![]() ![]() ![]() Furthermore he radically distorts much of Inca history when he states that after Pachacuti there were no more revolts, when he calls the first Chincha raid a success, when he repeats Velasco’s error on the parentage of Atahualpa, etc. He fails utterly, however, to see it as a process. Having changed his earlier point of view, Baudin refers to the Inca empire as “uncouth and unattractive” and as a “mechanism of gloomy perfection.” This is of course a matter of opinion. Inca culture was ceremonial, warlike, dour it was caught in an almost impossible logic of empire while having only the flimsy base of the Peruvian ayllu upon which to create this sophisticated politique-none of this was either mystical or utilitarian. Baudin insists on calling the Peruvian Indian “mystical” and then almost in the same breath “utilitarian.” Such generalizations are unfortunate. This book is in general a confused and ill-digested mass of Inca and non-Inca Peruvian miscellany somewhat like a farmer’s almanac or a medieval bestiary. Considering the time he has devoted to the Peruvian field, one would expect Baudin to have here produced a useful work on Inca culture. First published in 1955, this book is by the author of the well-known L’Empire socialiste des Inka (1928). ![]()
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