Cities of Violence

Abstract

Sacrifice and related forms of ritual violence were deeply rooted cultural practices in the Andes, fundamental principles of cosmology that framed conceptions of the natural and social world and phenomena closely connected to the exercise of power. This article explores the intimate relationship between political power and ritual violence by examining the institutionalization of social inequality and the production of urban landscapes in the Andes, focusing principally on the Moche culture (AD 100-750) and earlier polities of central and northern Peru. Drawing on theories of Maurice Bloch, data from Mesoamerica will then be analyzed to illuminate cross-cultural parallels of the significance of sacralized violence in processes of prehistoric urbanization. Ultimately, a comparative approach affords a stronger analytical perspective in deciphering the striking inter-dependence of power and ritual homicide in the prehistory of American urbanism.