Canas, Canchis and Cuzco: What Was the Scale of Community Allegiance in the LIP?

Summary

The Inca encountered the Canas and Canchis ethnic groups when they expanded out of Cuzco. Canas sites in the herding areas of Espinar show larger scale and more developed settlements than most of those in their agricultural region of the upper Vilcanota Valley. This raises questions about the scale of ‘community’ (village, kinship group, subsistence group, ethnic group). But to address this we need to consider the degree to which allegiance to leaders, ancestors and huacas as well as the seasonal exchange of commodities and labour can integrate spatially separated groups. It is suggested that some aspects of ‘LIP’ social organisation began to develop in the final stages of Middle Horizon and were widely shared across the Andean highlands. Finally, the developments of social organisation by the Canas and Canchis in the LIP will be compared with contemporary developments in the Cuzco region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20441