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14. Inca Ceremonial Sites in the Southwest Titicaca Basin Elizabeth Arkush

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14. Inca Ceremonial Sites in the Southwest Titicaca Basin Elizabeth Arkush 14. Inca Ceremonial Sites in the Southwest Titicaca Basin Elizabeth Arkush TAWANTINSUYU, as the Incas called their empire, was important to the Incas, both politically as grew in perhaps a hundred years (ca. AD 1430– the home of the rich, populous, and powerful 1532) to encompass a huge territory of numer- Lupaca and Colla ethnic groups, and religiously, ous ecological zones and peoples with diverse because it was the doorway to the famous Inca customs, languages, economies, and political in- pilgrimage center on the Islands of the Sun and stitutions. The Incas relied on religious ideology Moon. Analysis of the style, size, and placement as one important element of imperial control of ceremonial sites in the Lupaca region suggests over this vast and varied area. Ethnohistoric that Inca administrators did not mandate cere- documents describe a concerted Inca policy of monial site construction merely as a wholesale religious incorporation of the provinces (e.g., imposition of Inca ideology, but took many other Cobo 1979:191 [1653: Bk. 12 Ch. 23], 1990 [1653]; factors into account, including previous non- MacCormack 1991:98–118; Rowe 1946:293–314, Inca traditions of worship. Furthermore, it is 1982; Valera 1950:145). The subject people’s local likely that some sites were constructed and divinities, or huacas, were assimilated into Inca modified at least partly by local workers with- state control, and subjects were gathered to en- out Inca supervision. This general picture of in- gage in Inca rituals at pilgrimage centers or state clusion and accommodation contrasts with more festivals at Cuzco. Inca state ritual was also rigid class exclusion at the sanctuary on the Is- brought to the provinces and was performed in land of the Sun itself. These little-known sites sun temples built at provincial centers, at local and their relation to the Island of the Sun sanctu- festivals, and at special state ceremonies (such as ary give us a window into the inner mechanisms the capacocha, or sacrifice ceremony) that were of outwardly monolithic, legitimizing ideolo- performed away from the center. Nevertheless, gies. In practice, in the Titicaca Basin, as perhaps the ethnohistoric record gives us an incomplete everywhere, ideology was shaped and contested and Cuzco-centric view of the way religion by countless agents of greater and lesser power. worked on the ground in the empire. A close ex- amination of the archaeological record can illu- RELIGION IN THE INCA EMPIRE minate the ways in which religious ideology in Tawantinsuyu interacted with, rather than sup- The question of the degree of Inca religious con- planted or ignored, the preexisting cosmologies, trol may be viewed as a subset of a more general ritual practices, and shrines of its new provinces. debate on the impact of Inca conquest on local This chapter looks at the archaeological populations. To some scholars, the Inca policies manifestations of religion, ideology, and ritual in of indirect rule meant that little changed at the an Inca province by compiling the results of sur- local level after the Inca conquest (Murra 1980 face survey and incorporating previous research [1956]). Others have emphasized the intrusive on Inca period ceremonial sites in the south- policy of labor extraction used by the Incas (for western Lake Titicaca Basin of Peru. This region example, Julien 1988; Stanish 1997). In fact, the 209 210 ELIZABETH ARKUSH impact of Inca conquest in Tawantinsuyu 12 Ch. 23]; Valera 1950:145). The Incas also fre- ranged from complete reorganization of some quently enhanced aboriginal religious sites and subject provinces to the loosest control of others consulted important local huacas (Rowe 1946: (Bauer 1992; D’Altroy 1992; Dillehay 1977; 302; MacCormack 1991:141–159). González 1983; LeVine 1985; Menzel 1959; Neth- Our archaeological knowledge of Late Hori- erly 1978; Pease 1982; Salomon 1986a, 1986b; zon ceremonial sites outside the Inca heartland Stanish 2001b). The amount of control exerted in is incomplete (see, for instance, Van de Guchte any one place was affected by the length of time 1990:406, illustration 2). Some provincial cere- the Incas controlled it, the desirability or use of monial sites, such as Sayhuite in Apurímac and the region in question, the sociopolitical com- Vilcashuamán in Ayacucho, are intrusive and plexity of polities already present in the region, pure Inca in style; others, like Pachacamac or the threat that these polities posed to Inca rule, Wari Wilka (Shea 1969), are Inca additions to im- and strategic considerations. portant pre-Inca shrines, built with significant For religion, the question is whether Inca re- adaptations of local, non-Inca styles and materi- ligious ideology was imposed wholesale in an als. Rarely, there was actual destruction of indig- attempt to communicate Inca dominance to con- enous huacas (Nielsen and Walker 1999). In quered peoples or, rather, evolved to accommo- addition, numerous modest, rural ceremonial date the practices and needs of new subject sites exist—a few will be described below—but populations. Both possibilities are supported by they are little known, giving the erroneous im- different lines of evidence, and it is certainly pression that where ceremonial sites were built possible that different religious policies were in the provinces, they were major sanctuaries di- utilized in different regions or time periods by rectly designed and controlled by the Inca elite. the state. It is debatable whether intrusive Inca cere- Most contact period documentary sources on monial installations were placed strictly to influ- Inca religion tend to portray a uniform imposi- ence the conquered masses. For instance, a tion of official Inca religion everywhere in the proliferation of high-altitude mountain shrines empire, although some accounts of the extirpa- in Argentina and Chile, a region where the Incas tion of idolatry emphasize the importance of lo- invested comparatively little in economic or po- cal nonelite shrines and portable huacas in the litical infrastructure, shows considerable effort daily lives of ordinary folk (e.g., Arriaga 1968 and expense poured into ceremonial sites that [1621]). The Huarochiri manuscript documents a were not very visible or accessible to local popu- remarkably detailed and, from a Cuzco perspec- lations (Beorchia Nigris 1973, 1985; McEwan and tive, unorthodox provincial mythology that Van de Guchte 1992; Reinhard 1992; Schobinger must have incorporated many pre-Inca elements and Constanza Ceruti 2001). Class exclusivity is (Avila 1991 [ca. 1598]). The Huarochiri manu- clearly apparent in Inca religious practices in script also vividly attests to the expedient Inca general and at the Island of the Sun sanctuary in policy of incorporating regionally important particular. Elaborate regulations controlling ac- shrines into their origin mythology: “In the high- cess to the island sanctuary reproduced and re- lands, they say, the Incas worshiped the sun as flected social divisions. Overall, Inca religious the object of their adoration from Titi Caca, say- sites did more, and sometimes less, than signal ing, ‘It is he who made us Inca!’ From the low- Inca dominance. lands, they worshiped Pacha Camac, saying, ‘It Factors affecting Inca ideological strategy is he who made us Inca!’” (Avila 1991:111, sec. may have included the political and economic 276 [ca. 1598:Ch. 22]). According to the chroni- investment in the region, local religious prac- clers, the major portable huacas of conquered na- tice and the prestige of local religious sites, and, ciones were brought to Cuzco and tended to by apparently, military considerations (Hyslop rotating colonists from the huacas’ homelands, 1990:189). The ideological incorporation of the kept by the Incas both as hostages and as poten- provinces was not an event, but an ongoing tially powerful guests (Cobo 1979:191 [1653: Bk. process, as Cobo noted: CHAPTER 14: INCA CEREMONIAL SITES IN THE SOUTHWEST TITICACA BASIN 211 …from the beginning of their empire chiefs of the region (Julien 1983:36–38). Chulpa the Incas were not always steadfast in burial towers continued to be built. Monumental their religion, nor did they maintain the examples with beautifully finished stone ma- same opinions and worship the same sonry in the Late Horizon may have signaled the gods….They were prompted to make strength and security of a hereditary elite newly such changes because they realized that confirmed in its position of power within the this way they improved their control Inca hierarchy. over the kingdom and kept it more sub- Along with the resettlement of native peo- servient [Cobo 1990:5 (1653:Bk. 13 Ch. ple, a distinct demographic spike is observable 1)]. in the Late Horizon from Stanish et al.’s (1997) survey of the southwest basin, best explained as THE TITICACA BASIN the movement of large numbers of mitima colo- nists into the Titicaca Basin. Ample textual evi- UNDER INCA RULE dence also exists for mitimas in the region, The traditional date for the expansion of the In- destined for service at the Island of the Sun or cas into the Titicaca Basin is AD 1450 (Rowe for specialized production workshops (Ramos 1944:65). The conquest of the Titicaca Basin was Gavilán 1988:84 [1621:Bk. 1 Ch. 12]; Murra 1978: recounted by Cieza de León (1985:130–136 [1553: 418; Julien 1983:75; Espinoza Soriano 1987: 248, Bk. 2 Chs. 41–43]) and Cobo (1979:140 [1653:Bk. 253; Stanish 1997:204). 12 Ch. 13]). While they differ in some details, The most extraordinary act of Inca control in both accounts state that the Lupacas and the the Titicaca Basin was the establishment of an Collas were engaged in a war at the time of Inca elaborate sanctuary complex and pilgrimage contact. The Collas were eventually vanquished, center on the Islands of the Sun and Moon (Titi- and the Lupacas welcomed the Incas as allies.
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