Muisca rulers were so-called "aggrandizers", that is charismatic leaders at the head of various factions, who forged alliances and relations of subordination with various communities and ruled over the Muisca, a pre-hispanic indigenous group of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the Eastern AndesHope Henderson, Nicholas Ostler, Muisca settlement organization and chiefly authority at Suta, Valle de Leyva, Colombia: A critical appraisal of native concepts of house for studies of complex societies, 2005, p. 151, at the center of modern-day Colombia. The Muisca communities did not have a unified political entity, but were ruled by several chiefdoms or cacicazgos, some of which formed confederations of chiefdoms.François Correa Rubio, El sol del poder: Simbologia y politica entre los muiscas del norte de los Andes, 2004, p. 18 At the time of the Spanish invasion, four confederations were thriving in Muisca territory: Bogotá, Tunja, Duitama and Sogamoso.Carl Henrik Langebaek, Mercados, poblamiento e integración étnica entre los Muiscas SIGLO XVI, 1987 Additionally, there were independent chiefdoms in the north-west.Carl Henrik Langebaek, Mercados, poblamiento e integración étnica entre los Muiscas SIGLO XVI, 1987, pp. 38–39 The Chibcha-speaking Guane and Lache were also ruled by the confederation of Guanentá and the confederation of El Cocuy respectively.Blanca Ofelia Acuña Rodríguez, Territorio Indígena de la sal en la Sierra Nevada del Cocuy. S. XVI, 2006Camilo Barrios, Los Guanes: Una comunidad periférica?, p. 26
Power was based simultaneously on prestige and authority,Ana María Boada Rivas, The Evolution of Social Hierarchy in a Muisca Chiefdom of the Northern Andes of Columbia, 2007, p. 9Carl Langebaek, Regional Archaeology in the Muisca Territory: A Study of the Fúquene and Susa Valleys, 1995, p. 29 in the form of rules of succession and a degree of popular consent.Carl Henrik Langebaek, Mercados, poblamiento e integración étnica entre los Muiscas SIGLO XVI, 1987, p. 30 Economically, chiefs (or caciques) are in permanent competition to show strengthen their legitimacy and power (and finance artisanery) by redistributing an accumulated surplus of goods. Chiefs had a distributing role as organizers of Muisca tamsas (erroneously translated as "tributes"), in receiving goods from their subjects and redistributing the accumulated products in exchange for labor.Carl Henrik Langebaek, Mercados, poblamiento e integración étnica entre los Muiscas SIGLO XVI, 1987, p. 47
Muisca chiefdoms and capitanías Muisca chiefdoms were centralized, but not state-like, as communities remained autonomous.Carl Henrik Langebaek, Regional Archaeology in the Muisca Territory: A Study of the Fúquene and Susa Valleys, 1995, p. 27 There were four or five levels of political hierarchy: At the base, there were the minor matrilineal units named uta, which constituted major units (sybyn or zybin); sybyn formed chiefdoms, some of which were organized into confederations. Additionally, some chiefdoms of border-areas of the Bogotá confederation were uzacazgos (like Pasca or Guasca),Uribe Villegas, Martinón-Torres, and Quintero Guzmán, The Muisca Raft: Context, materiality and technology, 2021, p. 301 and represented an intermediate level of hierarchy between chiefdoms and confederations. Generally, a sybyn was a village and uta were groups of houses, however cases ave been documented of sybyn and uta existing independently.Hope Henderson, Nicholas Ostler, Muisca settlement organization and chiefly authority at Suta, Valle de Leyva, Colombia: A critical appraisal of native concepts of house for studies of complex societies, 1995, p. 150 Potentially, there existed groups of one sybyn (major) and one uta (minor) unit, as the Muisca had a dualistic thought.Roberto Lleras Pérez, Las estructuras de pensamiento dual en el ámbito de las sociedades indígenas de los andes orientales, p. 10 Power was loose however, especially when subordinated territoires were far from the political center. In modern-day Colombia, chiefdoms might correspond to municipios and capitanías to veredas.Carl Henrik Langebaek, Regional Archaeology in the Muisca Territory: A Study of the Fúquene and Susa Valleys, 1995, p. 113
The Spaniards called basic matrilineal units, whether sybyn or uta, "capitanías", and the rulers of these entities were called "capitanes" (captains) in Spanish. In muysccubun, a major captain was called sybyntiba or tybarogue, and a minor captain was known as a tybarogue,Ana María Boada Rivas, The Evolution of Social Hierarchy in a Muisca Chiefdom of the Northern Andes of Columbia, 2007, p. 5 utatiba,Eduardo Londoño, El lugar de la religión en la organización social muisca, p. 1 or just uta.Hope Henderson, Nicholas Ostler, Muisca settlement organization and chiefly authority at Suta, Valle de Leyva, Colombia: A critical appraisal of native concepts of house for studies of complex societies, 2005, p. 154
Non-patrilineal heritage of rule The position of the ruler was inherited, but the line of succession was not patrilineal. Instead, the chief was succeeded by his nephew, the oldest son of his oldest sister. There were exceptions, and the ruler's subjects, apparently, had some say in the matter, if only to confirm the successor in his post. Other family members inherited furniture of the chief.José Rozo Gauta, Los Muiscas: Organización social y régimen político, 1978, p. 48
Legitimacy The legitimacy of chiefs was founded on individual prestige and institutional authority. The centre of a chiefs domaine is his cercado or enclosure.Uribe Villegas, Martinón-Torres, and Quintero Guzmán, The Muisca Raft: Context, materiality and technology, 2021, p. 293 The power of chiefs is not measured in terms of gold or money, but by the sumptuous decorations of the cercado's wooden palisades and by the chief's exotic clothing. Inside cercados, the chief possesses multiple structures, including his and his wive's residences and various stockhouses. Powerful chiefs had large cercados, whose vicinity was occupied by markets, feasts and ceremonies, whose surroundings were settled by multiple subordinated entities. However, the traditional interpretation of cercados as places where powerful chiefs, supposedly belonging to an elite composed of lineages, demonstrated their political domination has not been conclusively proven archaeologically, and is most likely to be associated with colonial misunderstandings.Carl Henrik Langebaek, Los Muiscas, 2019, Penguin Random House, p. 266 The cercado legitimised social and political relations as an axis mundi, and as spatial representation of tradition and continuity.Carl Henrik Langebaek, Los Muiscas, 2019, Penguin Random House, p. 263–264 Muisca elites built their legitimacy around the metonymical concept of gue ("house"; by extension "community" as opposed to "gueba", foreigner or sacrifice of foreigners), considered as a living thing, and it's needs (feeding).Hope Henderson, Nicholas Ostler, Muisca settlement organization and chiefly authority at Suta, Valle de Leyva, Colombia: A critical appraisal of native concepts of house for studies of complex societies, 2005, pp. 153–154 Principles of seniority (guexica, "grandfather") and rules of succession (guecha, "uncle" or "warrior"), both related to the "gue" concept, were the basis for the chief's legitimacy.Hope Henderson, Nicholas Ostler, Muisca settlement organization and chiefly authority at Suta, Valle de Leyva, Colombia: A critical appraisal of native concepts of house for studies of complex societies, 2005, p. 159 Polyginy (a form of polygamy) was, contrary to the sayings of some colonial-era writers, most likely a privilege of chiefs and captains.Ana María Boada Rivas, The Evolution of Social Hierarchy in a Muisca Chiefdom of the Northern Andes of Columbia, 2007, p. 7José Rozo Gauta, Los Muiscas: Organización social y régimen político, 1978, pp. 5–7 The chief's main wife was the only true "partner", of the same rank and power as the chief himself.José Rozo Gauta, Los Muiscas: Organización social y régimen político, 1978, p. 21 She was imposed on him by the members the ruling class.José Rozo Gauta, Los Muiscas: Organización social y régimen político, 1978, pp. 12–13 Before assuming their function, chiefs spend multiple years in a closed bohío, before receiving the ear and lip pendants characteristic of their function.Uribe Villegas, Martinón-Torres, and Quintero Guzmán, The Muisca Raft: Context, materiality and technology, 2021, p. 292 Muisca chiefs' seats are similar to the Caribbean duho, as they are low and have an elongated form.
Redistributing the surplus of accumulated goods to the subjects was a fundamental part of achieving legitimacy. Indeed, a certain degree of popular consent was necessary. The chiefs power is individualistic and not institutionalized,Hope Henderson, Nicholas Ostler, Muisca settlement organization and chiefly authority at Suta, Valle de Leyva, Colombia: A critical appraisal of native concepts of house for studies of complex societies, pp. 169–170 and alliances are variously formed with sybyn (major basic units), uta (minor basic units) and individual gue (houses).
Minor capitanías (uta) In some cases, the function of captain of a minor unit was hereditary, and in others it was assigned by the chief.
Role The main role of chiefs was to "feed" and serve of the deities, the settlement (a living thing), and the subjects.Hope Henderson, Nicholas Ostler, Muisca settlement organization and chiefly authority at Suta, Valle de Leyva, Colombia: A critical appraisal of native concepts of house for studies of complex societies, 2005, p. 173 Additionally, the role of the chief was to distribute the accumulated goods during "tamsas", falsely translated as "tributes". The chief of Sogamoso, where the Sun Temple was located, cumulated religious and political functions.José Rozo Gauta, Alimentación y Medicina entre los Muiscas, 1998, pp. 95–96 Reciprocity was practiced between members of the elite.Carl Langebaek, Mercados, poblamiento e integración étnica entre los Muiscas SIGLO XVI, 1987, pp. 47–48 Because of the ambiguity of the Spanish term "capitanía", the exact role of captains (at the head of basic matrilineal units) remains uncertain. There is disagreement between Carl Henrik Langebaek and Jorge Augusto Gamboa on the exact politico.-economic role of chiefs, as the latter argues for a "moduler or cellular" model similar to Mesoamerica.MARTÍN ERNESTO ÁLVAREZ TOBOS, LOS MUISCAS. LA HISTORIA MILENARIA DEL PUEBLO MUISCA, Carl Hnerik Langebaek, doi: https://10.22380/20274688.841, 2020, Fronteras de la Historia
Organization of Muisca territory