The Inka Empire: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Description

Massive yet elegantly executed masonry architecture and andenes (agricultural terraces) set against majestic and seemingly boundless Andean landscapes, roads built in defiance of rugged terrains, and fine textiles with orderly geometric designs—all were created within the largest political system in the ancient New World, a system headed, paradoxically, by a single, small minority group without wheeled vehicles, markets, or a writing system, the Inka. For some 130 years (ca. A.D. 1400 to 1533), the Inka ruled over at least eighty-six ethnic groups in an empire that encompassed about 2 million square kilometers, from the northernmost region of the Ecuador–Colombia border to northwest Argentina. The Inka Empire brings together leading international scholars from many complementary disciplines, including human genetics, linguistics, textile and architectural studies, ethnohistory, and archaeology, to present a state-of-the-art, holistic, and in-depth vision of the Inkas. The contributors provide the latest data and understandings of the political, demographic, and linguistic evolution of the Inkas, from the formative era prior to their political ascendancy to their post-conquest transformation. The scholars also offer an updated vision of the unity, diversity, and essence of the material, organizational, and symbolic-ideological features of the Inka Empire. As a whole, The Inka Empire demonstrates the necessity and value of a multidisciplinary approach that incorporates the insights of fields beyond archaeology and ethnohistory. And with essays by scholars from seven countries, it reflects the cosmopolitanism that has characterized Inka studies ever since its beginnings in the nineteenth century. List of Abbreviations vii Chapter 1. Introduction 1 IZUMI SHIMADA Part I. Written Sources, Origins, and Formations Chapter 2. Inkas through Texts: The Primary Sources 23 FRANK SALOMON Chapter 3. The Languages of the Inkas 39 RODOLFO CERRÓN-PALOMINO Chapter 4. Tracing the Origin of Inka People through Ancient DNA Analysis 55 KEN-ICHI SHINODA Chapter 5. Separating the Wheat from the Chaff: Inka Myths, Inka Legends, and the Archaeological Evidence for State Development 67 BRIAN S. BAUER AND DOUGLAS K. SMIT Part II. Imperial Infrastructures and Administrative Strategies Chapter 6. Inka Imperial Intentions and Archaeological Realities in the Peruvian Highlands 83 R. ALAN COVEY Chapter 7. Funding the Inka Empire 97 TERENCE N. D’ALTROY Part III. Inka Culture at the Center Chapter 8. Inka Cosmology in Moray: Astronomy, Agriculture, and Pilgrimage 121 JOHN C. EARLS AND GABRIELA CERVANTES Contentsvi THE INKA EMPIRE Chapter 9. The State of Strings: Khipu Administration in the Inka Empire 149 GARY URTON Chapter 10. Inka Art 165 THOMAS B. F. CUMMINS Chapter 11. Inka Textile Traditions and Their Colonial Counterparts 197 ELENA PHIPPS Chapter 12. The Inka Built Environment 215 STELLA NAIR AND JEAN-PIERRE PROTZEN Chapter 13. Considering Inka Royal Estates: Architecture, Economy, History 233 SUSAN A. NILES Chapter 14. Inka Conceptions of Life, Death, and Ancestor Worship 247 PETER KAULICKE Part IV. Imperial Administration in the Provinces Chapter 15. Collasuyu of the Inka State 265 MARTTI PÄRSSINEN Chapter 16. Reading the Material Record of Inka Rule: Style, Polity, and Empire on the North Coast of Peru 287 FRANCES M. HAYASHIDA AND NATALIA GUZMÁN Chapter 17. Over the Mountains, Down into the Ceja de Selva: Inka Strategies and Impacts in the Chachapoyas Region 307 INGE SCHJELLERUP Chapter 18. At the End of Empire: Imperial Advances on the Northern Frontier 325 TAMARA L. BRAY Part V. Impacts of the Spanish Conquest Chapter 19. Three Faces of the Inka: Changing Conceptions and Representations of the Inka during the Colonial Period 347 TETSUYA AMINO Authors’ Biographies 363 Index 367