Yanakuna

The yanakuna were people in the Inca Empire who left the ayllu system and worked full-time for the Inca, the quya (queen) or the religious establishment, herding, fishing, making pottery, building and serving in households. The status was often hereditary, and a few yanakuna held high office and owned property. After the Spanish conquest the name passed to Indians in Spanish service, as auxiliaries or in encomiendas, and yanakuna became skilled artisans and free wage labourers, rising from less than 10% of tribute-paying subjects in the late 16th century to about 40% in the late 17th. In Chile, yanacona is now an insult for Mapuche considered to have betrayed their people.