Rituals of life and death: Dynamics of the interaction between the Tawantinsuyu and local populations in the Maipo-Mapocho basin, Central Chile

Abstract

We present the results of a regional study on the interaction between the Tawantinsuyu and lowinequality local communities that inhabited the Maipo-Mapocho rivers basin, Central Chile, during the Late Period (1.400-1.536 DC). Systematization and integration of previously unpublished data from several types of sites, suggests that this relationship would have been based on public ritual events involving acts of negotiation and redistribution. These acts would have been carried out mostly on the context of mortuary practices with significant displays of ceramic offerings, as well as meetings on the summit of "island" hills, both ideologically appropriated and resemantized through the use of architecture visually and spatially correlated with Andean peaks sacralized by the Inka. Certain differences on the geographic distribution of these displays in the study area, would have been related both to the Inka strategies as well as to the local sociopolitical scenarios, and eventually to the agency of native communities. Results contribute to the understanding of the modes of interaction or relation that were developed for incorporating and/or keeping different regions and peoples within the Tawantinsuyu, and specifically of the relationship between its representatives with non-hierarchical societies. Also, they reinforce the need to consider the role of the sociocultural dinamics and/or agency of local communities, to understand the different strategies used by the cuzqueno State in the various regions were its ideology was introduced.