PREHISTORIC. MAN IN THE NEW WORLD 
regions of the New World, it gradually developed out of an 
earlier ““Archaic’’ culture and depended primarily on the 
growing of maize. High up in the Andes, a kind of buck- 
wheat known as quinoa came to be raised; and it was in 
Peru, as we have seen, that the “Irish” potato was domesti- 
cated. Other plants cultivated included beans, manioc, 
gourds, and the maguey. The Peruvians terraced the 
sides of the mountains to form fields, and built aqueducts 
and reservoirs for irrigation. 
Western South America has another claim to fame, also, 
in that it alone of all the regions of the New World ac- 
complished the domestication of animals other than the 
dog in aboriginal times. It possessed, fortunately, a wild 
animal, the guanaco, or huanaco, a distant relative of the 
camels of the Old World, which could be utilized in this 
way. From it in time two domestic forms developed—the 
llama, used mainly for carrying loads, and the alpaca, 
valued for its fleece. Another wild species, the vicufia, 
yielded an exceptionally fine wool, reserved in later times 
for the use of the Inca ruler alone. Such progress toward 
civilization implies many centuries of settled life, and 
undoubtedly had already been achieved long before the 
Incas appeared on the scene. 
For the Incas came into prominence comparatively 
late and founded their empire only a few hundred years 
before the discovery of America. They claimed to be 
“Children of the Sun” and formed a ruling nobility held 
in superstitious reverence by their subjects. The Inca 
ruler was a divine king-god, a good deal like the earlier 
Egyptian Pharaohs. In order to keep the sacred blood of 
the royal line absolutely pure, he was required by custom 
to make his full sister his chief wife. 
The Inca Empire, when the Spaniards arrived, had come 
to include not only what is now Peru but also Ecuador, 
Bolivia, northern Chile, and northwestern Argentina. It 
was organized in great detail on a basis of state socialism. 
The common people had almost every act of life from birth 
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