Page 205 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

90 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

We have been God-like in our planned breeding of our domesticated
plants and animals, but we have been rabbit-like in our unplanned
breeding of ourselves. • Arnold Toynbee (1889–1975)

further weakened the Inca state in the 1520s. Francisco tures: Prehistoric monumental architecture and state government.
Pizzaro (1475–1541) and a small band of Spanish adven- Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks.
Kolata, A. L. (1993). The Tiwanaku: Portrait of an Andean civilization.
turers delivered the deathblow to the empire by capturing Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Cuzco in 1533. Laurencich Minelli, L. (Ed.). (2000). The Inca world: The development of
pre-Columbian Peru, A.D. 1000–1534. Norman: University of Okla-
homa Press.
The Evolution of Moseley, M. E. (2001). The Incas and their ancestors:The archaeology of
the Andean State Peru (Rev. ed). New York: Thames & Hudson.
Moseley, M. E., & Cordy-Collins, A. (Eds.). (1990). The northern dynas-
Along with Mesopotamia, China, Egypt, India, and ties: Kingship and statecraft in Chimor. Washington DC: Dumbarton
Mesoamerica, the Andes is one of the locations to witness Oaks.
Pillsbury, J. (Ed.). (2001). Moche art and archaeology in ancient Peru.
the emergence of the first states.While Andean examples
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
share certain similarities with these other early states, we Ross,J.F.(2002).First city in the new world? Smithsonian, 33(2),56–64.
cannot understand the evolution of Andean social com- Schreiber, K. J. (1992). Wari imperialism in middle horizon Peru. Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
plexity without an appreciation for the region’s land-
scapes and cultures. The Inca empire, for example, was
adapted to the rugged mountains, desert coastal plain,
and narrow river valleys of the Andes.The people of the
Andes adapted to this environment by creating kin-based Animism
communities that united agricultural and herding settle-
ments draped across highly compacted environmental nimism is the name modern anthropologists gave to
zones. With their few outside needs provided by llama Aa very old set of ideas about how human beings and
caravans that carried products from place to place, the the natural world interact. The key concept is that ani-
challenge faced by Andean states was to find a means by mate and sometimes inanimate objects have a spiritual
which to coax these independent, self-sufficient groups to dimension that influences human well-being.The inhab-
come under their control. The earliest societies in the itants of this invisible world of spirits behave much like
Andes failed in their attempts to build states through the ourselves, and interact with one another and with the vis-
manipulation of religious ideologies alone. Successful ible world constantly. The spirits sometimes helped and
states in the Andes, including the Inca, also had to rely on sometimes defeated human purposes and hopes. Conse-
coercion and, more importantly, the redistribution of quently, humans needed to maintain good relations with
food, drink, and prestige objects. Clearly, to understand them, learn their wishes, and appease their anger when-
the evolution of the Andean state, one needs to under- ever possible.
stand the Andes. This idea probably dates back to the time when lan-
guage developed fully among our ancestors, permitting
Justin Jennings
them to create agreed-upon meanings to guide everyday
See also Inca Empire; Spanish Empire behavior. And once they agreed on the importance of
good relations with invisible spirits, human foraging
bands probably came to rely on specialists who knew
Further Reading how to enter the spirit world at will and report back what
Bawden, G. (1996). The Moche. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. the spirits wanted. Many anthropologists think that what
Bruhns, K. O. (1994). Ancient South America. New York: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press. Siberian shamans did among groups of hunters in the
Burger, R. L. (1995). Chavín and the origins of Andean civilization. Lon- nineteenth century descended from and, at least loosely,
don: Thames & Hudson.
D’Altroy,T. N. (2002). The Incas. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. resembled very ancient practices. At any rate, ritual
Isbell,W. H., & McEwan, G. F. (Eds.). (1991). Huari administrative struc- singing and dancing allowed shamans to enter into