Sacred Landscapes and Imperial Ideologies: The Wari Empire in Sondondo, Peru

Abstract

Expanding empires not only establish political and economic bases of control as they consolidate their occupation of new territories, but they also create or modify ideological bases of power in each region. Evidence from the Sondondo Valley suggests that the Wari Empire manipulated local belief systems in order to express its power and legitimate its domination. Wari imperial ideology was expressed through an iconography of power and an imposing style of architecture. Local belief systems can be reconstructed through the use of modern and historic observations combined with archaeological remains, and I identify one and possibly two major shrines that were in use during the Middle Horizon. Among the sites established by the Wari in the Sondondo Valley was Leqles Pata, located in proximity to local shrines in such a way as to exert control over their access and experiential nature. It is not unlikely that Wari strategies of ideological control were tailored to each region, much as were their economic and political reforms. The use of local belief systems as a form of resistance cannot be seen clearly in the case of the Wari occupation, but I cite the Taki Onqoy movement as an example of 16th-century resistance by the people of Sondondo against the Spanish. I conclude that Wari used ideological power as an important component of its imperial project.