Wari Women as symbols of power; and a case for client states

Abstract

This paper explores the characteristics of the expansion of the Wari empire. It reviews the evidence across the Andean region where the data for the relationship of the imperial elite with local ruling hierarchies is demonstrably varied. Assorted strategies pragmatically deployed by Wari served to exert its control and refl ect a client state approach to its growth. Th e political basis for its relationship with the local elites is considered based on polygamous marriage structures and marriage alliances arranged between the imperial ruling circle and the regional chiefs, thereby creating kin structures with inequal duties and obligations of the regional polities with the imperial centre. Th is model is derived from Late Horizon ethnohistorical sources and tested in the available archaeological data.