filiation is history: inca dialectical view of the past 53 Chapter two Filiation is history: the inCa dialeCtiCal view oF the past with the development of a new approach to inca historiography, by the mid-1960s some radical reassessments of the empire’s chronological ex- pansion and its dynastic politics emerged. Zuidema (1964) first proposed an implied asymmetric diarchy in the hanan and hurin division of the conventional kingship list. he claimed that this genealogical record pro- vided a model of political order, not a register of factual events. in his view, the inca narratives perpetuated a body of myths relative to the royal lin- eages’ ancestral founders, who could not be considered historical figures. duviols (1979c), despite his disagreement with Zuidema on this last issue, furthered the diarchy thesis. he suggested that the chroniclers had indeed misinterpreted native testimonies in such a way that they had shaped into a linear account what had initially been a simultaneous coregency of two lineages. the Sapa Inca would have proceeded from the Upper part, while his segunda persona originated from the lower one. to resolve the imbal- ance in the number of rulers traditionally documented in each moiety, duviols suggested that the hanan sequence of nine generations corre- sponded to the most accurate dynastic span. thus, not every hurin lord would have been remembered. as peter Gose (1996a) argued conclusively, the primary evidence supporting this model is extremely scant and prob- lematic. even though there are widespread precedents of andean dual socio-political structures at the provincial level, colonial sources concur in describing a unilateral wielding of power at the apex of the inca hierarchy. whether or not the sovereign delegated the implementation of his deci- sions to a second-in-command, entrusted the conduct of his army to an able relative, sought advice from a high-ranking counsellor, or appointed a governor in Cuzco while at war does not dismiss the autocratic nature of the inca ruling system. Most monarchies enforce similar governing instru- ments that do not call into question the king’s absolute authority. likewise, the fact that the local interests of each moiety were entrusted to its own leader does not necessarily entail an institutionalized diarchy at state level in which power is effectively divided in separate realms. Far from this view, the chronicles describe an inca ruler who cumulated supreme 54 chapter two authority over all domains, be they ritual, military, or political. of course, other members of the elite held important offices in these spheres, includ- ing the lord identified by the spanish as the high priest of the sun. none of them, however, appear to have held independent or exclusive power. the king and the king alone was head of tawantinsuyu. the inca ceremo- ny of royal investiture, which was centred on the divine election of a single individual regarded as being the unique son of the sun, reinforces this picture. Ultimately, the diarchy model does not explain why the inca dynastic accounts report two modes of moiety opposition: one based on kin rela- tions and the other on temporality. to grasp the cultural foundations of this asymmetrical partition, a sound understanding of the nobility’s social structure is required. since the moiety system and its relational antago- nisms are primarily linked to kingship, my analysis of Cuzco’s dual social division focuses on determining the features of inca dynastic rule. some traits of social classification, including stratification by kinship, bilateral transmission of ranks, siblingship, distinction between senior and junior lines, and marriage preference, support my reading of the royal descent group as a conical clan. i argue that this formal model, which Kirchhoff (1949) was the first to identify in the andes, clarifies the dynamics of the hanan/hurin antagonisms and unveils some of the mechanisms that shaped historical consciousness in ancient Cuzco. as opposed to previous interpretations of the kingship succession rule, i propose that inca narra- tives reported two competing strategies to access the imperial office: one was based on the primogeniture rule, and the other on merit. For any as- pirant to the maska paycha (royal headdress), both his position in the dy- nastic line and his personal aptitudes—his ability to lead, command, and conquer—conditioned his accession. these two qualities gave rise to two contrasting narrative genres that depict individuals through the idiom of dual classification. Moiety oppositions in inca historical narratives and rituals not only reveal aspects of the underlying structure of the nobility’s kinship relations, they also contrast these social patterns with the violent realities of royal succession. taken together, these narrative genres recon- cile structure with history by allowing the contingencies of the succession wars to play an active role in legitimizing kingship. as such, expressions of antagonism and affinity in Cuzco cannot be read as literal translations of actual marriage networks, as they can in many dual organizations consist- ing of exogamous moieties. rather, they translated two opposing political .