Primer Capitvlo de las Monjas Acllaconas · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Primer Capitvlo de las Monjas Acllaconas
Subject: Nuns; Women; Cloisters; Virgins; Gods; Idols; Inca Empire; Inca; Indigenous; Indigenous Peoples
Period: 1600-1650;
Geographic: Peru; Cusco; Cuzco; South America; West Indies
Description: This image depicts the acllaconas [chosen women] of the Inca Empire. The author explains that nuns were cloistered during the Inca Empire, which is why the image depicts the nuns grouped all together. There were six groups of nuns all dedicated to serving different gods and idols and another six groups of common nuns, all ranging in ages from twenty years old to fifty years old. There are two houses illustrated in the background of the image, which might be to house the two separate groupings of nuns. The woman standing above all the other nuns in the image is labeled as mamacona [high priestess] and there is a caption at the bottom of the image, monjas [nuns], to label the large group of women. Many of them are depicted spinning.
Image Creator: Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala (Illustrator)
Type: Text; Illustration [Manuscript]
Identifier: mta:20471
Language: spa
Source Name: El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno [The First New Chronicle and Good Government]
Parent Collection: Latin American Chronicles
Image: mta_20471_OBJ.jpg