PROVINCIAL POWER IN INKA EMPIRE

This original and tightly argued study looks at the archaeological evidence for Inka subjugation of the Xauxa and Wanka people in highland Peru's Upper Mantaro Valley around 1460 A.D. While seeking to understand how Inka imperial strategy worked, it considers at a higher level how complex societies evolve. The author describes the results of over a decade of field archaeology in the Mantaro region, summarizes Inka military strategy and tactics, and analyzes the effect of 70 years of Inka rule on Upper Mantaro communities. Using as his frame of reference a concept of how kin-based societies were transformed into class-based polities, D'Altroy (anthropology, Columbia Univ.) demonstrates the fruitful interplay between theory and practice as well as the riches to be discovered in the area's archaeological and documentary records. Anthropological archaeology at its best, this will attract the attention of informed lay readers and scholars concerned with pre-Columbian civilizations.
- William S. Dancey, Ohio State Univ., Columbus
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.