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Mita
Mita (Inca)

Mita was mandatory public service in the society of the Inca. It was effectively a form of tribute to the Inca government, in the form of labor, i.e....
 (Quechua
Quechua

Quechua is a Native American language of South America. It was already widely spoken across the Central Andes long before the time of the Inca Empire, who established it as the official language of administration for their Empire, and is still spoken today in various regional forms by some 10 million people through much of South America, in...
: mit'a) was mandatory public service in the society of the Inca Empire
Inca

The Inca civilization began as a tribe in the Cuzco area, where the legendary first Sapa Inca, Manco Capac founded the Kingdom of Cuzco around 1200....
. It was effectively a form of tribute to the Inca government, in the form of labor, i.e. a corvée
Corvée

Corv?e is labour, often but not always unpaid, that persons in power have authority to compel their subjects to perform, unless commuted in some way, such as by a cash payment; sometimes this was an option of the payer, sometimes of the payee, and sometimes not an option....
. In the Inca Empire, public service was required in community-driven projects such as the building of their extensive road network
Inca road system

Among the many roads and trails constructed in pre-Columbian South America, the Inca road system, or Qhapaq ?an was the most extensive and highly advanced for its time....
; military service was also mandatory, and all citizens who could perform labor were required to do so for a set number a days out of a year (the basic meaning of the word mit'a is a regular turn or a season).






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Mita
Mita (Inca)

Mita was mandatory public service in the society of the Inca. It was effectively a form of tribute to the Inca government, in the form of labor, i.e....
 (Quechua
Quechua

Quechua is a Native American language of South America. It was already widely spoken across the Central Andes long before the time of the Inca Empire, who established it as the official language of administration for their Empire, and is still spoken today in various regional forms by some 10 million people through much of South America, in...
: mit'a) was mandatory public service in the society of the Inca Empire
Inca

The Inca civilization began as a tribe in the Cuzco area, where the legendary first Sapa Inca, Manco Capac founded the Kingdom of Cuzco around 1200....
. It was effectively a form of tribute to the Inca government, in the form of labor, i.e. a corvée
Corvée

Corv?e is labour, often but not always unpaid, that persons in power have authority to compel their subjects to perform, unless commuted in some way, such as by a cash payment; sometimes this was an option of the payer, sometimes of the payee, and sometimes not an option....
. In the Inca Empire, public service was required in community-driven projects such as the building of their extensive road network
Inca road system

Among the many roads and trails constructed in pre-Columbian South America, the Inca road system, or Qhapaq ?an was the most extensive and highly advanced for its time....
; military service was also mandatory, and all citizens who could perform labor were required to do so for a set number a days out of a year (the basic meaning of the word mit'a is a regular turn or a season). Incas who were lazy were hung, stoned, or pushed off of a cliff. Due to the Inca Empire's wealth, a family would often only require sixty-five days to farm; the rest of the year was devoted entirely to the mita. The Spanish conquistadors also utilized the same labor system to supply the workforce they needed for the silver mines, which was the basis of their economy in the colonial period. The conquistadors used the concept of mit'a to suit their own needs.

The Incas elaborated creatively on a preexisting system of not only the mita exchange of labor but also the exchange of the objects of religious veneration of the peoples whom they took into their empire. This exchange ensured proper compliance among conquered peoples. In this instance huacas and pacarinas became significant centers of shared worship and a point of unification of their ethnically and linguistically diverse empire, bringing unity and citizenship to often geographically disparate peoples. This led eventually to a system of pilgrimages throughout all of these various shrines by the indigenous people of the empire prior to the introduction of Catholicism
Catholicism

Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its Theology and doctrines, its Catholic liturgy, Ethics, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
.

The mit'a labor draft is not to be confused with the related policy of deliberate resettlements referred to by the Quechua
Quechua

Quechua is a Native American language of South America. It was already widely spoken across the Central Andes long before the time of the Inca Empire, who established it as the official language of administration for their Empire, and is still spoken today in various regional forms by some 10 million people through much of South America, in...
 word mitma
Mitma

Mitma is a Quechua word meaning "foreigner". It refers to a policy of forced resettlement employed in pre-Columbian times. This practice involved moving some members of an ethnic group from their home territory to distant lands....
 (mitmaq meaning "outsider" or "newcomer"), or its hispanicized forms mitima or mitimaes
Mitimaes

Origin of the NameMitimaes comes from the Quechua word mitma meaning "resettlement". These were originally groups of families taken from their communities by the Inca State and transferred to loyal or conquered towns to perform political, cultural, social, and economic functions....
 (plural). This involved transplanting whole groups of people of Inca background as colonists into new lands inhabited by newly conquered peoples. The aim was to distribute loyal Inca subjects throughout their empire to limit the threat of localized rebellions.

See also

  • Repartimiento
    Repartimiento

    The Repartimiento de Labor was a colonial Unfree labour system imposed upon the indigenous peoples of the Americas and the Spanish East Indies. In concept it was similar to other tribute-labor systems, such as the mita of the Inca Empire or the corv?e of Ancien R?gime in France: the natives were forced to do low-paid or unpaid labor for...
     or "Hard work"


Source

  • The Mountain Institute