Approaching imperial narratives one sense at a time: views and sounds at an Inka settlement in northwest Argentina

FERRARI, ALEJANDRO; LEIBOWICZ, IVÁN; ACUTO, F.A.

Time and Mind. The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture

Routledge. Taylor and Frances Group

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2017 vol. 10 p. 331 - 356

1751-696X

Throughout history, empires have deployed a vast array ofstrategies to promote their worldview and to control thecolonized. Amongst non-violent ones, hosting public ceremoniesto show off an empire?s capabilities and to enactand reinforce new desired relations and identities, seemedto be especially effective. This article presents new data andinterpretations on how the Inkas employed ritual architectureto manipulate the somatic experiences of the colonized.Specifically, we analyze the public space of an Inkasettlement located in the North Calchaquí Valley (Argentina)in order to show how the Inkas used architecture and spatialdesign to impose certain sensorial modalities and to managetheir sequential stimulus and intensity. In an attempt toovercome a reigning visual paradigm among this line ofinquiry, we present an analysis that combines visual andacoustical data collected on site, with three-dimensionalmodeling of terrain, architecture, and sound propagation.Results indicate that through a careful layout design thatinvolved the management of visual and acoustic permeability,the Inkas not only organized groups and practices, butalso created different experiences for different people.