Inca Research Articles

Explosive Expansion, Sociotechnical Diversity, and Fragile Sovereignty in the Domain of the Inka

Societies of the late prehispanic Andes—the Inkas principal among them—have long figured as “exceptions to the rule” in social evolutionary schemata, in large measure because they seemingly lacked key technological hallmarks of complex societies found in other world regions, despite their observed large scale and complex, hierarchical political and economic formations. Such presumed absences are encoded in the Seshat Global History Databank, a large global comparative diachronic database recording many dimensions of human societies. Analyses derived from the current version of the Seshat database necessarily reproduce these supposed absences, as they inhere in its data ontology, structure, and registry. Nonetheless, patterns observed in the dataset provide a means for identifying processes acting on and through Andean peoples and the complex political formations they elaborated. Specifically, this paper evaluates a proposed information processing threshold model of social evolution, which suggests that social dynamics are driven first by processes related to social scale, and then by a phase of dynamics in which further scalar increases are only possible through innovations in information processing. The Andean region appears to violate this model because the Seshat database records writing and other information processing technologies as absent in the case of the Inka empire. The author argues that the dynamics of the Andean region are actually consistent with the information threshold model, but the data as constituted do not capture the relevant variables. The Inkas elaborated sophisticated information processing on par with counterparts in other world regions, but through radically distinct forms and pathways, including the Andean khipu (knotted string registries), decimal administration, and a colossal logistical and administrative infrastructural apparatus. This interwoven bundle of technologies and institutions constituted an information revolution that surpassed the information threshold and enabled explosive Inka imperial expansion, even as it produced certain vulnerabilities and fragile sovereignty.

The Fourth Lifeway: Recognizing the Legacy of Bodily Difference and Disability within the Inka Empire

No abstract available.

Teaching competence in mathematics, science and technology when solving a context problem with the Inca archaeological complex of Raqchi, Cusco - Peru

Competencies in math and science should be developed in teachers to exemplify students. For example, the archaeological complex of Raqchi or temple of the God Weracocha are ruins of the Inca culture. The objective was to find how many inhabitants the Inca citadel of Raqchi housed with mathematical competence, solve problems of quantity and science, investigate through scientific methods in secondary education teachers. The study was qualitative, with a content review and analysis methodology; four teachers from the Canas and Canchis Local Educational Management Unit were formed who solved the problem from virtual collegiate meetings. The result of the first group indicates 7538 inhabitants based on the number of Qolcas and the function of the work camp. The second concerning its military role mentions 5308 inhabitants, and the third on the hypothesis of an Inca temple indicates 291 inhabitants. Concluding that the competencies above were achieved according to the National Curriculum of Peru, autonomy, virtual collegiate work that promoted the continuous training of teachers.

Inca Apocalypse: The Spanish Conquest and the Transformation of the Andean World by R. Alan Covey

Inca Apocalypse offers a finely written, twenty-first century retelling of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire that is self-consciously reflexive about its orientation and goals. Recognizing that historical narratives reflect the values and attitudes of their day, Covey explicitly centers his story around the moral equivalencies of European and Native American empires, the historicity of race and race-making, the incertitude of imperial endeavors, and current end-of-times anxieties. Given these commitments, he widens the geographical, temporal, and political scope of his account to contextualize the well-known tale of New World conquest, exploitation, and colonization better. The resulting volume can be viewed as the legitimate successor to John Hemming’s Conquest of the Incas (Boston, 1970) and its nineteenth-century predecessor, William Prescott’s History of the Conquest of Peru (New York, 1847).Covey chose the religious concept of apocalypse as both the title and the leitmotif of his book to “reveal how different people interpreted the world-changing events in which they participated” (29). In telling an apocalyptic history of the Spanish conquest of the Andes, he aims to give equal consideration and validity to the worldviews and rationalities of both European and Andean peoples. The first part of the volume (Chapters 1–4) treats the Inca and the Spanish realms separately, providing background about political and religious conditions during the fifteenth century on both sides of the Atlantic. The emblematic encounter of 1532 between the Inca Atahualpa and Francisco Pizarro in Cajamarca, the focus of Chapters 5–6, constitutes the fulcrum of the narrative. Following this episode, the remainder of the book (Chapters 7–12) merges the history of the various Inca and Spanish personages and factions into one complex, intertwined strand that stretches through 1650.Although Covey is an Andeanist by training, well-versed in the archaeology of the Inca realm, his narrative is based primarily on traditional ethnohistoric sources. The first chapter paints a basic portrait of the Inca Empire in terms of historical origins, political organization, and imperial aspirations. Although it incorporates some archaeological data, the presentation relies heavily on standard textual information, as does Chapter 3, which outlines the history of Inca imperial expansion. Chapters 2 and 4 provide parallel discussions of the European side, highlighting the connection of religious devotion to political ends, as forged by Iberian kings; the reconquest of the peninsula; and the developing imperial ambitions of the Catholic rulers of Spain. Throughout these chapters, Covey draws subtle analogies between Inca and Spanish practices—for instance, the Catholic veneration of saintly relics and the Inca maintenance of mummified kings, the markings of sacred places on the landscape (via shrines and churches in Spain and as huacas in the Andes), and stories of supernatural interventions (like, Pachacuti’s defeat of the Chanca and El Cid’s triumph over the Moors). The effect of these comparisons is to reduce the oft-emphasized “otherness” of the Inca vis-à-vis sixteenth-century Europeans.In this story of the violent collision of worlds, Covey makes every effort—through the detailed recounting of myriad miscalculations, calamities, and chance events—to suggest that the Spanish conquest of the Andes was not a teleological imperative or a foregone conclusion. He offers vivid descriptions of a variety of Spanish protagonists—including royals, clergy, conquistadores, and government officials, as well as some of the key Inca figures—that highlight their disparate motives and the non-linear and lengthy processes of conquest and subjugation. Although he is mindful of the subalterns—offering insights into the role of Inca women both before and after the Spanish incursion and at least calling out the presence of enslaved Africans in the saga—the narrative is nonetheless weighted toward the histories of the European men involved within a traditional framework. Even a reliance on textual sources, however, need not have precluded an attempt to incorporate indigenous perspectives on the Inca apocalypse. Titu Cusi Yupanqui, for instance, dictated his understanding of how the world had been turned upside down from his stronghold in Vilcabamba in 1570, and O’Toole’s modern histories excavate the voices of many colonial-era subalterns in the Andes.1 Aside from this critique, Inca Apocalypse offers a well-written, colorfully descriptive, and highly accessible account of a key moment of cultural convergence in world history that helps ground our understanding of the production of race and the ongoing impacts of colonialism.

Learning from the llama: on the broad contours of cultural contributions and geographic expansion.

The llama (Lama glama) is the largest domesticated animal species from South America and is today found worldwide. Andean peoples have used the llama for millennia for meat, wool, packing, spiritual etc. In order to know the history of the llama, we must learn about the peoples that have known the animal and the ways those relationships have changed over time. While also considering closely related species, including alpaca, guanaco, and vicuña, this article posits three eras of llama/human entanglements: the era of domestication in pre-Columbian Andean sites; the era of dispersal and co-mingling, from 1530s to the 1890s; and finally popular fads and global appeal.

Pathophysiological effect of hypernatremia in relation to the home measurement of blood Pressure (MDPA) in high andean people. Ayacucho - peru

Pathophysiological effect of hypernatremia in relation to the home measurement of blood Pressure (MDPA) in high andean people. Ayacucho - peru

Anticipating Jean-Jacques Rousseau: the state of nature in the novel ‟Letters from a Peruvian Woman” by Madame de Graffigny (1747)

The article deals with the novel ‟Letters from a Peruvian Woman” (Lettres d'une Péruvienne, 1747) by Madame de Graffigny, which anticipates many ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, including the notion of state of nature. The main character, a young Peruvian woman, who was taken away to France, embodies the concept of the ‟noble savage”. Unlike civilised Europeans she has high moral qualities, critically evaluates the institutions and customs of her time, and she aspires to the state of nature, though knowledge about this world did not make her happy. Madame de Graffigny uses the Peruvian theme according to the general interest in the age of Enlightenment in the Inca Empire, which was considered as idyllic society, organised under the laws of nature. She tries, like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, to display merits of savages and demerits of civilised Europeans. The intellectual influence of Madame de Graffigny and Jean-Jacques Rousseau on each other is confirmed by their personal contacts. As a result, we claim that the novel ‟Letters from a Peruvian Woman” was influenced by advanced philosophical ideas of the mid-18thcentury – this text stands at the origins of the concept of the ‟state of nature”, which eventually became one of the main terms of Rousseauism.

Mayan and Andean Medicine and Urban Space in the Spanish Americas

Mayan and Andean medicine included empirical perspectives and botanical cures that were transmitted in the urban spaces of colonial Spanish America, spaces themselves built over former Amerindian cities. Mayan and Andean peoples, whose histories included development of both urban and rural aspects of civilization, brought their medical knowledge to the Hispanic cities of the colonial Americas. In these cities, despite the disapproval and persecution of the Inquisition, Native American medicine gradually became part of the dominant culture. As this article will demonstrate, Mayan and Andean medical knowledge was absorbed by the “new cities” that Imperial Spain constructed in the colonial Americas, church disapproval notwithstanding. Cities and urban space became prime conduits for the circulation and incorporation of Native American medical knowledge among the newer Hispanic and mestizo population in the colonial Americas.

Steven R. Gullberg, Astronomy of the Inca Empire: Use and Significance of the Sun and the Night Sky

Steven R. Gullberg, Astronomy of the Inca Empire: Use and Significance of the Sun and the Night Sky Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2020. Hardback, 370 pp., 42 b/w illus., 275 colour illus. ISBN 978-3-030-48365. €135.19.

Queros as Inalienable Objects: Ritual Drinking Vessels and the End of the Inka Empire at Moqi (Locumba Valley, Southern Peru)

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.

P34 - Topic: AS04-MDS Biology and Pathogenesis/AS04i-Microenvironment and stem cell niche: ABERRANT SMAD2/3 SIGNALING IN MDS BONE MARROW STROMA CONTRIBUTES TO ALTERED ECM PROTEIN DEPOSITION AND CAN BE RESCUED BY LUSPATERCEPT

P34 - Topic: AS04-MDS Biology and Pathogenesis/AS04i-Microenvironment and stem cell niche: ABERRANT SMAD2/3 SIGNALING IN MDS BONE MARROW STROMA CONTRIBUTES TO ALTERED ECM PROTEIN DEPOSITION AND CAN BE RESCUED BY LUSPATERCEPT

Heroines and Local Girls: The Transnational Emergence of Women’s Writing in the Long Eighteenth Century

Heroines and Local Girls: The Transnational Emergence of Women’s Writing in the Long Eighteenth Century

Agriculturización

Although the importance of agriculture as a key factor in the economic development of Andean peoples and territories has been widely recognized worldwide, there have been few attempts to assess its historical importance in the construction of pre-Columbian agricultural landscapes in the Andes of Ecuador. This article presents the first results of the analysis of the Kañari agrarian landscapes in the upper Chanchán basin, showing a long historical trajectory that spanned almost 2000 years from the Late Formative Period (543-381 cal BC) to the final phase of the Integration Period (1386-1438 cal AD). Extensive and intensive farming systems (permanent fields and terraces) acted as a transforming agent of the space, imprinting an agro-sacralized cultural signature with the configuration of three types of landscapes: Domestic, Social and Sacred. The agriculturization of these landscapes shows how the intensification of agriculture under a unilinear progression model does not generally mean a natural retreat of ecosystem processes, due to human intervention for the production of its crops. The elasticity of the pre-Hispanic Kañaris agroecosystems could be sustained in the face of the historical processes of agriculturization throughout its historical trajectory.

A bit closer to the past: the three-dimensionalization of an Inca ceremony in the north Calchaquí Valley (Salta, Argentina)

<p>Like other expansive polities, the expansion of the Inca empire across the highlands and lowlands of South America is not only a history of trade and warfare, but also of mesmerizing public performances that yielded new and memorable experiences. During highly ritualized public celebratory events, the local polities gained first-hand access to the imperial liturgy, which was vital to promote and legitimate the Inca cosmology across the newly acquired lands. Especially in the last 20 years, new technologies, an ever-growing corpus of archaeological data, as well as increasing hardware capacity and software development, make it possible to emulate the scenes that people got to witness during the Inca public events, at a home computer scale and without complex and expensive equipment. Furthermore, it prompts us to test and apply new tools and academic dissemination techniques, perhaps more suitable to current technologies and means of knowledge storage and circulation. This article presents the process of building a three-dimensional (3D) model that, on the one hand, combines historical, ethnographic, and archaeological data with Geographic Information System (GIS) datasets; on the other hand, it uses detailed architectural analysis and astronomical measurements. The objective is to yield renders that accurately display the atmospheric and lighting conditions prevailing when the site was inhabited. We will offer a detailed description of all methods, techniques, equipment, and software used to create the model and the parameters for rendering the images. The authors intend to exemplify how 3D modelling goes well beyond the 3D model as a product in itself; it becomes a fundamental tool that encouraged us to test new variables and discuss new interpretations about this settlement. Results indicate that its builders designed these settlement's Inca compounds to show off the imperial capabilities and constructive proficiency, to convey exceptional, memorable experiences to its residents and visitors, and to stage explicit links between the imperial representatives and some fundamental procreative components of the Andean cosmos. In doing so, Guitián's plaza served to stage and communicate the privileged role the imperial representatives claimed to have in a broader cosmological scheme.</p><p>Highlights:</p><ul><li><p>Inca public performances were finely choreographed so that objects, places, people, landscape, and skyscape features interacted according to the main principles of imperial cosmology.</p></li><li><p>Current mid-range hardware and specialized yet reasonably user-friendly software are suitable to create accurate three-dimensional (3D) models combining historical, archaeological, and astronomical data.</p></li><li><p>Creating such a detailed 3D model contributes to cultural heritage and academic dissemination and prompted us to revise and broaden our interpretations.</p></li></ul>

Exploitation and Class Formation in the Inca State

Inca society was characterized by conditions of expanded exploitation which were produced by new contradictions that emerged as the composition of the dominant class changed. The expansionist policies of the Inca ruling class were an attempt to resolve problems resulting from an internal organization based on kinship. The collateral kin of the ruler were necessary for maintaining the dominant position of the Incas, but their claims to the throne made them unreliable allies. Rulers of the conquest state assured their loyalty by allowing them to extract surplus labor from the direct producers in the core areas of the empire. Consequently, the rulers themselves were forced to seek additional surplus by displacing their demands onto subjugated communities and polities. The new forms of exploitation that emerged initially emphasized control of local shrines or alliances with their spokesmen. Later, the politically dominant elements emphasized the creation of alliances with powerful shrines in newly conquered areas. Still later, land was appropriated not only for the direct use of Inca ruling class but also as gifts to be given to traditional leaders of ethnic groups or to other individuals who promoted the well-being of the Inca state and its dominant class. The new alliances created the conditions for the formation of social classes, that were not identical with earlier forms of social stratification — regardless of whether they were based on kinship or class.

Inca human sacrifices from the Ampato and Pichu Pichu volcanoes, Peru: new results from a bio-anthropological analysis

One of the most important rituals in the Inca Empire was the capacocha. It required the most prestigious sacrificial offering of male and female children and young women who were characterized by their beauty and purity. The aim of this paper is to present the results of a bio-anthropological analysis of the remains of five individuals sacrificed on the summits of Ampato and Pichu Pichu during this ritual. Various methods (bone analysis and radiography) were applied in the investigation due to the diverse states of preservation of the remains. Four individuals were in the same age category: 6–7 years old. The individual Pichu Pichu #2 was sacrificed at age 3.5 years, which makes him the youngest capacocha sacrifice currently known. Results show proper development of the victims’ bodies, the presence of stress markers related to the early childhood period, and, in the case of the Ampato boy, malformation of the cervical vertebrae. The studies of the Pichu Pichu and Ampato sacrifices confirm their widespread origins, privileged position, and high social status. They show that the victims were well-nourished and had proper body growth compared to juveniles from the lower social strata in different cemeteries in the region.

Singa Transitional: Rock-artSaywasMarking Boundaries of Identity and Socializing Landscape in Huánuco, Peru

This paper introduces a new art style, Singa Transitional, found painted onto a mountainside near the modern town of Singa in the north of Huánuco, Peru. This style was discovered during a recent regional survey of rock art in the Huánuco region that resulted in the documentation of paintings at more than 20 sites, the identification of their chronological contexts and an analysis of the resulting data for trends in changing social practices over nine millennia. I explore how the style emerged from both regional artistic trends in the medium and broader patterns evident in Andean material culture from multiple media at the time of its creation. I argue that the presence of Singa Transitional demonstrates that local peoples were engaged in broader social trends unfolding during the transition between the Early Horizon (800–200bc) and the Early Intermediate Period (ad0–800) in Peru. I propose that rock art placed in prominent places was consideredsaywa, a type of landscape feature that marked boundaries in and movement through landscapes. Singa Transitionalsaywasserved to advertise the connection between local Andean people and their land and was a medium through which social changes were contested in the Andes.

Tinkuqchaka: A Suspension Bridge over the Upper Pampas River, Ayacucho, Peru

Andean geography has posed diverse challenges to human activity. High mountains, rugged terrains, deep canyons, and torrential rivers were significant obstacles that effectively would have isolated settlements and entire regions. However, the desire to reach out to adjacent communities and distant lands pushed to the limit the ingenuity and imagination of past Indigenous Andean societies. By the time the Inka Empire flourished, the peoples of the Andes had already mastered the difficult geography, not only by building agricultural terraces over rugged terrain but also by building across the challenging landscape a road system described by the Spaniards as “the longest and grandest in the world.” However, the road system would have been ineffective without its most important component, the suspension bridges built over deep canyons and rapid currents. The suspension bridges, some of them as long as 50 m, made the interaction between distant peoples possible. Although it remains uncertain when suspension bridges were first built in the region, they likely antedated the Inka Empire by several centuries. Suspension bridges, so critical in the past, have largely been abandoned. One exception is Tinkuqchaka, a suspension bridge that continues to be renewed over the upper Pampas River, in the Peruvian central highlands. Tinkuqchaka is built by the inhabitants of Sarhua, one of the few Andean communities to maintain ancient technology. We assert that the survival of this technology initially was due to the marginal location of Sarhua that until just over a decade ago was reachable only by foot.

Problemas Gnoseológicos en el pensamiento andino. Una indagación etnográfica y hermenéutica

El objetivo de la investigación fue indagar la concepción del hombre andino respecto a los problemas gnoseológicos concebidos desde las siguientes categorías: posibilidad del conocimiento, elementos que intervienen en el conocimiento, proceso del conocimiento, telos del conocimiento y concepción de la verdad. Para tal fin se utilizó el método etnográfico y hermenéutico en el Centro Poblado de Rosaspata, Distrito de Vinchos, Provincia de Huamanga, Ayacucho, Perú. Los informantes claves fueron los yachaq (expertos) personas que conservan los saberes de los pueblos originarios, autoridades y pobladores de tercera edad. Los resultados mostraron que el hombre andino concibe el conocimiento como un proceso que empieza en la fase sensorial con el rikuy (ver), el uyary (escuchar), acompañado con el ruray (praxis). Pasa a una segunda fase de operaciones racionales como el yachay (saber), el musyay (intuir, presentir) y el hamutay (reflexionar) en la que se adquiere el chiqap (la verdad) entendida como la correspondencia entre el objeto cognoscible y su representación. El telos del conocimiento es el allin kawsay (vivir bien) concebido como la armonía entre el hombre y la naturaleza, y entre los hombres. Se concluye que el hombre andino identifica los elementos del conocimiento: el riqsina (objeto cognoscible) y el riqsiq (sujeto cognoscente) en relación de copertenencia, más no de oposición que es propio de la cultura occidental. La relevancia del hallazgo radica en que después de más de cinco siglos de occidentalización, de colonialismo económico, social y cultural, el hombre andino no ha renunciado a sus raíces culturales y a su concepción horizontal con la naturaleza como parte fundamental del conocimiento del mundo.

A feathered concierge in Colombia’s Andean forest

In the spring of 2020, during the most severe weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown in Colombia, a female bronzy inca (Coeligena coeligena) built a nest and successfully raised two chicks, outside the front door of a country house adjacent to a humid forest in the Western Andes near the city of Cali This hummingbird's nest was found in a hanging pot of asparagus fern (Asparagus densiflorus), a cultivated decorative houseplant native to Africa From mid-March to early May, the presence and behavior of the homeowners apparently did not disturb the hummingbird's nesting activities Evidence of species taking advantage of conditions during the so-called anthropause (or pandemic-inspired reduction in human activities) has already been documented, especially in urban habitats Might similar positive outcomes for biodiversity be occurring in rural areas, which are often characterized by a less intense human footprint?