Handbook to Life in the Ancient Inca World

Although it only lasted a few centuries, the Inca Empire quickly became one of the world's most famous pre-Columbian centers of power. Handbook to Life in the Inca World is a comprehensive and accessible examination of the Inca Empire, which stretched across the Andes Mountains in Peru from the 13th century until the invasion of the Spanish in the 16th century. Drawing on archaeology, anthropology, art history, ethnography, and 16th-century Spanish chronicles, this handbook offers a readable, informative, and easy-to-navigate format that explains how the Inca Empire became such an influential and powerful civilization.

Organized thematically, this new book includes an extensive list of further readings with each chapter, a comprehensive bibliography, as well as original line drawings from the conquistadors. Handbook to Life in the Inca World is a necessary addition to any pre-Columbian collection, as well as a useful resource for anyone interested in the Inca world.

Coverage includes:

• Archaeology in the Andes
• Architecture and urbanism
• Art
• The calendar, astronomy, and mathematics
• Daily life
• Economy, industry, and trade
• Evolution of the Andean civilizations
• Funerary beliefs and customs
• Geography
• Military and warfare
• Religion, cosmology, and mythology
• Society and government
• The Spanish conquest and the post-conquest world.

Cohen Suarez and George, both PhD candidates in pre-Columbian art history at CUNY, have compiled a fascinating, browsable, and readable introduction to Inca civilization. The Handbook to Life in the Inca World, intended for general readers, is the most recent volume in Facts On File’s Handbook to Life series, which also includes Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia (2003) and Handbook to Life in the Medieval World (2008). Thirteen chapters include “Inca Civilization and Archaeology”; “Religion, Cosmology, and Mythology”; “Funerary Beliefs and Customs”; “Inca Art”; “Daily Life”; and the “The Conquest and Postconquest World.” Sections, subsections, and further divisions within chapters are well organized to enhance the Handbook’s reference value. For example, “Inca Civilization and Archaeology” includes the section “The Written Record,” divided into subsections covering “Chroniclers,” “Indigenous and Mestizo Authors,” “Missionary Writings,” “Natural History Treatises,” and “Court Documents.” Further breakdowns include individual writers, such as native Andean chronicler Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala, whose drawings appear in the volume. Each chapter ends with a section of further reading, but it may have been more helpful to general readers if this information had been included at the end of specific sections, rather than chapters. There is also a general bibliography at the end of the volume, arranged by author. The scope of the volume is comprehensive; however, some readers may be surprised to find just one or two paragraphs on some topics most recognizable to the general public, such as Machu Pichu. The work is enhanced by 65 illustrations—primarily black-and-white photographs, drawings from primary sources, architectural and archaeological drawings, and thematic maps and city plans. The Handbook to Life in the Inca World is a useful introduction for advanced high-school or undergraduate students or specialists in other fields who would like to refresh and update their knowledge of the Inca. It is highly recommended for undergraduate and university libraries, but it would also be a solid purchase for large public libraries serving those interested in archaeology or in Native American history or high-school libraries with strong Latin American curricula. --Christine Whittington