Decentralized Negotiation and Imperial Flexibility in the Margins of the Inca Empire

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Indigenous Stories of the Inka Empire: Local Experiences of Ancient Imperialism" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Marginal imperial regions are places where more flexible modes of dominion can be expected, where distinctions between state impositions and local appropriation of imperial infrastructure and material culture are less clear. Particularly in regions with decentralized polities, political negotiations are far from homogeneous, resulting in heterogeneous modes of integration to imperial rule. The Copiapó Valley is located at a far distance from the capital of the Inca empire, at the southern edge of the Atacama desert. During the Late Horizon, its population was politically decentralized and resided in various independent villages. Each of the chiefs negotiated individually with the Inca empire, resulting in the uneven Inca interventions in the local settlements. This decentralization can be seen at various levels, in terms of the distribution of Inca material culture, and also in the economic reorganization of the valley, where metallurgical production was inserted within a wide network of primary facilities and artisan workshops across both sides of the Andes. Thus, this case is relevant to understanding the challenges of consolidating imperial power in the southern Collasuyu and the potential for local agency to negotiate their integration into the Inca political project.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Indigenous Stories of the Inka Empire: Local Experiences of Ancient Imperialism

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33146