Captain of the Antisuyu

This time, I tried a vintage poster-like style inspired by Fox Popvli’s artworks. I’m still not sure whether this worked out well or not, though.

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Antisuyu, the ‘eastern quadrant’, was the eastern part of the Tawantinsuyu (Inca Empire, ‘Realm of the Four Parts’) which bordered on the modern-day western Amazonia.

The Incas divided their empire into four regions (suyu): Chinchaysuyu (north), Antisuyu (east), Collasuyu (south) and Condesuyu (west). Imperial expansion to the Antisuyu started relatively late, during the reign of Tupac Inca Yupanqui (re. 1471~1493). The Inca army encountered severe resistance from the locals, as well as the hostile conditions of the dense Amazon rainforest. Following decades of multiple campaigns, the Empire was able to establish alliances with some groups in western Amazonia. However, they were never able to fully conquer Antisuyu, and the majority of the subjugated groups operated under indirect rule.

This drawing is based mostly on a drawing from El Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno (1615), written by Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala. Guaman Poma (1535~1616?) was a descendant of an Inca noble family, hence his work largely reflects the worldview of the Inca ruling class. He emphasizes the conquest of Antisuyu by presenting elaborate illustrations of two captains (capac) sent by the Incas to conquer the region. One of the captains, Apo Ninarua, is wearing a richly feathered outfit typical of the Amazon region rather than traditional Inca fashion. So, he was most likely from one of the Inca allied groups of the Antisuyu.

The ceremonial attire of the modern Karajá people, who live in central and southern Brazil, shows a striking resemblance to the drawing of Guaman Poma. The fan-shaped feather headdress and red woollen knee tassels are particularly noticeable. I used Karajá fan headdress, bead necklaces, and belt for the drawing. A golden bracelet on the right arm was a privilege of high-ranking officers of the Inca army.

The primary weapon of the Antis were bow and arrows. Guaman Poma draws their bows as being rather small. This is due to stylization and not a naturalistic depiction. 16th-century accounts and modern ethnographies agree that their bows were large, sometimes even longer than two meters. Conquistador Diego Rodríguez de Figueroa mentioned that the Anti soldier he saw in 1565 were armed with bows, clubs, and axes. To reflect this, I included the stone axe based on a modern Karajá specimen.

Ninarua’s whole body is covered with feathers in the Guaman Poma drawing. It can be interpreted as feathers put directly to the body using adhesives, similar to Karajá ceremonial attire. An alternative interpretation is a bodysuit made of feathered textile. Clothing covered with feather mosaics was widely worn across the Americas. The Nahuas of Mesoamerica famously used body-encasing feather costumes—frequently called ‘tlahuiztli’ in literature, but this is a misnomer because the word refers to the entire military paraphernalia, not just the suit—in warfare. I chose the latter because the feathers of Poma’s drawing resemble normal feathers rather than the soft down feathers that were used on the body.

Sources

• Diego Rodríguez de Figueroa, Relación del camino e viaje que Diego Rodriguez hizo desde la ciudad de Cuzco a la tierra de guerra de Manco Inca, 1565

• Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala, El Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno, 1615

• Ian Heath, Armies of the Sixteenth Century: The armies of the Aztec and Inca Empires, other native peoples of the Americas, and the Conquistadores 1450-1608, A Foundry Books Publication, 1999

• Cristiana Bertazoni Martins, Antisuyu: An Investigation of Inca Attitudes to their Western Amazonian Territories, University of Essex, 2007

• Cristiana Bertazoni Martins, The place of Antisuyu in the discourse of Guaman Poma de Ayala, Rethinking the Andes Amazonia Divide: A cross-disciplinary exploration, University College London, 2020