Content Warning: Brief discussion of sex, ritual murder, colonization of indigenous peoples, genocide, slavery, kidnapping, classism, and misogyny.
In this episode, I tell a central origin myth of the Inca Empire: "Children of the Sun". The Inca, especially those in the higher social classes, saw themselves as educators working under their King, an incarnation of the myth's "Father Sun". The story was probably first told early in the foundation of the Kingdom of Cuzco, as it decrees a particular way of civilizing so-called wild peoples and mythologizes the first ruler, Manco Capac. The re-education process described in the myth would be what the Inca carried out over the 10 Million people they ruled at the height of their power in the Andean mountain range. The tale has also been recorded numerous times by different anthropologists and recounted by a multiplicity of storytellers.
We'll discuss the complicated and lengthy history of the peoples who historically inhabited the Andes, demonstrating that the development of civilization is not a unique occurrence in any capacity, nor is it always bounded by the same set of rules and worldviews. We'll also make sense of the strict gender roles in the myth, the importance of defining humanity in expansive ways, and critiquing the usage of the education narrative by Imperialists and Fascists.
Thank you for listening!
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