Distant Provinces in the Inka Empire: Toward a Deeper Understanding of Inka Imperialism

Eleven - Toward a Better Understanding of Inka Provincialism

Sonia Alconini and Michael A. Malpass Chapter Eleven Toward a Better Understanding of Inka Provincialism Introduction The many chapters in this book have deepened our understanding of the different forms of Inka control and Inka provincialism. Because of the geographical scope of the chapters, the contributions provide the foundation for a comparative work on the strategies used by the Inka elite in the controloftheprovinces,thedistinctorganizationallayoutsoftheimperial provinces, and the different effects of the imperial administration on the local populations. More important, they provide a wealth of novel information on regions so far not clearly understood, as is the case in Ecuador, the western Peruvian coast, and Chile. This volume has extensively documented how the Inka Empire incorporated a diversity of environments and ethnicities with varying levels of political complexity. Therefore, it is not surprising to find that the use of a range of power strategies was tailored to specific local conditions, which has also been reported by other scholars (D’Altroy 2002; Malpass 1993; Schreiber1992;Stanish2001b).Asillustratedinthevariouscontributions, these different forms of provincial control were the product of a series of competing factors. These included the kinds of resources available in the 280 alconini and malpass provinces that were valued by the empire, the degree of cooperation or resistance manifested by local leaders, the existing levels of political organization convenient to the imperial administration, how recently the Inkas conquered a region, and the variation in distance to the imperial core. The initial goals of the book were to explore five basic themes: the Inka relations to groups external to the imperial borders; the nature of the interaction between archaeological and ethnohistorical research seeking to understand the various manifestations of Inka imperialism; the various forms of Inka provincialism; the local reactions to imperial control, includingresistance ,colonization,andnegotiationofpowerasseenthrough archaeology and ethnohistory; and the various scales of analysis and archaeological correlates used to understand Inka provincialism and imperial control. Each one of these topics was addressed at different levels of detail by the authors. While in all contributions there was a clear concern for evaluating the nature of imperial control in the various provinces, the lines of evidence and scales of analysis were refreshingly different. In some cases, the point of departure was the use of ethnohistorical information as a complementary avenue of archaeological research (Rivera Casanovas , Mackey, and Acuto). In other cases, both sources provided somewhat contradictoryviews,particularlywhendealingwithpre-Inkapopulations (Van Buren and Presta, Santoro et al.). Differences in the chosen scales of analysis ranged from a regional perspective (Rivera Casanovas, Acuto, Santoro et al.) to communal and site levels (Rossen et al., Lippi and Gudiño, Van Buren and Presta, Mackey, Alconini). This also included an array of approaches to the study of cultural and biological materials, such as bioarchaeology (Haun and Cock Carrasco) and archaeobotany (Rossen et al.). These different ways of addressing Inka provincialism and imperial control provided a rich tapestry that builds on the different ways in which both the conqueror and the conquered perceived the Inka conquest phenomena , the correlation of archaeological and ethnohistorical data, and the shifts promoted by the empire at different scales, ranging from a regional perspective to one of local households. Overall, the chapters provide a rich assortment of novel issues to the study of Inka provincialism, which can be divided into five main areas: different strategies of Inka imperial domination; imperial control along Toward a Better Understanding of Inka Provincialism 281 the Inka frontiers; the role of midlevel administrators in the Inka provinces ;thechallengeoffindingInkamitmaqkunaenclavesintheprovinces; and issues of resistance and acculturation in the provinces. A summary of eachtopicfollowsasacomparativeframeworkforparsingoutthesimilarities and differences posited in the chapters. Inka Imperial Strategies of Domination Two forms of control often describe the ways in which the Inka Empire established domination. These are direct and indirect strategies of imperial administration, depending on whether the empire established a direct government in the provinces through imperial administrators or governedindirectlythroughlocalleaders.Thesetwotypesofadministration correlate to the territorial/hegemonic forms of control widely used to describe both forms of government in other ancient empires in Mesoamerica (Hassig 1992) and in the Old World (Luttwak 1976). In this context ,itisassumedthat aterritorial administrationwasahighinvestment– high extraction strategy because it involved the large-scale investment of imperial facilities and personnel to ensure large economic revenues. These investments include intense forms of agricultural production and the construction of administrative facilities and road networks tied to the direct administration of the provinces by the imperial elites. This strategy was markedly different from an...