Inka Border Negotiations in the North: The Canari Case in the Province of Azuay, Ecuador

Summary

This paper will reassess relationships between the Inka and the Canari in the northern frontier zones of the Inka empire through local archaeological data. So far, scholarly knowledge about the Canari has been based upon ethnographic descriptions provided in various Spanish sources. The Canari have been characterized as a strong-willed independent people who offered fierce resistance to Inka domination. They were entrenched in the civil war between Waskhar and Atawallpa and eventually their resistance was broken by means of the mitmaq policy. Inka presence in Ecuador is commonly evaluated through archaeological information obtained from Tomebamba and Ingapirca. Tomebamba functioned as Wayna Qhapaq’s capital and Ingapirca was a tambo outpost about 40 kilometers to the north.

I will discuss Canari material from Ingapirca and from the nearby sites of Coyoctor recently excavated by Ecuadorian archaeologists and Cojitambo. All three evidence original Canari settlements with Inka overlays. The paper analyzes Canari-Inka relations from the perspectives of origin narratives, stone ideology, and landscape construction. Coyoctor emerges as a complex case study of all three. The results show a new nuanced understanding of Canari-Inka dynamics which carry over into the present by reinterpretation of local toponyms and associated ritual practices.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage