Inka Materiality in Local Practice: A Case Study from Huarochirí (Lima, Peru)

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.

The results from archaeological excavations on a residential settlement and a ritual-public center in Huarochirí suggest minimal use of Inka-style material culture in most everyday life contexts. At the same time, architectural intervention suggests a significant transformation on both sites’ layouts. Building on historical sources and comparative research, I propose that the selective pattern of incorporation, even with the substantial architectural transformation built on the local idea of the Inka as kin rather than a conqueror. I content that in local-based historical documents, the indigenous people of Huarochirí actively portrayed the Inka people and the Inka himself as subject to their local ancestral deity. Specifically, I focus on ceramic vessels as one of the most visibly Inka elements in material culture and investigate their use and interaction with local styles. Ultimately, this paper aims to investigate the intersection between the significant role of Inka-style ceramics in portraying Inka imperial logics, and the role of local ritual and belief systems in defining how and where such material culture was used within two distinct types of local sites.

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): 32844