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Among the most important gods for many Andean societies was Viracocha, a creator god as well as the

god of sea-foam, whose cult probably began among the Tiwanaku Imperium of modern day Bolivia and Southern

Peru. Another important deity among Northern Andean cultures was Moon worship lead by the Chimu and Wari

Empires. But the god who would become the signature god of the Inca Empire was of course to be the Sun, called

Inti by the Incas, and was viewed as the founder of the Inca Dynasty (MacCormack 98, Conrad 107).

The Inca people themselves were native to the city of Cusco in what is now southern Peru. It has been

suggested that their ethnic origins may lie in hand with the Tiwanaku peoples of Lake Titicaca but this is mainly

attributed to legends and myth than any historical correlation. Inca legends focus on two majors aspects, the

creation of the world, and the origins of the Inca peoples (MacCormack 100). What is historically remarkable

about the Inca Empire is that it only really began to become a major political order in the late 15th Century with

the start of the reign of the Inca Emperor Pachacuteq. Since the start of his reign, it only took about eighty some

years for the Inca to conquer the entire Pacific Coast of South America (Conrad 84).

The methods by which the Inca Empire managed to unite the whole of the Andean Region for the first time

in history seems to be strongly linked to the role which religion played throughout the Empire. Among the Inca

themselves, the prevailing view was that they were children of the Sun god Inti, and that the Emperor himself was

the “Son of the Sun” (Conrad 107). In this way, the Inca thought of the Sun as the titular ancestor of their ayllus,

and his authority as both God and huaca secured the Inca’s rights as rulers and the divinity of their Emperor

(Conrad 109). Throughout the Empire, religion was far more syncretic, an aspect which would help the Inca very

much with securing their respect throughout the Empire. With every ayllu that was consolidated into the Empire,

the Inca also adopted that ayllu’s huacas, gods, and traditions. This philosophy of “my gods are your gods” was

also met through a system of reciprocity. The Inca would consolidate the ayllu’s huacas if that ayllu would

similarly consolidate Inti and the huacas of the Inca.

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