Kara Johannesen ANT Dr. Walker 04/21/2014 Final Paper Structures of the long term.

The religious rise of a political powerhouse.

(Taken from Peruadventurestours.com) It is hard to comprehend the shock that the Spaniards must have experienced when arriving to the Inca Empire in 1532. After not seeing land for many months it must have been an amazement arriving upon the colossal Inca Empire that spanned the modern day countries of Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Columbia, and Ecuador. I can only imagine that the Spanish must have found the controlling of such a large geographic area to be a remarkable task. How could one group of people control such a large and varied area? One might assume that the Inca had an unstoppable military force in which they conquered surrounding ethnic groups, however, the Inca used a much more effective method of control, ideology. In modern societies we think of conquest as the total replacement of one groups culture with another. However, early Inca expansion probably required little to no

military action. Expansion through alliances and manipulation of ideology were tactics employed by early Inca. The Inca expanded their empire by authenticating themselves into local religious traditions by. The Inca claimed a semidivine emperor and a direct heritage to the victors of the creation story, which allowed the Inca to justify their expansion and conquering of other ethnic groups. The Inca incorporated local gods into a larger pantheon in which they were placed on top of a new ranking. Instead of conversion they Inca co-opted local religions. This task was not difficult since there were shared preexisting cultural and cosmological concepts. The elite of the Inca Empire claimed a dominant position in the cosmos and mythology allowing for manipulation of ethnic groups who were under the impression that the Inca were superior and there was nothing they could do to reverse the social order. Control through hegemonic religious beliefs is not a new concept to the Andean area. Religious practices have been present in the area since the first arrivals. From the earliest of sites, such as Monte Verde, we see archaeological evidence for shamanistic practices. As cultures evolved in the Andean region so did religion. Social order and organization was not something that was separate from the cosmos and mythology, instead it was seen as an analogy of how the universe works, creating the belief that a hierarchal order was part of the natural order. Evidence from early Andean sites shows how religion was used to politically unify states. Sites such as Chavin De Hauntar are known for the religious ideologies that dominated their society and developed its political structure. It is evident that religion has been a major part of mostly all of the major sites in the Andean region, but what is more important is the understanding that for hundreds

of years there was continuity of ideas. The Inca were masters of adapting these longestablished concepts to fit their own agenda.

(Image 1 borrowed from twistedsifter.com, image 2 borrowed from Bolivia-travels.com)

Some of these long-term structures span a vast amount of time and space. Dualism is a major theme found within Andean archaeology. Concepts such as Tinku, an Andean word describing two opposing forces coming together in duality, is a concept which has endured hundreds of years in Andean cosmological and religious understanding. The image above shows how this concept can be applied to both the natural world and to restore social balance. At Chavin De Hauntar we see examples of this concept within architecture. For example, the Black and White Portal at Chavin De Hauntar shows the duality of two sides. Another example from Chavin De Hauntar is the Tello Obeslisk, which has two halves, depicting both male and female aspects to form a perfect balance. The Inca incorporated dualism into their own society as a means of using an established concept for an organizational purpose. As Jerry Moore wrote, The best known example of dual organization is associated with the Inka. For example, Zuidemas detailed analyses (1964, 1973, 1977, 1983, 1990a, 1990b) illustrate how the organization

of the Inka society and polity incorporated principles of dualism, particularly as expressed in the division between hanan, and hurin, the upper and lower moieties of Inca Cuzco.(Moore, 166.) The upper and lower moieties included several ethnic groups, which through dualism were able to work together to form one society. Sometimes referred to as Lo Andino, is the idea that can be described as the essence of the Andean people, or the idea that things are done in the Andean region because that is how they have always been. This projection of the present on the past assumes great continuity and can inaccurately portray the past. However, there is evidence for long-term structures and the continuation of practices and ideas. Despite times of political and economic turmoil, key concepts seem to have remained unshakable and continued even if their societies did not. One could imagine how baffled the Catholic Priest who first encountered the Inca might have been when they tried to convert the Inca but instead the Inca took aspects of both religions and combined them. This was not unusual for the Inca to do since they lived in a world where religious beliefs were malleable. The application of pre-existing notions along with the combination of new ideas is how the Inca were able to acquire such a vast empire in the first place. In his book, The Incas, DAltroy says The Incas embellished traditional ideas of ancestor worship and veneration of the powers of the earth and sky by elevating an existing deity the Sun to a position of pre-eminence and by making worship of their ancestors reverence for humanitys past. (DAltroy, 175) Even today we see the prevalence of the Andean worldview on their religious practices. The ritual of Qoyllur RitI is a good example of how long-term concepts still exists in the Andean region. Qoyllur RitI is a pilgrimage to Corpus Christi in which regional peoples

trek to this Catholic religious site and make offerings to not only Catholic deities but also to nature and traditional Andean deities.

(Image borrowed from culturepotion.blogspot.com)

This is not to say that Inca expansion was always peaceful. Besides manipulation of local religions, intimidation was sometimes used as a means of forming a new political order. The Inca were not always welcomed by local polities and some tried to fight them off. For example, one of the first groups said to have been conquered by the Inca, the Cuyos, an ethnic group that opposed the Inca invasion, were killed in a large number and their town destroyed to show Inca dominance and terrify other groups into coming under Inca control without struggle. According to Covey, The Cuyos are said to have remained under Inca rule for several generations but were accused of plotting the assassination of the ninth ruler, Pachacutic. In retaliation, Inca armies passed through Cuyo lands, burning villages and killing a large number of the local people.(Covey, 13) Those that did have the power to rebel were often faced with drought or other circumstances in which they

were weakened. However, for the most part the Inca were able to successfully combine ethnic groups by using the long-term concepts of the broad Andean region. The Inca legitimized their reign by interpreting the creation myth in a way that claimed their ethnic group to be the decedents of Manco Capac and the chosen children of the sun god, Inti. To the Inca, Cuzco was the center of the universe in which they should inherit, establishing an unarguable social stratification between ethnic groups. As Moseley states in The Incas and their Ancestors, For example, conquerors often rationalize their acts both to themselves and to their new subjects. For the lords of Cuzco the rationalization process came to include a special creation myth. Inti, the essence of the Sun, was declared the progenitor and spiritual father of the Inca. By this doctrine, the Incas were Intis chosen children of the sun and the emperor, a demigod, was his executor on earth. From Inti came divine edicts for his children to transform Cuzco into the imperial navel of the universe and to conquer the world as its empire. (Moseley, 13) Once this social hierarchy is established it makes control of the people easier to handle. If the Inca were truly the chosen children then other ethnic groups would have to submit to their authority. The notion of the emperor as a demigod instills the fear that if one were to rebel they would suffer punishment from not only local officials but also the gods. Mita, or corvee labor was one of the many ways the Inca had commoners pay tribute to the gods. Ritual actions and origin myths do not simply occur as isolated institutions in societies; they can be understood as precipitates of a broader social process. Origin myths in ancient stratified societies functioned as important means to support the privileges of the rulers. The source of social inequality is defined and justified through the primordial actions of cultural heroes. The reenactment of those actions,

within the codified contexts of ritual, reestablished the ruling elites ancestral linkages with the mythical personages and events as well as their access to universal forces. (Bauer, 333) From these examples it is clear that it wouldnt have taken much military force to keep polities under their control. Claiming divine ancestry and importance over other ethnic groups was enough in not only conquering but was also a successful tool for maintaining social order.

(Image borrowed from hoteltraveltours.com)

Works Cited:

Bauer, Brian S. "Legitimization of the state in Inca myth and ritual." American Anthropologist 98, no. 2 (1996): 327-337. Covey, R. Alan. How the Incas built their heartland: state formation and the innovation of imperial strategies in the Sacred Valley, Peru. University of Michigan Press, 2006. DAltroy, Terence N.. The Incas. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2002. Jennings, J. (2003). Inca imperialism, ritual change, and cosmological continuity in the Cotahuasi Valley of Peru. Journal of Anthropological Research, 59(4), 433-462. Moore, J. D. (1995). The archaeology of dual organization in Andean South America: A theoretical review and case study. Latin American Antiquity, 165-181.