Qvinta Calle Cipascona · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Qvinta Calle Cipascona
Subject: Sipsacona; Young Women; Maidens; Inca Empire; Inca; Indigenous; Indigenous Peoples; Women
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 sipsacona [pretty young women]. These women were thirty-three years old and were deemed to be at a marriageable age. The author explains that no man could marry these women without their personal consent. A young woman with long hair is depicted standing in the centre of the image as she spins yarn. The caption on the image reads “de edad de treynta y tres años, donzelas para casar y acudan a la comunidad y sapci,” which translates to “thirty-three years old, maidens of marriageable age and aid the community and sapsi.”
Image Creator: Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala (Illustrator)
Type: Text; Illustration [Manuscript]
Identifier: mta:20286
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_20286_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Latin American Chronicles
Subject: Sipsacona; Young Women; Maidens; Inca Empire; Inca; Indigenous; Indigenous Peoples; Women