Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T22:23:53.524Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Water, Ritual, and Power in the Inca Empire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Tamara L. Bray
Tamara L. Bray*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 656 Reuther Mall, 3054 F/AB, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202 ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Archaeological, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic evidence provides ample indication that water was a key symbol in Andean thought. During the late precolumbian era, the attention lavished on waterworks and features by the Inca emphasizes a clear concern with control over water and its movement. This paper examines the way in which specific relations of power and identity were constructed through Inca management of water. To this end, I offer a comparative analysis of water-related features from different sectors of the Empire, representing different moments in its historical development. The intent is to further our understanding of how the manipulation of water figured in the imperializing process and how its use and meaning may have evolved over time. The architectural evidence from the sites included in the study suggests that conspicuous exercise of control over the movement and flow of water may have been more critical to the establishment of Inca hegemony than to its subsequent maintenance.

Evidencias arqueológicas, etnohistóricas, y etnográficas proporcionan amplias indicaciones de que el agua fue un símbolo clave en el pensamiento andino. Durante la era precolombina tardía, la atención prestada a los elementos hidráulicos por los incas acentúa una preocupación clara respecto al control sobre el agua y su movimiento. Este artículo examina la manera en que, mediante el manejo incaico del agua, fueron construidas relaciones específicas de poder e identidad. Para ello, ofrezco un análisis comparativo de elementos relacionados al agua en diferentes sectores del imperio, representando distintos momentos en su desarrollo histórico. La intención es avanzar en nuestra comprensión de cómo la manipulación del agua figuró en el proceso de desarrollo del imperio, y cómo su uso y significado pueden haber evolucionado a través del tiempo. La evidencia arquitectónica de los sitios incluidos en este estudio sugiere que el ejercicio visible de control sobre el movimiento y flujo del agua puede haber sido más crítico para el establecimiento de la hegemonía incaica que para su subsiguiente mantenimiento.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 164 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Acuto, Felix 2004 Landscapes of Ideology and Inequality: Experiencing Inka Domination. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Binghamton. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Alcina Franch, José 1976 Arqueología de Chinchero. Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, Madrid.Google Scholar
Albornoz, Cristóbal de 1967 [1582] Un inédit de Cristóbal de Albornoz: La instrucción para descubrir todas las guacas del Pirú y sus camayos y haciendas. Journal de la Société des Américanistes 56(1):17–39.Google Scholar
Arguedas, José María 1956 Puquio, una cultura en proceso de cambio. Revista del Museo Nacional 25:184–232.Google Scholar
Arellano, Carmen, and Mendieta, Ramiro Matos 2007 Variations between Inka Installations in the Puna of Chinchaycocha and the Drainage of Tarma. In Variations in the Expression of Inka Power, edited by Richard L. Burger, Craig Morris, and Ramiro Matos Mendieta, pp. 11–44. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D. C.Google Scholar
Arriaga, Pablo José de 1968 [1621] Extirpatión de la idolatría del Pirú. In Crónicas peruanas de interés indígena, tomo 209, edited by Francisco Esteve Barba, pp. 191–277. Ediciones Atlas, Madrid.Google Scholar
Bastien, Joseph W. 1978 Mountain of the Condor: Metaphor and Ritual in an Andean Community. West Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota.Google Scholar
Bastien, Joseph W. 1985 Qollahuaya-Andean Body Concepts: A Topographical-Hydraulic Model of Physiology. American Anthropologist 87:595–611.Google Scholar
Bauer, Brian S. 1998 The Sacred Landscape of the Inca: The Cusco Ceque System. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Bauer, Brian S. 2004 Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inka. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Bauer, Brian S., and Alan Covey, R. 2002 State Development in the Inca Heartland. American Anthropologist 104:846–864.Google Scholar
Betanzos, Juan de 1996 [1551–1557] Narrative of the Incas. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Bray, Tamara L. 2013 At the End of Empire: Imperial Advances on the Northern Frontier. In The Inca Empire: A Multidisciplinary Approach to a Holistic Vision, edited by Izumi Shimada. University of Texas Press, Austin, in press.Google Scholar
Bray, Tamara L., and Jose Echeverría, A. 2009 Saving the Palace of Atahualpa: The Late Imperial Site of Inca-Caranqui, Ecuador. Electronic document, http://doaks.org/researcri/pre_columbian/doaks_pco_project_grant_report_2008.html, accessed August 1,2012.Google Scholar
Bray, Tamara L., and A., Jose Echeverría 2010 Informe anual para el proyecto “La arquitectura de poder: investigaciones al sitio imperial tardío de Inca-Caranqui, Ibarra, Ecuador, Fase 2 (2009).” Manuscript on file, National Institute of Cultural Patrimony, Quito, Ecuador.Google Scholar
Bray, Tamara L., and A., Jose Echeverría 2011 Informe anual para el proyecto “La arquitectura de poder: investigaciones al sitio imperial tardío de Inca-Caranqui, Ibarra, Ecuador, Fase 3 (2010).” Manuscript on file, National Institute of Cultural Patrimony, Quito, Ecuador.Google Scholar
Brown, David O. 1992 Administration and Planning in the Inka Empire: A Perspective from the Provincial Capital of Pumpu, Central Peru. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, Austin. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Brown, David O. 1998 Water and Power in the Provinces: Water Management in Inka Centers of the Central Highlands of Peru. Tawantinsuyu 5:23–36.Google Scholar
Brundage, Burr C. 1967 Lords of Cuzco. University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.Google Scholar
Cabello Balboa, Miguel 1951 [1586] Miscelánea antártica: una historia del Perú antiguo. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima.Google Scholar
Carrión Cachot, Rebeca 2005 [1955] El culto al agua en el antiguo Perú: la paccha, elemento cultural panandino. 2nd ed. Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Lima.Google Scholar
Cieza de León, Pedro de 1943 [1551] Del señorío de los incas. Segunda Parte. Ediciones Argentinas Solar, Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
Cieza de León, Pedro de 1986 [1553] Crónica del Perú. Primera Parte. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima.Google Scholar
Coben, Lawrence S. 2012 Theaters of Power: Inca Imperial Performance. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Cobo, Bernabé 1990 [1653] Inca Religion and Customs. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Conrad, Geoffrey 1977 Chiquitoy Viejo: An Inca Administrative Center in the Chicama Valley, Perú. Journal of Field Archaeology 4(1):1–18.Google Scholar
Cyark and Partners 2010 Cultural Heritage Sites: Tambo Colorado. Electronic document, http://archive.cyark.org/tambo-colorado-info#description, accessed October 30,2012.Google Scholar
D’Altroy, Terence N. 2002 The Incas. Blackwell Publishers, Maiden, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
D’Altroy, Terence N., Lorandi, Ana María, Williams, Verónica I., Calderari, Milena, Hastorf, Christine A., DeMarrais, Elizabeth, and Hagstrum, Melissa B. 2000 Inka Rule in Northern Calchaquí Valley, Argentina. Journal of Field Archaeology 27(1):1–26.Google Scholar
Dean, Carolyn 2011 Inka Water Management and the Symbolic Dimensions of Display Fountains. RES 59/60:22–38.Google Scholar
Duviols, Pierre 1977 Los nombres quechua de Viracocha, supuesto “Dios creador” de los evangelizadores. Allpanchis Phuturinga 10:53–64.Google Scholar
Duviols, Pierre 1986 Cultura andina y represión: procesos y visitas de idolatrías y hechicerías, sigh XVII. Centra de Estudios Rurales Andinos, Bartoleme de las Casas, Cuzco.Google Scholar
Earls, John C., and Silverblatt, Irene M. 1978 La realidad fisica y social en la cosmología andina. Adas del XLIl Congreso lnternacional de Americanistas 4:299–325, Paris.Google Scholar
Espinosa Soriano, Waldemar 1988 Los caranquis y los cayambes: sighs XV-XVIy el testimonio de la etnohistoria. Colección Pendoneros, Instituto Otavaleño de Antropología, Otavalo, Ecuador.Google Scholar
Farrington, Ian 1995 The Mummy, Palace, and Estate of Inka Huayna Capac at Quispeguanca. Tawantinsuyu 1:55–65.Google Scholar
Fejos, Paul 1944 Archaeological Explorations in the Cordillera Vilcabamba. Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology, No. 3. New York.Google Scholar
Geertz, Clifford 1959 Form and Variation in Balinese Village Structure. American Anthropologist 61:991–1012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geertz, Clifford 1973 The Wet and the Dry: Traditional Irrigation in Bali and Morocco. Human Ecology 1:23–29.Google Scholar
Geertz, Clifford 1980 Negara: The Theatre State in Nineteenth Century Bali. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Gelles, Paul 1986 Sociedades hidráulicas en los Andes: algunas perspectivas desde Huarochirí. Allpanchis 27:99–148.Google Scholar
Gibaja, Arminda 1984 Excavaciones en Ollantaytambo, Cusco. Gaceta Arqueológica Andina 9:4–5.Google Scholar
Gibaja, Arminda 2004 Dos ofrendas al agua de Ollantaytambo. Ñawpa Pacha 25–27:177–188.Google Scholar
Glowacki, Mary, and Malpass, Michael A. 2003 Water, Huacas and Ancestor Worship: Traces of a Wari Sacred Landscape. Latin American Antiquity 14:431–448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
González Holguín, Diego 2007 [1608] Vocabulario de la lengua general de todo el Perú llamada lengua oquichua o del inca. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima.Google Scholar
Gose, Peter 1993 Segmentary State Formation and the Ritual Control of Water under the Incas. Comparative Studies in Society and History 35:480–514.Google Scholar
Guaman Poma de Ayala, Felipe 1936 [1615] Nueva corónica y buen gobierno. Institut de Ethnologie, Paris.Google Scholar
Guillet, David W. 1992 Covering Ground: Communal Water Management and the State in the Peruvian Highlands. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Harrison, Regina 1989 Signs, Songs, and Memory in the Andes. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Harth-Terre, Emilio 1964 El pueblo de Huanuco Pampa. El Arquitecto Peruano 320/321:1–20.Google Scholar
Hyslop, John 1985 Inkawasi, the New Cuzco. BAR International Series 234. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Hyslop, John 1990 Inka Settlement Planning. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Idrovo, Jaime 2000 Tomebamba: arqueología e historia de una ciudad imperial. Banco Central del Ecuador, Cuenca.Google Scholar
Illich, Ivan 1986 H20 and the Waters of Forgetfulness. Marion Boyais, London.Google Scholar
Isbell, Billie Jean 1978 To Defend Ourselves. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Kamash, Zena 2006 2008 What Lies Beneath? Perceptions of the Ontological Paradox of Water. World Archaeology 40(2):224–237.Google Scholar
Kaulicke, Peter, Kondo, Ryujiro, Kusuda, Tetsuya, and Zapata, Julinho 2003 Agua, ancestros, y arqueología del paisaje. Boletín de Arqueología, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú 7:27–56.Google Scholar
LaLone, Mary B. 1985 Indian Land Tenure in Southern Cuzco, Peru: From Inca to Colonial Patterns. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Lansing, John S. 1991 Priests and Programmers: Technologies of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali. Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Maclean, Margaret G. 1987 Sacred Land, Sacred Water: Inca Landscape Planning in the Cuzco Area. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
MacCormack, Sabine 1991 Religion in the Andes. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackey, Carol 2006 Elite Residences at Farfán: A Comparison of Chimu and Inka Occupations. In Palaces and Power in the Americas: From Peru to the Northwest Coast, edited by Jessica J. Christie and Patricia J. Sarro, pp. 313–352. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Mackey, Carol 2010 Socioeconomic and Ideological Transformation of Farfan under Inka Rule. In Distant Provinces in the Inka Empire, edited by Michael A. Malpass and Sonia Alconini, pp. 221–259. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City.Google Scholar
Matos Mendieta, Ramiro 1994 Pumpu: centro administrativo inka de la Puna de Junín. BCR Fondo Editorial, Lima.Google Scholar
Molina, Cristóbal 1943 [1573] Fábulas y ritos de los incas. Los Pequeños y Grandes Libros de Historia Americana, Ser. 1, Vol. 4, Lima.Google Scholar
Montesinos, Fernando de 1957 [1644] Memorias antiguas historiales y políticas del Perú. Revista del Museo e Instituto Arqueológico 16–17:1–114.Google Scholar
Morris, Craig, and Thompson, Donald E. 1970 Huánuco Viejo: An Inca Administrative Center. American Antiquity 35(3): 344–362.Google Scholar
Morris, Craig, and Thompson, Donald E. 1985 Huánuco Pampa: An Inca City and its Hinterland. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Nair, Stella E. 2003 Of Remembrance and Forgetting: The Architecture of Chinchero, Peru from Thupa Inca to the Spanish Occupation. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley. University Microfilm, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Niles, Susan A. 1987 Callachaca: Style and Status in an Inca Community. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, Iowa.Google Scholar
Niles, Susan A. 1999 The Shape of Inca History. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, Iowa.Google Scholar
Nordenskiold, Erland von 1917 The Guarani Invasion of the Inca Empire in the Sixteenth Century: An Historical Indian Migration. Geographical Review 9:103–121.Google Scholar
Ossio, Juan 1978 El simbolismo de agua y la representatión del tiempo y el espacio en la fiesta de la acequia de la comunidad de Andamarca. Actes du XLIL Congres International des Americanistes 4:377–396. Paris.Google Scholar
Parssinen, Marti 1992 Tawantinsuyu: the Inca State and its Political Organization. Studia Historica 43. Societas Historica Finlandiae, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Protzen, Jean-Pierre 2006 Max Uhle and Tambo Colorado a Century Later. Ñawpa Pacha 28:11–40.Google Scholar
Protzen, Jean-Pierre 2008 Times Go by at Tambo Colorado. Ñawpa Pacha 29:221–240.Google Scholar
Raffino, Rodolfo A. 2004 El shincal de Quimivíl. Editorial Sarquis, Catamarca, Argentina.Google Scholar
Rivera Dorado, Miguel 1976 La Cerámica Inca de Chinchero. In Arqueología de Chinchero: Cerámica y otros materiales, Vol. 2, edited by José Alcina Franch, pp. 27–90. Memorias de la Misión Científica Española en Hispanoamérica, Madrid.Google Scholar
Rowe, John H. 1946 Inca Culture at the Time of the Spanish Conquest. In Handbook of South American Indians, edited by Julian H. Steward, pp. 183–330. Bureau of American Ethnography, Bulletin No. 143. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Salomon, Frank 1986 Native Lords of Quito in the Age of the Incas. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Sarmiento, Pedro 2007 [1572] The History of the Inca. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Sherbondy, Jeanette E. 1982a The Canal Systems of Hanan Cuzco. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Sherbondy, Jeanette E. 1982b El regadío, los lagos y los mitos de origen. Allpanchis 20:3–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherbondy, Jeanette E. 1987 Organizatión hidráulica y poder en el Cuzco de los incas. Revista Española de Antropología Americana 17:117–153.Google Scholar
Sherbondy, Jeanette E. 1992 Water Ideology in Inca Ethnogenesis. In Andean Cosmologies through Time: Persistence and Emergence, edited by Robert V. H. Dover, Katherine E. Seibold, and John H. McDowell, pp. 46–66. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana.Google Scholar
Sherbondy, Jeanette E. 1995 El agua: ideología y poder de los incas. In El agua: mitos, ritos, y realidades, edited by José A. González and Antonio Malpica Cuello., pp. 87–102. Centra de Investigaciones Etnológicas, Antropos, Granada.Google Scholar
Strang, Veronica 2004 The Meaning of Water. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Uhle, Max 1923 Las ruinas de Tomebamba. Imprenta Saenz-Rebolledo, Quito.Google Scholar
Urton, Gary 1981 At the Crossroads of the Earth and the Sky. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Worster, Donald E. 1985 Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West. Pantheon Books, New York.Google Scholar
Wright, Kenneth 2006 Tipon: Water Engineering Masterpiece of the Inca Empire. American Society of Civil Engineers Press, Reston, Virginia.Google Scholar
Wright, Kenneth R., and Zegara, Alfredo Valencia 2000 Machu Picchu: A Civil Engineering Marvel. American Society of Civil Engineers Press, Reston, Virginia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zuidema, R. Tom 1964 The Ceque System of Cuzco: The Social Organization of the Capital of the Inca. E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Zuidema, R. Tom 1977 The Inca Calendar. In Native American Astronomy, edited by Anthony F. Aveni, pp. 219–260. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Zuidema, R. Tom 1981 Inca Observations of the Solar and Lunar Passages Through Zenith and Anti- Zenith at Cuzco. In Archaeoastronomy in the Americas, edited by Ray A. Williamson, pp. 319–342. Ballena Press, Los Altos, California.Google Scholar
Zuidema, R. Tom 1983 Hierarchy and Space in Incaic Social Organization. Ethnohistory 30(2):49–75.Google Scholar
Zuidema, R. Tom 1989 Significado en el arte nasca: relaciones iconográficas entre las culturas inca, huari y nasca en el sur del Perú. In Reyes y guerreros, compiled by Manuel Burga, pp. 386–401. Talleres Gráficos P. L. Villanueva, Lima.Google Scholar