Beyond Wari Walls: Regional Perspectives on Middle Horizon Peru

Chapter 4: Wari in the Majes-Caman

57 Chapter 4 o Wari in the Majes-Camaná Valley A Different Kind of Horizon Bruce Owen T his chapter reviews evidence of the Wari material culture horizon from the MajesCaman á Valley (Figure 4.1), focusing on the initial expansion of this horizon into the region. I propose a framework for inferring social processes from the ceramics associated with a horizon style in a given region. Finally, I assess hypotheses about Middle Horizon social processes in the Majes-Camaná region and perhaps beyond. The Majes-Camaná drainage lies 370 km from Huari, farther away than Pachacamac or Pikillacta. Despite the great distance from Ayacucho, provincial Wari ceramics were apparently already ubiquitous at one Majes site, and possibly at many, by early in the Middle Horizon. In addition, the patternings of corporate versusfolkceramicstyles ,finewaresversusutilitarianwares, and local styles versus those related to a distant center differ from those implied by the usual models of Wari, Tiwanaku, or Inca material culture horizons. These differences in material patterning presumably correspond to differences in the social processes that produced them (cf. Isbell and Silverman 2006:507–510). This patterning suggeststhatWarimaterialcultureinMajesandCamaná did not result from direct or indirect imperial control along Inca lines (Jennings and Craig 2001; Schreiber 1987, 1992), nor from grassroots direct colonization such as Goldstein (2005) reconstructs for Tiwanaku in Moquegua, but instead from a third mode of geographic expansion of people and their material culture. Categories of Ceramics Moseley defines corporate styles as those “characteristic of particular polities, religions, and organizations,” in which design and iconography are “geared to serve corporate ends” and “convey . . . corporate symbolism” (2001:78–79). Objects in a corporate style are produced by workers who are subsidized and directed by corporate institutions, which then control the distribution of the products (Moseley 2001:78–79). Corporate styles are likely to be visually distinctive and iconographically complex, conveying messages ranging from general association with the institution to specific religious, political , or social ideas. They are likely to be of high technical quality, fine craftsmanship, and high labor cost, since they should convey a positive impression of their institutional source. They may be relatively standardized, both to make them readily identifiable and interpretable and because controlled design, subsidized production, and efficiency concerns may all encourage standardization. They may embody stylistic or geochemical evidence of production in a limited number of controlled centers. 58 BRUCE OW EN Moseley contrasts corporate styles with “folk traditions ” (Moseley 2001:79), which are designed, made, and distributed in less institutional modes, such as by households or village-level specialists. Folk traditions can be dividedintofinewaresversusutilitarianwares.Finewares are primarily for serving and display. Utilitarian wares are primarily for cooking and storage. Folk traditions can also be divided according to their geographic affinities. “Local” folk traditions develop in situ from local antecedents. Others lack local antecedents and appear to derive from traditions that developed elsewhere. Those folk traditions that resemble the folk tradition of an “origin center” (Moseley 2001:13) or core region of a material culture horizon can be called “core” folk traditions. Core folk traditions in the peripheries of material culture horizons may range from close, “high-fidelity” replications of the core tradition to derived, “low-fidelity” variants, as long as the shared features are distinctive enough to imply a historical connection. Ceramic horizons may be marked by corporate styles, core folk traditions, or both. These distinctions are merely heuristic. Complicating cases certainly occur. In particular, potters in the periphery of a material culture horizon may incorporate ideas from a corporate style or a core folk tradition into a local folk tradition or a rival corporate style, as with Chimu-Inka (Donnan 1997), Wanka-Inca (D’Altroy 2001), Estuquiña-Inca (Stanish 1992), and others. Some of these hybrid styles are clearly local folk traditions influenced by ideas from the core. For others, the Majes-Camaná drainage Lima Ica Palpa Nazca Arequipa Cuzco Pikillacta Chuquibamba valley Cotahuasi Tambo Viejo, Acarí Central Colca valley, Chijra Río Japo Azangaro Ayacucho Pahacamac Cerro de Oro Cañete El Carmen, Chincha Cajamarquilla Conchopata Pampas-Qaracha Sondondo Valley, Jincamocco Chicha Soras Valley Aplao Sonay Camaná Osmore Valley Aqo Wayqo Cerro Baúl Tiwanaku Wari influence (conventional) Tiwanaku influence (conventional) Jargampata Beringa N Majes-Camaná in the south-central Andes Archaeological site or area Modern city 0 50 100 150 kilometers 200 250 Huari Figure 4.1 The valley of Majes and Camaná in the south-central Andes. WA R...