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19 I n the Moquegua Valley the arrival of the Wari has been long understood through metrocentric models of imperial expansion that see the provincial centers as enforcers of centralized economic and political power of the Ayacucho core (Isbell 1978; Isbell and Cook 1987; Jennings 2006; McEwan 1991, 2005; Schreiber 1987, 1992). Based on a large-site approach, Wari influence in the Osmore drainage has thus mainly been interpreted through research at the mountaintop site of Cerro Baúl, which has become synonymous with an impressive Wari imperial display of political power (Nash and Williams 2005; Williams 2001). The research at Cerro Baúl and Mejía has not identified penetration of Wari settlement beyondthesetwositesandsuggestsaratherisolatedposition of Wari colonists in the valley. We feel this singular site focus only partially addresses the complex processes of colonial encounter in the Wari periphery. Therefore, in order to illuminate such complicated interactions we need to understand Wari presence in Moquegua beyond the wall of the Baúl site complex and move away from the single well-known center in the upper valley, theoretically as well as geographically. The site of Cerro Trapiche in the middle Moquegua Valley offers a view of Wari expansion that differs significantly from Cerro Baúl and allows for a complementary and more dialectic view of the Wari experience in Moquegua. Because of its liminal geographic and cultural position, Trapiche provides a unique perspective on the colonial experience. Focusing on a site with an indigenous interface offers a view of Wari participation in cross-cultural interactions and active negotiation of social identities and political and ideological power. Trapiche can help illuminate the Wari colonization in the Moquegua Valley in the framework of a “frontier dialectic.” From Wari Periphery to Wari Frontier Most Andean scholars view the Wari as an expansive state society, although opinions differ on the centralization and degree of Wari political and economic control in the peripheries. Isbell (1986) argued that the Wari used a centralized system of infrastructure, tribute collection , and labor taxation to connect the capital with its periphery. Wari archaeology in the 1980s suggested that the replication of parts of the urban core of Huari in provincialcenterswaspartofanelaboratecontrolsystem of administrative centers in the periphery. Schreiber (1992, 2005) also relies on evidence from administrative sites to illustrate a “mosaic model” for the Wari,whichincludesanumberofstrategiesbywhichthe Ayacucho Wari controlled different resource areas and Chapter 2 o The Nature of Wari Presence in the Mid–Moquegua Valley Investigating Contact at Cerro Trapiche Ulrike Matthies Green and Paul S. Goldstein 20 ULR IK E M ATTHIES GR EEN A ND PAUL S. GOLDSTEIN dealt with different levels of local political complexity in the periphery. While this nuanced approach recognizes thatimperialactioninagivensettingmaybedetermined byexistinglocalpowerstructuresaswellasshiftingimperial agendas (Schreiber 2005), it is still primarily concerned with imperial action from the decision-making perspective of a presumed unitary core. This places less emphasis on what we call a frontier dialectic: the interaction between the interests of the colonizer groups and local populations’ interests and responses to the new situation. Our abstract understanding of Wari imperial strategies has advanced enormously, but we argue that more work needs to be done on the indigenous participation in the frontier dialectic, particularly by focusing on smaller provincial sites. First, however, it is worth mentioning two interpretations of Wari administrative centers that do ascribe an active role to indigenous peoples in Wari empire building. Anders’s (1986, 1991) interpretation of the Wari empire suggests that Wari was a decentralized empire that relied on relatively autonomous local-level lords and traditional reciprocal networks to maintain integration (1986:214–216). She proposed a dual-based authority structure that integrated local-level lords and traditional reciprocal networks, emphasizing that horizontal, interdependent relationships, rather than hierarchical ones, were characteristic for Wari imperial structure. Anders interprets the site of Azángaro as a highly specialized calendrical/ceremonial center (in contrast to models of a more secular Wari state), and, of most interest to us here, she emphasizes a local collaboration with the state over the more coercive means of control implied in Isbell’s and Schreiber’s approaches. The Topics’ work at Viracochapampa in the north suggests yet another scenario for more dialectic Wari relationships with the periphery (Topic 1991; Topic et al. 2002; Topic and Topic, this volume). They argue that Wari never controlled the Huamachuco area but that the large Wari center there was related to long-distance exchange on a pilgrimage route to the local oracle at CerroAmaru.JohnTopicsuggeststhatViracochapampa was early in Wari expansion as...

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