Book Review: The Inka Empire: A Multidisciplinary Approach edited by Izumi Shimada

Abstract

Izumi Shimada, ed. The Inka Empire: A Multidisciplinary Approach . Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015. Pp. 392. $75.00; ISBN: 978-0-292-76079-0. The Inka Empire or Tawantinsuyu (the Quechua name for the “realm of four parts”) was the largest political system to develop in the New World. Tawantinsuyu extended over 2,000,000 square kilometers and encompassed at least 86 ethnic groups from Argentina and Chile to the current border between Ecuador and Colombia. Intriguingly, the Inka ruled their empire without wheeled technologies, markets, money, or phonetic writing systems. Instead, they kept the records of the empire in a complex system of knotted strings called khipus . For that reason, much of what we know of this interesting polity comes from post-conquest sources. This breathtaking collaborative volume, edited by Izumi Shimada, seeks to offer a holistic vision of the Inka empire, placing different disciplines, methods, sources, and perspectives in dialogue. It includes 19 chapters by 23 authors that consider linguistic and genetic evidence along with material culture and historical documents to study Inka origins, imperial infrastructure, administrative strategies, agricultural technology, accounting, architecture and landscape intervention, and political organization, among other aspects. The volume is divided into five parts, prefaced by a useful introductory chapter by Shimada that lays out the book’s aims and …