Anthropological History of Andean Polities

Description

This collection of essays by scholars from the Andes, Europe and the United States was originally published in the French journal Annales as a special double issue entitled The Historical Anthropology of Andean Societies. It combines the perspectives of archaeology, anthropology and history to present a complex view of Andean societies over various millenia. The unique features of the Andean landscape, the impact of the Inka state on different regions and ethnic groups, the transformations wrought through the colonial presence and the creation of nineteenth-century republics are all analysed, as are the profound continuities in some aspects of Andean culture and social organisation to the present day. The book reflects some of the most innovative research that occurred in the 1970s and 80s. Apart from its substantive interest for students of the Andes and American civilisations in general, it shows the possibility of closer collaboration between history and anthropology. Cover Frontmatter Contents List of contributors Preface Introduction Part I - Ecology and society 1 - The tropical Andes: a changing mosaic 2 - The evolution of a valley: population and resources of Tarapacá over a millennium 3 - "Horizons" in Andean archaeology Part II - The ethnic group and the state 4 - The expansion of the Inka state: armies, war, and rebellions 5 - Storage, supply, and redistribution in the economy of the Inka state 6 - The extraction of precious metals at the time of the Inka 7 - Vertical politics on the Inka frontier Part III - Systems of classification 8 - Some aspects of the Inka kinship system 9 - The classification and naming of South American camelids 10 - The semiology of Andean textiles: the talegas of Isluga Part IV - Symbolic representations and practices 11 - Inka dynasty and irrigation: another look at Andean concepts of history 12 - Urco and uma: Aymara concepts of space 13 - Mirrors and maize: the concept of yanantin among the Macha of Bolivia 14 - From asymmetry to triangle: symbolic transformations in northern Potosí Part V - From ethnic polities to communities 15 - Men of the water: the Uru problem (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) 16 - The ethnic groups in the valleys of Larecaja: from descent to residence 17 - The Andean community today Bibliography of published source Index