Inca Imperial Colonization and Ethnicity of Northern Chile

Summary

Were the Inca aware of the restrictive possibilities for labor and productivity in the extreme arid territories of the Atacama Desert of northern Chile? How did the Inca officials manage to obtain information that enabled them to identify (i) strategic enclaves for farming, installing administrative and political nodes, exploiting and processing ores, and (ii) a selection of conspicuous mountains to place hilltop shrines? Here we discuss the idea that the rapid, extensive, and efficient expansion of the Inca into northern Chile was not the consequence of random decisions. On the contrary, the three study cases we present, the Zapahuira, Tarapacá Viejo, and Catarpe nodes, show strategic geopolitical decision-making, by reducing conflict of interest for resources and land between foreign polities and local leaders, who were active agents in promoting and facilitating the State programs. Furthermore, by transforming the economic, political, and ideological system, the Inca integrated northern Chile into a pan-continental political and economic network, and ethnic identity through the Qhapaq Ñan, among other mechanisms.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21295