The Inca Administration of the Middle Cañete Valley, Peru

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The historical accounts of the Cañete valley, recovered by the Spanish conquistadores, inform that the Incas found two different kinds of reactions to their conquest attempts: while the Guarco kingdom, in the lower valley, resisted the Incas domination; the Lunahuná kingdom, in the middle valley, supported the Inca troops and generals. While this information recovered by the Spanish records has been fundamental in the archaeological interpretation, it has obscure the different strategies and mechanisms used by the Incas to administer the valley.

Recent studies in the Incahuasi regional administrative center, in the middle valley, have shown important elements of Inca taxation. However, this is not enough to fully understand how the cuzqueño invaders managed to organize and administer this region nor to identify how the local population reacted to the imperial agenda of the Incas. The data collected in a survey of the middle Cañete valley have revealed interesting patterns regarding the territorial organization during the Inca occupation of the area. After performing a GIS analysis, two different layers of organization have been identified coexisting with each other. This provides some insights regarding the Inca strategies of administration and governance of the middle Cañete valley.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32284