VIRACOCHA and the AYLLUS

The house of a typical family, their "WASI" as they called it, was much like all the others. It was a large rectangular room built of field stones and the roof was pitched by tying gnarled branches together.
Houses did not have doors; a woolen tapestry, called "kumpi,"took the place of a door. Nor there were any windows. At an altitude of over 9,000 feet (3,500 meters above sea level) it was too cold, and Incas had no glass for windows. On the floors were woven rush mats. Over these, they laid llama-skin rugs. In niches in the wall were clay images of strange forms to help them to identify the spirit of their gods.
Their "WASI" and the house of five other families, all of them related to each other, formed a sort of square. It had a common yard where the families dried their maize and froze potatoes into CHUNU (dried potatoes).
The houses had been built with the aid of other people of the AYLLU, the basic social unit of the land. Everyone belonged to one. Everyone was born into one and everyone would die in it. All worked together. All helped one another. The AYLLU owned the land; it also owned the Llama herds.
No individual owned land. People were allowed the use of the land to grow crops on it, but they could not sell the land because it belonged to the community. Even the INCA, exalted as he was, belonged to such a community; it was a royal one but an AYLLU just the same.
The Indian People belonging to a given society believed themselves to be of the same kin. So it was a CELL, a social cell. The whole INCA EMPIRE was made up of hundreds of such social cells, some large, some small. Each elected a leader (MACLLU) and was aided by a council, usually old men who had seen life and knew some of its problems.
The structure of INCA society was pyramidal, like a SUN TEMPLE. The broad base was the able-bodied worker (PURIC). Ten workers were controlled by a STRAW BOSS, and ten of these straw bosses had a FOREMAN (being in charge of 100 men). Ten foremen had  a CHIEFTAIN (the leader of a 1000 men). Ten of these chieftains were lorded over by a HOMO-CURACA (chieftain of 10,000 men), and finally, there was an IMPERIAL GOVERNOR (the APO) of each district, who was always a relative of the INCA. At the very summit of the social pyramid was the INCA himself. He was the representative of VIRACOCHA; his mere word could order death.
Coca, which the Incas called the DIVINE LEAF, grew as a high bush in the "yungas," the moist, hot lands East of the Mountains. When it was chewed, the leaf gave relief from cold and hunger. Not everyone was allowed to use it. Only the very old, the priests, the shamans and the Incas were allowed to chew coca. The appropriate vibration level of the neurons was obtained through a very specific rituals involving the use of the leaf in order to communicate with the different entities living in the three different planes in which, according to their beliefs, they existed.
When VIRACOCHA made the World of earth and sky and left it in darkness, he made people to live in it, so he carved stones in the shape of giants and gave them life. The giants displeased him greatly and he had to destroyed them by turning some to stone and overwhelming the rest with a great flood from which there were only two survivors. Then he made a new race his own size to replace the ones he had destroyed.
First, he gave the world light by causing the sun and the moon to emerge from the island of Titicaca. He then modeled each species of animal and tribe. Then he gave men their customs, food, language, and songs and ordered them to descend to the earth to settle. Later Viracocha himself went to the earth to see if people were obeying his commands. Viracocha took the route of the Inca highway.
Because he appeared only as an old man with a staff, many people along the way did not recognized him. Some stone him because they did not like strangers. He called down a fire from heaven which began to burn rocks and so frightened the people that they begged him to forgive them. He took pity, and put out the fire with a blow of his staff. They built a shrine in his honor.
Then Viracocha went to Cuzco where he summoned the inhabitants to come out of a mountain. They honored him. Then he went northward from there toward Ecuador. Here, he said farewell to his people and set out across the Pacific, walking on water.

What was the meaning of an AYLLU in the Incan Empire?

During the TAHUANTINSUYU (land of the for quarters), an AYLLU encompassed all the living and non-living organisms located in a given territory. Each individual living in an AYLLU were thought as a way of communication (symbolic connection) with the earth and at the same time with the other living beings belonging to the AYLLU. Nature and society were  the most important key elements of the community.
The earth was depicted as a tent resting on pegs, with a cover on it. The four different places in which the winds were allowed to escape were the work of heaven.
The land of the empire was considered and still is in some part of the Andes communities, as a collective and indivisible property. The community as a whole own all the lands (URAQPACHA) of an AYLLU. Then the family units ran the QALLPAS that are small plots of land to cultivate. The families are considered the main cells of the AYLLUS, being entitled by the community to the rights and responsibilities that steam from the use of the resources.
During the Inca Empire, the Sapa Inca was at the very high position in the government and distribution of power over the land. The power was understood as similar to the power of the FOUR WINDS towards the FOUR CORNERS of the earth. Thus the land was divided into FOUR QUATERS.
The Inca was considered the descendant of the Sun God Inti, the ruler of the Sun's power in earth. He ruled this power from the capital city CUZCO. Following the Sapa Inca in power were the members of the Supreme Council named the APUS. There were 16 men in the Supreme Council.  Each APU had 4 men, and EACH QUARTER had 4 APUS (16 men in total).
Within the four quarters, the subdivision of the land was called AYLLUS or clans (small communities) ruled by a governor called APU-CUNA whose primary responsibility was to make sure its land and people were working smoothly.
The APU-CUNA placed officials that included army officers, priests, judges and others from the noble class. The tax collectors were placed next to them. There was one tax collector for each AYLLU.
The laborers were the majority of the population, very similar in nature to the bee world in the production of honey. The laborers were the driving force behind the Inca economy and the reason the hierarchical political system was in place.
The Inca system was the most advanced system at the time.