The book published in Spanish in 1988 synthesizes 50 years of experience, reflections, and investigations by one of the most eminent living Peruvian researchers of the Inca. She describes pre-Inca Cuzco, the beginning of the Cuzco expansion, the war against the Chanca and the construction of the empire, social structure, economic wealth and sources, and models of regional economies.
Rostworowski de Diez Canseco combines her research with the results of historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, and linguists. Her knowledge of written sources and her experience give a very personal flavor to the book. She constantly provokes the reader and obliges him or her to rethink common convictions. For example, she questions T. R. Zuidema’s model of the organization of Cuzco by showing that ancient Cuzco had more lineages that are not considered in Zuidema’s reconstruction (1964). She assumes that the persons described by the tradition as Inca kings were Inca kings but...
