The Basic Life as an Inca Mummy

 The Inca empire consisted of a central government with the Inca at its head and four provincial governments with strong leaders: Chinchasuyu (NW), Antisuyu (NE), Contisuyu (SW), and Collasuyu (SE). At its height, the Inca Empire included Peru and Bolivia, most of what is now Ecuador, a large portion of what is today Chile north of Maule River. The empire also extended into corners of Argentina and Colombia. However, most of the southern portion of the Inca empire, the portion denominated as Collasuyu, was desert wasteland.

At the top of Inca society was the emperor, the Sapa Inca. The Incas believed their ruler was descended from the sun god and he was treated with great respect. Below the Sapa Inca were the nobles. Below them were a class of men called curacas. They were not necessarily Incas. When the Incas conquered a people they took the leader's sons and taught them to rule the Inca way. They then became curacas. At the bottom of Inca society were the craftsmen and farmers.

The Inca ruler and the mummies of his predecessors were the most important religious leaders. They were assisted by a hierarchical priesthood headed by the high priest of the Coricancha. Important shrines also had staffs of female attendants who wove cloth and brewed chicha (maize beer) for use in festivals. Most ceremonies involved sacrifices of cloth, chicha, plants, or animals. Important Incas were mummified and typically buried in their finery amid rare objects and provisions that would be needed for the journey to the afterlife. Their long list of burial possessions even included, on some occasions, sacrificed humans. An elaborate ritual life surrounded the mummies of deceased rulers, who were treated as if they were still alive. They were maintained in state in their palaces, and they continued to own the property they had accumulated during their lifetimes. Their descendants managed the mummies' property for them, consulted them as oracles (bearers of messages from the gods), made sacrifices to them, ate and drank with them, took them to visit one another, and brought them out of their palaces to participate in major ceremonies. During important festivals, the royal bundles were moved from their places of rest, and dressed up in the finest garments available in order to attend the festival. The dead also sat in on important meetings and functions, but in all cases were treated with the utmost respect.

The Incas believed that their dead ancestors governed various aspects of their lives, and for this and other reasons were worthy of being worshiped. The bodies of dead rulers were among the holiest shrines in the empire.
 

The mummy bundles served many purposes to the Inca, not only did they provide a strong heritage and history, they also became a link to strengthening power relations.  They still had the remains and could trace the connection of kings all the way back to the first Inca Manco Capac. Incas created songs of each of the deceased lords in order to remember them and their time as king, after each successor a new phrase was added to remember.

Sources:
MacCormack, Sabine. Processions for the Inca: Andean and Christian Ideas of Human Sacrifice, Commission and Embodiement. 2000. Vol 2, Issue 1. p110-140

Zuidema, R.T. Kinship and Ancestorcult in three Peruvian Communities: Hernandez Principe's Account of 1622. 1973. Vol 2, Issue 1, p16-33

MacCormack, Sabine.  The Incas and Their Spanish Historians. 1991. Religion in the Andes. Vol 1. p 80-138

Bauer. The Mummies of the Royal Inca. 2004. Ancient Cuzco. p 159-184.

Doyle, Mary Eileen, Ph.D. The Ancestor Cult and Burial Ritual in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Central Peru. 1988. University of California, Los Angeles.