Editing Inca Empire (section)

=== {{anchor|Beliefs}}Beliefs ===
[[File:José Bernardo de Tagle Inti.svg|thumb|upright|[[Inti]], as represented by [[José Bernardo de Tagle]] of Peru]]

The Sapa Inca, the head of upper Cusco,<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Espinoza |first=Waldemar |title=Los Incas |publisher=Amaru Editores |date=1997 |edition=3 |page=297 |language=es |trans-title=The Incas}}</ref> was conceptualized as divine and was effectively head of the state religion. The ''[[Willaq Umu]]'' (or Chief Priest), the head of lower Cusco,<ref name=":5" /> was second to the emperor. Local religious traditions continued and in some cases such as the Oracle at [[Pachacamac]] on the coast, were officially venerated. Following Pachacuti, the Sapa Inca claimed descent from Inti, who placed a high value on imperial blood; by the end of the empire, it was common to [[incest]]uously 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.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}} The Sapa Inca also presided over ideologically important festivals, notably during the ''[[Inti Raymi]]'' or "Sun festival" attended by soldiers, mummified rulers, nobles, clerics and the general population of Cusco beginning on the June solstice and culminating nine days later with the ritual breaking of the earth using a foot plow by the Inca. Moreover, Cusco was considered cosmologically central, loaded as it was with ''huacas'' and radiating ''ceque'' lines as the geographic center of the Four-Quarters; [[Inca Garcilaso de la Vega]] called it "the navel of the universe".<ref>{{cite book |title=An Introduction to American Archaeology: South America |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=J6pGAAAAMAAJ}} |date=1966 |publisher=[[Prentice Hall]] |last=Willey |first=Gordon R. |pages=173–175}}</ref>{{sfn|D'Altroy|2014|pp=86–89, 111, 154–55}}{{sfn|Moseley|2001|pp=81–85}}{{sfn|McEwan|2008|pp=138–139}}