Terzera Calle Pvnoc Paia · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Terzera Calle Pvnoc Paia
Subject: Punoc Paya; Punoc Paia; Old Women; Weaving; Weaving Women; Spinning; Inca Empire; Inca; Indigenous; Indigenous Peoples
Period: 1600-1650;
Geographic: Peru; Cusco; Cuzco; South America; West Indies
Description: The author explains that there were ten paths for women to follow in the Inca Empire based on age division. This group was called the punoc paya [sleepy old women]. These were women who were eighty years old and their duties included serving, weaving, spinning, watching over animals or helping to raise children. They did whatever they were capable of doing given their old age. The old woman depicted in the image is illustrated kneeling with her left hand holding on to a walking stick and her right hand holding her head. The caption on the image reads “de edad de ochenta años, bieja durmilona pasada del todo,” which translates to “eighty years old, sleepy woman who does no work.”
Image Creator: Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala (Illustrator)
Type: Text; Illustration [Manuscript]
Identifier: mta:20284
Language: spa
Source Name: El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno [The First New Chronicle and Good Government]
Parent Collection: Latin American Chronicles; Latin American Chronicles
Image: mta_20284_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Latin American Chronicles
Subject: Punoc Paya; Punoc Paia; Old Women; Weaving; Weaving Women; Spinning; Inca Empire; Inca; Indigenous; Indigenous Peoples