Inca Education

The inca education start from the moment of birth, because the new born did not sleep with the parents, the baby sleep in a net hanging from the wall, wrap with warm clothing and with an open area around the face; The baby was never taken on the arms, because the baby could get use to it, so when the baby need to be feed, the mother get her breast close to the mouth of the baby feeding him without holding him in arms.

The next step of the inca education start ones the baby can sit by himself; Now the net hanging from the wall is not need anymore, the baby is place in a kind of hole in the floor with warm clothing around him, with toys of wood or textiles; Right after the baby can walk by himself, the parents start the process of teaching him how to help the family, but without a fix assign responsibility, this process goes until the baby became 3 years old.

Ones the kid became 3 years old, the inca education begun by assigning responsibilities to the kid, the first duties could be grazing animals, helping in the food dehydration and feeding the llamas, dogs and guinea pigs; The parents followed closely the process of psychological growth and maturation of their children, paying special attention to the obedience, respect for others properties and fusion of the child into the cooperative relationships of the community.

The inca education provide by the parents goes from 3 years up to 9 years, progressively assigning to the kid more and more responsibilities, in this period the differences from boys and girls begun; The boys start to learn the secrets of the agriculture, hunting and breeding llamas; The girls start their process of eduction in loom weaving, collecting wild eatable vegetables and the girls were encouraged to imitate the adult inca women behavior.

Until now only the family is providing all the necessary inca education to the child, but ones the kids became 9 years old, the inca government assign a duty to the kids and from that moment, the child is fully integrated into the economical activities of the family, community and society; The boys get the responsibility of hunt birds, for the feathers and the girls get the responsibility of recollect flowers, insects and minerals for dyeing textiles fibers.

At this point, boys and girls had a completely different paths; The girls carry on with their home education becoming experts in textiles manufacture, cooking, dehydration of food, etc; The boys, on the other hand start with physical competitions within them, to test their strength and speed; The competitions of swimming, running and jumping were quite common, the objective was to practice and improve them selfs, for the obligatory military service, when they will became 16 years old.

The boys end their childhood inca education at 14 years old, the girls end it when they had their first menstruation, in both cases it was celebrated by all the community; During the celebration of the end of the childhood and the beginning of the adulthood, boys and girls are assigned a final name that will be use from now on, right after this celebration the boys finalize their physical preparation period and the girls became eligible for marriage, though it was not common to get married so early.

At the age of 20, the royal inca education begun, the men were send to the Yachayhuasi or house of the knowledge and women were send to the Acllahuasi or house of the chosen; For men it was a total of four years of education, the first year was teach language, the second year religion and the third and fourth year they learn how to use the Quipu, as a mathematical tool and as a mimetic way to record events; Only the royal family, authorities families and self earned noble families, had access to this level of education.

The inca education was strict and severe, in some cases when a child had commit a small infraction, they were punished with a pinch in the lobe of the ear, quite painful action, if you realize that every one had very long nails; If the infraction was severe and against the community, both parents must suffer the same punishment that the child, because during the inca time, the parents were full responsible of the actions of their kids.

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