Panakas
An ayllu is a group of families that descended from a common ancestor, united by culture and religion, in addition to the agricultural work, livestock and fishing of the same territory.
[4] During the Inca Empire, most of the land was held by the ayllus (a kinship group whose members were related to one another through descent from a real or fictional common ancestor).
[3]: 42 Moreover each panaca had the task of maintaining one or more of the sacred shrines along the ceques, imaginary paths irradiating form Cusco towards the four Suyus (provinces) of the Tawantinsuyu (Inca Empire).
[6][7] The members of a panaka made up the Sapa Inca's court which was also supported by their deceased ancestors who acted through their descendants, as if they were still alive.
The panakas formed the aristocracy of Cusco, and represented factions and alliances capable of exerting influence in the decisions in the politics and conflicts of Inca history[3] In this sense the panacas, particularly female ones, since the Incas had a long matrilineal tradition, influenced, among other things, the appointment of successors to the Sapa Inka position,[8] elected by the law of the "most capable".
The panakas of Pachacuti Tupac Yupanui were the most important: due to the early expansion of the empire they were owners of great extensions of land with innumerable laborers and servants (yanakuna) in charge of their care and of their social status.
The people could admire the mummies of the deceased Incas during the great festivals in Cusco, when they were exposed in the huge square of Haucaypata.
During this festival the nobility of Cusco that gathered in the main square was divided into ten panakas only, instead of eleven, each associated with one of four suys (or provinces) of the Inca empire.
[3]: 45 The characterization of the term panaca to designate the kinship group of the Sapa Inca, would be a post-Conquest introduction induced by the early Spanish historians.
For their part, all the women of the elite, even daughters of noble parents, called themselves "panas" and constituted kinship groups associated with each of the sectors of power in Cuzco.
[2]: 41 A study carried out by Donato Amado, historian from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru,[16] refers to documents issued by the Real Audiencia (Royal Court), preserved in the Archivo Regional de Cusco (Cusco regional Archive) which include records of purchase and sale of land, reports of inspections by the Spanish authorities, lawsuits, demarcation and land marking in the 16th and 17th century.
He states that research «carried out on the basis of the respective philological examination, shows that the word cannot be affiliated with either Quechua or Aymara, but rather with Puquina, a language in which the verb paña- meant 'to come down, descend'».
[18]: 181 On the contrary the philologist and linguist César Itier suggests a new etymology for the word "panaca" basing on some early colonial writings, particularly those by José de Acosta (16th century Spanish Jesuit missionary and naturalist) and Juan Pérez Bocanegra (author in 1631 of a booklet for the religious teaching to the Inca people).
