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Inka Militarism at the Pambamarca Complex in Northern Ecuador

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2019

Samuel V. Connell ,
Amber Anderson ,
Chad Gifford  and
Ana Lucía González
Samuel V. Connell*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022, USA
Amber Anderson
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Rochester Institute of Technology, 92 Lomb Memorial Drive, Eastman Hall, Suite 1301, Rochester, NY 14623, USA
Chad Gifford
Affiliation:
Columbia University, 403 Lerner Hall, MC 1201, 2920 Broadway, New York, NY 10027, USA
Ana Lucía González
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022, USA
*
(connellsamuel@foothill.edu, corresponding author)
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Abstract

In this article, we present research on Inka actions in the face of resistance by indigenous peoples on the northern frontier. We link fieldwork at the Pambamarca complex in northern Ecuador with historic documents to provide important context for further examining imperial processes. With its three site types, Pambamarca offers an opportunity to examine the range of tendencies that groups undergo during imperial moments. Its sites show evidence of both direct displays and the materialization of forceful control or takeover, as well as the more passive, nonsettler, decentralized hegemonic narratives also commonly associated with empire. Here we present detailed data for Inka military installations used to confront a prolonged resistance by the País Caranqui, a decentralized confederation of Caranqui-Cayambe peoples. Evidence from surveys and excavations— including architectural planning, distribution of artifacts, and military encounters—at two large sites in the complex, Quitoloma and Campana Pucara, helps expand our current understandings of the Inka invasion in northern Ecuador while broadening our perspective on the imperial narrative in South America.

En este trabajo se presentan las investigaciones realizadas sobre la resistencia indígena contra el militarismo incaico en la Sierra Norte de Ecuador. Se vincula el trabajo de campo realizado en el complejo de Pambamarca con documentos históricos que proporcionan un contexto importante para comprender con más detalle el proceso imperial. A través de sus tres tipos de sitios, Pambamarca ofrece una oportunidad para examinar la gama de tendencias que desarrollan los grupos durante momentos imperiales. Los sitios en Pambamarca muestran evidencia tanto de manifestaciones directas y de la materialización del control forzoso como de narrativas hegemónicas más pasivas sobre la descentralización no colonial que también son comúnmente asociadas con un imperio. Aquí presentamos datos detallados de las instalaciones militares incaicas construidas para enfrentar una resistencia prolongada por la confederación descentralizada de grupos Caranqui-Cayambe, llamados colectivamente País Caranqui. La evidencia procedente de sondeos y excavaciones que se realizaron en dos de las fortalezas del complejo Pambamarca, Quitoloma y Campana Pucará, incluyendo la planeación arquitectónica, la distribución de artefactos y encuentros militares, ha contribuido a ampliar nuestro conocimiento sobre la invasión incaica en el norte del Ecuador y a incrementar nuestra perspectiva sobre la narrativa imperial en Sudamérica.

Keywords

PambamarcaInkaEcuadormilitarismfrontierpucaraCayambePaís CaranquiPambamarcaIncaEcuadormilitarismofronterapucaraCayambePaís Caranqui
Type
Article
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , March 2019 , pp. 177 - 197
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by the Society for American Archaeology 

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