Inka Space and Architecture in the South Andes

ACUTO, FÉLIX A.; GIFFORD, CHAD

Denver

Congreso; 67th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology; 2002

Society for American Archaeology

Buildings reflect traditions of style, function, and meaning. Focusing on the last of these, we maintain that Inka settlement plan and architectural form in Kollasuyo reflect Inka social, political, and religious ideology-- in short, Inka cosmology. Through this spatial display of cosmology the Inkas attempted to create new structures of power and to justify their attempts at domination. Specifically, South Andean sites were built according to certain principles of order relating to centrality, partition, repetition, privacy, surveillance, and the control of sight and motion. Although space and form were designed to regulate communication and interaction, we also consider evidence that some societies never conceded to Inka power because of their own strengths and complexities.