Abstract
Mutual toasting using pairs of intricately carved wooden cups, called queros, was the fundamental act incorporating local communities into the Inka Empire (AD 1400–1532). These cups then remained in the possession of provincial communities and were used to reaffirm political ties in subsequent state-sponsored events. I argue that the value of these cups derives from their inalienability: they were indelibly imbued with the power of the Inka state and were objects of memory embodying the history of local–imperial relationships. Archaeologically, queros are often found in mortuary contexts, usually as pairs. This suggests that these vessels functioned to authenticate claims to authority vis-à-vis the empire for an individual or kin group. Less frequently, queros are deposited singly and in ritualized non-mortuary contexts. I review archaeological examples and present two new queros from the site of Moqi (Upper Locumba Valley, southern Peru). At Moqi, these queros were used not only to promote a shared affinity with the empire but also to commemorate the sundering of the community's ties to the Inka state on abandonment of the site. Such community expression, at the expense of personal aggrandizement, may have been particularly important at Moqi and other sites constructed and populated de novo by the Inka.
Highlights
Mutual toasting using pairs of intricately carved wooden cups, called queros, was the fundamental act incorporating local communities into the Inka Empire (AD 1400–1532)
Ethnohistoric documents and archaeological data bear witness to the fact that queros, such as those found at Moqi, share many of the attributes of inalienable objects
They were produced by specialized Inka artisans using the empire’s hegemonizing abstract geometric style and, later, resin-inlaid decorations. These vessels did not circulate through mundane exchange transactions but were instead gifted in one direction— from the emperor to representatives of this provincial community—where they would have remained in local possession and perhaps been stored in the high-status structure in the Plaza Alta of Moqi Bajo
Summary
Mutual toasting using pairs of intricately carved wooden cups, called queros, was the fundamental act incorporating local communities into the Inka Empire (AD 1400–1532). These cups remained in the possession of provincial communities and were used to reaffirm political ties in subsequent state-sponsored events. Produced by imperial craftsmen, matched sets of geometrically incised queros played a fundamental role in reciprocal toasting between Inka representatives and the leaders of newly incorporated communities. This act sealed the amalgamation of local people into the empire and their acquiescence to the state’s expectations of labor service.
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