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- Indigenous Incan Socialism
Hello there!
Today, I'll be taking a break from this week's theme to discuss Indigenous Incan Socialism.
The reason I'm sharing this is that what I learned yesterday highlighted some interesting things that aren't often talked about when discussing democracy, capitalism, etc.
Specifically, how culture can impact the effectiveness of governance types and economic models.
How? Let's dive in.
Indigenous Incan Socialism is a documented economic model. El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega wrote "Royal Commentaries of the Incas", one of the earliest histories of the Inca Empire, which detailed its capacity for Native Socialism 🧵 1/
— New Amauta (@AmautaNew)
3:30 AM • Sep 22, 2022
The above tweet is what sparked today's edition, which led me down a rabbit hole of learning about the Inca empire. El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega wrote Royal Commentaries of the Incas, one of the earliest histories of the Inca Empire, which detailed its capacity for "Native Socialism."
Despite what we've been told about pre-Columbian empires being "primitive" in nature - compared to their European counterparts - accounts are emerging discussing how much in awe the Spaniards were of empires like the Incas. If it weren't for the diseases brought by European conquerors (e.g. Spanish conquistadors), they might never have conquered the continent. There's a great book that goes into depth about this called Guns, Germs & Steel, which I highly recommend.
I'm going to re-share what the above tweet contained in the thread:
The Inca idea of "wealth" wasn't tied to money, but family. When the Inca demanded tribute they wanted labor, not gold, such as asking the community to build a road. Those who were "wealthy" were those with bigger families because they would complete their part before others.
There was even a law that the "wealthy" had to give their labor to help someone with a small or no family finish their part of the project. And the tribute was not measured by how much time it took, but only by its completion. Thus the Incas weren't dependent on money.
The law also made special exceptions for children and sick, disabled, and elderly folks. During tribute time, the elderly, sick, and children were exempted from the tax. Disabled folks who are blind and mute worked according to their ability. All work was valuable. Regarding land ownership, all peoples were given a standard plot of land ("tupu" in quechua) to feed them and their partners.
More was added based on how many children they had. But there was also state-run lands that fed the "poor" and soldiers first, before the Inca. To the "poor" (waqcha in Quechua), the state divided plots of land for them only. These lands would be tilled first and communally before all others. In one instance, a chief from Chachapoyas faced capital punishment for tilling his crops before the crops for the poor.
With Incan socialism, the Native peoples of the Andes approached the Socialist ideal "To each according to their ability. To each according to their need." By building an economy without money poverty, nor starvation, the Incas surpassed the European economies of then and now.
In Issue #100, I spoke about Dharmacism and the "eight forms of wealth" borrowed from the Vedas (an ancient Vedic text). Number 6 on that list was Santana Lakshmi (Wealth of Offspring), which looks pretty similar to what is outlined as "true wealth" by the Incas. Of course, we should always be mindful of romanticizing the past, because there were also things our ancestors did that we do not have to worry about today (so we should still be grateful for what we have).
But because the Incas valued family culturally, its society reflected that through both its governance style and economic model. For example, we see this play out when one country tries to apply democracy to a non-Democratic country.
In Singapore, one of its greatest leaders, Lee Kuan Yew, knew that democracy wouldn't work in a classical, Western way. So he took the best of the West, the understanding of the East, and created a system that worked for its benefit. Troubles arise when a nation tries to adopt a governance style, or economic model, too early and too quickly (I see these same types of issues with clients and organizations when going through any form of major change).