GLI INCAS | 1969 | METRAUX

Alfred Métraux’s Gli Incas. Profilo storico-antropologico di una civiltà offers a comprehensive, multidisciplinary portrait of the Inca civilization. The book examines its mythologies, political institutions, economy, religious beliefs, urban layout, social structure (including the rulers and peasantry), and the effects of Spanish conquest. Métraux combines historical sources with ethnographic insight, bringing attention both to the achievements of the Inca empire — its organization, art, cosmology — and to its vulnerabilities and the long-term consequences of colonialism. There is a focus not only on the macro-structures (like the state, religion, and class) but also on everyday life, on how people lived, worked, worshipped. The narrative is lucid and accessible, with maps, chronology, bibliography, and an introduction by Ruggiero Romano, making it valuable both to specialists and general readers.