Social Landscape during Inca dominion in Northwest Argentina

VERÓNICA I. WILLIAMS

Berkeley

Encuentro; 55th Annual Meeting; 2015

Institute of Andean Studies

Among the ways that the Inca Empire adopted to rule its territory included actions into ideological, economic, and political sphere which explain in part the diversity and disparity that the state presence reached. Constructions like roads, tampus, pukaras, administrative centers, storage buildings, agricultural works, among others, were common in the entire annexed areas, but it is evident that its architecture, dimensions, monumentality and spatial density show contrasting regional differences. New evidence regarding Inca occupation in Northwest Argentina, especially in mid- central Calchaqui valley, shows different situations along the period of Inca conquest and domination itself. According to the evaluation of data from a couple of archaeological sites , all of them characterized by Inca features, varied chronologies, and archaeological contexts like burial sites, production or agricultural sites, administrative, and fortified sites are examples of the complex process of population assimilation in Northwest Argentina.