Rethinking the Inka: Community, Landscape, and Empire in the Southern Andes

Rethinking the Inka

Community, Landscape, and Empire in the Southern Andes

Edited by Frances M. Hayashida, Andrés Troncoso, and Diego Salazar

University of Texas Press

Austin

Copyright © 2022 by the University of Texas Press

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

First edition, 2022

Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to:

Permissions

University of Texas Press

P.O. Box 7819

Austin, TX 78713-7819

utpress.utexas.edu/rp-form

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hayashida, Frances M., editor. | Troncoso, Andrés, editor. | Salazar, Diego, editor.

Title: Rethinking the Inka: Community, Landscape, and Empire in the Southern Andes / edited by Frances M. Hayashida, Andrés Troncoso, and Diego Salazar.

Description: First edition. | Austin : University of Texas Press, 2022. | Rethinking the Inka began as papers circulated and discussed by the authors at a three-day workshop held at Villa Virginia in Pirque, Chile, in 2016"–Acknowledgments. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers:

LCCN 2021029506

ISBN 978-1-4773-2385-4 (cloth)

ISBN 978-1-4773-2386-1 (PDF)

ISBN 978-1-4773-2387-8 (ePub)

Subjects: LCSH: Incas–Chile–Congresses. | Incas–Argentina–Congresses. | Incas–Bolivia–Congresses. | Incas–Peru–Congresses. | Incas–Antiquities–Congresses.

Classification: LCC F3429 .R427 2022 | DDC 985/.019–dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021029506

doi:10.7560/323854

Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Tables

A Note on Orthography

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1. Rethinking the Inka: The View from the South

FRANCES M. HAYASHIDA, ANDRÉS TRONCOSO, AND DIEGO SALAZAR

Chapter 2. Sacred Geography, Wak’as, and Inka Colonialism in the Southern Andes

FÉLIX A. ACUTO

Chapter 3. Metals for the Inka: Mining, Power, and Religion in Qullasuyu

PABLO CRUZ

Chapter 4. Copper Rich, Water Poor: Atacama during Inka Rule

DIEGO SALAZAR, JOSÉ BERENGUER R., VICTORIA CASTRO, FRANCES M. HAYASHIDA, CÉSAR PARCERO-OUBIÑA, AND ANDRÉS TRONCOSO

Chapter 5. Landscape, Social Memory, and Materiality in the Calchaquí Valley during Inka Domination in Northwest Argentina

VERÓNICA I. WILLIAMS

Chapter 6. Agency and Sociopolitical Dynamics of the Qullasuyu Inka Frontiers

SONIA ALCONINI

Chapter 7. Between Subordination and Negotiation for Local Autonomy: Regional Perspectives in the Study of Societies in Los Cintis, Southern Bolivia, under Inka Domination

CLAUDIA RIVERA CASANOVAS

Chapter 8. The Inka Construction of Space in the South: Sacred Landscapes, Celebrations, and Architectural Orientation at El Shincal de Quimivil (Catamarca, Argentina)

MARCO A. GIOVANNETTI

Chapter 9. Rituals and Interactional Dynamics: Segmented Societies and Tawantinsuyu in Southern Qullasuyu

DANIEL PAVLOVIC, RODRIGO SÁNCHEZ, DANIEL PASCUAL, AND ANDREA MARTÍNEZ

Chapter 10. Relational Communities, Leaders, and Social Reproduction: Discussing the Engagement between Tawantinsuyu and Local Communities in the Southern Part of Qullasuyu

ANDRÉS TRONCOSO

Chapter 11. Visual Strategies Used in Relations between Tawantinsuyu and the Societies of Qullasuyu: Iconographic Negotiations, Power, and Memory

JOSÉ LUIS MARTÍNEZ C.

Chapter 12. The Role of Chullpas in the Inka Conquest of the Southern Altiplano: A Symmetrical Approach

AXEL E. NIELSEN

Chapter 13. Perspectives on Understanding Qullasuyu

IAN FARRINGTON

Contributors

Index

Illustrations

Figures

Figure 0.1. Participants in the Repensando el Tawantinsuyu desde el Qullasuyu workshop in Pirque, Chile, May 18–20, 2016

Figure 1.1. The four divisions (suyus) of Tawantinsuyu and the location of Cuzco, the Inka capital

Figure 2.1. The Potosí and Chuquisaca regions, Bolivia

Figure 2.2. North Calchaquí Valley, Argentina

Figure 2.3. Cortaderas Bajo site

Figure 2.4. Guitián site

Figure 2.5. Nevados de Cachi area

Figure 2.6. El Apunao site

Figure 2.7. Uña Tambo site

Figure 2.8. The Molinos and Angastaco basins

Figure 2.9. Main Inka sites in central Catamarca, Argentina

Figure 2.10. La Ciudacita site

Figure 3.1. Inka mines and metallurgical sites

Figure 3.2. Prehispanic mines identified in sector of Cerro San Felipe, Oruro, Bolivia

Figure 3.3. Plan view of the Inka mining camp located at the top of Cerro Cuzco

Figure 3.4. Plan view of sector 1 of the pre-Inka site Pulac 050 (Escara, Uyuni) and photograph of furnace H1

Figure 3.5. Wayras and other metallurgical features

Figure 3.6. Photographs of functioning experimental wind-powered furnaces

Figure 3.7. Tambo de Sevaruyo, Oruro, Bolivia

Figure 3.8. The Inka at Potosí

Figure 3.9. Summit of Cerro Porco, Potosí, Bolivia

Figure 4.1. Map of the Southern Andes showing the location of the Atacama region

Figure 4.2. Map of the Atacama region showing known Inka remains and sites

Figure 4.3. Aerial view of Turi showing the Inka plaza, adobe kallanka, and adobe possible domestic compound

Figure 4.4. Plazas and RPC at Inka sites

Figure 4.5. Inka mines from El Abra, on the Upper Loa River

Figure 4.6. Inka fields from the site of Paniri

Figure 4.7. Rumimuqus from the site of Paniri

Figure 4.8. Plan view of the Inkawasi-Abra mining campsite with its central plaza

Figure 4.9. Possible qaqas

Figure 5.1. Tawantinsuyu and the location of the middle Calchaquí Valley, Northwest Argentina

Figure 5.2. Location of Inka sites in the middle Calchaquí Valley, Salta, Northwest Argentina

Figure 5.3. Location of Late Intermediate Period sites in the middle Calchaquí Valley and views of pukaras

Figure 5.4. Agricultural terrace complexes in the study area

Figure 5.5. Map showing the distribution of Inka sites and roads in the middle Calchaquí Valley

Figure 5.6. Agricultural sites in the middle Calchaquí Valley

Figure 5.7. Paths and communication routes between the valleys and puna

Figure 5.8. Blocks with petroglyphs, quchas, and snakelike designs in the middle Calchaquí Valley

Figure 5.9. Engraved stones and remains from metal production

Figure 5.10. Rock art in the study area

Figure 6.1. Map showing the two Inka frontier segments discussed in the chapter

Figure 6.2. Drawing from Guaman Pomade Ayala (2006 [1613]:304–305) depicting the Kallawaya as trusted royal litter bearers

Figure 6.3. Inka Period settlement pattern in the Oroncota Valley and fine architectural style of the Oroncota building complex

Figure 6.4. Example of the terracing system in the Kallawaya region and example of the storage phullu facilities

Figure 6.5. Inka Period settlement distribution in the Kallawaya region

Figure 6.6. Local Yampara-style pottery and imported Huruquilla ceramic excavated in Yoroma (Oroncota Valley)

Figure 6.7. Local Charazani slate ceramic style, Kallawaya region

Figure 6.8. Examples of ceramics in the Taraco Inka Polychrome style recovered in Kaata Pata, Kallawaya region

Figure 7.1. Los Cintis study area in the southern Bolivia valleys

Figure 7.2. Late Regional Development Period settlement pattern, Cinti Valley

Figure 7.3. Agricultural terraces in the Cinti Valley

Figure 7.4. Late Period settlement pattern, Cinti Valley

Figure 7.5. Huruquilla and Late Huruquilla pottery styles

Figure 7.6. Late Regional Development Period settlement pattern, San Lucas region

Figure 7.7. Late Period settlement pattern, San Lucas region

Figure 7.8. Regional center of Sacapampa

Figure 7.9. Late Quillaca ceramics

Figure 7.10. Map of Pututaca (PT-1)

Figure 8.1. Location of the study area in the Inka Empire and map of El Shincal

Figure 8.2. Plaza and usnu positions with reference to the four surrounding hills

Figure 8.3. Western Terraced Hill

Figure 8.4. Special upright stones or monoliths

Figure 8.5. Plan of Complex 19

Figure 8.6. Cobble mound and rock-lined holes for liquid libation offerings

Figure 8.7. Usnu position in relation to the equinox sunrise

Figure 8.8. Solar alignments on the Western Terraced Hill

Figure 8.9. Fragments of Inka vessels from the Discard Zone

Figure 8.10. Examples of large stones with mortars at El Shincal

Figure 9.1. Map of the upper Aconcagua River basin showing elements mentioned in the text

Figure 9.2. Panoramic photo from the El Tártaro site of the middle Putaendo Valley

Figure 9.3. Topographic plan of the El Tártaro site

Figure 9.4. Excavations and wall at the El Tártaro site

Figure 9.5. Small ceramic qiru cup reconstructed from pieces recovered at El Tártaro

Figure 9.6. Cerro Mercachas (flat-topped mountain) as seen from the Aconcagua Valley

Figure 9.7. Georeferenced plan of the Mercachas site and Wall 3 detail

Figure 9.8. Series of enclosures at the Mercachas site

Figure 9.9. Mount Aconcagua as seen from sector 1 of the Cerro La Cruz site

Figure 9.10. Sector 3 of the Cerro La Cruz site, showing the interior space or plaza and sectors and 2

Figure 10.1. Map of the study area indicating the main Inka administrative-ceremonial facilities in the Choapa and Limarí River basins

Figure 10.2. Diaguita petroglyphs with nonfigurative, anthropomorphic, and camelid motifs

Figure 10.3. Diaguita petroglyphs depicting heads

Figure 10.4. Anthropomorphic-zoomorphic Diaguita vessels

Figure 10.5. Inka-Diaguita petroglyphs with non-figurative, camelid, and anthropomorphic motifs, including the Santamariano Human-Shield motif and heads

Figure 10.6. Inka administrative-ceremonial facilities

Figure 10.7. Standing stones and a Diaguita-Inka vessel at Loma Los Brujos

Figure 11.1. Toasts between the Inka and the lord of the Qulla

Figure 11.2. Qiru styles

Figure 11.3. Inka qiru styles

Figure 11.4. Qirus from chullpas

Figure 11.5. Decorated chullpa at Willa Kollu site (Lauca River, Pacajes), with qirus embedded in the lintel

Figure 11.6. Qiru MC-02350

Figure 11.7. Tampu T’uqu motifs

Figure 11.8. Qiru with incised motifs of heads and arms

Figure 11.9. Chuku motifs

Figure 11.10. Chullpas with Inka textile designs

Figure 11.11. Chullpa decorated with what may be an Aymara textile design

Figure 12.1. Location of the main chullpa sites mentioned in the text

Figure 12.2. Examples of chullpa towers

Figure 12.3. Examples of chullpa chambers

Figure 12.4. Late Intermediate Period chambers in a cave at Cueva del Diablo

Figure 12.5. Late Intermediate Period chambers and rock art at Oqañitaiwaj

Figure 12.6. Chullpas flanking the plaza of Bajo Laqaya

Figure 12.7. Intrusive towers built on the ruins of the early Late Intermediate Period village of Itapilla Kancha

Figure 12.8. Examples of low-opening towers in clusters near Inka Period villages

Figure 12.9. Plan of Juchijsa

Figure 12.10. Plan of Llacta Kucho showing the three clusters of chullpas and associated boulders and cists

Plates

Plate 1. Cortaderas Bajo site

Plate 2. El Apunao site

Plate 3. Plan view of sector 1 of the pre-Inka site Pulac 050 (Escara, Uyuni) and photograph of furnace H1

Plate 4. Photographs of functioning experimental wind-powered furnaces

Plate 5. The Inka at Potosí

Plate 6. Possible qaqas

Plate 7. Engraved stones and remains from metal production

Plate 8. Rock art in the study area

Plate 9. Local Charazani slate ceramic style, Kallawaya region.

Plate 10. Examples of ceramics in the Taraco Inka Polychrome style recovered in Kaata Pata, Kallawaya region

Plate 11. Late Quillaca ceramics

Plate 12. Fragments of Inka vessels from the Discard Zone

Plate 13. Small ceramic qiru cup reconstructed from pieces recovered at El Tártaro

Plate 14. Anthropomorphic-zoomorphic Diaguita vessels

Plate 15. Standing stones and a Diaguita-Inka vessel at Loma Los Brujos

Plate 16. Toasts between the Inka and the lord of the Qulla

Plate 17. Chuku motifs

Plate 18. Chullpas with Inka textile designs

Plate 19. Late Intermediate Period chambers and rock art at Oqañitaiwaj

Plate 20. Intrusive towers built on the ruins of the early Late Intermediate Period village of Itapilla Kancha

Tables

3.1. Inka mines identified in the study area

4.1. Radiocarbon dates from Inka Period Atacama

5.1. Radiocarbon dates from Late Intermediate and Inka Period residential and agricultural sites from the middle Calchaquí Valley mentioned in the text

9.1. Relative percentages of ceramic types found at Inka architectural complexes in the Aconcagua Valley

9.2. Absolute dates obtained for Inka architectural complexes in the Aconcagua Valley

12.1. Absolute dates for samples directly associated with chullpas in northern Lípez

12.2. Chullpa site types and their chronology

A Note on Orthography

This volume follows the standard orthography for Quechua and Aymara used in Peru since 1985.¹ Common alternative spellings are given in parentheses at the first appearance of a word. Exceptions are made for most place-names and personal names, unless they are commonly written with the standard orthography. References to specific texts use the spelling of the source.

We realize that the decision to follow the standard orthography results in spellings that are not common in the Inka and Andean archaeology literature, such as qiru for the tall drinking vessel spelled kero, qero, q’ero, or quero in other sources. Many scholars follow the Spanish orthography and varied spellings of colonial writers for Andean languages. Others, moving away from the orthography of the colonizers, use some variant(s) of Quechua orthography or mix Quechua and Spanish conventions. In nearly all cases, the basis for the spellings adopted is not made explicit.

Few earlier dictionaries or other references covering terms relevant to Inka times include the standard orthography. This has changed with recent publications such as the new version of Arte y vocabulario en la lengua general del Perú (Anonymous 2014 [1586]), edited by Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino, which was our primary source. Other sources consulted are listed in the references. These resources make it possible to follow a standard orthography for Quechua and Aymara, just as is done for English and Spanish.

We are grateful to Joshua Shapero and Angélica Serna Jeri for their input, advice, and generous loan of dictionaries while libraries were closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We alone are responsible for all spelling decisions and any errors.

Note

1. The orthography, ratified by Resolución Ministerial 1218–85-ED, is based on recommendations from the Primer Taller de Escritura Quechua y Aimara held at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in 1983 (https://bdpi.cultura.gob.pe/lenguas/quechua and https://bdpi.cultura.gob.pe/pueblos/aimara). Note, however, that there have been debates over the standards. For an introduction to these debates, see Heggarty (2006)

References Consulted

Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua de Qosqo

2005 Diccionario quechua-español-quechua. Municipalidad de Qosqo, Cusco.

Anonymous

2014 [1586] Arte y vocabulario en la lengua general del Perú. Edited by Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino with the collaboration of Raúl Bendezú Araujo and Jorge E. Acurio Palma. Instituto Riva-Agüero, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima.

Carranza Romero, Francisco

2003 Diccionario quechua ancashino–castellano. Iberoamericana, Madrid.

Cerrón-Palomino, Rodolfo

2008 Quechua sureño: Diccionario unificado quechuacastellano castellano-quechua. Biblioteca Nacional del Perú, Lima.

Cusihuaman G., Antonio

1976 Diccionario quechua: Cuzco-Collao. Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, Lima.

Heggarty, Paul

2006 Disputed Issues in Quechua, https://www.quechua.org.uk/Eng/Main/i_ISSUES.HTM.

Hornberger, Esteban, and Nancy H. Hornberger

2008 Diccionario trilingüe quechua de Cusco: Qhiswa, English, castellano. 3rd ed. Centro Bartolomé de las Casas, Cusco.

Layme Pairumani, Félix

2004 Diccionario bilingüe aymara-castellano castellanoaymara. 3rd ed. Consejo Educativo Aymara, La Paz.

Santo Tomás, Domingo de

2006 [1560] Léxico quechua de Fray Domingo de Santo Thomas 1560. Edited by Jan Szemiński. Convento de Santo Domingo—Qorikancha, Cusco.

Soto Ruiz, Clodoaldo

1976 Diccionario quechua Ayacucho-Chanca. Ministerio de Educación, Lima.

Acknowledgments

Rethinking the Inka began as papers circulated and discussed by the authors at a three-day workshop held at Villa Virginia in Pirque, Chile, in 2016 (figure 0.1), made possible through grants from the Pre-Columbian Studies program of Dumbarton Oaks, the Chilean Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (CONICYT USA 2013-0012), and the Dirección de Investigación, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales of the Universidad de Chile (FPCI 10–0416). We thank all three sponsors and are especially grateful to Colin McEwan, then the director of the Pre-Columbian Studies program of Dumbarton Oaks, for his enthusiastic support and his insights into all things Inka. The ideas presented in the papers further benefited from the comments and questions of workshop contributors Tristan Platt, Ana María Lorandi, and Francisco Garrido and attendees Noa Corcoran-Tadd, Ester Echenique, Cristián González, Natalia La Mura, Shelby Magee, Beau Murphy, and Mariela Pino. Pablo Cruz was unable to attend but accepted our invitation to contribute a chapter on his influential work on Inka mining and metallurgy. We also thank Kelly McKenna, then of Dumbarton Oaks, for helping to ensure that the workshop ran smoothly; the administrators and staff of Villa Virginia, for their warm hospitality and delicious meals; and, most of all, the authors, for their contributions, their collegial company, and the chance to exchange and debate ideas and rethink the Inka.

Since the workshop, the field of Andean studies has experienced the tremendous loss of both Colin and Ana María. We are grateful for their many contributions and for our time together in Pirque.

Figure 0.1. Participants in the Repensando el Tawantinsuyu desde el Qullasuyu workshop in Pirque, Chile, May 18–20, 2016. Standing, left to right: Andrés Troncoso, César Parcero-Oubiña, Marco A. Giovannetti, Diego Salazar, Félix A. Acuto, Ian Farrington, Mariela Pino, Cristián González, Noa Corcoran-Tadd, Axel E. Nielsen, Colin McEwan, Francisco Garrido, José Luis Martínez C. Seated, left to right: Natalia La Mura, Daniel Pavlovic, Ana María Lorandi, Verónica I. Williams, Victoria Castro, Tristan Platt, Sonia Alconini, Claudia Rivera Casanovas, Shelby Magee, Beau Murphy, Frances M. Hayashida.

Chapter 1

Rethinking the Inka

The View from the South

Frances M. Hayashida, Andrés Troncoso, and Diego Salazar

Qullasuyu

Extending from the capital of Cuzco toward the south, Qullasuyu was the largest of the four sectors of Tawantinsuyu, the Inka Empire of the Andes. It encompassed a diverse physical and social landscape that included parts of what is now southern Peru, Bolivia (and possibly Brazil just across the eastern border of Bolivia), northwestern Argentina, and Chile as far south as the Cachapoal Valley, south of Santiago (figure 1.1; Pärssinen 2015; Uribe and Sánchez 2016). Multiple lines of evidence—linguistic, genetic, and archaeological—indicate that Inka origins can be traced at least in part to Qullasuyu, specifically the southern shores of Lake Titicaca (Cerrón-Palomino 2015; Pärssinen 2015; Shimada 2015; Shinoda 2015; but see Covey 2017 for a differing opinion). From there, the ancestors of the Inka migrated to the Cuzco region, where they consolidated their power and commenced their campaigns of expansion. Direct dating of Inka contexts has demonstrated that imperial expansion into Qullasuyu began as early as the latter half of the fourteenth century, earlier than suggested by historical accounts of military campaigns and the reigns of Inka kings (Cornejo 2014; Marsh et al. 2017).

In addition to being the largest sector of Tawantinsuyu, Qullasuyu has been the most heavily studied, with an immense body of research produced primarily by South American scholars writing in Spanish. For example, in the five-year period between August 2013 and August 2018, 62 percent (113 of 183) of articles on the Inka indexed in the Web of Science focused on Qullasuyu. Despite this dominance, Qullasuyu scholarship is less widely known and cited by scholars based in North America, most of whom work within modern Peru. This may be partly a result of focusing on research perceived to be most directly related based on proximity but is also arguably grounded in the geopolitics of knowledge production, where publications in English, the dominant academic language and native language of most North American researchers, receive greater attention (Hamel 2007; Lillis and Curry 2013; Paasi 2015). Another example of this imbalance is the striking underrepresentation of South American authors in compilations published in English on the Inka Empire and on Andean archaeology in general, despite the abundance of relevant research by these scholars. This observation should be taken not as a critique of these volumes or their editors but rather as a commentary on prevailing structures of scientific knowledge production, which we should question and challenge for a variety of reasons, including the potential to shift and deepen our understanding of the Andean past.

Figure 1.1. The four divisions (suyus) of Tawantinsuyu and the location of Cuzco, the Inka capital.

The neglect of work on Qullasuyu is unfortunate because Tawantinsuyu was vast, complex, and diverse and therefore impossible to fully understand based only on any one region. It is also unfortunate because scholarship on the southern Inka Empire is empirically rich (typically involving long-term, intensive research carried out on different geographic scales, joining, where possible, archaeological and ethnohistoric evidence) as well as innovative, often drawing on theoretical approaches less well represented in scholarship on other parts of the empire. We highlight these contributions and approaches in the next section before closing with an overview of the volume.

Objectives and Themes

The following chapters introduce readers to the richness and diversity of current archaeological research on Qullasuyu. Significantly, the authors raise issues applicable to the empire as a whole that help us to rethink the Inka and other empires in terms of the relations between the state and indigenous leaders; how imperial dynamics are expressed in and interpreted from the material record; the participation of things as nonhuman beings in the creation of Inka sovereignty and in local social reproduction before and during Inka rule; and the goals of expansion (with some authors emphasizing Inka control of resources, while others question the primacy of economic motivations). Though perspectives differ, all the authors touch on two or more of these themes, which can be linked to larger discussions of the Inka, the Andes, and imperialism and colonialism.

Many of the chapters share an emphasis on long-term research carried out at different geographic scales and focus on the periods both before and during Inka rule to understand the context and consequences of imperial incorporation. Both Alconini and Rivera Casanovas follow the wellestablished practice in the Andes and elsewhere of using systematic settlement-pattern surveys to reveal shifts in organization and political economy (Bauer and Covey 2002; Parsons et al. 2000; Stanish 2001). Through regional comparisons, excavation at Inka sites, and examination of ethnohistoric sources, their work also provides new information on the role and agency of local subject elites who were incorporated into the state administrative hierarchy to different degrees. Some formed close alliances with the Inka in relations that were mutually beneficial, thus calling into question purely top-down models that presume total state control and local dependence.

Martínez, Cruz, Giovannetti, Williams, Salazar et al., Troncoso, Pavlovic et al., and Nielsen discuss the ability of local leaders to negotiate with the state to determine the terms of their affiliation or subjugation and how leadership and local social reproduction persisted or changed following Inka incorporation (see also Platt et al. 2006; Sánchez Canedo 2014). Revealing the agency and roles played by local leaders is central to understanding Inka occupation in provincial spaces (Alconini and Malpass 2010). Local leaders served as a bridge between the state and their communities, facilitating or impeding certain types of sociopolitical dynamics. This is particularly true in zones such as the far southern regions of Qullasuyu, where the distance from Cuzco created greater reliance on (and opportunities for) local leaders.

Although local leaders were a crucial part of state machinery, we know very little about how this relationship worked on the ground, a problem that can be addressed archaeologically. The production, distribution, and consumption of Inka material culture and iconography is a key practice related to Inka power, as the authors of this volume consider but interpret differently. Scholars of the Inka and other empires have grappled with the interplay of colonial, subject, and hybrid material culture in the provinces and its interpretation (Bray 2018; Costin 2016; Hayashida 1999; Julien 1993; Khatchadourian 2016; Liebmann 2015; Mattingly 2011; Menzel 1959; Silliman 2010; Tiballi 2010; Van Oyen and Pitts 2017; Webster 2001; Woolf 1995), though research based on well-dated and provenienced contexts is surprisingly rare in the case of the Inka. While the distribution and adoption of Inka styles can be interpreted as evidence for Inkanization, the collective observations of this volume require us to question the equation of style with identity and the assumption of a simple correspondence between imperial incorporation and the spread of Inka styles. To the contrary, we know that material culture styles are manipulated as part of political strategies and therefore are not a direct reflection of social life but are instead sociopolitical material resources (Hodder 1982; Morris 1995). Thus, as several authors in this volume note, Inka material forms and iconography are actively deployed by local leaders to confirm local political power (see the chapters by Martínez C., Pavlovic et al., and Troncoso).

This scrutiny of the complex relations between humans and things and their varied histories in the imperial provinces corresponds to the growing discussion in archaeology on the participation of things (such as objects, organisms, substances, and places) in political life that has emerged from the ontological and material turns in archaeological and anthropological theory (Bauer and Kosiba 2016; Johansen and Bauer 2018; Khatchadourian 2016; Kosiba et al. 2020; Smith 2015; Swenson and Jennings 2018). An additional consideration for the Andes past and present is that—through their relations with people—things have the potential to be animate superhuman individuals (Salomon 2018:52) with distinct capacities, moods, and appetites who interact with each other and with human beings (Allen 2015:24). Collectively described by Spanish colonial writers as wak’as, they co-resided with people, could be ancestral, and, like human societies, were potentially organized into nested hierarchies of authority, with highly visible landscape wak’as such as mountains occupying high positions (Allen 2015; Castro and Aldunate 2003). Some were oracular and partitive, with doubles, substitutes, or kin that allowed them to travel and reside or be represented in multiple places (Astuhuamán 2008; Curatola 2008; Gose 1996; Topic 2008). Wak’as consumed and were fed both human food (such as maize beer) and nonhuman food (such as shells and minerals) and were embodied in a variety of physical forms, such as outcrops, unusual stones (possible lithified persons), mines, mountains, springs, oddly shaped cultigens, mummies, houses, and other structures (Allen 2015; Bray 2012; Castro and Aldunate 2003; Duviols and Albornoz 1967; Mannheim and Salas Carreño 2015). At the same time, nonhuman beings, together with their human counterparts, have histories that varied across the immense and culturally diverse area that came under Inka control. Widespread ideas and practices may themselves be the consequence of Inka or Spanish colonialism, requiring caution in our assumptions and close attention in each context to human-nonhuman relations before, during, and after Inka rule to fully understand the transformations that occurred (Gose 2016; Kosiba 2015a, 2015b; Swenson 2015; Troncoso, Nielsen, Pavlovic et al., and Williams, this volume).

From historical accounts, we learn that the Inka engaged directly with the significant wak’as that they encountered as they expanded their domain and treated them as political players and potential allies (Astuhuamán 2008; Curatola 2008; Gose 1996). Major provincial oracles or their substitutes traveled annually to Cuzco to offer their prophecies for the coming year (Curatola 2008; Gose 1996). The Inka made offerings to wak’as in their provincial homes, which were recorded by special accountants in Cuzco (Molina 2011 [1575]:78). The Inka also took control of major sources of food (Spondylus [spiny oyster], minerals) for wak’as and appropriated or created agricultural fields whose products were dedicated to their support (Hayashida 2016; Hocquenghem 1993; Rostworowski de Diez Canseco 1970; Sandweiss and Reid 2016; Salazar et al., this volume).

Individual Inka rulers formed alliances with the most powerful panregional oracles, such as Pachacamac, Catequil, and Pariacaca, whose doubles or kin were sent to reside in specific provinces where they received offerings (were fed), engaged with local people, and presumably inserted themselves into existing local hierarchies of superhuman beings (Astuhuamán 2008; Rostworowski de Diez Canseco 1992; Topic 2008). Similarly, doubles of important wak’as from the Inka heartland were established in the provinces (as seen in the renaming of powerful places), bringing Cuzco into the provinces (Cruz, this volume). The Inka created new wak’as in subject territories by sacrificing children, whose mummies were venerated, along with the locations of the sacrifice (Duviols 1976; Gentile 1996; McEwan and van de Guchte 1992; Zuidema 1977), sacralizing existing landscape features (Chase 2015), and placing object wak’as (such as stone ancestors) in state installations (Chase 2015; Meddens et al. 2010; Troncoso, this volume). Inka rulers also had the power to destroy significant wak’as, the best-known example being Atahualpa’s retaliatory attack on Catequil that included leveling the hill embodying the wak’a who had berated the ruler for his cruelty (Betanzos 1996). Finally, the Inka placed themselves as intermediaries between local people and their important wak’as by reorganizing provincial landscapes through the construction of new paths, centers, and shrines that reoriented movement, access, and the visibility of major landscape wak’as (Acuto 2012; Lynch and Parcero-Oubiña 2017; Vitry 2017; Acuto, Giovannetti, Salazar et al., Troncoso, and Williams, this volume).

All these examples reveal the centrality of nonhuman beings to the state and local communities and the impossibility of reducing them simply to symbolic references to religious practices isolated from the rest of life. Inka politics are cosmopolitics. Not only negotiations between humans and nonhumans but also the perceived actions of nonhumans directly affected the logic of human practices within the empire, including those of the state, and fundamentally shaped state-local relations (Bray 2015; Cadena 2015; Shapero 2019; Acuto, Cruz, Giovannetti, Nielsen, Salazar et al., and Troncoso, this volume). An ontological perspective requires us to rethink the dynamics of imperial annexation, occupation, and domination as well as the agency of local communities. Thus, as the combined contributions of this volume demonstrate, explanations of Inka expansion and provincial dynamics that focus solely on economic or territorial gain and neglect the role of nonhumans are incomplete.

Organization and Overview of the Volume

The contributors’ offerings begin with Félix Acuto’s provocative and compelling argument (chapter 2) that Inka expansion into Qullasuyu was primarily driven not by economic concerns but by the establishment of bonds with the holy places and supernatural entities. Acuto draws on research in Potosí and Chuquisaca (see also Cruz, this volume), the northern and middle Calchaquí Valley (see also Williams, this volume), and central Catamarca (see also Giovannetti, this volume) as well as ethnohistorical accounts of Andean beliefs and ritual practices. He observes how the Inka reorganized landscapes, engaged directly with powerful and spiritually dangerous high mountain wak’as, placed themselves as intermediaries between subjects and significant mountain wak’as, and appropriated local places of origin and ancestral peaks in a move to establish themselves as returning ancestors.

Pablo Cruz (chapter 3) explores the Inka relationship with metals and mines through archaeological and ethnohistoric research in the Charcas region southeast of Lake Titicaca, where some of the richest mineral deposits in the empire were located. His work reveals the technology of mining and metallurgy; administration (involving local allies) and organization of labor; and the sacred character of mines, the mountain wak’as where they were located, metallurgical centers and facilities such as furnaces, and metal itself. Many of the deposits in this area belonged to the primary Inka deity, the Sun, as well as to the deity of Lightning, whose origins, like those of the Inka, were in Qullasuyu. The Inka emphasis on establishing sanctuaries and acquiring minerals from specific mountain wak’as (whose ores were particularly valued for their sacred qualities) rather than on maximizing extraction undermines a purely economic explanation for expansion into the region and incorporation of the mines. As Cruz concludes, research into mining and metallurgy in Charcas renders the hypothesis by Raffino (1993) and other authors that Inka expansion into Qullasuyu was driven by a desire to acquire its mines both more convincing and more complex.

A similar argument is made by Diego Salazar, José Berenguer, Victoria Castro, Frances M. Hayashida, César Parcero-Oubiña, and Andrés Troncoso (chapter 4) for the Inka annexation of the Atacama region in northern Chile, an area known in the past and present for its productive copper mineral mines. Few early colonial historical records for the area are available, but we have a wealth of well-dated archaeological evidence for life before and during Inka rule. Here the Inka expanded and intensified copper mineral and turquoise mining, added administrative sectors to important local settlements, created high-altitude shrines and offerings to mountain wak’as, established Inka centers at landscape wak’as associated with the mines, and expanded irrigation agriculture. At the same time, the extracted minerals for the most part were not suitable for smelting into copper metal; instead, ground copper minerals were a favored and necessary food for local wak’as. By controlling the mines, the Inka placed themselves as intermediaries between locals and their wak’as, while strengthening their ability to negotiate directly with powerful nonhuman beings.

Verónica I. Williams (chapter 5) examines Inka landscape transformations in the middle Calchaquí Valley of northwestern Argentina. In the Late Intermediate Period through the Inka Period, residents of the quebradas (ravines) inhabited high hilltop sites that were difficult to access, known as pukaras (pucaras), where their activities were hidden from view. Each pukara was associated with a complex of agricultural fields, carved stones (linked in Qullasuyu with agriculture and mining), and rock art panels. Unlike other areas (such as Atacama and northern Calchaquí: see Salazar et al. and Acuto, this volume), the Inka did not create state sectors in local settlements but instead established entirely new centers where activities would have been highly visible, built high-altitude shrines, created state agricultural fields, and rerouted traffic, creating a new spatial as well as political order. The widespread adoption of rock art and pottery styles associated with the Inka as well as those of other subject groups is also interpreted as part of what Williams calls a new visual discursive resource that conveyed prestige.

A regional approach is also taken by both Sonia Alconini and Claudia Rivera Casanovas, who apply the results of settlement-pattern surveys to understanding the consequences of Inka incorporation. Alconini (chapter 6) compares Inka incorporation of two frontier polities, the Yampara (in southern Bolivia) and the Kallawaya (located east of Lake Titicaca). In both cases, ethnohistoric accounts describe how the lords of the two polities established alliances with the Inka: the Kallawaya lords came to depend on the Inka for status and power, while the Yampara lords were more independent. Settlement within Kallawaya territory, rich in gold and farmlands, was heavily reorganized, with a large influx of mitmaqkuna (state colonists; mitmacona) and agricultural expansion. Status was marked by the use of fine Inka pottery that was also used in feasts. In contrast, though state installations were built in Yampara territory, regional economic and settlement pattern changes were minimal. Status was marked by the use of Yampara-style vessels, perhaps indicating the deliberate inclusion of indigenous materials to ease cultural integration.

Rivera Casanovas (chapter 7) compares two regions in southern Bolivia within the territory of the Qaraqara, part of the powerful Charka Confederacy with whom the Inka ruler Pachakuti established diplomatic relations (Platt et al. 2006). The eventual Inka incorporation of the two regions followed very different trajectories. Cinti, which was more politically centralized and integrated prior to Inka incorporation, was ruled indirectly, with little evidence for reorganization, a consequence of the negotiating ability of Cinti lords. San Lucas was both less integrated prior to Inka rule and rich in mineral resources. Here the Inka established a large administrative center and brought in a sizable contingent of Quillaca colonists. The contrast provides evidence for a high Inka investment where economic gains were high, but the cosmological significance of the mines as a driver of Inka expansion is also considered (see Acuto, Cruz, and Salazar et al., this volume).

Marco A. Giovannetti (chapter 8) argues for the Inka creation of a sacred landscape in his study of the Inka administrative center Shincal de Quimivil and its surroundings in Catamarca, Argentina. The center of the site is a large Inka plaza with a ceremonial platform (usnu or ushnu), which lies at the intersection of two axes that extend between four outlying hills in the four cardinal directions, each of which was modified during Inka rule. The usnu as well as architectural and worked stone wak’as located on the hills were used to observe astronomical phenomena corresponding to important dates in the Inka calendar. Shincal de Quimivil was also an important location for feasts involving both human and nonhuman beings. Numerous bedrock mortars and associated pottery and botanical remains are evidence of the large-scale preparation of food and drink, which included both local (algarrobo [Prosopis sp.]) beer and Inka (maize) beer. At the usnu and other locations at the site, libations to nonhuman beings were poured into stone-filled depressions and along channels carved into stones. These commensal acts in the newly reorganized Inka landscape further reveal Inka dialogue and negotiation with local wak’as.

Daniel Pavlovic, Rodrigo Sánchez, Daniel Pascual, and Andrea Martínez (chapter 9) document Inka attempts to impose a new social and ritual order at the far southern reaches of Tawantinsuyu in the Aconcagua Valley of Chile, where local populations were decentralized and dispersed. Here the Inka built new ritual centers on the tops of hills and mountains, thus appropriating or creating new landscape wak’as organized hierarchically with Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Andes, at the apex and linked to each other by lines of sight. Local people were socialized into the imperial order both through their work constructing the centers, whose walls made of stone and layouts (perimeter walls, controlled access, large enclosures for gatherings, astronomical alignments) have no local antecedents, and through their participation in feasts in these foreign built spaces. The objects used for feasting also played a role in Inka efforts to indoctrinate local subjects. Pottery assemblages are characterized by large percentages of decorated pottery (rare in local residential sites), including highly visible serving vessels in Inka styles.

Andrés Troncoso (chapter 10) combines a landscape perspective with a focus on local leaders and their role in imperial incorporation. Writing about the Limarí and Choapa River basins in Chile’s semiarid north, he highlights how Diaguita leaders of corporate groups mediated between the state and communities and between human and nonhuman beings. Local social reproduction required the intensive production of rock art and interaction with rock art sites. Communities relied on their leaders (themselves depicted in the art) to coordinate these practices that persisted into the Inka period. The Inka established their administrativeceremonial centers in new locations, thus segregating Inka and local public spaces. In these contexts, Diaguita leaders articulated communities with the state as they participated in commensal events and ceremonies that included both Inka (in the form of stone ancestors) and local (in the form of Diaguita vessels) nonhuman beings. Their abilities as mediators created opportunities for Diaguita leaders to increase their privileges, importance, and status, partly expressed through their selective incorporation of Inka motifs and compositional conventions in rock art and pottery.

José Luis Martínez C. (chapter 11) explores the material expression of Inka relations with local leaders through a study of qirus, drinking cups that originated in pre-Inka times in Qullasuyu and were used in ritual toasts to establish political alliances or acknowledge subordination. Local leaders received the toasts of Inka representatives as a sign of their submission and were gifted qirus and other items to mark their relationship with the state. Cuzco qirus were widely distributed in Qullasuyu and have been found associated with burials and embedded in the lintels of funerary towers (chullpas) from Puno to Charcas. Their decorations are visual texts communicating Inka origins and power, messages enhanced by the ceremonial contexts in which they were used. The chullpas with embedded qirus, some decorated to resemble Inka tunics, are Aymara in origin and construction and may have been used by the mallkus [Aymara lords] to reinforce or enhance their internal legitimacy, a visual message oriented to the Aymara themselves. Finally, dressing chullpas in tunics and giving them qirus for toasting suggests their status as lordly nonhuman beings and political actors in Tawantinsuyu.

Chullpas as powerful social actors also participated in the Inka incorporation of the Altiplano northern Lípez region of southwestern Bolivia, as demonstrated by Axel E. Nielsen (chapter 12). Some chullpas (built chambers accessed through narrow, formalized openings) in this region contained burials, but others stored crops and other items, and many received offerings. They also served as conduits between the lived-in world and the underworld, particularly those in caves and rockshelters. Prior to Inka rule, chullpas were also found on the margins of villages and pukaras (fortified villages), with their openings oriented toward habitation areas and associated with the plazas of some of these sites. The plaza chullpas arguably embodied the lineages of resident segmentary groups and participated in plaza commensal activities necessary for social reproduction. With Inka annexation, some of the plaza chullpas and public constructions were destroyed and the pukaras were abandoned. At newly established Inka Period villages, burial chullpas were built in clusters away from the habitation areas. Their openings face east, a practice introduced here and in other parts of the empire by the Inka, suggesting the imposition (or adoption) of new ideas of political legitimacy.

Comments by Ian Farrington (chapter 13) close the volume. Based on the studies presented and his knowledge of Cuzco, Qullasuyu, and other Inka provinces, he reflects on the chronology of and motivations for conquest, strategies of consolidation, and processes of negotiation and diplomacy. As he integrates and analyzes the main themes discussed by the authors already summarized, he also highlights how Inka cosmology drove Inka expansion and defined imperial policies, including the reorganization of provincial landscapes and creation of other cuzcos, the renaming of significant places (using Inka toponyms), the design of provincial Inka centers to incorporate astronomical alignments significant to Cuzco, the establishment of relations with provincial wak’as (including mountain peaks), and the appropriation of mines and agricultural lands. At the same time, Farrington notes the variability and flexibility of Inka rule in the provinces in Qullasuyu and beyond.

In summary, the chapters and commentary introduce readers to the wealth of research being carried out in Qullasuyu, the largest and most intensively studied sector of Tawantinsuyu, on topics relevant to the empire as a whole. Long-term field, documentary, and collections-based projects inform the authors’ perspectives, which emphasize themes of the transformation and resacralization of provincial landscapes; the role of nonhuman beings in community social reproduction as well as imperial policy; the position of local leaders and their ability to negotiate; and how we interpret persistence and change in objects and art during Inka rule. Together, the contributors invite Andeanists and others to reconsider how we study, interpret, and understand the history and dynamics of the Inka and other empires in the ancient world.

References Cited

Acuto, Félix A.

2012 Landscapes of Inequality, Spectacle and Control: Inka Social Order in Provincial Contexts. Revista Chilena de Antropología 25:7–62.

Alconini, Sonia, and Michael Malpass

2010 Toward a Better Understanding of Inka Provincialism. In Distant Provinces in the Inka Empire: Toward a Deeper Understanding of Inka Imperialism, edited by Michael Malpass and Sonia Alconini, pp. 279–299. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City.

Allen, Catherine J.

2015 The Whole World Is Watching: New Perspectives on Andean Animism. In The Archaeology of Wak’as: Explorations of the Sacred in the Pre-Columbian Andes, edited by Tamara L. Bray, pp. 23–46. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.

Astuhuamán, César W.

2008 Los otros Pariacaca: Oráculos montañas y parentelas sagradas. In Adivinación y oráculos en el mundo andino antiguo, edited by Marco Curatola Petrocchi and Mariusz S. Ziółkowski, pp. 97–120. Instituto Frances de Estudios Andinos and Fondo Editorial de la Pontificia Católica del Perú, Lima.

Bauer, Andrew M., and Steven Kosiba

2016 How Things Act: An Archaeology of Materials in Political Life. Journal of Social Archaeology 16(2): 115–141.

Bauer, Brian S., and R. Alan Covey

2002 Processes of State Formation in the Inca Heartland (Cuzco, Peru). American Anthropologist 104(3): 846–864.

Betanzos, Juan de

1996 Narrative of the Incas.