Rethinking the Inka

Frances M. Hayashida is a professor of anthropology at the University of New Mexico and the director of the Latin American and Iberian Institute.Andrés Troncoso is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Chile.Diego Salazar is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Chile.

Rethinking the Inka Empire brings us new insights into the expansionary motives and methods of the last and largest indigenous state in the Americas as seen from the perspective of the south—the imperial realm known as Qullasuyu—where some of the most exciting research in Inka studies is happening today. In this volume, leading scholars from South America provide a cohesive set of studies that foreground contemporary theoretical concerns with sacred landscapes, material agencies, and social ecologies.— Tamara Bray, Wayne State University, author of The Archaeology of Wak'as: Explorations of the Sacred in the Pre-Columbian AndesThis important and engaging volume brings together recent scholarship regarding the largest sector of the Inca Empire:  Qullasuyu, the vast southern suyu of the Empire of the Four Quarters, Tawantinsuyu. Summarizing recent and extensive archaeological and ethnohistorical research, the contributors explore the dynamic interactions between an expanding empire and indigenous elites and communities, as well as the relations between humans and nonhuman agents such as mountain peaks, sacred shrines, and mines. The result is an invaluable contribution to South American prehistory and a stimulating model for thinking about the global archaeology of empires.— Jerry D. Moore, California State University Dominguez Hills, author of Ancient Andean Houses: Making, Inhabiting, StudyingIn a famous poem on the Inkas, the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda asked, "Stone upon stone, but where are the people?" Rethinking the Inka answers his challenge with richly documented studies of Inka culture and life in the southern quadrant of Qullasuyu, showing the people to be extraordinarily diverse—culturally, materially, and economically—marking a turning point in the archaeology of pre-Columbian America. These studies represent a watershed moment in which archaeologists of the Southern Cone of South America have taken a leadership role in world archaeology.— Bruce Mannheim, University of Michigan, author of The Language of the Inka since the European InvasionRethinking the Inka is a fabulous book. Wide-ranging but well focussed, this volume presents...a roll call of the best, established, present-day researchers working on Qullasuyu archaeology; crucially, aside from Frances Hayashida, all the contributors are South American, lending that all-important regional perspective to the articles. Indeed, the editors should be commended on such a diverse and theoretically engaged group.— AntiquityMy summary of this outstanding volume cannot do justice to all the scholars involved. The editors generously committed to presenting original, exceptional investigations conducted on Qullasuyu's periphery by South American scholars. Rethinking the Inka is an engaging, high-quality collective collection that should be on the shelves of every university library and of researchers interested in the Inca empire and its aftermaths.— Hispanic American Historical Review

• List of IllustrationsList of TablesA Note on OrthographyAcknowledgmentsChapter 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)ContributorsIndex