Community Formation and the Emergence of the Inca

University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2019 Assembling States: Community Formation And The meE rgence Of The ncI a Empire Thomas John Hardy University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Recommended Citation Hardy, Thomas John, "Assembling States: Community Formation And The meE rgence Of The ncaI Empire" (2019). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 3245. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3245 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3245 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Assembling States: Community Formation And The meE rgence Of The Inca Empire Abstract This dissertation investigates the processes through which the Inca state emerged in the south-central Andes, ca. 1400 CE in Cusco, Peru, an area that was to become the political center of the largest indigenous empire in the Western hemisphere. Many approaches to this topic over the past several decades have framed state formation in a social evolutionary framework, a perspective that has come under increasing critique in recent years. I argue that theoretical attempts to overcome these problems have been ultimately confounded, and in order to resolve these contradictions, an ontological shift is needed. I adopt a relational perspective towards approaching the emergence of the Inca state – in particular, that of assemblage theory. Treating states and other complex social entities as assemblages means understanding them as open-ended and historically individuated phenomena, emerging from centuries or millennia of sociopolitical, cultural, and material engagements with the human and non-human world, and constituted over the longue durée. This means that understanding the emergence of the Inca state, and the historically contingent form it took, requires investigating the transformations of local and regional communities in the Cusco heartland. The multiscalar nature of this type of investigation also demands an examination of processes occurring at particular local communities through time. To resolve this, I directed excavations at the archaeological site of Minaspata, located in the Lucre Basin in the southeastern part of the Cusco region, followed by analyses of the material remains recovered from the site. These include fine-grained investigations of the ceramic patterns, the faunal and macrobotanical remains, and the procurement of obsidian through long-distance exchange. By comparing these patterns to those of the larger Cusco region, an understanding of how the Cusco regional community cohered and broke apart at various points in time can be gained. This regional community eventually gave rise to the Inca state, providing the raw material for Inca projects of sovereignty and subject- making. Although the period before Inca emergence was marked by processes focused on the localization of community, the sociocultural and material frameworks established through complex histories of interaction over millennia enabled the Cusco region to reproduce itself as a self-recognizing, coherent social entity, a critical necessity for the emergence of Inca sovereignty. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Anthropology First Advisor Clark L. Erickson This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3245 Keywords Andes, Assemblage Theory, Inca, South America, States Subject Categories History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3245 ASSEMBLING STATES: COMMUNITY FORMATION AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE INCA EMPIRE Thomas John Hardy A DISSERTATION in Anthropology Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2019 Supervisor of Dissertation ___________________________ Dr. Clark L. Erickson Professor of Anthropology Graduate Group Chairperson ___________________________ Dr. Theodore G. Schurr Professor of Anthropology Dissertation Committee Dr. Lauren Ristvet, Associate Professor of Anthropology Dr. Richard M. Leventhal, Professor of Anthropology ASSEMBLING STATES: COMMUNITY FORMATION AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE INCA EMPIRE COPYRIGHT 2019 Thomas John Hardy This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ To my grandpa Van, who taught me the value of knowledge for its own sake iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Archaeological field research for this study was conducted in accordance with the regulations of the Peruvian Ministerio de Cultura. This project was granted final approval in August, 2013 (Resolución Directoral No. 049-2013-DGPA). Pre-field research was generously funded through grants provided by the University of Pennsylvania Department of Anthropology and the Penn Museum. The Minaspata Archaeological Project was funded by several different grants and granting agencies, including the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences Penfield Fellowship, the Bernard Selz Foundation, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant. The Louis J. Kolb Society of Fellows at the Penn Museum also provided significant financial and intellectual support for post-fieldwork writing, and funding for a second round of radiocarbon dates, as well as an additional season of artifact analysis in 2015. Writing this dissertation has been a challenge for me on many levels, and it is no exaggeration to say that it could not have been completed without the help, support, and love of countless friends, mentors, and colleagues. This dissertation is, in part, about assemblages – as the heterogeneous entities that make up reality. This dissertation is itself also an assemblage – not just of words and ink and paper, but of the effort and support of an entire community of friends and scholars who helped me write it. I‘ve never felt so lucky as I do now, reflecting on all those who have given me their support over the years. iv First, I would like to thank my family for their unconditional love, encouragement, and support. My parents, Nora and Dan, never faltered in their belief in me. My brother, Nathan, whose advice, friendship, and support was ever-present, was always there with words of encouragement when I most needed it. I am so grateful that I am blessed to have been born into this family. You all helped me become the person I am today. I also cannot express enough my profound gratitude to Terren Proctor, who not only supported me unfailingly through my lowest moments, offering words of love and encouragement, but also put in countless hours critiquing drafts, providing logistical support, and digitalizing and formatting many of the images which appear in this dissertation. It is no exaggeration to say that this dissertation might never have been finished without her (and certainly wouldn‘t have been finished on time!), and the final form you are reading now has emerged through her assistance and dedication. The amount of emotional and material support she has given is boundless and astounding. Terren, thank you so much for everything. Of course, I would never have gotten close to the point of completion without the advice, mentorship, and guidance of my advisers, Clark Erickson, Lauren Ristvet, and Richard Leventhal. Clark‘s friendship and advice over the years has been invaluable. The level of his involvement in his students‘ development is the stuff of legend, especially when it comes to writing and revising. His efforts have made me into the scholar that I am today. I also cannot express enough my gratitude for Lauren‘s friendship and mentorship over the years. My conversations with her over the years have formed the v backbone of my theoretical research interests, and she has always been there to help my through my struggles, whether academic or personal. Richard has also been generous with his time, despite his busy schedule; and I tremendously appreciated the advice he always gave when I was too deep in my own head to see the way out. I cannot think of enough ways to express my gratitude for the friendship, hospitality, and skilled fieldwork of José Víctor Gonzales Avendaño. José Víctor is not only a loyal and generous friend, but was the co-director for the Minaspata Archaeological Project. It is difficult to find the words to express my gratitude for the immense time, energy, and labor that he put into this research. This dissertation, and the work that went into it, is partly his. Anyone who has gone through the process of dissertating knows that it can be an incredibly isolating experience. I have had the incredible fortune to have amazing friends to help me through it. I want to thank Alexei Vranich, for his unfailing friendship over the years, for giving me my first fieldwork opportunity in the Andes at Tiwanaku, and for bringing me into the Cusco archaeological community in the first place; Kevin Burke, for his close friendship, support, and commiseration over the years – not to mention his ever- brilliant conversation; Stephen Berquist, whose capacity for intellectually stimulating banter is only matched by his kindness and generosity; Kevin Floerke, for his

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