Amauta

Amauta (meaning "master" or "wise one" in Quechua) was a title for teachers in the Inca empire, especially of children of the nobility.

According to Fray Martin de Murua, a missionary in Peru, education in the Inca empire was instituted in schools called Yachaywasi or "Houses of Knowledge" in Cuzco. Students were children of the Inca nobility, the future rulers. The subjects were the moral standards, religious and government tenets, math, science, the Quechua language, history, medicine, religious philosophy and cosmological ideas of the earth and the universe.

The original Yachaywasi was constructed and inaugurated by Inca Roca. More schools like this were built as the empire grew, and were the centers of teaching the primary ideologies, histories and philosophies of the empire. The amautas maintained this knowledge through an oral tradition and passed it on to future generations.

See also

  • Amauta Project, sponsored by the Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología of the OEA (in Spanish)

References

  • Castillo Morales, Juan. Historia del Perú. Editorial Universo. (in Spanish)
  • De la Vega, Garcilaso. The Royal Commentaries of the Incas.
  • Amaruk Kayshapanta. El segreto de los Amawtas. Ediciones Carena. (in Spanish)
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