CHANGES IN LANDUSE PATTERNS

Part 3: Chimu Property Rights

By JoFlavius

Chimu Funeral Mask

Property rights of the nobility of the Kingdom of Chimor on the North Coast were based on Divine right. Their legends indicate a separate creation for the kings and nobility from that of the commoners. The Dead could intercede on behalf of the living according to their religion. By maintaining a close relationship between the living and the dead, the Chimu upper class could continue to promote their own interests by divine intervention. This cult was a strong regulating mechanism with respect to property ownership, inheritance, and marriage patterns necessary to keep the elite class separate. It also suggests little or no mobility between the classes.

By the 'split inheritance' principle, a dead Chimu king's estates were granted in perpetuity to his heirs as a corporate group. His successor received only his governing position, rights and duties, while the rest of
the group held his property as trustees and served the dead king as they had in his lifetime. This forced the new ruler to build his own palace and acquire his own property. This practice began in the imperial era of the Chimor, and the growth of empire was linked with the royal ancestor cult.

Among the nobility there was a common practice of delegating land to both members of his own community and to members of other communities. The subjects delivered products to the lord the were 'renting' from but did not consider themselves his sunbjects and kept their primary allegience for their own lord. This was a type of 'share-cropping' on the subsistence level. A commoner could have multiple obligations as he worked for his kuraka and his extra-community lord.

Chan Chan of the Chimu