Why was there no Hunger in the Inca Period?

Why was there no Hunger in the Inca Period?

Food and hunger in the Inca period | Why was there no hunger or malnutrition in the Inca period? In the world there are seven geographical locations where the societies living in those areas were able to domesticate plants and animals, and learned how to maintain their crops or harvest during the months of food shortage; The Andes is one of these places where agriculture started approximately 8000 years ago, mainly the Andes of Peru, where the ancient Peruvians were able to overcome malnutrition and hunger even though the topography is not a friendly geography for agriculture and cattle raising, so let's get to the point why there was no famine and malnutrition in the Inca period? Check it out below and learn a little more about this social achievement made by the Creators of the Potato: The ancient Peruvians!

Thanks to the principles of reciprocity (between ayllus) and redistribution (state to ayllus)

of food between ancient societies, they were able to keep their families out of hunger;

they also developed advanced techniques to dry their food, such as grains, vegetables and

even meat, to preserve it for more years.

Note that the ancient Peruvians used to speak Quechua, the language is still spoken today

and in fact the terms "hunger or famine" do not exist in Quechua language nor in Aimara,

which is a language that was and is spoken in the altiplano! We mention this issue

because a language is also a socio-economic and cultural reflection of a society.

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Contents

Four techniques to preserve food developed by ancient Peruvians

Food Refrigeration in Qollcas

Dehydration of "Chuños" under freezing weather!

Dehydration of "Charqui" under hot conditions!

Dehydration of fruits and vegetables!

An indigenous agricultural society

A picture is worth a thousand words.

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 Four food preservation techniques developed by ancient Peruvians

Food Refrigeration in Qollcas

We have the time of drought and humidity in the Andes and the "Fenomeno El Niño" on the coast of Peru, therefore, pre-Hispanic societies were aware of these climatic problems and learned about food preservation systems, one of them is the use of "Qolqas", which are constructions of ground floor, mud and stone, with very thick walls, Efficient buildings designed to maintain cool temperatures to store food for years, food such as grains, vegetables and meat (Alpaca and Llama), note that the Qolqas were built using volcanic stones, this causes a natural process known as Evapotranspiration that keeps these buildings free of humidity.

Dehydration of "Chuños" under freezing weather!

One of the unique techniques innovated by the indigenous people of the Andes is the dehydration of potatoes at sub-zero temperatures, this process still takes place in some rural areas of the Andes, where the locals wake up very early in the morning at about 4am to start the process, the same day they start drying them in the sun. Once you have the final process, the dehydrated potatoes can even be preserved for 20 years!

Dehydration of "Charqui" under hot conditions!

Indigenous human groups before the Spanish were not only able to domesticate animals, but also to keep the meat of this South American camelid for many years. The process was very simple, the meat was dried under the sunlight, adding a little salt. This type of meat can be used for both main dishes and soups, the source of meat used for this process is the alpaca or llama and in the Andes and the fish was also dehydrated on the coast.

Dehydration of fruits and vegetables!

In the Inca Empire there was no fast transport system like carriages or horses, not even the wheel was implemented, even though these societies had the principle of rotation, but since the geography is mainly made of mountains, it would have been useless to implement the wheel, who or what would pull the cart? Therefore, mainly llamas were used for transport and these animals do not necessarily walk fast with the load on.

Therefore, the llama caravans would take a long time to reach their final destinations and any food they transported to exchange had to be dried, not only meat or fish, but also fruits and vegetables such as seaweed. When fruits or meats are completely dehydrated, they are also lighter! Note that llamas can only carry 30 kg.

An indigenous agricultural society

Definitely, the indigenous people who lived mainly on the coast and in the Andes of Peru were great farmers simply because of their geography, where there were not many animals to hunt like in North America, where the natives owned hunting grounds where they would hunt antelope, bison or caribou.

On the other hand, in the Andes, 5000 years ago, there were some animals like vicuñas or guanacos, which were later domesticated together with guinea pigs (Cuy). But these food sources were not enough, so they had to improve their agricultural techniques and exchange seeds, fruits and more in different ecological places, so nowadays in Peru we have around 5000 varieties of potatoes, 400 types of corn, 3000 types of quinoa, Quiwicha, Tarwi, Cañihua, Ollucos, Ocas, Uncuchas, Sashapapas, Maca, Llacon, etc.

They were also able to domesticate fruits, vegetables and seeds such as: Lucumas, Chirimoyas, Pineapples, Peanuts, Pacaes, Avocados, Poroporos, Granadillas, Capuli, Noga, Noni, Airampo, Ahupalla, Chamburo, etc.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

See the image of the most famous seeds, fruits or comestible roots of the Andes:

POST FROM:

Fwtp. (2022, December 15). La alimentación y hambruna en el período inca - Historia de Los Incas. [Blog post]. Free Walking Tours Peru. Retrieved from https://freewalkingtoursperu.com/es/blog/alimentacion-hambruna-periodo-inca/