Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-6c7dr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-20T07:56:09.498Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Segmentary State Formation and the Ritual Control of Water Under the Incas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Peter Gose
Peter Gose
Affiliation:
University of Lethbridge
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

There is a strange and unacknowledged paradox in the historiography of the Incas. On the one hand, few would deny that theirs was a typically theocratic archaic state, a divine kingship in which the Inca was thought to.be the son of the Sun. On the other hand, the standard descriptions of Inca political structure barely mention religion and seem to assume a formal separation between state and cult.1 I believe that these secularizing accounts are misguided and will show in this essay that the political structure of the pre-Columbian Andes took form primarily around a system of sacred ancestral relics and origin points known generically as huacas. Each huaca defined a level of political organization that might nest into units of a higher order or subdivide into smaller groupings. Collectively they formed a segmentary hierarchy that transcended the boundaries of local ethnic polities and provided the basis for empires like that of the Incas. However, these huacas were also the focus of local kinship relations and agrarian fertility rituals. The political structure that they articulated therefore had a built-in concern for the metaphysical reproduction of human, animal, and plant life. Political power in the pre-Columbian Andes was particularly bound up with attempts to control the flow of water across the frontier of life and death, resulting in no clear distinction between ritual and administration.

Information

Type
The Imperial State in the Middle Ages
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , July 1993 , pp. 480 - 514
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Albornoz, C. de. 1967. “Instructión para Descubrir todas las Guacas del Piru y sus Camayos y Haziendas.” Journal de la Société des Américanistes, LVI: 1, 8–39.Google Scholar
Arguedas, J. M.. 1964 [1956]. “Puquio, una Cultura en Proceso de Cambio,” in Arguedas, J. M., ed., Estudios Sobre la Cultura Actual del Perú, 221–72. Lima: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.Google Scholar
Arguedas, J. M. 1968. Las Comunidades de Espana del Perú. Lima: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.Google Scholar
Arriaga, J. de. 1968 [1621]. Extirpatión de la Idolatría en el Perú, in Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles, vol. 209, 191–277. Madrid: Ediciones Atlas.Google Scholar
Ávila, F. de. 1966 [1598]. Dioses y Hombres de Huarochirí. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.Google Scholar
Ávila, F. de. 1991. The Huarochirí Manuscript. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Bastien, J. 1978. Mountain of the Condor: Metaphor and Ritual in an Andean Ayllu. St. Paul: West Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Betanzos, J. de. 1987 [1551]. Suma y Naraciónde los Incas. Madrid: Ediciones Atlas.Google Scholar
Berthelot, J. 1986. “The Extraction of Precious Metals at the Time of the Inca,” in Murra, J., Wachtel, N., and Revel, J., eds., Anthropological History of Andean Polities,69–88. Cambridge and Paris: Cambridge University Press and Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Browman, D. 1978. “Toward the Development of the Tiahuanaco (Tiwanaku) State,” in Browman, D., ed., Advances in Andean Archaeology, 327–49. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carrion Cachot, R. 1955. “El Culto de Agua en el Antiguo Peru.” (Separata de la)Revista del Museo Nacional de Antropología y Arqueología, 11:2, 4–100.Google Scholar
Cieza de Leon, P. de. 1984 [1553]. La Crónica del Perú, Pts. 1 and 2, in Obras Completas, vol. 1. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Instituto, Gonzalo Fernàndez de Oviedo.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cobo, B. 1956 [1653]. Historia del Nuevo Mundo. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Españoles.Google Scholar
Cock, G.; and Doyle, M.. 1979. “Del Culto Solar a la Clandestinidad de Inti y Punchao.” Historia y Cultura, 12: 51–73.Google Scholar
Conrad, G. 1981. “Cultural Materialism, Split Inheritance, and the Expansion of Ancient Peruvian Empires.” American Antiquity, 46:1, 3–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Díaz, B. 1956 [1632]. The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico. New York: The Noonday Press.Google Scholar
Duviols, P. 1973. “Huari y Llacuaz: Agricultores y Pstores. Un Dualismo Prehispánico de Oposición y Complementaridad.” Revista del Museo Nacional, 39: 153–91.Google Scholar
Duviols, P. 1974–1976. “Une Petite Chronique Retrouvée: Errores, Ritos, Supersticiones y Ceremonias de los Yndios de la Provincia de Chinchaycocha y otras del Piru.” Journal de la Société des Américanistes, LXIII: 275–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duviols, P. 1978a. “Un Symbolisme Andin du Double: La Lithomorphose de l’Ancêtre.” Actes du XLIIe Congrès International des Américanistes, IV: 359–64.Google Scholar
Duviols, P.. 1978b. “Camaquen, Upani: Un Concept Animiste des Anciens Peruviens,” Hartmann, R. and Oberam, U., eds. Estudios Americanistas, voel. 1, 132–44. Bonn: Collectanea Institui Anthropos, vol. 20.Google Scholar
Duviols, P.. 1979a. “La Dinastía de los Incas: ¿Monarquia o Diarquia? Argumentos heurísticos a favor de una tesis estructuralista.” Journal de la Société des Américanistes, LXVI: 67–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duviols, P.. 1979b. “Un Symbolisme de l’Occupation, de l’Aménagement et de l’Explotation de l’Espace: Le Monolithe ‘Huanca’ et sa Fonctione dans les Andes Préhispaniques.” L’Homme, 19:2,7–31.Google Scholar
Duviols, P. 1986. Cultura Andina y Represión: Procesos y Visitas de Idolatrías y Hechicerías, Siglo XVII. Cuzco: Centro de Estudios Rurales Andinos, Bartolemé delas Casas.Google Scholar
Earls, J. 1979. “Patrones de Jurisdictión y Organizatión entre los Qaracha Wankas: Una Reconstructión Archaeológica y Etnohistórica de una Epoca Fluida”, in Casteli, A., de Paredes, M. Koth, and de Pease, M. Mould, eds., Etnohistoria y Antropología Andina, 55–92. Lima: Museo Nacional de Historia.Google Scholar
Earls, J. and Silverblatt, I.. 1978. “La Realidad Física y Social en la Cosmología Andina.” Actes du XLIIe Congrés International des Américanistes, IV: 297–325.Google Scholar
Eling, H. H. 1986. “Prehispanic Irrigation Sources and Systems in the Jequetepeque Valley, Northern Peru,” in Matos, R., Turpin, S., and Eling, H., eds. Andean Archaeology: Papers in Memory of Clifford Evans, 130–49. Los Angeles: UCLA Institute of Archaeology, Monograph XXVII.Google Scholar
Espinoza, W., ed. 1978. Los Modos de Produccóon en el Imperio de los lncas. Lima: Editorial Mantaro.Google Scholar
Evans-Pritchard, E. 1940. The Nuer. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Feeley-Harnik, G. 1985. “Issues in Divine Kingship.” Annual Review of Anthropology, 14: 273–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fock, N. 1981. “Ecology and Mind in an Andean Irrigation Culture.” Folk, 23: 311–30.Google Scholar
Frazer, J. 1922 [1890]. The Golden Bough. London: MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuenzalida, F. 1970. “Estructura de la Comunidad de Indígenas Tradicional. Un Hípotesis de Trabajo,” in Matos Mar, J., ed., Hacienda, Comunidady Campesinado en el Perú, 291–63. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.Google Scholar
Geertz, C. 1980. Negara: The Theatre State in Nineteenth-Century Bali. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
González Holguín, D. 1952 [1608]. Vocabulario de la Lengua General de todo el Perú Llamado Lenqua Qqichua o del Inca. Lima: Imprenta Santa María.Google Scholar
Gose, P. 1986. “Work, Class and Culture in Huaquirca, a Village in the Southern Peruvian Andes.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of London.Google Scholar
Guaman Poma de Ayala, F. 1936 [1615]. Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno. Paris: Université de Paris.Google Scholar
Hartmann, R. 1979. “¿‘Quechuismo Preincaico’ en el Ecuador?.” Ibero-Amerihanisches Archiv, 5:3, 267–99.Google Scholar
Helms, M. 1981. “Precious Metals and Politics: Style and Ideology in the Intermediate Area and Peru.” Journal of Latin American Lore, 7:2, 215–38.Google Scholar
Holm, O. 1967. “Money Axes from Ecuador.” Folk, 8–9: 135–43.Google Scholar
Hocart, A. M. 1970 [1936]. Kings and Councillors. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Huertas Vallejos, L. 1981. La Religión en una Sociedad Rural Andina (Siglo XVII). Ayacucho: Universidad Nacional de San Cristóbal de Huamanga.Google Scholar
Isbell, B. J. 1985 [1978]. To Defend Ourselves: Ecology and Ritual in an Andean Village, 2nd ed. Prospect Heights: Waveland Press.Google Scholar
Julien, C. 1988. “How Inca Decimal Administration Worked.” Ethnohistory, 35:3, 257–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kertzer, D. 1988. Ritual, Politics and Power. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Kosok, P. 1965. Life, Land and Water in Ancient Peru. New York: Long Island Press.Google Scholar
Leach, E. 1961. Pul Eliya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Levillier, R. 1924. Gobernautes del Perú, vol. 4. Madrid: Imprenta de Juan Pueyo.Google Scholar
MacCormack, S. 1984. “From the Sun of the lncas to the Virgin of Copacabana.” Representations, 8: 30–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcos, J. 1978. “Cruising to Acapulco and Back with the Thorny Oyster Set: A Model for a Lineal Exchange System.” Journal of the Steward Anthropological Society, 9:1–2, pp. 99–132.Google Scholar
Matienzo, Juan de. 1967 [1567]. Gobierno del Perú. Lima: Institut Français d’Etudes Andines.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millones, L. 1971. Las Informaciones de Cristóbal de Albornoz: Documentos para el Estudio del Taki Onqoy. Cuernavaca: Centra Intercultural de Documentación.Google Scholar
Molina, C. de. 1916 [1574]. Relación de las Fabulas y Ritos de los Ingas…, in Romero, C. and Urteaga, H., eds., Colección de Libros y Documentos Referentes a la Historia del Perú, vol. 1. Lima: Imprenta y Libreria Sanmarti.Google Scholar
Moore, S. F. 1958. Power and Property in Inca Peru. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murra, J. 1958. “On Inca Political Structure,” in Ray, V., ed., Systems of Control and Bureaucracy in Human Societies, 30’9. Seattle: American Ethnological Society.Google Scholar
Murra, J. 1975. Formaciones Económicas y Politicas del Mundo Andino. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.Google Scholar
Murra, J. 1980. The Economic Organization of the Inca State. Greenwich: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Murúa, Martín de. 1987 [1613]. Historia General del Perú. Madrid: Historia 16.Google Scholar
Netherly, P. 1984. “The Management of Late Andean Irrigation Systems on the North Coast of Peru.” American Antiquity, 49:2, 227–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ortloff, C. R.; Mosley, M. E.; and Feldman, R. A.. 1982. “Hydraulic Engineering Aspects of Chimu Chicama-Moche Intervalley Canal.” American Antiquity, 47:3, 572–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paulsen, A. 1974. “The Thorny Oyster and the Voice of God: Spondylus and Strombus in Andean Prehistory.” American Antiquity, 39:3, 597–607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pizarro, Pedro. 1978 [1571]. Relatión del Descubrimiento y Conquista de los Reinos del Perú. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.Google Scholar
Platt, T. 1986. “Mirrors and Maize: The Concept of Yanantin among the Macha of Bolivia,” in Murra, J. et al. , eds., Anthropological History of Andean Polities, 228–59. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polo de Ondegardo, J. 1916 [1554]. De los errores y supersticiones de los indios, sacadas del tratado y averiguación que hizo el Licenciado Polo, in Informaciones acerca de la Religión y Gobierno de los Incas, vol. 1, 3–43. Lima: Imprenta y Libreria Sanmarti.Google Scholar
Polo de Ondegardo, J.. 1916 [1571]. Relación de los fundamentos acerca del notable daño que resulta de no guardar a los indios susfueros, in Informaciones acerca de la Religión v Gobierno de los Incas, vol. 1, 45–188. Lima: Imprenta y Libreria Sanmarti.Google Scholar
Ramirez, S. 1986. “Notes on Ancient Exchange: A Plea for Collaboration,” in Matos, R., Turpin, S. and Eling, H., eds., Andean Archaeology: Papers in Memory of Clifford Evans, 225–38. Los Angeles: UCLA Institute of Archaeology, Monograph XXVII.Google Scholar
Rojas, I. 1980. La Expansión del Quechua. Lima: Ediciones Signo.Google Scholar
Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, M. 1962. “Nuevos Datos sobre Tenencia de Tierras Reales en el Incario.” Revista del Museo National, 31: 130–64.Google Scholar
Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, M. 1977. Etnía y Sociedad. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.Google Scholar
Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, M.. 1983. Estructuras Andinas del Poder: Ideología Religiosa y Político. Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.Google Scholar
Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, M.. 1988. Conflicts over Coca Fields in XVlth-Century Perú. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology, Memoir 21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santacruz Pachacuti Yamqui, J de. 1927 [1613]. Relacion de Antiguedades deste Reyno del Piru, in Urteaga, H., ed., Colección de Libros y Documentos Referentes a la Historia del Perú, tomo IX, 125–235. Lima: Imprenta y Libreria Sanmarti y Ca.Google Scholar
Santillán, Hernando de. 1927 [1553]. Relacóon del Origen, Descendencia, Politico y Gobierno de los Incas, in Urteaga, H., ed., Historia de los Incas y Relación de su Gobierno (Colección de Libros y documentos referentes a la historia del Perú), vol. 9. Lima: Imprenta y Libreria Sanmarti.Google Scholar
Santo Tomás, D. de. 1951 [1560]. Lexicon o Vocabulario de la Lengua General del Peru. Lima: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.Google Scholar
Sarmiento de Gamboa, P. 1942 [1572]. Historia de los Incas. Buenos Aires: Biblioteca Emecé.Google Scholar
Segovia, Bartolomé de [formerly attributed to Cristóbal de Molina (el Almagrista)].1968 [1553]. Relación de muchas cosas acaescidas en el Perú, in Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, vol. 209, 56–95. Madrid: Ediciones Atlas.Google Scholar
Sherbondy, J. 1982. “El Ragadío, Los Lagos y los Mitos de Origen.” Allpanchis, 20:3–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherbondy, J. 1992. “Water Ideology in Inca Ethnogenesis,” in Dover, R. et al. , eds., Andean Cosmologies through Time, 46–66. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Silverblatt, I. 1988. “Imperial Dilemmas, the Politics of Kinship, and Inca Reconstructions of History.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 30:1, 83–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silverblatt, I. and Earls, J. 1977. “Mito y Renovación. El Caso de Moros y los Aymaraes.” Allpanchis, 10:93–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, S. 1982. Peru's Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, G. 1976. “Camay, Camac et Camasca dans le Manuscrit Quechua de Huarochirí.” Journal de la Société des Américanistes, LXIII: 231–44.Google Scholar
Taylor, G. 1980. “Supay.” Amerindia, 5: 47–63.Google Scholar
Torero, A. 1974. El Quechua y la Historia Social Andina. Lima: Dirección Universitaria de Investigación, Universidad Ricardo Palma.Google Scholar
Torero, A. 1985. “El Comercio Lejano y la Difusión del Quechua. El Caso de Ecuador.” Revista Andina, 4:2, 367–402.Google Scholar
Valcárcel, L. 1980. “La Religión Incaica.” Historia del Perú, 3: 75–202. Lima: Mejía Baca.Google Scholar
Zuidema, R. T. 1962. “The Relationship Between Mountains and Coast in Ancient Peru,” in The Wonder of Man's Ingenuity, 156–65. Leiden: Publication of the State Museum of Ethnology.Google Scholar
Zuidema, R. T. 1964. The Ceque System of Cuzco. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zuidema, R. T. 1977. “The Inca Kinship System, a New Theoretical view,” in Bolton, R. and Mayer, E., eds., Andean Kinship and Marriage, 240–81. Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association.Google Scholar
Zuidema, R. T. 1978. “Shafttombs and the Inca Empire.” Steward Journal of Anthropology, 9:1–2, 133–78.Google Scholar
Zuidema, R. T. 1980. “El Ushnu.” Revista de la Unwersidad Complutense, 28: 317–62.Google Scholar
Zuidema, R. T. 1986. “Inca Dynasty and Irrigation: Another Look at Andean Concepts of History,” in Murra, J., Wachtel, N., and Revel, J., eds., Anthropological History of Andean Polities, 177–200. Cambridge and Paris: Cambridge University Press and Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zuidema, R. T. and Urton, G.. 1976. “La Constelación de la Llama en los Andes Peruanos.” Allpanchis, 9: 59–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar