Hostname: page-component-669899f699-tpknm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-28T15:40:57.475Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hybrid Material Culture in the Inca Empire (AD 1400–1532): Analyzing the Ceramic Assemblages from La Centinela and Las Huacas, Chincha Valley

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2023

Jordan A. Dalton Open the ORCID record for Jordan A. Dalton [Opens in a new window]
Jordan A. Dalton*
Affiliation:
American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA
*
Corresponding author: Jordan A. Dalton; Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The distribution and hybridization of ceramic vessels provide insights into how local elites and imperial officials navigated imperial expansion. This article presents data on ceramic sherds from the sites of La Centinela and Las Huacas in the Chincha Valley that date to the period of Inca occupation (AD 1400–1532). In Chincha, the Inca established a style of joint rule in which Inca and local authority were closely aligned. The ceramic data demonstrate that Inca imperial designs and diagnostic shapes were most numerous in contexts associated with direct Inca presence and that the types of vessels and designs that elites used to develop their authority differed among the contexts: hybrid material culture thus varied throughout the Chincha Valley. These different hybrid material cultures include state-sponsored hybrid wares (Inca vessels, on which the Inca intentionally integrated Chincha designs) and local vessel shapes on which elites used Inca symbols and vessel shapes to assert their status to a mostly local audience.

Resumen

Resumen

La distribución e hibridación de vasijas de cerámica proporciona información sobre cómo las élites locales y los oficiales Inca interactuaron durante el proceso de expansión imperial. Este artículo presenta datos sobre los fragmentos de cerámica procedentes de los sitios de La Centinela y Las Huacas del valle de Chincha durante el período de ocupación Inca (1400–1532 dC). En esta región se estableció una administración dual y alineada entre la autoridad incaica y las élites chinchanas. Los análisis demuestran que las vasijas con formas y diseños Inca imperial fueron numerosas en contextos asociados a la ocupación directa Inca, mientras los tipos de vasijas y diseños asociados a las élites locales variaba entre los contextos estudiados. Los datos también muestran una variabilidad del material cultural híbrido a lo largo del valle de Chincha. Este material híbrido incluía combinaciones intencionales de diseños Chincha en vasijas Inca (auspiciadas por el Estado Inca), y vasijas locales con diseños incas utilizadas por las elites locales para afirmar su estatus frente a la población local.

Keywords

Incahybriditycoastal PeruLate Horizonceramicsimperial expansionIncahibridacióncosta del PerúHorizonte Tardíocerámicaexpansión imperial
Type
Article
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , September 2024 , pp. 576 - 594
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for American Archaeology

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

References Cited

Alcalde Gonzáles, Javier, del Águila Chávez, Carlos, Alarcón, Fernando Fujita, and Rondón, Enrique Retamozo. 2010. “Plateros” precoloniales tardíos en Tambo de Mora, Valle de Chincha (siglos XIV–XVI). Arqueología y Sociedad 21:171–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bray, Tamara L. 2000. Inca Iconography: The Art of Empire in the Andes. RES 38:169–85.Google Scholar
Bray, Tamara L. 2003. Inka Pottery as Culinary Equipment: Food, Feasting, and Gender in Imperial State Design. Latin American Antiquity 14:3–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bray, Tamara L. 2021. Imperial Encounters: Historical Contingency, Local Agency, and Hybridity. In Pearls, Politics, and Pistachios: Essays in Anthropology and Memories on the Occasion of Susan Pollock's 65th Birthday, edited by Herausgeber*innenkollektiv, pp. 303–318. Ex oriente, Berlin.Google Scholar
Brezine, Carrie. 2013. A Change of Dress on the Coast of Peru: Technological and Material Hybridity in Colonial Peruvian Textiles. In The Archaeology of Hybrid Material Culture, edited by Card, Jeb J., pp. 239–259. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Card, Jeb J. (editor). 2013. The Archaeology of Hybrid Material Culture. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Chatfield, Melissa. 2013. Worshipping with Hybrid Objects: Assessing Culture Contact through Use Context. In The Archaeology of Hybrid Material Culture, edited by Card, Jeb J., pp. 131–162. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Costin, Cathy L. 2016. Crafting Identities Deep and Broad: Hybrid Ceramics on the Late Prehispanic North Coast of Peru. In Making Value, Making Meaning: Techné in the Pre-Columbian World, edited by Costin, Cathy L., pp. 319–359. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Dalton, Jordan A. 2020. Excavations at Las Huacas (AD 1200–1650): Exploring Elite Strategies and Economic Exchange during the Inca Empire. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Dalton, Jordan A., and Domínguez, Nathaly Damián. 2017. Los Incas en la costa: Investigando las transformaciones del sitio Las Huacas en el Valle de Chincha. Cuadernos del Qhapaq Ñan 5:196–208.Google Scholar
Dalton, Jordan A., Mejía, Juliana Gómez, Pizarro, Noemi Oncebay, Tomažič, Iride, and Cobb, Emilie. 2022. The Dead Do Not Unbury Themselves: Understanding Posthumous Engagement and Ancestor Veneration in Coastal Peru (AD 1450–1650). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 66:101410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalton, Jordan A., O'Shea, Colleen, Mejía, Juliana Gómez, and Pizzaro, Noemi Oncebay. 2022. Mortuary Practices amid Sociopolitical Changes: Interpreting a Large Communal Ossuary at Las Huacas, Chincha Valley. Ñawpa Pacha 42:235–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Altroy, Terence N. 2002. State Goods in the Domestic Economy: The Inka Ceramic Assemblage. In Empire and Domestic Economy, edited by D'Altroy, Terence N. and Hastorf, Christine A., pp. 243–264. Springer, Boston.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Altroy, Terence N., and Bishop, Ronald L.. 1990. The Provincial Organization of Ceramic Production. American Antiquity 55:120–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davenport, James A. 2020. The Organization of Production for Inka Polychrome from Pachacamac, Peru. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 60:101235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deagan, Kathleen. 2013. Hybridity, Identity, and Archaeological Practice. In The Archaeology of Hybrid Material Culture, edited by Card, Jeb J., pp. 260–276. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.Google Scholar
DeMarrais, Elizabeth, Castillo, Luis Jaime, and Earle, Timothy. 1996. Ideology, Materialization, and Power Strategies. Current Anthropology 37:15–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donnan, Christopher B. 1997. A Chimu-Inka Ceramic-Manufacturing Center from the North Coast of Peru. Latin American Antiquity 8:30–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feltham, Jane, and Eeckhout, Peter. 2004. Hacia una definición del estilo Ychsma: Aportes preliminares sobre la cerámica Ychsma tardía de la pirámide III de Pachacamac. Boletín del Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos 33:643–679.Google Scholar
Gosselain, Olivier P. 2000. Materializing Identities: An African Perspective. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 7:187–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayashida, Frances M. 1998. New Insights into Inka Pottery Production. MASCA Research Papers in Science and Archaeology 15:313–335.Google Scholar
Hayashida, Frances M. 1999. Style, Technology, and State Production: Inka Pottery Manufacture in the Leche Valley, Peru. Latin American Antiquity 10:337–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayashida, Frances M., and Guzmán, Natalia. 2015. Reading the Material Record of Inka Rule: Style, Polity, and Empire on the North Coast of Peru. In The Inka Empire: A Multidisciplinary Approach, edited by Shimada, Izumi, pp. 287–306. University of Texas Press, Austin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langin-Hooper, Stephanie M. 2007. Social Networks and Cross-Cultural Interaction: A New Interpretation of the Female Terracotta Figurines of Hellenistic Babylon. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 26:145–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lê, Sébastien, Josse, Julie, and Husson, François. 2008. FactoMineR: A Package for Multivariate Analysis. Journal of Statistical Software 25:1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liebmann, Matthew. 2013. Parsing Hybridity: Archaeologies of Amalgamation in Seventh-Century New Mexico. In The Archaeology of Hybrid Material Culture, edited by Card, Jeb J., pp. 25–49. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Mackey, Carol J. 2010. The Socioeconomic and Ideological Transformation of Farfán under Inka Rule. In Distant Provinces in the Inka Empire: Towards a Deeper Understanding of Inka Imperialism, edited by Malpass, Michael and Alconini, Sonia, pp. 221–259. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackey, Carol J. 2020. Appendix 6: The Ceramics from Farfán's Tombs: A Case Study of Styles in Transition. In Life, Death, and Burial Practices during the Inka Occupation of Farfán, on Peru's North Coast, Andean Past Monograph 2, edited by Mackey, Carol J. and Nelson, Andrew J., pp. 369–400. Department of Anthropology, University of Maine, Orono.Google Scholar
Makowski, Krzysztof. 2014. Pachacamac-Old Wak'a or Inka Syncretic Deity? Imperial Transformation of the Sacred Landscape in the Lower Ychsma (Lurín) Valley. In The Archaeology of Wak'as: Explorations of the Sacred in the Pre-Columbian Andes, edited by Bray, Tamara L., pp. 127–166. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Menzel, Dorothy. 1959. The Inca Occupation of the South Coast of Peru. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 15:125–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menzel, Dorothy. 1966. The Pottery of Chincha. Ñawpa Pacha 4:77–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menzel, Dorothy. 1976 Pottery Style and Society in Ancient Peru: Art as a Mirror of History in the Ica Valley, 1350–1570. University of California Press, Berkeley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyers, Albert. 1975. Algunos problemas en la clasificacion del estilo Incaico. Pumapunku 8:7–25.Google Scholar
Morris, Craig. 1995. Symbols to Power: Styles and Media in the Inka State. In Style, Society and Person: Archaeological and Ethnological Perspectives, edited by Carr, Christopher and Nietzel, Jane E., pp. 419–433. Plenum, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, Craig, Covey, R. Alan, and Stein, Pat. 2011 The Huánuco Pampa Archaeological Project Vol. I: The Plaza and Palace Complex. Anthropological Papers 96. American Museum of Natural History, New York.Google Scholar
Morris, Craig, and Santillana, Julián Idillio. 2007. The Inka Transformation of the Chincha Capital. In Variations in the Expression of Inka Power, edited by Burger, Richard L., Morris, Craig, and Mendieta, Ramiro Matos, pp. 135–163. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Palmié, Stephan. 2013. Mixed Blessings and Sorrowful Mysteries: Second Thoughts about “Hybridity.” Current Anthropology 54:463–482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pärssinen, Martti, and Siiriäinen, Ari. 1997. Inka-Style Ceramics and their Chronological Relationship to the Inka Expansion in the Southern Lake Titicaca Area (Bolivia). Latin American Antiquity 8:255–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pérez, Kelita, Fernández, Abel, Tantaleán, Henry, and Stanish, Charles. 2015. El estilo cerámico Carmen y su presencia en el valle medio de Chincha, costa sur del Perú. Bulletin de l'Institut Français d’Études Andines 44:181–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rostworowski, María. 1970. Mercaderes del valle de Chincha en la época prehispánica: Un documento y unos comentarios. Revista Española de Antropología Americana 5:135–177.Google Scholar
Rostworowski, María. 1999. Historia del Tahuantinsuyu. Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, Lima.Google Scholar
Rowe, John H. 1944. An Introduction to the Archaeology of Cuzco. Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Sandweiss, Daniel H., and Reid, David A.. 2016. Negotiated Subjugation: Maritime Trade and the Incorporation of Chincha into the Inca Empire. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 11:311–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santillana, Idilio. 1984. La Centinela: Un asentamiento Inka-Chincha. Rasgos arquitectónicos estatales y locales. Arqueología y Sociedad 10:14–39.Google Scholar
Sillar, Bill. 2000. The Challenge of “Technological Choices” for Material Science Approaches in Archaeology. Archaeometry 42:2–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silliman, Stephen W. 2015. A Requiem for Hybridity? The Problem with Frankensteins, Purées, and Mules. Journal of Social Archaeology 15(3):277–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanish, Charles, and Bauer, Brian S.. 2007. Pilgrimage and the Geography of Power in the Inka Empire. In Variations in the Expression of Inka Power, edited by Burger, Richard L., Morris, Craig, and Mendieta, Ramiro Matos, pp. 45–83. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Stewart, Charles. 2011. Creolization, Hybridity, Syncretism, Mixture. Portuguese Studies 27:48–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stockhammer, Phillip W. 2013. From Hybridity to Entanglement, from Essentialism to Practice. In “Archaeology and Cultural Mixture,” edited by W. Paul van Pelt, special issue, Archaeological Review from Cambridge 28(1):11–28.Google Scholar
VanValkenburgh, Parker. 2013. Hybridity, Creolization, Mestizaje: A Comment. In “Archaeology and Cultural Mixture,” edited by W. Paul van Pelt, special issue, Archaeological Review from Cambridge 28(1):301–322.Google Scholar
VanValkenburgh, Parker, Kelloway, Sarah J., Privat, Karen L., Sillar, Bill, and Quilter, Jeffrey. 2017. Rethinking Cultural Hybridity and Technology Transfer: SEM Microstructural Analysis of Lead Glazed Ceramics from Early Colonial Peru. Journal of Archaeological Science 82:17–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, Dwight T. 1998. The Inca Compound at La Centinela, Chincha. Andean Past 5:9–34.Google Scholar
Williams, Verónica. 2004. Poder estatal y cultura material en el Kollasuyu. Boletín de Arqueología PUCP 8:209–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Verónica. 2008. Espacios conquistados y símbolos materiales del imperio Inca en el noroeste de Argentina. In Lenguajes Visuales de los Incas, BAR International Series 1848, edited by Carvajal, Paola González, pp. 47–70. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Zasada, Miroslaw. 1985. Producción artesanal en el Tawantinsuyu. Estudios Latinoamericanos 10:67–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Dalton supplementary material 1

Dalton supplementary material
Download Dalton supplementary material 1(File)
File 16.9 KB
Supplementary material: File

Dalton supplementary material 2

Dalton supplementary material
Download Dalton supplementary material 2(File)
File 352.3 KB