Engineered highlands: the social organization of water in the ancient north-central Andes (AD 1000–1480)

Abstract

Recent research in the Late Intermediate Period (ad 1000–1480) north-central Andes has emphasized the segmentary and egalitarian nature of late prehispanic Huaylas communities in the region. This form of devolved power nevertheless conceals investiture of authority in a person or group, albeit temporarily. Given the ubiquitous importance of water in the Andes, I suggest that this type of power could well have rested on special ‘managers’ closely involved in the organization of water and its concomitant hydrological infrastructure, working for the wider community and its leaders. Centring on archaeological evidence from the Cordillera Negra in the Ancash highlands the area demonstrates the development of a complex suite of hydraulic technology. It is this unique setting, including previously sparsely recorded structures such as silt dams and silt reservoirs, which provides the technological suite necessary to test these preliminary ideas. The approach taken here is an attempt to revisit some of Karl Wittfogel's concepts, adapting them to include a community-based bottom-up perspective to the ‘hydraulic hypothesis’.