The Inca Empire was a powerful nation from the beginning of the fifteenth century until 1572, when the Spaniards captured the last city of the Incas: Vilcabamba in current day Ecuador. Who were these people? How was their medical system organized? What procedures were involved? Today, we'll explore the barbaric and remarkable practices of the long extinct Incas.
The Incas: a powerful nation
The Incas were just in a small tribe in a mountainous region of Peru. However, in less than a century they had developed into a huge empire. The emperor was called the Sapa Inca (the only Inca, shown above) and it was because of the Sapa Incas that their empire covered parts of present-day Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Chili by defeating other tribes. The capital city was called Cuzco and through the rest of the empire the Incas lived in villages. As with any pre-industrial society, agriculture was the backbone of their economy. They cultivated corn, potatoes and cotton among others.. Llamas were used for their wool and organic fertiliser.
The Incas were very advanced in their architecture. They built impressive temples and palaces, but also roads and irrigation systems which are still used until this day. Moreover, they were very religious people. They had multiple Gods, such as Inti (the sun god) and Quilla (the moon god), for whom they held feasts. At these feasts the Incas sacrificed llamas, guinea pigs and sometimes even humans.
The impact of the supernatural on medicine
Religion was very important for the Incas and integral to their everyday life. Medicine and religion were therefore strongly interrelated. They believed that when someone had a disease, this was caused by that person’s sins. So a perfect way to ‘cure’ a disease was by confessing their sins to special priests: ychuri. Besides confessing, they also made sacrifices.
Because of the belief in the supernatural, divination was considered a legitimate source of knowledge. As a consequence, a lot of diviners were present throughout the empire, who predicted the diagnosis, the course of a disease, and its outcome. Furthermore, The diviners used psychoactive substances to make better contact with the gods.
The healers
All in all, religion and magic played a big part in medicine. All treatments consisted of prayer, offerings, and divination. Nevertheless, they were aware of the healing power of plants and some healers also used plants to cure, but magic spells and prayer were still included in treatment.
Different types of healers existed: there were healer-magicians, sorcerers, diviners, and magician-priests. Yet, there were also more ‘conservative’ healers, such as herbalists (hampicamayoc), who knew a lot about plants, and surgeons. Both these groups of healers would still use prayers and ‘magic,’ but their main treatment consisted of plants or surgery.
In general, the healers were very experienced and generally village elders. Their knowledge of specific diseases was quite limited, not going much further than which herbs to use in case of the common cold. Their specialty was the treatment of sores and wounds, through the application of medicinal plants.
Both men and women could become healers. Nonetheless, a midwife would always be a woman. The Spanish conquerors who observed these women, were not very positive about them. According to them, some midwives stated that they had seen in their dreams that they should assist with childbirth. The midwives treated sick pregnant women and massaged the belly to correct the position of the foetus. Midwives also made offerings, performed ceremonies and fasting for a good delivery. Next to this, they sometimes performed abortions in pregnant women by using herbs, bloodletting, and beverages. This was strictly forbidden and they could get penalized. However, midwives would receive a reward from the pregnant woman, so it still happened.
Not everybody could be a healer for the upper social class: a healer for the upper social class or for the Sapa Inca had to be highly educated and was rigorously selected. A healer that would treat the lower social class on the other hand, was mostly just a person that could not do another job. That is why these healers were relatively old.
The hampicamayoc
The hapicamayoc, or herbalist, knew a lot about medicinal plants and knew very well when a herb should be used as treatment. The hampicamayocs were also greatly rewarded. On the other hand, if a relative of the patient blamed the hampicamayoc for causing the death of a patient, this hampicamayoc would be cruelly murdered and his body would be placed over the patient’s grave, so it could be eaten by birds and other animals.
The ruler of the Incas, the Sapa Inca, had his own group of hapicamayocs who would always accompany him on his journeys. Furthermore, it is also suggested that the hapicamayocs were exclusively for the upper class.
Surgery
Cranial surgery was of relatively high quality, and was performed commonly by a surgeon or herbalist. Trepanation, a process comprised of the removal of parts of the brain, involved scraping away part of the skull to make a hole. Trepanation was performed in South America since at least 400 B.C. However, it is not certain if this was for medical purposes and it was found that these trepanations would probably be deadly, since no bone healing was present. The operation was mostly performed to treat trauma from combat. According to research, after many years of improving the surgical procedure, survival rates were almost ninety percent. The healers used Coca, a herb which could reduce pain experience. For preventing infection and inflammation, they used saponins or balsam, which had soaplike properties. Today, a procedure similar to trepanation is done to relieve pressure in trauma patients caused by fluid build-up.
