MATERIAL CULTURE AND POWER UNDER INKA DOMINATION

Abstract

The study of power manipulation by Inka Empire on dominated populations could be reached through variables as architecture or pottery considered both as ways of control and dominion and ways of analysis to interpret institutions in terms of culture material. Because of its symbolic and coercive role, Inka pottery was used by Inka ruling elite in political activities, especially at provincial
centers, emphasizing the importance of the state as physical and symbolic sponsor. Inka pottery was characterized by forms, standardized designs, and highly controlled manufacturing of Imperial Inka style, although that was not the only production context supported by the state. In several Imperial provinces, the state promoted the production of local pottery and other high technological quality pottery as the examples in Qollasusu that in this occasion we introduce. For example, the Inkas appreciated Pacajes style pottery, from altiplano at the South of Titicaca Lake, that shows a wide distribution but in few amounts in Inka sites located in the mid south part of the empire, Yavi Chico Polychrome pottery style (or Chicha), and Inka Paya style with a wide distribution associated with inka contexts in NW Argentina archaeological sites. This text intends to inquire about the access lines
to these preferential style potteries by Inkas in Qollasuyu, on the character of its distribution and on the existence or not of coordination at provincial level among pottery manufacturing, distribution, and transportation. To reach that topic we used a combination of compositional, morphological and stylistic pottery analysis whose results, although not definitive, bring us new light and broaden our knowledge about colonization and exchange networks.