Art historian Dean has provided perhaps the best interpretation of how the Inkas saw their environment, particularly their lithic one, and how this motivated their actions. While avoiding the pitfalls of what a professor of mine once called paleopsychology, she has successfully given the reader a window into Inka thought. Her judicious use of historical documents, combined with thoughtful and critical analysis of contemporary Andean concepts that appear rooted in their pre-Hispanic ancestry, provides a new and refreshing perspective for understanding the Inkas’ culture of stone. While some of Dean's arguments are certainly open to other interpretations, the reader will find much to think about in this tome.

The Introduction evaluates how many Western scholars fail to understand Inka stonework as a result of both historical factors and the stonework itself. She makes her case through an analysis of early Spanish writers’ views on the subject, combined with an assessment of both modified and unmodified stones. The next three chapters are organized by her perception of the ways in which the Inkas used rock: as a location of supernatural powers, as a contrast between nature and culture, and as an emblem of imperial power. In Chapter 1, Dean provides useful information on how to identify Inka wakas (places with supernatural powers) that archaeologists will find useful toward explaining how what was important to the Inkas was the power embodied in the rocks, rather than the shape of the rock itself. She provides a good selection of examples to make her case.

Chapter 2 opens with a folk story that exemplifies the reciprocal relationship between the Inkas and their environment. She explains the symbolic importance of a wide range of practices such as terracing, platforms, portals, and even the high altitude child sacrifices, as well as things like the integration of natural rock in a wall. Because she provides such a broad range of examples it is hard to argue with her basic thesis that rocks were a critical part of both the natural and sacred environment and with her explanation of why this was so.

Chapter 3 discusses how the Inkas used stonework to maintain control over conquered territories. Other authors have noted how imperial architecture was a means to display the authority of the empire, but Dean's discussion goes beyond the traditional views by explaining how such architecture fits into her arguments about the Inka relationship to rock. She notes the various means the Inkas had for controlling their subjects, from co-opting their shrines to constructing their own wakas, even to the symbolism of the labor involved in the working of the fine masonry.

The final chapter brings thinking about the Inkas and their monuments from the Spanish conquest into the present. This contributes little to Dean's basic thesis, but it does offer interesting observations about how and why the Inkas have such a fascination for people today. All in all, the author has done an excellent job of providing new interpretations of Inka practices, ones that archaeologists, art historians, ethnohistorians, and the general public alike will benefit from.