Andean archaeology and ethnohistory can be uneasy partners in the reconstruction of the late prehispanic world and the spread of Spanish colonial power. Facing each other across the trans-conquest divide, these disciplines constitute an intellectual tinku (Quechua: ambivalent pairing) that holds both the potential for interpretive controversy as well as the seeds of fertile new perspectives on the past. Recognising the value of an international conversation between archaeologists and ethnohistorians, the Institute of Andean Research organised a series of workshops in Cajamarca, Peru, from 28 to 30 August 2000. Invited presenters included an archaeologist and an ethnohistorian from each Andean country with a significant Inka presence. These scholars were joined by the ethnohistorian María Rostworowski and a distinguished group representing the Institute of Andean Research.
La Arqueología y la etnohistoria offers a collection of the papers given at the conference, as well as brief transcripts from the lively discussions that followed formal presentations. All materials are in Spanish, making the volume one that will be primarily of professional interest to the non-native reader. John Topic opens with an editorial introduction describing how the conference was organised, as well as the journey from symposium to published volume. This is followed by three thematic sections of varying length. The first focuses on myths and cosmology and consists of a single chapter, Segundo Moreno Yánez's discussion of Chimborazo, a snow-capped volcano in highland Ecuador. The mountain figured prominently in regional ritual landscapes and mythology, and Moreno reviews its etymology and geological characteristics. The approach to Chimborazo's sacred role in late prehispanic and colonial times reflects an interest in using multidisciplinary research to assess regional patterns and change over time, which is shared by most of the volume's contributors. It also illustrates some of the challenges of scale and disciplinary compatibility that such studies face.
The second thematic section addresses ethnicity and identity and consists of three contributions. The first, by Lorenzo Huertas Vallejos, uses colonial documents (and to a limited extent, archaeological evidence) to reconstruct ethnic territories in the Sechura region of Peru's north coast. Huertas identifies late prehispanic ethnic territories under Inka rule, and then reconstructs continuity and change with reference to the Toledan reducciones and the eventual return of the population to traditional territories. This same temporal arc is covered for parts of Chile's Norte Chico in two papers, one by Calogero Santoro and colleagues, and the other by Jorge Hidalgo. The former uses systematic regional survey data and ceramic distribution patterns to evaluate models of ecological complementarity in the Lluta Valley, with particular emphasis on the degree to which Inka imperial control varied based on local ecology and social organisation. This ‘vertical’ case study is complemented by Hidalgo, who takes up the question of fisher–farmer interactions along the coast of northern Chile and southern Peru in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Hidalgo provides a synthesis of previous research on the region, detailing the diverse patterns of local social and economic systems and discussing the early effects of Spanish colonialism.
Turning from the question of how local identities developed under Inka and early Spanish rule, the volume's third thematic section focuses on the dynamic frontiers of the Inka Empire. Sonia Alconini discusses the archaeological manifestation of the imperial frontier in the eastern slope in Bolivia. Her paper gives an overview of ethnohistory with regional archaeological survey and excavation data to demonstrate how the Inkas invested in their frontier with the Chiriguanos. Rather than establishing an impermeable perimeter, the Inkas promoted a multiethnic frontier along a key ecotone, extending their political and economic interests while providing a strategic military presence. Such practices contrast with the Inka occupation of North-West Argentina, as Verónica Williams describes in a review of the region's well-preserved archaeological remains. Williams notes the Inka investment in a wide range of infrastructure, which expanded economic production (agricultural and artisanal) and established a strategic administrative, military and religious presence among local populations. Noting variations in the distribution of Inka infrastructure, Williams argues for an imperial occupation that was selectively intensive at the local level based on existing settlement and political organisation, as well as economic and military concerns. Where Alconini and Williams place emphasis on geographic diversity in Inka frontier policies, Ana María Lorandi focuses on frontier dynamics over time in a study of state-mandated population transfers in frontier areas. Looking at North-West Argentina, Lorandi notes that regardless of local responses to Inka expansion, conquest was followed by social, economic and demographic transformation, and that these changes established the basis for colonial-era conflicts.
The final paper in the volume is María Rostworowski's essay on Andean ethnohistory, which was solicited after the meeting took place. Rostworowski served as a discussant at the meeting, and her influence is seen in the transcribed conversations that accompany the participants' papers. In her contribution, Rostoworowski draws on her own wide-ranging research to illustrate the many ways in which ethnohistory has contributed to a multidisciplinary study of pre-Inka, Inka and early colonial societies.
This volume contains many excellent contributions by prominent researchers, and if it were only a collection of case studies of archaeology and ethnohistory it would still be a worthwhile addition to any Andeanist's library. The transcriptions of participant questions and insights set this book apart from the usual volume of conference proceedings. The reader is able to ‘listen in’ on conversations among acknowledged masters of Andean studies as they apply the breadth and depth of their collective experience to multidisciplinary discussions of key issues. Together, the case studies and collegial conversations capture a sense of the rich intellectual atmosphere of this ‘encounter at Cajamarca’.
