GODDESSES, PRIESTESSES AND VIRGINS In general, the chronicles and colonial documents have limited information related to the role that women played on the Tahuantinsuyu. Although, it is possible to rescue some important data from these and other sources, letting us to appreciate the dynamism and participation that the woman had on the Andean prehispanic society, as on the sociopolitical organization as on the religious ideology, without forgetting the central role that took place in the daily life. It seems that in the Tahuantinsuyu, as in other social organizations arisen on the Andes, the woman position not only was recognized and exalted, it was considered necessary and complementary to the masculine presence on every and different affair: government, war, worship activities and the agnate system. The introduction of the gender studies on the Andean history has let a wider approach on the investigations and it is making possible to claim the woman as a protagonist social actor inside the Andean world vision we hold as a whole. Thereby, regarding the Incan history, many feminine characters had emerged from the chronicles, showing us their political, priestly and even warring qualities. We could se now, with much more clarity that on the cosmological schemes the Incas elaborated the masculine and the feminine represented indivisible forces, which complementary made possible the universal order. What we are going to try on this article is the hard work of actively incorporate the woman on the historic speech of the Tahuantinsuyu, adding concrete feminine characters to the well-known governors and chief warriors whose actions the Hispanic chroniclers seize in a vast way. THE FEMININE DIVINITIES Through the myths recollected from the chroniclers we have been able to recognize the role that the goddesses played on the Andean Pantheon was to provide of the necessary products for subsistence. In front of hers, we found that the masculine divinities were related with natural phenomena such as avalanches, seismic movements, storms, thunderbolts, etc. Between the most important goddesses we found: Pachamama, the fertile ground; Mama Cocha, the sea; Mama Quilla, the Moon; Urpay Huachay, the goddess of the fish and sea birds; Mama Raiguana (from the central region), whom distributed all the alimentary plants between the coastal people and the mountaineers, each one according to its environment. With lower grade appears the Conopas, which personified the spirits of the different cultivated plants; for example, Mama Sara, for the corn; Mama Acxo, for the potato; and Mama Coca, for the coca. The myths seem to remind us to a situation where the feminine influence was very strong, insomuch to obscure the masculine element. On the principal myths it is often the absence of the father figure. He could have died, disappeared, been murdered or, simply, is not mentioned. On his place remains the binomial mother-son. In a same way, the conjugal couple is not mentioned either, but the relationships between siblings are distinguished. This situation has its parallel on the sociopolitical organization, and is expressed on myths such as the Ayar brothers, narrating the Cusco foundation. THE WOMAN ON THE MYTHS Even though on the most diffused versions of the origin of the Incas myth it is said that Manco Capac carried the golden staff that will show the place where Cusco must been founded, Sarmiento de Gamboa's chronicle collects the information that it was Mama Huaco -"stong and skilled woman"- the carrier of the founder staff. On the version that Sarmiento records, Mama Huaco is represented as a woman with masculine attributes that, besides been mentioned as captain of her own army, is well known between the main military chiefs that took possession of the ancient village of Acamada lands, where the Incan capital will be founded. Guaman Poma says that Mama Huaco was a manly, sorceress woman, that used to talk with the boulders, mountains and lagoons, and that is why she exerted a strong influence between the people and inspire fear. The chronicle affirms that when the Incas reach the Acamada village and found a stubborn resistance from the local ethnic groups, Mama Huaco acted in a fierce way, capturing a villager and opening his chest with a tumi (ceremonial knife), in order to rip his lungs and blow inside of them (the same way the clairvoyants used to do to a llama to see the future). This act frightened so much her contenders that they run away from the battlefield, letting Manco Capac and his army occupied the place. Mama Huaco successfully took place on the body fights took place on the battles where the Incas were involved, distinguished for her ability using the haybinto (weapon made up from three stone balls tied with strings that was thrown to the enemy's neck). Besides, her performance in the wars between the Incas and other Cusco's ethnic groups, as the Alcauizas, which were banished from the region, was outstanding. It is evident on the Tahuantinsuyu's foundation myths the presence of two feminine archetypes: the manly figure of Mama Huaco, which stands opposite the motherly figure of Mama Ocllo. The warrior, reckless and bloodthirsty woman in front of the obedient and subordinate woman, dedicated mainly to the agriculture and the weave. Both of them express not only the general characteristics of two mythic feminine characters, but that between them is reproduced, in a certain way, the relationship between the genders. In the other hand, Guaman Poma says that Mama Huaco was the mother of Manco Capac, and after marrying him she become a coya. It shows, hence, that in the Cusco's foundation myth it does not existed the fundamental prohibition of the incest. It does not appear the conjugal couple as the basic social relationship either, but the binomials mother-son and brother-sister. On this relation system, the prohibition that the father performs in the occidental culture inside the Oedipus complex is absent. THE MAMACONAS AND THE ACLLA HUASI The mamaconas were the girls that were taken from their homes to fill the Aclla Huasi or house of the chosen ones. Besides the daughters or sisters of the Inca, whom enjoyed a privileged situation, the women on the Tahuantinsuyu meant for the State work force for the textile manufacture, the preparation of ritual beverages, and a stock of wives when the sovereign needed to ingratiate with a curaca. According with the information collected from the Hispanic chroniclers, the girls chosen for the aclla huasi were between 8 and 10 years old and came from every region of the Tahuantinsuyu. They were divided in different categories according to their origin, beauty and skills. PREISTESSES AND SACRIFICES Although the chronicles are very short regarding the news related with the priestess, there is still some interesting information. The chronicler Pedro Pizarro tells he saw a feminine idol in Apurimac, which priestess was called Asarpay. Trying not to be captured by the Spaniards, the devoted woman preferred to jump into an abyss. Other chroniclers mark that the worship to the moon and the ground was very ancient and its cult was in charge of women. In fact, in Otuzco, at the Cajabamba region, the moon was considered as the guardian of the food and the clothes, and was worshipped by the women. At the Koricancha or Temple of the Sun, at Cusco, the Moon had a special chamber and her priestess belonged to a Cusco's feminine elite. In the Andean world many human sacrifices were done, but only on restricted main events such as the advent of a new sovereign, the death of the Inca, the beginning of the wars, an epidemic scourge and natural disasters. For example, when the Inca wore himself the mascapaicha 200 hundreds of children were chosen, between 4 and 12 years old, beautiful and flawless. They were separated in couples and prepared to be sacrificed as an offering to the Sun, the Thunder, the Moon, and the Huaca Huanacauri. Besides children, maids were also sacrificed, as in the case of Tanta Carhua, daughter of the curaca of Ocros, of 10 years old, that was buried alive in a subterranean chamber. These sacrifices were known as Capac Cocha. This virgin of Ocros, in the province of Cajatambo, was killed as a symbol of the alliance his father established with the Inca. To accomplish this, she was taken on a litter toward Cusco, where she received the homage from the Cusco's elite as it was accustomed, then returned to her lands where finally was sacrificed. Her tomb was worshipped until colonial times, and that is why some parish priests, in their eagerness to eradicate the indigenous cults, could know through the local residents the history of the beautiful Tanta Carhua. Only from the colonial times the Andean woman gradually concedes ground to men, especially in relation with her position in the government organization and their roles as citizens. In the pre-Hispanic Andean world, as we have seen in the exclusiveness of some worship practices, in the domestic scope the man and the woman also conformed an indivisible duality.