Conveying Inka Ideology of Warfare for Establishing and Maintaining Political Control

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Warfare and the Origins of Political Control " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ancient empires relied on warfare to conquer other groups and incorporate them politically. However, they did not always resort to armed conquest and often annexed new territories through negotiation backed by the perception of the empire’s military strength, which also underpinned the consolidation and perpetuation of political control in those regions. Thus, the idea of military might was an essential element of imperial ideology that needed to be communicated to provincial subjects. In many earlier Andean complex polities, we see ideology of warfare materialized through imagery on ceramics, textiles, and other media that were pervasive in their realms of political control, which allowed leaders to convey their military prowess in a portable, accessible manner. But such imagery is rare in Inka material culture, marking a significant break from the practices of earlier societies such as the Wari and the Moche. The Inka relied much less on the visual materialization of their warfare ideology, a trend that has roots in the Late Intermediate period; instead, they used ceremonies, demonstrations, word-of-mouth, and other mechanisms to project their martial superiority; these are typically not directly visible in the archaeological record and are understood primarily through historical records.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Warfare and the Origins of Political Control   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35950.0