Page 210 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

warfare—pre-columbian south america 1987

Supreme executive power derives from a
mandate from the masses, not from some
farcical aquatic ceremony. • Monty Python
and the Holy Grail (1975)

Turney-High, H. H. (1971). Primitive war: Its practice and concepts. many complex societies such as chiefdoms, states, and
Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. empires during three and a half millennia before the
Van Creveld, M. (1989). Technology and war: From 2000 B.C. to the pres-
ent. New York: The Free Press. Europeans arrived. The Spaniards who in 1532 con-
quered the Inca empire encountered the last of these com-
plex indigenous societies. Like its many predecessors, the
Inca state can be understood as an attempt to control the
resources, human labor, and flows of goods in the central
Warfare— Andean area.The varied geography of the region had for
thousands of years stimulated trade between the arid
Pre-Columbian coast, the mountains, and the tropical rainforests in the

eastern lowlands. Attempts to politically control such
South America trade through military means can in northern Peru be
traced to the Initial Period of pottery use (1800–800
outh America was a relatively isolated continent BCE).A powerful theocratic state based in the Casma val-
Sbefore 1492. It thus provides us with interesting ley on the north coast appears to have maintained trade
opportunities to compare world-historical processes in relations with the north-central highlands and the tropi-
different continents that were largely or completely inde- cal forest areas beyond. Toward the end of the Initial
pendent of each other.To the extent that we can find par- Period, the Casma polity collapsed and the area was
allels between processes in the Old and New Worlds in invaded by its former trading partners in the highlands,
pre-Columbian times, they may tell us something about associated with the site of Chavín de Huántar on the
recurring patterns in world-historical processes that are upper Marañon River on the eastern slope of the Andes.
independent of culture. Warfare is a phenomenon that This initiated the first of three major pre-Columbian
can be understood from a world systems perspective, in attempts by highland societies to take advantage of their
the sense that the occurrence and forms of warfare are middleman position between coast and jungle to gain
considered expressions of the economic relations between political power.The carved monoliths at Cerro Sechín, a
different societies at considerable distances from each ceremonial center from this period in the Casma valley,
other.The comparison of patterns and forms of warfare show armed men and their dismembered victims, indi-
in the Old and New Worlds can thus reveal something cating an emphasis on violence, but we do not know if
about general properties of world systems. Our informa- they represent war scenes or ritual sacrifice.As sites in this
tion on warfare in pre-Columbian South America comes period are not fortified, it appears that social integration
primarily from three sources: archaeology, ethnohistory was achieved more by economic and ritual means than
(that is, indigenous peoples’ own historiography), and by violent coercion.
contact period history. The bulk of this information is During the Early Horizon (800–200 BCE), the high-
from the Andes.To make sense of these various kinds of land Chavín polity exerted influence over much of Peru.
information, it is useful to organize it both regionally and The traditional view is that the widespread distribution
chronologically, as well as in terms of a coherent frame- of Chavín art designs reflects a religious cult that spread
work of interpretation.The two macroregional divisions by peaceful means, but defensive fortifications on the
considered here are the Andean area and Amazonia. north coast suggest that military confrontations also
occurred. Conflicts may have arisen regarding control of
The Andean Area trans-Andean trade routes conveying Ecuadorian Spondy-
The Andean mountain range that runs along the entire lus shell and tropical forest produce, or of coca-producing
extent of western South America saw the development of zones, following a pattern known from later periods.