THE ROYAL INCEST OF THE INCA. IN TAWANTINSUYU AS IN EGYPT? In the text "Pachacutec and the dynastic incest", the psychoanalyst Moises Lemlij brought back to these days the incest in the Incan society. Anthropologists, archaeologists and historians express their view about this controversial subject. Two lapidary accusations decided Inca Atahualpa's life: fratricide and incest. For the Spaniards of the XVI century, these acts were the perfect excuse to condemn the last heir of the Tawantinsuyu Empire to die by strangulation; he had ordered to kill his brother Huascar and he also had as his main wife -between other concubines- his sister by maternal bloodline. How much of truth and how much of myth exists around the incest between the Incas? According to the historian Maria Rostworowski, in the Andean society there were not reject to the incest as it used to be between the Europeans, because they had not the concept of "family" based in the connivance of a father, a mother and children. First glances of this matter are in the myths of the beginning of the Tawantinsuyu. "If we analyze these myths -the historian says- you can realize that the father was always murdered or death or simply never exists. Then it is just a binomial between the mother and the son. Even the chronicler Guaman Poma related that Mama Huaco (a founder character of one of the myths) was mother and also wife of his son". The myth of the Ayar brothers clearly exhibits the idea of the correspondence of one sister to each brother. In this myth, Ayar Manco defeats his brothers and establishes the Empire, keeping not only the lands but also the 4 sisters. "As in the majority theocratic societies, the Inca ruler held a divine birth, and there is the key to understand the incest", said the anthropologist Juan Ossio. The Inca's main wife had to have the same divine origin and the only person with this characteristic was his sister by maternal bloodline. The royal couple was in the top of the social pyramid and from this relationship came into being the heir of the throne. Beside the sister of the Inca, he could have many other secondary wives, which generally were the daughters of the defeated curacas that usually offered their women to establish alliances with the monarch in order to maintain social peace". According to Ossio, there are no specific data to confirm that the incest was established in a certain period of time. Rather he upholds that these incest relationships of the Incas governors were attached to one "panaca" (kind of dynasty that gathered all the ancestors of the ruler by maternal bloodline) and conformed the Capac Ayllu. "There is a draw of Murua where all the rulers of the Tawantinsuyu are together, indicating that the names we know as Manco Capac, Sinchi Roca, Lloque Yupanqui, etc., were more a reference of a social position inside the royal panacas than a specific name of the Inca. It is probably that each ruler chose these names during their periods according to a specific myth event." Though, other studies of this issue (Rostworowski y Lemlij) affirm that incest was establish by Inca Pachacutec as a political determination as a safeguard against the bloody confrontations after the death of the Inca because of the lack of definition in the succession line. That is to say, until then the imperial tassel was dispute between the several heirs, whom fought with each other to establish alliances with the main ayllus or to obtain arms. "Wedding his sister the Inca assured that the son of this union will be the only heir, taking out of the political game the other panacas or royal houses" affirm Lemlij. If this is true, just one Inca born of an incest relationship: Huayna Capac, son of Tupac Yupanqui and his sister Mama Ocllo. A POLITICAL MOVE Having as a referent the famous book of Freud Totem and Taboo in which it was establish that the primitive horde had to assassinate the early father and prohibit the incest in order to jump into civilization, the psychoanalyst Moises Lemlij analyze the exception to this rule followed by two great civilizations: the Incas and the Egyptians. The incest was established during the Inca's empire having as a factor a polygamous culture, where the power of the sons was determinate by the importance of the mothers. The Inca used to marry with many espouses to make political alliances, and what happened just before Pachacutec, between all the sons of the death Inca, was a civil war. According to the hypothesis this changed with Pachacutec, because of the Chancas invasion, Viracocha abandoned Cusco, along with his favorite son Urco, and left by his own the youngest one, Cusi Yupanqui. He realized the cowardice of the father and defended the city and overcame the enemies. After this, the young man faced a betrayal of his own father; that wanted Urco to become the Inca and not him, killing his own brother. Then, Cusi took the throne and became "Pachacutec" (the one who orders the world), defeated brother and established incest as a safeguard against a new civil war between his sons as it happened with him. It seems that he used the incest to take out of the politic scenario the other panacas. In this way he assured the maternal bloodline for his descendants. About the real existence of the incest, the chronicle Betanzos is clear. But definitely we can not take a time machine and get back to those days. It may be a confusion of the chroniclers, but there is an event related by Murua which is very interesting. This is the story of the Sayri Tupac and Cusi Urpay siblings, both children of Manco Inca and related to the royalty of Cusco. They asked to the Pope Jules III a dispensation to get marry. The amazing thing is that the Church gave them the permission to proceed with the incestuous marriage because of a political situation: the Spaniards were afraid of a new insurgence leaded by the son of the rebel Inca, whose funeral were the same day of the wedding between his son and daughter in Cusco's Cathedral. Namely the Catholic Church made the same kind of arrangement Pachacutec did: allowed the incest to avoid a war. This shows that at some point the marriage with a sister became a consolidation and legitimation of the political power of the Inca royalty.