Ñusta
Ñusta, which roughly translates to "princess" in the Quechua language, is a term for a highly noble or upper-class woman of Inca or Andean birth.
They also engaged with the process of creating food surpluses, maintain economic prosperity and having multiple opportunities to establishing a stabilized society being part of the Inca civilization.
[3] As noblewomen, ñustas faced a unique form of gendered scrutiny: they were traded with neighbouring communities to forge alliances or perpetuate Inca imperial rule.
[4] For instance, after defeating a polity, the Sapa Inca would often take a wife from the leading family and marry one of his ñusta daughters to his subjects.
[7] When Spaniards arrived in the Indigenous Americas, they themselves adopted the practice of trading women, after observation of the longstanding Inca tradition.
[9] Ñustas involved in these marriages were often conscious of the political weight their title held, and became active agents in the main historical events of this period.
In other words, Inca women would inherit a nobility status through marital privileges, and this automatically granted them access to some of the wealthiest lands and resources.
[10] This could be seen in Ñusta Ines Huaylas Yupanqui who took advantage of her proximity to her conquistador husband to hinder Inca Manco's claim to rule.
[11] Likewise, Ñusta Cuxirimay Ocllo used her elite title and relations with the Spaniards to demand the possession of numerous lands and labourers in the valley of Yucay, near Cuzco.
Along with being surrounded by servants and slaves, much of a ñusta’s social life was spent gossiping, visiting friends, and participating in church-sponsored charities.
[10] Inca men and women did share the bondage and responsibility of taking care of the State's farmland through agricultural activities of harvesting, planting, and plowing.
[14] These hierarchies were deemed sacred; after all, the Coya was the daughter of the Moon, so female alliances ran deep in the imperial cult.
They extended their rule over their empire through a broad network of male and female elite locals who were, throughout their youth, educated in Cuzco on Inca ways of life.
[2] These apprenticeships were a vital process in the population maintenance of the Inca elite as the Coya who hosted these girls was responsible for marrying them to appropriate men in the empire.
During the colonial period, ‘ñusta’ and ‘Coya’ would sometimes be integrated into the names of noblewomen to indicate their general nobility status without specifically designating them as the sole queen or an actual princess.
[2] The Spanish system was strictly patriarchal, whereas Inca societies were based on gender parallelism, as an extrapolation of their religious ideologies.
The societal ideal of male and female co-leadership originated with the Inca religious belief that the gods they worshipped displayed both masculine and feminine traits.
This disparity in clothing highlighted how men wanted to be perceived as more Spanish in order to obtain more authority, whereas the opposite applied to women.
[28] Ñustas were less ‘Hispanicized’ than noblemen, and there was more opposition to female political power in Indigenous societies as colonial ideas of patriarchy persisted.
