Cuzco Region Research Articles

The World of Túpac Amaru: Conflict, Community, and Identity in Colonial Peru

The title of this book is aptly ambivalent: this is a work much less concerned with the study of Túpac Amaru and the formidable indigenous upheaval he headed than with the history of “his world,” broadly understood as the rural area where the leader and most of his followers came from. Focused on Quispicanchis and Canas y Canchis, two provinces of colonial Cuzco that became the core of the Andean insurrection of the early 1780s, this study pursues a very appealing and ambitious goal to present “a close, even intimate, view of the daily life of indigenous villagers” (p. xv). Each chapter, in effect, explores with a great wealth of detail and craftsmanship a particular sphere of the everyday experience of the Andean communities. The mass rebellion itself is only addressed in the last chapter. What the book offers is a painstaking and nuanced portrayal of an Andean society.After reviewing the historical background of the peoples of Quispicanchis and Canas y Canchis, the book examines two scarcely explored subjects in the field of colonial Andean studies. The first is the sexual and family values of rural communities. Although relying on legal disputes, which naturally tend to stress violence and conflict, Stavig makes a systematic effort to discern indigenous conceptions of “abnormal” and “acceptable” behavior in issues like rape, incest, premarital sexual relations, and divorce. The second subject is the customary set of criminal practices in rural villages, fields, and highways, as well as the attitudes toward crime of both peasant and colonial authorities. The book, then, turns to the development of inter- and intra-ethnic agrarian conflicts; the labor relations in obrajes, haciendas, colonial cities, and silver mines; and the individual and communal responses of Indian peoples to fiscal demands, forced labor, and the mercantile economy. The Túpac Amaru rebellion and a succinct overview of the colonial legacies are presented in the last two chapters. While most of the book is based on judicial documents, the section on the insurrectionary process mostly rests on secondary sources.In his reading of particular litigation records and, more generally, in his overall interpretation of colonial relations, the author follows three general principles that readers will find interesting to appraise. First, Stavig emphasizes the importance of face-to-face relationships, as supposed to more structural or systemic patterns, in explaining social conflicts between Indians and power figures, even in a context of widespread unrest like the pan-Andean uprising of 1780. The second argument is that “the value systems of the native peoples, while sometimes reflecting their distinctive roots, were not clearly separated from European convictions” (p. 25), which is particularly apparent in the author’s treatment of gender relations and disciplinary attitudes toward crime (no social bandits are to be found in the Cuzco region). Finally, it is argued throughout the book that a relatively efficient and protective state apparatus of justice allowed natives to resist colonial exactions within the system, from land disputes and labor grievances to taxes and abuses of power. The dependence on the judicial system, in turn, reinforced the ties between colonizers and colonized.A critical comment is perhaps in order. In a long-term history of the main social actors in the mass upheaval led by Túpac Amaru, we would expect tighter connections between the analysis of the insurrection, the specific regional history of Canas y Can-chis and Quispicanchis, and some of the social and cultural topics pursued earlier in the book. While the author does highlight some continuities between previous local conflicts and the political stance of some Indian communities during the rebellion, he could have carried over more systematically the results of his ethnohistorical inquiry to the scrutiny of the causes and dynamic of the movement. But this caveat should not conceal the achievements of a work that represents a welcome addition to the field of Andean studies.

Through the glass darkly : Prehispanic obsidian procurement and exchange in southern Peru and northern Bolivia

Recent discovery of the major geological sources of Central Andean obsidian permits a new understanding of the patterns of obsidian procurement and exchange by the Prehispanic societies of southern Peru and northern Bolivia. Based on the trace element analysis of obsidian artifacts from 160 archaeological sites, it can be established that the two major deposits of obsidian were being exploited by 9400 BP, and that volcanic glass was being transported over long distances throughout Andean prehistory. Inhabitants of the Cuzco region acquired most obsidian from the Alca source in central Arequipa, while those in the high plateau surrounding Lake Titicaca obtained most obsidian from the Chivay source in southern Arequipa. Obsidian evidence suggests close ties between the Cuzco and Circum-Titicaca regions throughout prehistory, except during the Middle Horizon (ca. 1400–1050 BP), when the expansion of the Huari and Tiahuanaco states disrupted this pattern.

Surface rupture associated with a 5.3-mbearthquake: The 5 April 1986 Cuzco earthquake and kinematics of the Chincheros-Quoricocha faults of the High Andes, Peru

AbstractThe shallow, mb = 5.3, 1986 earthquake that affected the Cuzco region reactivated the 18-km-long Chincheros-Qoricocha faults in the central part of the Cuzco fault system. Although the event has a moderate magnitude, clear surface ruptures were observed to total 3 km in length, with maximum 10-cm normal displacements. Fault kinematics related to the earthquake, analyzed where the Qoricocha fault had a maximum surface fault displacement, is in agreement with roughly N-S extension. The normal fault mechanism proposed for this earthquake is compatible with the surface kinematic analysis. Seismic activity prior to the 1986 earthquake is deduced from analysis of Holocene scarps. Trench exposures give evidence for at least three fault displacements, suggesting an average recurrence interval of the order of a few thousand years for surface-rupturing seismic events. These fault reactivations, with vertical displacement ranging from 0.6 to 2 m, were related to seismic events of Mw magnitude probably ranging from 5.8 to 6.9. Structural analyses of Holocene faults indicate that the Chincheros-Qoricocha fault activity was related to roughly N-S-trending extension, characterized by a horizontal N-S-trending σ3 axis and a vertical σ1 axis. The N-S extensional tectonics that controlled the Holocene and 1986 Chincheros-Qoricocha fault activity are the typical deformational pattern of the Peruvian High Andes and seem to be in agreement with compensated high topography.

Ritual Pathways of the Inca: An Analysis of the Collasuyu Ceques in Cuzco

The ceque system of Cuzco was composed of at least 328 shrines (huacas) organized along 42 hypothetical lines (ceques) that radiated out of the city of Cuzco, the capital of the Inca. Ethnohistoric research indicates that the system was conceptually linked to, and essentially reproduced, the fundamental social, political, spatial, and temporal divisions of the Cuzco region and Inca society. As such the ceque system is one of the most complex, indigenous Prehispanic ritual systems known in the Americas. This article summarizes the basic organizational features of the ceque system according to ethnohistorians and reviews the current literature. Archaeological data document the likely positions of 85 shrines and the probable courses of nine ceques in Collasuyu, the southeast quarter of the Cuzco Valley. The courses of the nine Collasuyu ceques are then compared with predicted courses set forth in current models of the system. The findings suggest that numerous internal inconsistencies, if not errors, exist in the seventeenth-century documentary source that describes the ceque system and that the courses of the ceques may have varied far more than is suggested in the literature.

Palaeostress determinations from fault kinematics: application to the neotectonics of the Himalayas-Tibet and the Central Andes

This paper concerns the determination of the stress deviator from a set of striated faults or of focal mechanisms of earthquakes. Southern Tibet and the Cuzco region of the High Andes illustrate the applied methodology. Then, the spatial and temporal changes in the tectonic regimes of Tibet and Central Andes are briefly examined. The Quaternary—Present-day stress patterns in these two high plateaus favour models explaining the spatial changes in the state of stress at a large wavelength as a result of a compensated elevated topography. Major temporal changes in the tectonic regimes are attributed tentatively to uplift for the Tibetan plateau and, for the already elevated Andean Plateau, to changes in the magnitude of the boundary forces due to subduction processes .

Plio-Quaternary geodynamic evolution of a segment of the Peruvian Andean Cordillera located above the change in the subduction geometry: the Cuzco region

The Cuzco region, which is located above a change in subduction geometry, appears to be characterized by a variable Plio-Quaternary tectono-sedimentary evolution essentially located along the major fault system that separates the High Plateaux from the Eastern Cordillera. After the higher surface formation of the High Plateaux, a set of Neogene basins were filled by Miocene “ fluvio-torrential” series and by Plio-Pleistocene fluvio-lacustrine deposits. The Neogene series have been affected by compressional tectonic forces attributed to the Late Miocene. This compression is followed by roughly E-W trending syn-sedimentary extensional tectonics attributed to the Pliocene; it is related to reactivation of the pre-existing major faults, basin evolution, and volcanic activity concentrated along the faults. In the Early Pleistocene, fluvio-lacustrine deposits are affected by syn- and post-sedimentary compressional tectonism it is characterized by shortening that trends both N-S and E-W and produces folding and faulting of the sedimentary cover. Extensional tectonism trending roughly N-S has been taking place from the Middle Pleistocene to the Present; it is coeval with shoshonitic volcanic activity, and with sedimentation of fluvio-lacustrine terraces, torrential fans and moraines. Quaternary and active normal faults due to this tectonism, are located in a narrow zone more than 100 km-long between the High Plateaux and the Eastern Cordillera, and two 15 km-long fault sectors in the Eastern Cordillera. Characteristic Pleistocene scarps, 400 m or more high, are due to the cumulative normal offset, and there are also little scarps, with heights ranging between 2 and 20 m, which are related to Holocene fault reactivations. Recent fault reactivation on the Cuzco fault system, during the April 5, 1986 earthquake ( m b = 5.3), is due to the N-S trending extension. This state of stress, located at a mean elevation of roughly 3730 m, is generally homogeneous to different scales. The active Cuzco normal faults may be a consequence of adjustment between the compensated Western Cordillera and the undercompensated Eastern Cordillera, this latter being uplifted higher than its isostatic equilibrium due to compression acting on its eastern edge. The variation of the state of stress, during the Plio-Quaternary is in agreement with the variations of the compressional boundary forces. It may be explained by variation of the convergence rate or by the variation of pull-slab forces.

Indigenous Migration and Social Change: The Forasteros of Cuzco, 1570-1720. By Ann M. Wightman. (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1990. Pp. ix, 315. Illustrations. Tables. Glossary. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $47.50.)

Many observers in colonial Spanish America—whether clerical, governmental, or foreign—noted the large numbers of forasteros, or Indians who were not seemingly attached to any locality. These migrants, or “wanderers,” offended the bureaucratic sensibilities of the Spanish administration, as they also frustrated their tax and revenue efforts. Ann M. Wightman’s research on these early “undocumentals” in the Cuzco region of Peru reveals much of importance on Andean society and its adaptation and resistance to Spanish cultural and political hegemony. The book thereby informs our understanding of social change in the colonial period. Wightman shows that the dismissal of the forasteros as marginalized rural poor is superficial at best, and through laborious and painstaking archival research she presents a clear picture of the transformation of traditional society as the native populations coped with the disruptions of the conquest—and in doing so, reveals the reciprocal adaptations of the colonial power. Her choice of Cuzco is particularly appropriate, as this was a “heartland” region crucial to both the Incan and Spanish empires. The questions addressed by Wightman are of great concern to current Andean ethnohistory, one of the liveliest areas of such research, and are sure to have an important impact.

A CHANAPATA FIGURINE FROM CUZCO, PERU

A rare hollow pottery figurine was found by the University of California expedition to southern Peru, during the course of excavation at the Minas Pata site (PCz 12-9) in the province of Quispicanchis, Department of Cuzco. This specimen is the only known complete figurine with a probably early date from the Cuzco region. Its size (20 by 8 by 3.5 cm.) and unusual construction, as well as stratigraphie associations suggest that its deposition was an offering rather than a casual discard.

Museum of Archæology and Ethnology, Cambridge : Dr. G. H. S. Bushnell

FOLLOWING the resignation of Dr. T. T. Paterson, Dr. G. H. S. Bushnell has been appointed curator of the Museum of Archæ ology and Ethnology, Cambridge. Dr. Bushnell is the son of the Rev. D. G. S. Bushnell ; he was educated at Wellington and Cambridge, taking his degree in 1925 ; recently (1947) he obtained the degree of Ph.D. In July 1926 he went to Ecuador as a geologist with Anglo-Ecuadorian Oilfields, Ltd., and remained there with intervals of leave until 1938. It was while working in Ecuador that archæ ology first attracted his attention, and he examined the southern part of the coastal plain, which up to then had never been studied. He also travelled in Peru, visiting Lima, the Cuzco region, etc., and began to write up the results of his investigations. During the War he held a commission in the Royal Engineers. While an important work is still in the press awaiting publication, there have been numerous articles from Dr. Bushnell‘s pen on such subjects as an archæ ological collection from Macas in Ecuador east of the Andes in Oran, and reviews, etc., in various learned journals. Dr. Bushnell is on the Councils of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Anthropological Institute. As a keen student of medieval archæ ology he has also been appointed vice-chairman of the Chelmsford Diocesan Advisory Committee for the Care of Churches. From every point of view Dr. Bushnell should make an ideal curator, for he has considerable personal charm and can arouse enthusiasm in others.

Yunka, Language of the Peruvian Coastal Culture

Previous articleNext article No AccessYunka, Language of the Peruvian Coastal CultureJohn P. HarringtonJohn P. Harrington Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by International Journal of American Linguistics Volume 11, Number 1Jan., 1945 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/463847 Views: 4Total views on this site PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.