<P> The Tawantinsuyu ("four parts together"; fig . "land of the four quarters") or Inca Empire was a centralized bureaucracy . It drew upon the administrative forms and practices of previous Andean civilizations such as the Wari Empire and Tiwanaku, and had in common certain practices with its contemporary rivals, notably the Chimor . These institutions and practices were understood, articulated, and elaborated through Andean cosmology and thought . Following the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, certain aspects of these institutions and practices were continued . </P> <P> Inca ideology was founded on Andean cosmology . This cosmology was hierarchical and dualistic, with a variety of opposing forces jostling in position through on - going action . Their worldview was animistic, and their amautakuna (teachers or sages) taught that the world was suffused with qamaq, meaning "breath" or "life - force". Change was understood as occurring through asymmetries in power between those forces, while pacha, an equilibrium or balance, was struck through ayni, a process of reciprocal exchange . The essential beliefs and divinities of the Inca pantheon were widely established in the Andes by the time the empire arose . Conrad and Demerest argue that these pre-established beliefs were key to the ideological effectiveness of later Inca reforms . While a belief in any number of "high gods", those preeminent aspects of a given pantheon, were common before the Inca, the elevation of the god Inti to a preeminent position was therefore nothing radical . Likewise, cults of the dead were very ancient in the Andes, and so the worship of deceased, mummified Incas attended to by their descendant panaqa groups was not revolutionary . However, as Conrad and Demerest argue, the "simplification" of these beliefs and rituals, "stressing the solar aspects of the ancient divine complex" in the form of Inti as a patron deity of the empire during the reign of Pachacuti . Furthermore, the inclusion of mummified rulers not just into rituals but festivals and state councils elaborated upon the preexisting Andean practice . "Pachacuti" is an appellation created from pacha, equilibrium, and kuti, an act of overturning; Pachacuti was, therefore, someone whose dynamism and power changed the balance in the world . </P> <P> The Sapa Inca was conceptualized as divine and was effectively head of the state religion . Only the Willaq - Umu (or Chief Priest) was second the emperor . Local religious traditions were allowed to continue, and in some cases such as the Oracle at Pachacamac on the Peruvian coast, were officially venerated . Following Pachacuti, the Sapa Inca claimed descent from Inti, which placed a high value on imperial blood; by the end of the empire, it was common to wed brother and sister . He was "son of the sun," and his people the intip churin, or "children of the sun," and both his right to rule and mission to conquer derived from his holy ancestor . The Sapa Inca also presided over ideologically - important festivals, notably during the Inti Raymi, or "warriors' cultivation", attended by soldiers, mummified rulers, nobles, clerics, and the general population of Cuzco beginning on the auspicious June solstice and culminating nine days later with the ritual breaking of the earth using a foot plow by the Inca himself . Moreover, Cuzco itself was considered cosmologically central, loaded as it was with huacas and radiating ceque lines, and geographic center of the Four Quarters; Inca Garcilaso de la Vega himself called it "the navel of the universe ." </P> <P> Land was conceptualized as ultimately belonging to the Inca, and distributed between the three estates of the empire--the imperial church, the commoners, and the state itself--for their benefit and care according to the principle of reciprocity . When a territory was conquered, its chief huaca was brought to Cuzco and installed in either the Coricancha or Temple of the Sun or to its own, special temple, and was maintained by priests from its home province . This old Andean practice performed two functions; first, as divine hostage holding to ensure loyalty; second, as a sign of piety on the part of Inca rulers . </P>

Who was allowed ownership of the inca land