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Ritual Pathways of the Inca: An Analysis of the Collasuyu Ceques in Cuzco

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Brian S. Bauer
Brian S. Bauer*
Affiliation:
5514 South University Avenue, Apt. 1724, Chicago, IL 60637
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Abstract

The ceque system of Cuzco was composed of at least 328 shrines (huacas) organized along 42 hypothetical lines (ceques) that radiated out of the city of Cuzco, the capital of the Inca. Ethnohistoric research indicates that the system was conceptually linked to, and essentially reproduced, the fundamental social, political, spatial, and temporal divisions of the Cuzco region and Inca society. As such the ceque system is one of the most complex, indigenous Prehispanic ritual systems known in the Americas. This article summarizes the basic organizational features of the ceque system according to ethnohistorians and reviews the current literature. Archaeological data document the likely positions of 85 shrines and the probable courses of nine ceques in Collasuyu, the southeast quarter of the Cuzco Valley. The courses of the nine Collasuyu ceques are then compared with predicted courses set forth in current models of the system. The findings suggest that numerous internal inconsistencies, if not errors, exist in the seventeenth-century documentary source that describes the ceque system and that the courses of the ceques may have varied far more than is suggested in the literature.

El sistema de ceques de Cuzco estaba compuesto por lo menos de 328 santuarios (huacas) organizados a lo largo de 42 líneas hipotéticas (ceques) que partían de la ciudad de Cuzco, la capital inca. La investigación etnohistórica señala que el sistema estaba vinculado conceptualmente, y esencialmente reproducía, las divisiones sociales, políticas, espaciales y temporales fundamentales de la región de Cuzco y de la sociedad inca. Como tal, los ceques constituyen uno de los más complejos sistemas rituales indígenas prehispánicos de las Américas. Este artículo sintetiza, de acuerdo a los etnohistoriadores, los rasgos básicos organizativos del sistema de ceques, y reseña la literatura actual. La evidencia arqueológica, por su parte, documenta las posibles posiciones de 85 santuarios y los probables cursos de nueve ceques en el Collasuyu, el cuadrante sudeste del valle de Cuzco. Luego se comparan los cursos de dichos nueve ceques con aquellos previstos en los modelos comunes del sistema. Los resultados revelan numerosas inconsistencias internas, si no errores, en la fuente del siglo diecisiete que describe el sistema de ceques y, además, que el curso de éstos puede haber variado bastante más de lo sugerido por la literatura corriente.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , September 1992 , pp. 183 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1992

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References

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