there are
many types of lepra that covers the skin with ugly scabs or scale.
It is significant that Lastres, in 1951 and
then again in 1954, stated that he was “inclined” to think smallpox was the
cause of Huayna Capac’s death.[10]
However, as we know, he was unable to consult Betanzos’s chronicle for it was
first published three decades later.
Chronicles by Pablos or Ortiguera came later as well. In the 1950s, Lastres’ research and writing
on the subject peaked. He discussed the
smallpox thesis in three different books.
Rarely cited, his last, our
favorite, was published in 1957. Here (La
Salud Pública y la Prevención de la Viruela en el Perú.
“Aunque hay algunos datos que
hacen presumir que la epidemia que diezmó los ejércitos del Emperador indio
Huayna Cápac fuera de viruela como lo hemos consignado en un trabajo anterior
(1) sin embargo, dadas las interrogantes que se ciernen sobre este episodio
epidemiológico, prefiere pasarlo por alto, y comenzar el estudio [de viruelas]
desde la época de la llegada de los españoles en 1532.
As table 2 shows, only Guerra, writing four
decades later, examined more accounts than Lastres, but even so the most
prolific writer on the subject did not consider three chronicles, two of which
propose alternative explanations:
Borregán (perlesía), Pablos (lepra incurable), or Ortiguera (viruelas).
Pedro Cieza
de León is the favorite source for modern historians who embrace the smallpox
hypothesis, but here too there is a new edition, from a manuscript in the
Vatican Library, discovered and transcribed in 1985 by editor Francesca
Cantú. The key phrase reads:
Pues, estando Guaynacapa en el
Quito con grandes conpañas de jentes que tenía y los demás señores de su
tierra… quentan que vino una gran pestilençia de viruelas tan contajiosa que
murieron más de dozientas mill ánimas en todas las comarcas, porque fue
general; y dándole a él el mal no fue parte todo lo dicho para librarlo de la
muerte, porquel gran Dios no era dello servido.[11]
No historian has made much of the fact that Cieza de León prefaces his
statement as to cause of death with the phrase “quentan que”. Indeed Cieza de León is not alone in hedging
his remarks, as noted above. A
comprehensive evaluation of the narratives on the cause of death of Huayna
Capac should take into account such cautionary expressions.
Some decades later, in his 1582 history of the
city of Cuenca and the province of Quito, Padre Hernando Pablos ―
condensing the popular versions in the very region where the final illness of
Huayna Capac broke out ― affirmed that there occurred a “pestilencia muy
grande en que murieron innumerable gente de un sarampión, que se abrían todos
de una lepra incurable, de la cual murió este señor Guaina Capac, al cual
salaron y llevaron al Cuzco a enterrar…” (Pablos, 1995: 271). What stands out
in the excerpt is the use of the indefinite article to describe lepra.
Note also that measles cannot be confused with “leprosy”, which clearly
at this time included a variety of ailments other than the flesh-eating
disease.
In the 1630 Memorial de las historias
Deconstructing
the auguries and portents as Christian myth represented in this and other
chronicles is beyond the scope of this paper, yet the frequency with which
native portents are cited by chroniclers is striking. As early as 1544, a text by Vaca de Castro
already has the Inca Huayna Capac foreseeing harsh times:
“Guaina Capac Inga en esta pacificacion y gobierno de Quito, entraron en la tierra los
primeros cristianos, primeros descubridores, con el marques don Francisco
Pizarro, que fueron los trece de la isla
del Gallo... Guaina Capac Inga, sabido de cómo habían entrado los
cristianos en la tierra y le dieron noticia déllos, luego dijo que había de
haber grande [sic] trabajo en la tierra y grandes novedades; y al tiempo que se
estaba muriendo de la pestilencia de las viruelas que fué el año siguiente...”[13]
Vaca de Castro
was also the first chronicler to state that smallpox was the cause of Huayna
Capac’s death. Later, Pedro Pizarro
recounted Huayna Capac’s vision of dwarfs, preceding the smallpox attack:
Pues estando en esta obra dio entre
ellos una enfermedad de viruelas, nunca entre ellos vista, la cual mató muchos
indios; y estando Guainacapa encerrado en sus ayunos que acostumbraban hacer,
que era estar solos en un aposento y no llegar a mujer, no comer sal ni ají en
lo que les guisaban, ni beber chicha (estaban de esta manera nueve días; otras
veces, tres), pues estando Guainacápac en este ayuno, dicen que le entraron
tres indios nunca vistos, muy pequeños como enanos, adonde él estaba, y le
dijeron: ‘Inga, venímoste a llamar’, y como él vido esta visión y esto que le
dijeron, dio voces a los suyos, y entrando que entraron, desaparecieron estos
tres ya dichos, que no les vió nadie salvo el Guaina Capa, y a los suyos dijo:
“¿Qué es de esos enanos que me vinieron a llamar?” Respondiéronle: “No los hemos visto.” Entonces dijo el Guaina Capa: “Morir tengo”,
y luego enfermó del mal de las viruelas.
Pues estando así muy enfermo, despacharon mensajeros a Pachacama… ¿qué
harían para la salud de Guainacapa?, y los hechiceros que hablaban con el
demonio, lo preguntaron a su ídolo, y el demonio habló en el ídolo y les dijo
que lo sacasen al sol y luego sanaría.
Pues haciéndolo ansí fué a la contra, que en poniéndole al sol murió
este Guainacapa… y había diez años que era muerto cuando entramos en esta
tierra…”[14]
Royal officials
such as Vaca de Castro and relatives of the initial band of conquistadores,
such as Pedro Pizarro, had ample reason to blame smallpox for the death of
Huayna Capac and the destruction of the native populations. Every Indian who died of smallpox was one
less death to be blamed on the conquistadores or government officials. Even native chroniclers, such as Juan de
Santa Cruz Pachacuti Salcamayhua, relied upon the trope of sorcerers and seers
to explain the Inca’s defeat:
…en donde estando caminando el ynga
da Rayos a los pies y de alli buelbe pª quito teniendo por mal aguero y qdo yba
hazia la mar con su campo se vido a media anoche vesiblemte çercado de millon
de millon de hombres y no sab<ia>en [ni supieron] quien fueron a esto <dizen
que> dixo que eran almas de los bibos q dios abia mostrado significando q
<a> abian de morir en la pestelençia tantos los quales almas dizen que
venian contra el ynga de que el ynga entiende q era su enemigo y assi toca
armas de aRebato y de alli buelbe a quito con su campo y haze fiesta de capac
raimi solemnisandole y assi a oras de comer llega vn mensajero de manta negro
el qual bessa al ynga con gran Reuerençia y le da vn putti o cajuela tapado y
con llabe y el ynga mda [al mismo ynº] que abra el qual dize que perdone
deziendo q el hazedor le mandaua el abrir a solo el ynga y visto por el ynga La
razon le abre la cajilla y de alli sale como maripossas o papelillos bolando o
esparçiendo hasta desaparesçer el qual abia sido pestelençia de sarampion y
assi dentro de dos dias muere el general mihic naca mayta con otros muchos
capitanes todos Las caras llenos de caracha y visto por el ynga mda hazer vna
cassa de piedra pª esconderse y despues se esconde en ella tapandose con la
misma piedra y alli muere y al cabo de ocho dias saca caçi medio podrido y los
embalssama y trae al cuzco En andas como si fuera bibo y bien bestido y armado
y en la mano con su ttopa yauri o suntor paucar y mete en el cuzco con gran
fiesta… Por la gente al Cuerpo muerto de guayna capac hazia Reueª y despues de
aber metido en la sepultura de sus passados pregona el llanto general por su
muerte q hasta entonçes no abia nueba de su muerte…”[15]
Chroniclers may also have blamed smallpox for the death of Huayna Capac
and the destruction of the native peoples, as a readily believable and wholly
excusable cause, one that would resonate with Christian readers. With
apparent frustration, Lastres observed in 1954 (p. 26):
Hay que convenir en que es
materialmente imposible hacer diagnósticos retrospectivos muy precisos, porque
los cronistas son gente empírica y dan descripciones muy arbitrarias. Además, que todos ellos escriben de oídas y
muchos repiten lo que dijeron los primeros narradores.
Would Lastres have been less “inclined” to
embrace the smallpox hypothesis if he had examined more of the evidence? Did his “inclination” take into account the
ominous “cuentan que” or “se dicen” preceding several ascriptions?
A symptomatic picture of the disease that caused the death of the Inca
Huayna Capac emerges. He
became ill in the region of Tomebamba, suffered from chills and fever and
became delirious. His skin broke out
with itchy eruptions that became swollen and pustular. They eventually produced scabs. His illness
progressed swiftly, and as it did, at some point, the Inca became unable to
move. Lastres
(1954: 21) points out that “éste tuvo un proceso febril precedido de
escalofríos y que lluego sobrevinieron síntomas de excitación psíquica,
delirio, coma y muerte...” What we cannot do with any certainty is to
ascribe a cause of death. Moreover, if
we are not to be entrapped by a creationist myth, we must consider the
possibility of a disease that may have gone extinct.
Discrepancies
among the sources should caution historians from facile spinning of
inconsistencies in the historical record or, indeed, of cherry-picking only
those sources that agree with the smallpox hypothesis (see Table 2). While no modern historian asserts flatly that
Huayna Capac died of smallpox—on the contrary, most state that their conclusion
is only an “inclination” (Lastres 1954) or “best guess” (Crosby 1972:52)—those
who emphasize the primacy of virgin soil epidemics proceed to write their story
as though the issue was incontrovertible.[16] Grand narratives, such as William McNeill’s Plagues
and Peoples and Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel, sweep over
the ambiguities.[17]
A
linguistic reassessment
Before 1558,
when both Spanish and Quechua speakers experienced an outbreak of smallpox in
common, translating from the Quechua to Spanish was particularly
uncertain. The smallpox epidemic of
1558-9 was a significant linguistic event because from that time Spanish and
Quechua speakers could discuss the disease based on mutual experience. In 1954,
the distinguished Peruvian medical historian, Juan B. Lastres, observed that
the first Quechua dictionary, published in 1560, the Lexicon of P.
Domingo de Santo Tomas, had no word for smallpox—and therefore, Lastres
concluded, smallpox had not existed in ancient Peru. Lastres observed that finally in 1608 Fray
Diego Gonzalez Holguín’s dictionary distinguished smallpox (huchuy muru uncoy)
from measles (hutun muru uncoy). Lastres
explained that in both dictionaries “muru” carried the meaning of round
spot (such as “muru cauallo” for spotted horse). Lastres concluded his linguistic
analysis, as follows:
En realidad
la voz ‘muru’, en los
diccionarios quechuas, se traduce como ‘mancha redondeada’; y el proceso
llamado en quechua “muru onccoy” sería, pues, ‘enfermedad de mancha’,
una erupción cutánea caracterizada por manchas redondas que radican en la piel
puede representar variados procesos, como viruela, sarampión, tifus
exantemático, la misma verruga, o aún procesos eczematosos.[18]
What Lastres
did not note was that by 1586 with the publication of Vocabulario y phrasis
(attributed to Antonio Ricardo) the phrase “muru uncoy” had already come
into use, to refer to smallpox.[19]
Table 3 near here (disease
terms in early Quechua dictionaries)
Lastres’s
linguistic findings and the fact that he did not consider the Vocabulario y
phrasis stimulate a broader survey of terms in all three of the earliest
Quechua dictionaries (Table 2): 1560
(Santo Tomas), 1586 (“Ricardo”[20]),
and 1608 (Gonzalez Holguín). Ours is the
first analysis of all three dictionaries with respect to smallpox. To provide comparative context we discuss as
well terms for other diseases, illnesses, and even destruction.
Domingo de
Santo Tomas has the distinction not only of composing the first Quechua-Spanish
dictionary, following two decades of pioneering linguistic fieldwork, but also
of capturing the Quechua language before significant linguistic mixing had
occurred. According
to Raul Porras Barrenechea, the editor of the modern edition of the Lexicon,
“En él hay todavía muy pocos aportes de origen español u occidental. No ha habido tiempo para el trasplante cultural sino de muy
pocas palabras” (1951:xviii). “Cavalloc”
(caballo) is identified as one of those words, as is “quillay” (hierro, from
the ancient word meaning literally “metal”).
It is significant that
A systematic
search of the Spanish yields Quechua words or phrases in all three dictionaries
for berruga, calenturas, cundir, curar, dolencia, enfermedad mortal, hambre,
lepra, muerto de hambre, peca de la cara, romadizo and sarna. It is striking, as noted by Lastres, that in
the earliest dictionary, which was based on almost two decades of study but
completed before the smallpox epidemic of 1558, no term existed for smallpox or
measles. These first appear in the Vocabulario
of 1586 and continue in Gonzalez Holguín’s work (1608), along with contagión,
infección, pestilencia, remedio, and “pegar” (as in fish-paste), describing the
means of transmitting smallpox and other contagious diseases.[21] In this last dictionary of the three, only
two new terms appear in this regard:
enfermedad de la mancha and mal
de viruelas o sarampion. Both carry
identical translations: muru oncoy.
If smallpox
caused such devastation in
To round out
this linguistic excursion, we must also consider terms that do not appear in
any of the dictionaries. From a list of
other illnesses, prepared before examining the dictionaries, the following
terms do not occur: dolores de costado, eczema, exantemático, erupción,
paludismo, peste, picado, plaga, tabardete, tifus, and tos. We have left for linguists the task of
searching out terms referring to disease in Quechua that might have more
metaphorical translations into the Spanish.
A thorough
analysis would compare the appearance of various types of terms with those for
disease (and would require the assistance of an expert Quechua linguist). Perhaps it is a matter that later dictionaries
were simply more complete. For purposes
of comparing the linguistic record on disease with that on destruction, Table 4
analyzes 16 terms on destruction and decay in the three earliest
Quechua-Spanish dictionaries. The list
is composed of words drawn from sixteenth-century narrative Spanish sources
cited by the historian Carlos Sempat Assadourian who argues that destruction,
not disease, was the principal cause of the demographic disaster.[22] The earliest dictionary does not translate
seven of these terms into the Quecha (alboroto*, despoblar pueblo*, destrozar
en guerra, empalar, matanza, melancolía, or osario*). Of these the three starred words are recorded
in the second dictionary. All appear in
the third. On the other hand, none of
these terms are as singularly destructive as smallpox is supposed to have been.
While arguments could be advanced to explain the absence from the first
dictionary of any of the half dozen terms commonly associated with smallpox, we
conclude that the absence of evidence is more likely due to the absence of the
phenomenon itself.
Table 4 near here (Destruction
terms in early quechua dictionaries)
Evidence of the absence of
smallpox from the lack of descriptions of pockmarks
Knowledge of
smallpox has increased greatly in recent decades, yet few historians seem
acquainted with new findings in the epidemiology of the disease.[23] The
most significant for the present case is, first, the use of pockmarks, in
modern times, to certify the extinction of natural smallpox, and, for historical
times, to date the occurrence of epidemics.
Second, but equally important, is new evidence regarding the rather low
communicability of the disease.
While
historians focus their attention on the death of Huayna Capac, silences in the
record of smallpox among the Andean population have gone ignored. In contrast, in the case of
In contrast,
in
It was reasoned that, if these surveys included all
children up to 15 years of age, there would be some who had had smallpox when
it was still endemic and would have pockmarks which the teams should
detect. This served as an internal
control in the survey, in that failure to detect any individuals with pockmarks
would call into question the work of the team concerned. When children with pockmarks were detected,
efforts were made to find out in which year they had contracted the disease
that had caused the scarring. Such
information was surprisingly easily obtained from most villagers. The age of the youngest pockmarked child also
provided objective evidence as to when smallpox had last occurred.
...
Failure to find pockmarks in any children born since
the occurrence of the last known case in the country provided important
evidence that transmission of variola major had been interrupted.[29]
The World Health Organization concluded (I:508) that
“it was possible through facial pockmark surveys to determine the recent past
history of smallpox.” Historians, too, have used evidence of scarring
to date epidemics. Elizabeth Fenn cites
numerous instances of references to pockmarked native peoples in the Pacific
Northwest and
If the World Health Organization accepted the absence
of pockmarks after a certain date as evidence for the eradication of smallpox
then, should not historians consider absence before a certain year as evidence
for the absence of the disease? Why do
no chroniclers of early
The relatively low
communicability of smallpox
It is easy to
understand why smallpox appeared rather late in
The sole
means of spreading smallpox was by direct contact with infected humans. While scabs contained large amounts of viral
matter and could be transported over long distances, this material was highly
fragile and was easily destroyed in the tropics by exposure to sunlight, high
temperatures or humidity.[35] During the incubation period (1-7 days), an
infected individual rarely displayed symptoms and the likelihood of
transmission was nil. Onset of the
disease was heralded by a sudden rise in body temperature to 38.5-40.5°C,
usually in 10-14 days. At that point the
individual became highly contagious for about 10 days. During the first days of fever and rash
higher frequencies of infection were observed following face-to-face contact.
Longer-range airborne infection “appears to have been very rare”, usually
assisted by mechanical ventilation, heating, or air conditioning systems. With the disease firmly established, in a day
or two a rash formed as virus particles infected epidermal cells and skin
lesions formed in a centrifugal pattern on the extremities of the body (face,
hands, and feet). In fatal cases of
normal variola major, death came between the tenth and sixteenth day. With haemorrhagic smallpox, an exceedingly
rare type about which comparatively much has been written, death typically was
precipitated from day six through twelve.
Corpses were heavily contaminated and posed a serious occupational hazard
for mortuary attendants. A second bout
of somewhat reduced fever struck survivors at the beginning of the third week,
and scabs began to separate about the same time. [36]
Smallpox was
much less contagious than influenza or malaria.
Close personal contact was required.
According to the WHO report, family members and close associates were at
greatest risk of contacting the disease (I:191):
the
overwhelming majority of secondary infections occurred in close family contacts
of overt cases of smallpox, especially in those who slept in the same room or
the same bed. Next in frequency were
those who lived in the same house; residents of other houses; residents of
other houses, even in the same compound (who would often have visited the house
of the patient), were much less likely to become infected.
Historians
typically exaggerate the speed of transmission as well. In the case of
Mesoamerican
sunflowers, tobacco, or the domestic turkey never reached
Huayna
Capac’s Mummy
As Huayna Capac’s
body was without corruption at the time immediately following his death,
certainly the telltale marks of smallpox would have been evident to the
observer, had they been present. Guaman
Poma’s artfully depicts the mummy as it is born on a litter from
Three other writers
refer to the mummy of Huayna Capac. The
Dominican friar Reginaldo de Lizárraga is silent regarding the outward
appearance of the mummified royal remains (see his discussion of the idolatry
practiced toward the Inca royal mummies as mentioned in his early seventeenth
century work, the Descripción y población
de las Indias, cf. Lizárraga, 1987: 175). If smallpox caused the death of
Huayna Capac, the pockmarks would show on his mummified tissues, as was the
case with Ramses V’s mummy in
In his Royal Commentaries
of the Incas, Garcilaso de la Vega describes seeing the mummy of Huayna
Capac, early in 1560, along with two other male mummies – certainly those of
Pachacutec (not Viracocha)[39]
and Tupac Inca Yupanqui – and two female mummies in the house of Polo de
Ondegardo. He also reports that as they were carried through the streets of
[...]
fui a la posada del licenciado Polo Ondegardo, natural de Salamanca, que era
corregidor de aquella ciudad, a besarle las manos y despedirme de él para mi
viaje. El cual, entre otros favores que me hizo, me dijo: “Pues que vais a España,
entrad en ese aposento; veréis algunos de los vuestros que he sacado a luz,
para que llevéis que contar por allá”.
En el aposento hallé cinco cuerpos de los reyes Incas, tres de varón y
dos de mujer. El uno de ellos decían los
indios que era este Inca Viracocha, mostraba bien su larga edad; tenía la
cabeza blanca como la nieve. El segundo
decían que era el gran Tupac Inca Yupanqui, que fué bisnieto de Viracocha
Inca. El tercero era Huayna Capac, hijo
de Tupac Inca Yupanqui y tatarnieto del Inca Viracocha. Los dos últimos no mostraban haber vivido
tanto; que aunque tenían canas, eran menos que las del Viracocha. [...] Los
cuerpos estaban tan enteros que no les faltaba cabello, ceja ni pestaña. Estaban con sus vestiduras como andaban en
vida. Los “llautos” en las cabezas, sin más ornamento ni insignia de las
reales. Estaban asentados, como suelen sentarse los indios y las indias; las
manos tenían cruzadas sobre el pecho; la derecha sobre la izquierda, los ojos
bajos, como que miraban al suelo (Garcilaso de la Vega, 1976, bk. 5, ch. 29).
Moreover, Garcilaso had the opportunity to
touch the hands of Huayna Capac’s mummy, “whose
fingers were like sticks”, but if he noticed the fingers as “picados de viruelas” he did not mention
it.[40] The far-reaching consequences that this
physical contact with this grand-uncle might have had on the young emigrant,
motivating him to compose afterwards in Spain a utopian view of Tawantinsuyu,
have been ably explored by psychoanalyst Max Hernández (1993: 92-93).
Huayna Capac’s mummy was by custom initially kept in his palace, the
Kasana, on the main
Some time later the mummy was transferred to his estates in
the Yucay valley so that the Spaniards would not find it. There it was kept
with much gold, silver and other riches and his “huauque”, a golden statue of
the king. It is known that early colonizers were actively searching for and
seizing many mummies both in the city of
Huayna Capac’s
mummy remained concealed by his panaqa until late 1559 when, according to
Sarmiento de Gamboa (1943, ch. 62: 151), it was found by the corregidor Polo de
Ondegardo in a house in
Documentary
evidence indicates that the rural
THE
SAN ANDRÉS HOSPITAL, LAST RESTING PLACE OF THE INCAS
Akin to the
customs of many traditional peoples, the men and women of the Inca civilization
worshiped the mummies of their ancestors, particularly of their rulers, in
whose honor ceremonies and sacrifices were organized. Towards 1560, and in
order to eradicate this so-called “idolatry”, the Viceroy Marquis of Cañete
ordered the mummified remains of three or four Incas and two Coyas – their
official wives – to be moved to the Hospital Real de San Andrés in Lima (see
the generic descriptions in Guillén Guillén, 1983; Hinojosa Cuba, 1999; Deza
and Barrera, 2001). These remains had been found in various places near
The San Andrés Hospital, the oldest in the viceroyalty of Peru and one
of the few remaining from the sixteenth century in the western hemisphere, was
founded in 1550 in order to provide health care to low-income, male inhabitants
of Spanish descent. The hospital’s original facilities included a church and
catacombs where hundreds of deceased patients were buried until early in the
nineteenth century. As an approximation to the number of skeletons still buried
in the complex, it is mentioned that in an 1876 reconstruction “it was seen,
between two thick walls, around 1,000 to 1,500 human remains” (Polo, 1877:
378).
Being an important part of the monumental circuit of downtown
The building was
eventually declared a historic landmark by the Instituto Nacional de Cultura,
on 28 December 1972 (Resolución Suprema no. 2900-72-ED). After an earthquake
caused severe structural damages to the building in October 1974, the religious
community of the Hijas de María Inmaculada abandoned this location and the
building was partially restored to accommodate a public school for girls, the
Colegio Nacional de Mujeres “Oscar Miró Quesada de la Guerra”.[43]
According to a
series of chronicles written in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the
worshipped remains of some former Inca sovereigns were placed in a patio at the
Hospital Real de San Andrés, the main hospital for the “república de españoles”
in
In the twentieth
century a formal attempt, promoted by the Sociedad de Beneficencia Pública de
Lima and conducted by the historian José de la Riva-Agüero, was made to rescue
the Inca royal mummies kept there, in the Barrios Altos neighbourhood of Lima.
Riva-Agüero and his collaborators suspended their investigation in August 1937,
under the conviction that their efforts would not be useful without the aid of
Spanish original manuscripts, i.e. depictions of the San Andrés Hospital, that
were kept in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville (see Riva-Agüero, 1966:
398-400, and Hampe Martínez, 2000b).
GEOPHYSICAL SURVEY AT THE SAN ANDRÉS HOSPITAL
In August 2001,
acting with the official permission of the Instituto Nacional de Cultura (Resolución Directoral Nacional N° 783-2001/INC), a group of archaeologists
performed a geophysical survey in the 5,500 square-meter area of the former
Hospital Real de San Andrés. This group of researchers was led by Professor
Brian S. Bauer of the Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago (a
well-known scholar and investigator of the Inca civilization in
Ground
penetrating radar (GPR), sometimes called ground probing radar, georadar,
subsurface radar or earth sounding radar, is a noninvasive electromagnetic
geophysical technique for subsurface exploration, characterization and
monitoring. It is widely used in locating lost utilities, environmental site
characterization and monitoring, agriculture, archaeological and forensic
investigation, groundwater, pavement and infrastructure characterization,
mining, ice sounding, and a host of other applications. It may be deployed from
the surface by hand or vehicle, in boreholes, between boreholes, from aircraft
and from satellites. It has the highest resolution of any geophysical method
for imaging the subsurface, with centimeter scale resolution sometimes
possible.[44]
GPR uses electromagnetic wave propagation and scattering to image,
locate and quantify changes in electrical and magnetic properties in the
ground. Depths of investigation (and resolution) are controlled by electrical
properties through conduction losses, dielectric relaxation in water,
electrochemical reactions at the mineralogical clay-water interface, scattering
losses, and (rarely) magnetic relaxation losses in iron bearing minerals. Depth
of investigation varies from less than a meter to over 5,400 meters, depending
upon material properties. Detectability of a subsurface feature depends upon
contrast in electrical and magnetic properties, and the geometric relationship
with the antenna. Quantitative interpretation through modeling can derive from
ground penetrating radar data with such information as depth, orientation, size
and shape of buried objects, density and water content of soils, and much more.
As a result of the survey, distributed in 52 grids, a map of the site
has been composed (see Appendix A) in which initially identified anomalies are
marked as dots. “Anomaly of note” refers to an anomaly at least a couple of
meters across and at more than a meter in estimated depth (assuming that a
travel time of 20 nanoseconds corresponds to about one meter in physical
depth). Screen captures of the filtered and processed data have been provided,
on eight illustrations, for the anomalies of particular interest. The Appendix
includes a table with numerical ratings for each grid on a scale of 1-5, with a
grade 1 anomaly having the most potential for further investigation.[45]
ANTHROPOLOGICAL AND PALEOPATHOLOGICAL
PROSPECTIVES
Previous bio-anthropological studies done on colonial
contexts in
While many studies have focused on the Andean anthropological record, a
remarkably scant number of them have done the same on early colonial
collections. The main reason for this is basically the lack of scientifically
excavated cemeteries or catacombs dating from the times of Spanish domination
(see Lombardi Almonacín, 1992: 2-4). On the other hand, chronicles and other
documentary sources support an increased morbidity and mortality among Native
Americans after 1492.
Despite
the uncertainty of retrieving the Inca royal mummies, previous successful
experiences studying pre-Columbian mummies permit the researchers at the
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in
Conclusion.
Although the current historiographical orthodoxy
attributes the death of the Inca Huayna Capac to smallpox, a more skeptical
examination of the evidence suggests that this hypothesis is unlikely. First, disagreement among the chroniclers is
more profound than many historians are wont to recognize. Second, two of the most important early
sources to report smallpox do not fully embrace the idea, and instead simply
recount a story (“cuentan que”). Third,
historians assume that smallpox was a highly contagious disease, but this too
is not the case. It is exceedingly
unlikely that smallpox could have traversed
Additional evidence, either the description of
pockmarked native peoples or mummies, including perhaps that of the Inca Huayna
Capac, signalling the presence of smallpox (or not), will be necessary to
resolve this conundrum. In the meantime,
to continue to blame smallpox for the death of Huayna Capac (and the
destruction of the native peoples of the Andean Region) without considering
alternative explanations in at least as great detail, seems to these authors an
unfortunate distortion of the historical record.
Then too there is an alternative explanation
for the destruction of Tawantinsuyu. One
of the most comprehensive and thoroughly researched is that by Carlos Sempat
Assadourian (1994). His thickly
documented analysis based on an impressively wide range of sources blames the
demographic disaster on three decades of near total war, excessive labor
demands, wholesale environmental destruction, widespread famine, and sheer
cruelty. Alien diseases are secondary
factors, dating from 1558 with the first smallpox epidemic, once the population
has already been halved.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES (to be
deleted and inserted as notes where cited)
PRIMARY SOURCES
ACOSTA, José de
(S.I.)
1977 Historia
natural y moral de las Indias [1590]. Edición facsimilar. Introducción,
apéndice y antología por Barbara G. Beddall. Valencia: Artes Gráficas Soler.
BETANZOS, Juan de
1987 Suma y narración de los incas [1551]. Edited by María del Carmen Martín Rubio. Madrid: Ediciones Atlas.
CALANCHA, Antonio de
la (O.S.A.)
1639 Corónica
moralizada del Orden de San Augustín en el Perú, con sucesos ejemplares en esta
monarquía, tomo I. Barcelona: Pedro Lacavallería.
COBO, Bernabé (S.I.)
1964a Fundación
de Lima [1639]. In Obras,
estudio preliminar y edición del P. Francisco Mateos, Madrid: Ediciones Atlas,
tomo II (Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, 92), p. 277-460.
1964b Historia
del Nuevo Mundo [1653]. In Obras,
estudio preliminar y edición del P. Francisco Mateos, Madrid: Ediciones Atlas,
tomos I y II (Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, 91-92).
GARCILASO de la
VEGA, Inca
1976 Comentarios
reales de los Incas [1609]. Prólogo, edición y cronología por Aurelio
Miró Quesada. Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho. 2 vols.
1977 Historia
general del Perú; segunda parte de los Comentarios reales [1617]. Lima:
Editorial Universo. 3 vols. (Colección Autores Peruanos, 13-15).
GUAMÁN POMA DE
AYALA, Felipe
1936 Nueva
corónica y buen gobierno [1615]. Edición facsimilar. Paris: Institut d’Ethnologie.
LIZÁRRAGA, Reginaldo de
1987 Descripción
del Perú, Tucumán, Río de la Plata y Chile. Edición de Ignacio
Ballesteros [1605]. Madrid: Historia 16 (Crónicas de América, 37).
ONDEGARDO, Polo
de
1916 Informaciones
acerca de la religión y gobierno de los Incas [1571]. Notas biográficas
y concordancias de los textos por Horacio H. Urteaga. Lima: Imp. y Lib.
Sanmarti (Colección de libros y documentos referentes a la historia del Perú,
3).
PABLOS, Hernando
1995 “Relación que enbio a mandar su Magestad
se hiziese desta ciudad de Cuenca y de toda su provincia” [1582]. In Relación de antigüedades de este reino
del Perú, ed. Carlos Araníbar. Lima: Fondo de
Cultura Económica.
SALINAS y CÓRDOVA, Buenaventura (O.F.M.)
1957 Memorial de las historias del Nuevo Mundo Piru [1630]. Edited by Luis E. Valcárcel.
Lima: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.
SANCHO de la HOZ, Pedro
1962 “Relación para Su Majestad” [1534]. In
Raúl Porras Barrenechea, Los cronistas
del Perú (1528-1650, Lima: Sanmarti.
SARMIENTO de GAMBOA,
Pedro
1943 Historia
de los Incas [1572]. Edición revisada por Ángel Rosenblat. Buenos
Aires: Emecé Editores (Col. Hórreo).
ZÁRATE, Agustín
de
1995 Historia
del descubrimiento y conquista del Perú [1555]. Edición, estudio
preliminar y notas de Franklin Pease G.Y. y Teodoro Hampe Martínez. Lima:
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Fondo Editorial (Clásicos peruanos).
SECONDARY LITERATURE
ALONSO SAGASETA,
Alicia
1989 “Las momias de los incas: su función y
realidad social”, in Revista Española
de Antropología Americana (Madrid), vol. 19, p. 109-135.
ALZAMORA CASTRO,
Víctor
1963 Mi
hospital. Historia, tradiciones y anécdotas del Hospital Dos de Mayo.
Lima: Talls. Gráfs. P. L. Villanueva.
ASSADOURIAN, Carlos Sempat
1994 “La gran vejación y destruición de la
tierra: las guerras de sucesión y de conquista en el derrumbe de la población
indígena del Perú” [1987]. In Transiciones
hacia el sistema colonial andino, Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos,
p. 19-62.
BALLESTEROS GAIBROIS, Manuel
1963 Descubrimiento y conquista del Perú.
2001 “The Impact of Disease,” in George
Raudzens (ed.), Technology, Disease
and Colonial Conquests, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries: Essays Reappraising the Guns and Germs
Theories. Leiden: Brill; pp. 127-166.
CASTELLI GONZÁLEZ,
Amalia
1981 “La primera imagen del Hospital Real de San
Andrés, a través de la visita de 1563”, in Historia
y Cultura (Lima), vol. 13/14, p. 207-216.
CASTRILLÓN VIZCARRA,
Alfonso
1999 La
destrucción de Cartago (novela).
COOK, Noble David
1998 Born
to Die. Disease and
DEZA, Luis, and BARRERA, Juan
2001 “Historia y leyenda acerca de los incas enterrados en el
Hospital San Andrés de Lima”, in Revista
de Neuro-psiquiatría (Lima), tomo 64, p. 18-35.
FARRINGTON,
1995 “The mummy, estate and
GARCÍA CÁCERES, Uriel
2001 “Los
microbios como protagonistas de la historia”, in Copé (Lima), vol. XI, n° 29, p. 7-12.
GUILLÉN GUILLÉN,
Edmundo
1983 “El enigma de las momias incas”, in Boletín de Lima (Lima), nº 28, p.
29-42.
HAMPE MARTÍNEZ,
Teodoro
1982
“Las momias de los incas en
Lima”, in Revista del Museo Nacional (Lima),
vol. 46, p. 405-418.
2000a “Salvemos la última
morada de los incas”, in El Comercio,
Lima, 6 de febrero (Editorial).
2000b “Riva Agüero y las momias de los incas”, in El Comercio, Lima, 23 de febrero
(Editorial).
HERNÁNDEZ, Max
1993 Memoria
del bien perdido. Conflicto, identidad y nostalgia en el Inca Garcilaso de la
Vega. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos & Biblioteca Peruana de
Psicoanálisis.
HINOJOSA CUBA,
Carlos
JARQUE, Fietta
1998 Yo me perdono (novela). Madrid: Grupo Santillana (Extra
Alfaguara).
LASTRES, Juan B.
1954 “Historia de la viruela en el Perú”, in Salud y Bienestar Social (Lima), vol. 3.
LOHMANN VILLENA,
Guillermo
1957 El
corregidor de indios en el Perú bajo los Austrias. Madrid: Ediciones
Cultura Hispánica.
LOMBARDI ALMONACÍN,
Guido
1992 Autopsia
de una momia de la cultura Nasca: estudio paleopatológico. Tesis para
optar el título de Médico-Cirujano. Lima: Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia,
Facultad de Medicina.
LOREDO, Rafael
1955 “Vaca de Castro y la momia de Huayna
Cápac”, in El Comercio, Lima,
7 de julio (edición de la mañana), p. 2 & 4.
MIRÓ QUESADA S.,
Aurelio.
1971 El
Inca Garcilaso y otros estudios garcilasistas. Madrid: Ediciones
Cultura Hispánica.
PATRÓN, Pablo
1894 “La enfermedad mortal
de Huayna Capac”, in La Crónica Médica, Lima, 15 de junio, p. 179-183.
POLO, José Toribio
1877 “Momias de los incas”, in Manuel de
Odriozola (comp.), Documentos
literarios del Perú, Lima: Imprenta del Estado, tomo X, p. 371-378.
Porras
Barrenechea, Raul.
1986 Los Cronistas del Perú (1528-1650) y
otros Ensayos. Lima.
RABÍ
CHARA, Miguel
1999 Del
Hospital de Santa Ana (1549 a 1924) al Hospital Nacional Arzobispo Loayza (1925
a 1999). 450 años de protección de la salud de las personas. Lima:
Gráfica Fina (Historia de la medicina peruana, 2).
RIVA-AGÜERO, José de
la
1937 “El Perú de 1549 a 1564” [1922]. In Por la Verdad, la Tradición y la Patria (opúsculos), Lima:
Imprenta Torres Aguirre, Lima, tomo I, p. 3-67.
1966 “Sobre las momias de los Incas” [1938]. In Estudios de historia peruana. Las
civilizaciones primitivas y el Imperio Incaico, ed. César Pacheco
Vélez, Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Obras completas, tomo
V), p. 393-400.
ROSTWOROWSKI de DIEZ
CANSECO, María
1953 Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui. Lima: Imprenta Torres
Aguirre.
ZAVALA, Silvio
1978 El
servicio personal de los indios en el Perú (extractos del siglo XVI),
tomo I. México, DF: El Colegio de México.
|
Table
1. 19 Early Primary Sources Describing the Death of the Inca Huayna Capac |
||||
|
Year |
Author |
Death of Inca Huayna
Capac |
||
|
Year |
Description (with page number) |
Origin |
||
|
1533 |
Francisco
de Xerez |
1524 |
115: Atahualpa,
attributes death to "aquella enfermedad" |
|
|
c.1539 |
The anonymous
soldier (Cristóbal de Mena) |
|
138: “y Guaynacapa
se fué en jornada a Popayán, y de vuelta que volvió murió en Quito." |
|
|
1543 |
Pedro Sancho de la
Hoz |
|
Describes
mummy; cause of death not mentioned. |
|
|
1544 |
*Cristóbal Vaca de
Castro |
|
22: "se
estaba muriendo de la pestilencia de las viruelas” |
|
|
1550 |
*Pedro de Cieza de
León |
1527 |
200: "cuentan
que vino una gran pestilencia de viruelas tan contajiosa que murieron más de
dozientas mill ánimas” |
|
|
1557 |
Juan
de Betanzos |
1526 |
201:
An illness that took away his reason and understanding and gave him “sarna y
lepra”. |
|
|
c.1565 |
Alonso
Borregan |
|
84: “una
enfermedad que le dio muy recia que debia de ser perlesía” |
|
|
1572 |
*Pedro
Pizarro |
1521 |
181: “enfermó del mal de las viruelas … y murió
este Guainacapa.” |
|
|
1572 |
Pedro
Sarmiento de Gamboa |
1524 |
165:
An illness of fevers, although others say of smallpox and measles; Ninan
Cuyoche [his son] died of the pestilence of smallpox. |
|
|
1582 |
Fr.
Hernando Pablos |
|
270: “una
pestilencia muy grande en que murieron innumerable gente de un sarampión que
se abrían todos de una lepra incurable, de la cual murió este señor
Guainacapac” |
|
|
1586 |
Fr. Miguel Cabello
de Balboa |
1525 |
459: “y paró en
unas mortales calenturas y sintiendose cercano de la muerte hizo su
testamento” |
Cuzco |
|
1586 |
*Toribio
de Ortiguera |
|
355: “y murió el
dicho Guaynacapa de enfermedad de viruelas antes que los españoles le
pudiesen ver” |
|
|
1590 |
Martín
de Murúa |
|
135: “unos dicen
que murió [en Quito] de calenturas, y
otros dicen que habiendo gran pestilencia de viruelas en un pueblo llamado
Pisco” |
Cuzco |
|
1605 |
Padre Reginaldo de
Lizarraga |
|
516: “epidemia de
romadizo y dolor de costado que consumio la mayor parte de los indios” |
|
|
1613 |
El Inca Gracilazo
de la Vega |
|
264: “dióle una
enfermedad de calenturas, aunque otros dicen que de virguelas y sarampión.” |
|
|
1613 |
Juan de Santa Cruz
Pachacuti Yanqui |
|
252: “abía sido
pestilencia de sarampión, el Ynga, después se esconde en ella tapándose con
la misma piedra y allí muere.” |
Cuzco |
|
1615 |
*Felipe Guaman
Poma de Ayala |
|
108: “Enbía dios
su castigo: Pistelencia de saranpión y
birguelas muy grandícimas, entienpo de Guayna Capac Ynga, se murió muy mucha
gente y el Ynga.” |
|
|
1630 |
Fray Buenaventura
de Salinas y Córdova |
|
59: “Fue tanta la
melancolía de Huayna Capac en Quito, considerando, que le auian dicho los
agoreros y el Sacerdote, que les mandó que alli lo pusiesen a morir” |
|
|
1630 |
Fr.
Giovanni Anello Oliva |
1523 |
83: “le dio una
grave dolencia que los Indios llaman Uanti, y en nuestro romance bubas que le
quittó la vida” |
|
|
1653 |
*Fr.
Bernabé Cobo |
|
160: “dijo el Inca
que se moriría, y luego le dió el mal de las viruelas. Estando muy enfermo se murió.” |
|
|
*
= author attributes death of Inca Huayna Capac solely to smallpox. |
||||
|
Sources: Anello Oliva, Fr.
Giovanni. 1895 Historia del reino y provincias del Perú. Lima. Anon. [“The
anonymous soldier”]. 1934. Relación del sitio del Cusco y principio de las
guerras civiles del Perú hasta la muerte de Diego de Almagro, 1534-1539.
Lima. Authorship ascribed to Cristóbal
de Mena (Porras Barrenechea, Cronistas del Perú, 558.) Betanzos, Juan de.
1987. Suma y narración de los Incas, ed. María del Carmen Martín
Rubio. Madrid. Borregan, Alonso.
1948 Crónica de la conquista del Perú. Sevilla Cabello de Balboa,
Fr. Miguel. 1951 Miscelánea Antártica. Lima, 1951. Cieza de León,
Pedro de. 1985 Crónica del Perú: Segunda parte. Lima. Cobo, Fr. Bernabé.
1892 Historia del Nuevo Mundo. Sevilla. Lizarraga,
Reginaldo. 1905 Descripción breve de toda la tierra del Perú, tucumán, Río
de la Plata y Chile para el Excmo. Sr. Conde de Lemos y Andrada, presidente
del consejo real de Indias. Madrid. Murúa, Martín de.
1987 Historia general del Perú. Lima. Ortiguera, Toribio
de. 1968 Jornada del río Marañón. Madrid. Pablos, Fr.
Hernando. 1965 Relación que enbio a mandar su Magestad se hiziese desta
ciudad de Cuenca y de toda su provincia. Madrid. Pachacuti Yamqui,
Juan de Santa Cruz. 1873 Relación de antiguedades del Perú. London. Pizarro, Pedro.
1978 Relación del descubrimiento de los reinos del Perú. Lima. Poma de Ayala,
Felipe Guaman. 1936 Nueva crónica y buen gobierno. Paris. Salinas y Córdova,
Fray Buenaventura de. 1957 Memorial de las historias del nuevo mundo Pirú.
Lima. Sancho de la Hoz,
Pedro. 1917 Relación para S.M. de lo sucedido en la conquista y
pacificación de estas provincias de la Nueva Castilla y la calidad de la
tierra. Lima. Sarmiento de
Gamboa, Pedro. 1906 Historia de los Incas. Berlin. Vaca de Castro,
Cristóbal. 1934 Discurso sobre la descendencia y gobierno de los Incas. Lima. Vega, El Inca
Garcilaso de la. 1985 Los Comentarios reales de los Incas. Lima. Xerez, Francisco.
1534 Verdadera relación de la conquista del Perú y Provincia del Cuzco.
Sevilla. |
||||
|
Table 2. Inferring
Cause of Death of the Inca Huayna Capac: |
|
||||||||||||
|
Author |
First |
Cause |
*Polo |
*Lastres |
*Dobyns |
Hemming |
*Wachtel |
* |
Assadourian |
*Cook |
Guerra |
*Alchon |
|
|
Xerez |
1534 |
Aquella enfermedad |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
|
|
Anon. |
1917 |
Murió |
X |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
|
|
Sancho |
1543 |
(describes mummy) |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
|
|
*Vaca de Castro |
1934 |
Viruelas |
X |
Yes |
. |
. |
. |
. |
Yes |
. |
. |
. |
|
|
*Cieza de León |
1554 |
Viruelas |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Betanzos |
1987 |
Sarna
y lepra |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
Yes |
Yes |
. |
|
|
Borregan |
1948 |
Perlesía |
X |
Yes |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
|
|
*Pizarro |
1842 |
Viruelas |
Yes |
Yes |
. |
. |
. |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
. |
|
|
Sarmiento
de Gamboa |
1906 |
Fevers |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
. |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Pablos |
1965 |
Una lepra
incurable |
X |
X |
X |
Yes |
. |
. |
. |
|
. |
. |
|
|
Cabello de Balboa |
1951 |
Unas mortales
calenturas |
X |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
. |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
*Ortiguera |
1968 |
Viruelas |
X |
X |
X |
|
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
|
|
Murúa |
1925 |
Calenturas o
viruelas |
X |
. |
. |
Yes |
. |
Yes |
Yes |
. |
Yes |
. |
|
|
Lizarraga y Ovando |
1905 |
Romadizo y dolor
de costado |
Yes |
. |
Yes |
Yes |
. |
Yes |
. |
. |
Yes |
. |
|
|
Vega |
1613 |
Calenturas |
Yes |
Yes |
. |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
. |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Pachacuti Yamqui |
1873 |
Sarampión |
. |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
. |
Yes |
. |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
*Poma de Ayala |
1936 |
Saranpión y
birguelas |
X |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Salinas y Córdova |
1630 |
Melancolía |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
|
|
Anello
Oliva |
1895 |
Bubas |
. |
Yes |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
Yes. |
. |
|
|
*Cobo |
1892 |
Viruelas |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
. |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Total sources
cited |
6 |
11 |
7 |
10 |
5 |
9 |
10 |
6 |
12 |
7 |
|||
|
Sources
cited that mention smallpox |
3 |
5 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
|||
|
* = death of Inca Huayna Capac attributed
to smallpox ”X” = Secondary account published before
first publication of primary source and thus evidence could not have been
taken into consideration. Note:
Works must cite primary source directly to be tallied “Yes”. |
|
||||||||||||
|
Sources: Primary:
See Table 1. Secondary: Alchon, Suzanne Austin 2003 A Pest in
the Land: Assadourian, C. S 1994 “La gran vejación y
destruición de la tierra: las guerras de sucesión y de conquista en el
derrumbe de la población indígena del Perú,” in Transiciones hacia el
sistema colonial andino. Cook, Noble David 1998 Born to Die:
Disease and Crosby, Alfred W. 1972 The Columbian
Exchange: Biological and Cultural
Consequences of 1492. Dobyns, Henry F. 1963 "An Outline of
Andean Epidemic History to 1720," Bulletin of the History of Medicine
17:493-515. Hemming, John 1970 The Conquest of the
Incas. London. Lastres, Juan B 1954 Historia de la viruela en
el Perú. Lima. Polo, Jose Toribio 1913 "Apuntes sobre las
epidemias del Perú." Revista Histórica 5:50-109 Wachtel, Nathan 1971 La vision des vaincus:
Les Indiens de Pérou devant la conquête espagnole, 1530-1570. Paris. |
|
||||||||||||
|
Table
3. 33 Quechua Terms Related to Illness
in Three Early Dictionaries |
|||
|
Spanish |
Santo Tomas (1560) |
“Ricardo” (1586) |
Gonzalez Holguín (1608) |
|
Berruga (o peca de la cara) |
Moro, ticti o rimpicota; hacer - Moroyani |
Ticti |
Ticti;
hacerse verruga - tictiyan |
|
Bubas |
. |
Huanti,
huantictam onconi |
Tener – Huantictam vnconi huanti vncoytam vncconi huanti hapihuan, o vncuhuan |
|
Calenturas |
Rupay huncuy; con frío chucchu |
Rupay
oncoy; con frío chucchu; lenta chaquirupay oncoy |
Rupay vncuy; tener - Rupaytam vnconi o rupay vncoytam vnconi; |
|
Contagion |
|
Pahuac
oncoy |
Contagiosa dolencia – Ppahuak vnccoy ranticuk vnccuy |
|
Cundir
mancha |
Cundir, crecer poco a poco como mancha - Mizmini, gui |
Miranvisuin |
Mapa mirarin o mirarccun mizmirccun mizmirin |
|
Curar |
Cura
de enfermo – hambinin |
Hampini |
Hampini |
|
Dañar |
Dañoso
– guacllic |
huacllichini |
huakllichini
o huchallicuni |
|
Dolencia |
Huncuy |
Oncoy
nanay |
Vnccuy
nanacuy nanay |
|
Enfermar de calentura y frio |
. |
chucchuni |
Chuchuni
chucchuhuanmichucchum hapihuan chucchuymanchayani |
|
Enfermar
de la calentura |
. |
Rupaytam
onconi, rupay oncoytam onconi |
Rupaytam
vncconi rupay onccoytam vncconi rupaymi vnccohuan o hapihuan rupayman
michayani |
|
Enfermedad
de mancha |
|
. |
Muru
onccoy |
|
Enfermedad
mortal |
Huncuy,
o quixiay |
Huañuy
oncoy |
Huañuy hatun vnccoy o sullumantu hatun nanay |
|
Fluxo de sangre |
. |
Vsputay yahuarapay |
Cencca yahuar hamupayay sutuy vnccoy o vsputay |
|
Hambre |
Yarecay |
Yarecay, yarcay. |
Yareccay |
|
Infección |
. |
Inficionar
= rantini |
Inficionar a otro pegando sus pecados o enfermedad = Huchantam vnccoynintam rantiycun pahuachin |
|
Lepra |
Caracha |
Caracha
llecte |
Lluttasca llekte o lluttascca ccaracha |
|
Mal |
Manaalli |
Mana
alli |
Mana
allin |
|
Mal de viruelas o sarampion |
|
|
Muru vncoy |
|
Maltrato
|
. |
-ar
– quezachani |
Huchapac
mirachicuymichay |
|
Mancha
redondeada |
Muru |
Cundir
la mancha – visuin |
Manchar mas o cundir la mancha = Mapam mmizmirin mirarccun |
|
Mortandad |
. |
Huañuypacha |
|
|
Muerte |
Guñuy |
Huañuy |
Huañuy |
|
Muerto de hambre |
Micuimanta Guañusca |
Micuymantan
huañuni o huañusca |
Yarecaymanta
o micuymanta huañuni muchucuni huanacuni yarecaypa aparisccamcani huañuy
huañuytam yarecani yarecayapatihuan |
|
Peca
de la cara |
Moro |
Mirca |
Mirca |
|
Pegar
(enfermedad) |
. |
. |
Vnccoytam
rantiycupuni |
|
Perlesía |
. |
Chiriayoncoy |
Chirirayay vnccoy o çuçunca çuçunca vnccoy |
|
Pestilencia |
. |
Pahuac
oncoy |
P. mal pegajoso = ppahuak vncoy o rantiy rantiy, o ranticuk vnccoy |
|
Prevención |
|
Prevenirse – camaricuni, camarayani |
|
|
Remedio |
. |
-ar
allichant, yanapani |
Yachacupucuk; -ar allichapuni o yacha cuchipuni |
|
Romadizo |
Chulli |
Chulli |
Chulli |
|
Sarampion |
. |
Muru
oncoy |
Hatun
muru vncuy |
|
Sarna |
Çulpo; sarna tener – çulpuyani . gui.o |
Caracha |
Caracha; llecte caracha |
|
Viruelas |
. |
Muru oncoy |
Huchuy muru vncuy |
|
Table 4. Terms of Destruction and Decay in Early Quechua-Spanish
Dictionaries |
|||
|
Spanish |
Santo Tomas (1560) |
Ricardo (1586) |
Gonzalez Holguín (1608) |
|
Alboroto |
. |
Tacuricuy |
Tacuricuy |
|
Castigar |
Mochochini, gui |
Muchuchij |
Muchuchini mirani |
|
Codiciar |
Monapayani, gui |
Munani; codiciador munac,
munapayac |
Munarini munapayani
ñocapcanman ñini munapucuni |
|
Combate |
Aucanacuy |
-ir atinacuni |
-ir Atipanacuni auca nacuni |
|
Crueldades |
Ancha piñac; cruel cosa sin misercordia manacoyapayac |
Cruel = haucha |
Cruel = haucha |
|
Desbaratar |
D. Batalla – chicrichini.gui o atini gui |
Atini llasani; huacllichini |
D. en guerra - Huacllicachini |
|
Despoblado pueblo |
. |
Purumasca llacta |
Purumllacta o purumyascca llacta, culluk o kulluchisccallacta |
|
Despoblar, -ado |
Purumachini.gui, o purum |
Purum (yermo) |
Llactactanpurum yachini kulluchini cculluchircuni |
|
Destrozar en guerra |
. |
. |
Champircayani huancurcayani |
|
Empalar |
|
. |
Kazpiman çattini o Kazpicta
çattiycupuni |
|
Esclavo |
Pinas |
E. habido de guerra = Piñas |
E. habido de guerra = Piñas; E. comprado Rantiscaruna; E. hazer o captiuar – Piñaschani |
|
Fatiga |
Fatigar – llaquini, gui |
Llaquicuy puticuy |
Machitayay; Fatigar el cuerpo con trabajos – Huañuyta llamkachini o ñaccarichini |
|
Matanza |
. |
. |
Matar a muchos = huañu chircarini |
|
Melancolía |
|
. |
M. enfermedad Pputirayay huaccanayay vnccoy |
|
Osario |
|
Tullu taucasca colosca |
Tullu tauccascca ccotosca |
Figure 1. “379. The body of
Huayna Capac Inka,
being carried from
Note the absence of pockmarks on
the face of Huayna Capac’s mummy. The
beautifully crafted, realistic illustrations in this pictorial history of Early
Peru frequently depict tears and welts on the faces of individuals (for our
favorites, see pp. 219, 310, 453, 659, 879, 882, 888, 939, and 955), but Huayna
Capac’s face is wholly clear of marks of any kind.
Source:
Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, El primer Nueva corónica y buen
gobierno, http://www.kb.dk/elib/mss/poma/index-en.htm, p. 379.
Appendix
A. Results from Ground penetrating radar (GPR)
of the former Hospital Real de San Andres
Grid 12: Mark problems prevent effective 3D modeling and slicing in Radan, but
examination of the profiles reveals that the anomaly identified on the map is
in fact quite large (approximately 3 x 4m in area) but also relatively faint.
The top of the anomaly appears to be a subsurface stratum at approximately 50
ns in depth. A faint “X” signature – an indicator of reverberation – on several
of the profiles indicates that the pulses were bouncing between two geological
or architectural contacts. However, given the relative thinness of the anomaly
itself (approximately 10 ns) and the faintness of the “X” reverberation
signature, it is not thinkable this is a subsurface cavity on the order of what
our project is looking for. See illustration no. 1.
Grid 14: There is a large anomaly in the center of the grid
extending from about 20 to 35 ns in depth.
However, the photo indicates that this area was retiled at some
point. On the surface, two clear lines
of different tile correspond to sewer covers noted during data collection. These likely sewer pipes are shown below in a
2-ns-thick plan view at 10.5 ns depth and north at the top. Also note the center area of torn-up tile.
Then at 25 ns depth, the larger center anomaly is visible. Even if it is more
than just noise from the disturbed patio tile, the center anomaly may not be
associated with the more shallow diagonal sewer pipes. However, in sum, it
appears that this patio has seen extensive work in relatively recent times
(i.e., the twentieth century). See illustrations no. 2 and no. 3.
Grid 46: There is a large (3 x 3 m), roughly triangular zone of high reflection
at the north side of the grid. There are
two possible confounding factors, however; first, surface and near-surface
slices also show reflections in the same area, so the deeper one could be an
echo of this. Also, in profile the
anomaly is solid-looking in plan but in profile is made up mostly of “X”
signatures that could be oscillations between strata or walls. See illustration
no. 4 (48 ns depth, 1 ns thick, north at the bottom).
Grid 49: Extremely noisy profiles. The most promising anomaly noted is probably
the curved rock or brick surface (vault?) that was visible during collection.
It seems to reach approximately 2.5-3 m beneath the surface, although of course
the travel time assumptions for such an estimate are extremely shaky. See
illustration no. 5.
Grid 52: There is a large downward-curving surface with its apex at
approximately 75 ns or 3 m depth. In some profiles, wide “X” signatures are
visible beneath the curve, centered around 100 ns. This depth is near the limit of this unit’s
capabilities; the strength of the X reflection despite the weakness of the
signal may indicate an open space (crypt?) beneath the curved surface. In the
profile shown at illustration no. 6, the apparent column or shaft of high
reflection is an artifact of ringing near the surface. However, even this
ringing is perhaps a good sign, as it occurs precisely beneath the engraved
marble slab noted during data collection. Small but very well-defined “X”s
beneath the slab (not visible on the illustration) indicate that it probably
covers an open shaft.
The main body of the “crypt” measures approximately 15 x 8 x 1.5 m. Its
apparent truncation at the east end of the chapel could be due to the change in
floor material from mosaic to large tiles. The apparent greater depth of the
“crypt” feature on the western end is due in part to the column of oscillating
reflections from the marble slab’s underside. However, even given this caveat,
it is clear that there is a very large feature beneath the chapel floor,
beginning at a depth (75 ns) considerably below 50 ns, the level at which a
plane of high reflection (possibly bedrock) occurs in many other grids. See
illustrations no. 7 and no. 8.
QUALITATIVE
TABLE FROM THE GPR SURVEY
|
Grid |
Rating |
Grid |
Rating |
Grid |
Rating |
|
1 |
1 |
21 |
5 |
41 |
5 |
|
2 |
5 |
22 |
4 |
42 |
5 |
|
3 |
4 |
23 |
5 |
43 |
5 |
|
4 |
4 |
24 |
4 |
44 |
4 |
|
5 |
5 |
25 |
5 |
45 |
5 |
|
6 |
5 |
26 |
5 |
46 |
2 |
|
7 |
5 |
27 |
5 |
47 |
5 |
|
8 |
5 |
28 |
5 |
48 |
4 |
|
9 |
5 |
29 |
5 |
49 |
2 |
|
10 |
5 |
30 |
5 |
50 |
5 |
|
11 |
5 |
31 |
5 |
51 |
3 |
|
12 |
3 |
32 |
5 |
52 |
1 |
|
13 |
4 |
33 |
5 |
|
|
|
14 |
3 |
34 |
4 |
|
|
|
15 |
5 |
35 |
5 |
|
|
|
16 |
5 |
36 |
4 |
|
|
|
17 |
5 |
37 |
5 |
|
|
|
18 |
5 |
38 |
5 |
|
|
|
19 |
5 |
39 |
5 |
|
|
|
20 |
4 |
40 |
5 |
|
|
Appendix
B. The Death of the Inca Huayna Capac
according to Juan de Betanzos, Suma y
narración de los Incas, ed. María del Carmen Martín
Rubio (Madrid: Ediciones Atlas, 1987), 200-201.
estúvose en la ciudad del Quito
holgándose y recreándose bien ansi como se holgaban en la
ciudad del Cuzco seis años en fin de los cuales que en el Quito estuvo le dio
una enfermedad la cual enfermedad le quitó el juicio y entendimiento y dióle
una sarna y lepra que le puso muy debilitado y viéndole los señores tan al cabo
entraron a él pareciéndoles que estaba un poco en su juicio y pidiéronle que nombrase
señor pues estaba tal al cabo de sus días a los cuales dijo que nombraba por
señor a su hijo Ninancuyochi el cual había un mes que había nacido y estaba en
los Cañares y viendo los señores que aquel tan niño nombraba vieron vieron
[sic] que no estaba en su juicio natural y dejárosle y saliéronse y enviaron
luego por el niño Ninancuyochi que había nombrado por señor y otro día tornaron
a entrar a él y preguntárosle de nuevo que a quién dejaba y nombraba por señor
y respondióles que nombraba por señor a Atagualpa su hijo no acordándose que el
día antes había nombrado al niño ya nombrado y luego los señores fueron al
aposento do Atagualpa estaba al cual dijeron que era señor y reverenciárosle
como a tal el cual dijo que él no lo quería ser aunque su padre le hubiese
nombrado y otro día tornaron los señores a Guayna Capac y viendo que Atagualpa
no quería serlo y sin le decir cosa del otro día pasado y pidiéronle que
nombrase señor y díjoles que lo fuese Guascar su hijo… después de haber
nombrado al Guascar en la manera ya dicha por señor dende a cuatro días expiró
y luego que acabó de expirar volvieron los mensajeros que habían ido por el
niño que había nombrado por señor Guayna Capac el cual habían hallado muerto
que aquel día que llegaron había muerto de la misma enfermedad de Lepra como su
Padre y dende a poco que llegaron estos mensajeros llegaron otros mensajeros
que enviaban los caciques de Tumbez a Guayna Capac por los cuales mensajeros le
hacían saber como habían llegado al puerto de Tumbez unas gentes blancas…
Guayna Capac el cual como falleciese los señores que con él estaban le hicieron
abrir y toda su carne sacar aderezándole porque no se dañase sin le quebrar
hueso ninguno le aderezaron y curaron al sol y al aire y después de seco y
curado vistiéronle de ropas preciadas y pusiéronle en unas andas ricas y bien
aderezadas de pluma y oro y estando ya el cuerpo ansi enviárosle al Cuzco con
el cual cuerpo fueron todos los demás señores que allí estaban …
Lastres, 1957:
De todas maneras es necesario decir
que en el quechua o runa simi,
existe la voz muru; y la combinada muru onccoy o enfermedad de mancha, que
puede identificar la viruela, como otros procesos exantemáticos. Los cronistas Pedro Pizarro, Miguel Cabello
Balboa, Antonio de Herrera, Garcilaso Inca, Borregán, Santa Cruz Pachacuti
Yamqui, Sarmiento de Gamboa, Cieza de León, Huamán Poma de Ayala, Anello Oliva,
y los médicos Paredes, Olano, Tello y Arcos, se han ocupado extensamente de
este delicado problema de paleo-patología, abogando por diversos
diagnósticos. Los más opinan por la
viruela, algunos por el tifus exantemático, y otros por el paludismo o la
sífilis. El diagnóstico de viruela no es
improbable dado que Huayna Capac tuvo noticias de la primera expedición
conducida por Pizarro y que llegara al río San Juan. Nordenskjold asevera que indios guaranies
penetraron por el Oriente en el Imperio Incaico en 1526, en lo que es la actual
Sucre (Chuquisaca). Los ejércitos
incaicos rechazaron esta invasión. Todo
esto puede hacer pensar, aunque no [20] con un fundamento valedero, que la
viruela fue conocida por los Incas en cuya caso la epidemiología habría que
hacerla retroceder a los años comprendidos entre 1525 y 1529.