Looking Back to the Origins: Culture of Peace in the Inca State

Interview with Marco Rodríguez Ruiz

Authors

  • María Cristina Puente Investigadora independiente

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61243/calamo.25.509

Keywords:

Mediation, Customary law, Indigenous law, Conflict resolution

Abstract

In this interview, Dr. Marco Rodríguez Ruiz analyzes how the Inca state developed forms of mediation and peaceful conflict resolution within its customary indigenous law. Based on historical research, he identifies that the curacas (local leaders) acted as mediators within the ayllus (indigenous communities), promoting agreements, tolerance, and a culture of peace, rather than litigation or punishment. Rodríguez Ruiz argues that the Spanish conquest dismantled this ancestral legal system and imposed models foreign to the communities. He also emphasizes the need to integrate legal pluralism and recover ancestral mediation practices within contemporary Ecuadorian law. 

Author Biography

María Cristina Puente, Investigadora independiente

She is a lawyer and holds a Master’s degree in Socio-Environmental Studies. She has advised on the formulation of national and local environmental public policies in Ecuador and has facilitated the design of governance models and regulatory frameworks for the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources. She has experience in public participation processes, facilitating public consultation processes and designing participatory management models in protected areas and indigenous territories. She is also a certified mediator, and her professional practice includes alternative dispute resolution.

References

Bardin, James (ed.). 1918. El reino de los Incas del Perú arranged from the text of Los comentarios reales de los Incas of the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Edición digitalizada disponible en: https://archive.org/details/elreinodelosinc00vegagoog/page/n1/mode/2up

González Suárez, Federico. 1969 (1890). Historia General de la República del Ecuador, Tomo 1. Quito: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana.

Murra, John V. 1987 (1975). Formaciones económicas y políticas del mundo andino. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.

Murra, John V. 1978. La organización económica del Estado Inca. México D.F.: Siglo XXI Editores.

Pease G. Y., Franklin. 1995. Breve historia contemporánea del Perú. México D. F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica.

Rodríguez Ruiz, Marco. 2020. El conocimiento tradicional bajo la sombra constitucional. Quito: Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Corporación de Estudios y Publicaciones. https://repositorio.uasb.edu.ec/bitstream/10644/8149/4/SDS-009-Rodriguez-El%20conocimiento%20tradicional.pdf

Rodríguez Ruiz, Marco. 2016. El valor del conocimiento en el habitante ancestral andino. Ibarra: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana - Núcleo de Imbabura.

Rodríguez Ruiz, Marco. 2007. Los nuevos desafíos de los derechos de autor en Ecuador. Quito: Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Abya Yala, Corporación Editora Nacional. http://hdl.handle.net/10644/214

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Published

2026-07-01

How to Cite

Puente, M. C. (2026). Looking Back to the Origins: Culture of Peace in the Inca State: Interview with Marco Rodríguez Ruiz. Revista Cálamo, (25), 222–230. https://doi.org/10.61243/calamo.25.509

Issue

No. 25 (2026): Mediation as a Path to the Peaceful Transformation of Conflicts

Section

Inteview Section

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Maria Cristina Puente

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