House of Women

Purpose / Function

Acllahuasis is an institution that brings together the Mamaconas, who act as teachers, with a credible number of girls, collected as tribute, into a closing regime at the ages of ten and twelve and seventeen.

Design

Portico

A ring of columns support the courtyards' roof and lead to a series of turning corridors that diverge into hundreds of segregating rooms.

Enclosure

There are several notable variations of the basic wall design including gabled roofs, rooms with long sides and rooms that share the outer wall.

Living Quarters

Rectangular two-story buildings that are accessed from the outside via stairways or other high terrain, rather than through the first floor.

Thatched Roofs

The rectangular buildings are without any internal walls and roofed with wooden beams and thatch.

Entries

Enclosure Opening

A single trapezoidal opening fitted with double or triple jambs as a form of ornamentation. Some parts of the walls are painted or adorned with metal plaques, or sculpted with small animals and geometric patterns. A pair of Yellow Fringe guards are posted outside the enterance to ensure no man ever enters.

Sensory & Appearance

Flower Gardens

Small concaves, wall apertures, niches and the odd window are adorned with colourfully scented flowers

Torches

Hallway intersections are well lit at night and emit a continuous glow that halos the compound

Denizens

Chosen Women

Three thousand girls and women drawn from around the world live, learn and work in the complex. The acllas in Tahuantinsuyu, are the women of greater cultural persuasion. These women are chosen and recruited to be taught in the Acllahuas for their political awareness and value as future brides for building alliances.
Most live in tiny apartments furnished with little more than straw bags for beds and a lit pan for light. There is also little privacy. Dressing, conversing and relieving oneself are done in full view of the others. Add to that, many girls are purposefully grouped together with others from historically rivalrous peoples to foster an apathy towards each other.

It is an executable offence for a man to enter the House. For no man can see a woman in such a state and expect to live.

— Mama Kuna Piluta

Inti Brides

Women who married the sun are sworn to celibacy. They wander the halls and serve as disciplinarians, doling out punishments and enforcing the rules.

Mother Superior

Matrons of the Sun oversee the logistical running of the House of Women. They are the primary caretaker of those chosen girls; be it as nurse, instructor or chaperone.

Contents & Furnishings

Tapestries

Floor length embroideries hang at regular intervals over muted white walls. They either depict scenes of animals bordered by geometric patterns.

Backstrap Looms

A personal weaving device of sticks and rope worn around the weaver's waist that produces fabric with a plain over-under-over-under weave pattern.

Valuables

Embroideries

For a more utilitarian purpose, girls are also sent to the Mamacona to serve as a labour force. Innoit nobles servant the girls into producing food and drink and fine fabrics for the Sapa and the nobility, which are then distributed to leal servants, faithful warriors and other valuable people.
Should they wish to; the girls can use spares of the state cloth to fashion unque dresses or small bandannas. It has become an unofficial custom for talented girls to gift clumsily crafted cumpi cloth, made of baby alpaca or vicuña wool, to boys they like in place of a kiss.

Hazards & Traps

Disguised Doors

The entrances to where the girls sleep are well hidden behind weighted tapestries at many of the hallway intersections. The fabric conceals a narrow doorway to a raised threshold that keeps out the cold. And at the other side is another weighted tapestry to long hallways of undecorated rooms. This setup is called the "rape door".

It is a defensive measure. If the compound is ever stormed; the various courtyards, living quarters and work rooms remain separated through these doors. But there are always certain parts of the compound that are out of bounds for other girls, so no one is entirely familar with its layout.
In that way, their forced home is more a maze to them. And in the parts they are allowed, they must keep their rape doors secret; and enter and leave through quickly.

Alterations

Cobblestone Courtyards and Pathways

The many courtyards double as the work areas where the women brew akha and loom over cloth. They are considered to be the center of the girls' home lives as every large courtyard is surrounded by three or four residences; and going into another's apartment is forbidden and enforced by the brides.
They are also open to the crisp mountain air, compared to the stuffy closeness inside.

Architecture

Brick-by-Brick

The compund is made out of fieldstones and semi-worked stone blocks and dirt set in mortar. These features are laid over stone foundations of large rectangular adobe blocks and local stones.

Tourism

Coya

The Sapa's wife, and his daughters, are the only outsiders permitted to see and speak with the virgin women inside the compound. If someone violates this rule, the penalty is death.

Alternative Names

House of Chosen Women

Acllahuasi

Type

Arcology / Residential Complex

Parent Location

Ca-Chisneu

Related Professions

• Marriage Maker

Owner

Piluta

Related Ethnicities

• Innoit

Owning Organization

Tawantinsuyu

Characters in Location

• Piluta

Related Traditions

• Capacocha Ceremony
• Gift of Cloth

Perceptions

I picture a pleasure garden with low clad women giggling playfully among the flowers and bees.

Lounging day and night with nothing to do in each others' embrace.

The most appreciated gifts are coca, women and clothes. All are plentily available inside.