Science and Technology Production
Thesis
Authorship
Date
01/01/2004
Summary
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SIGEVA
The central goal of this dissertation is to study the cultural, social, and ideological mechanisms of power, domination, and colonization the Inkas developed to rule their empire. Specifically, I examine how spatial forms (landscape, place, and architecture)and material culture were employed to create a new social order throughout the Andes. I show that the Inkas used their highly ritualized landscapes, places, and architecture with several purposes: to structure social relations and practices ...
The central goal of this dissertation is to study the cultural, social, and ideological mechanisms of power, domination, and colonization the Inkas developed to rule their empire. Specifically, I examine how spatial forms (landscape, place, and architecture)and material culture were employed to create a new social order throughout the Andes. I show that the Inkas used their highly ritualized landscapes, places, and architecture with several purposes: to structure social relations and practices among Inkas themselves, Inka representatives, foreign mitimas, and/or indigenous subjects; to produce social stratification and inequality; to spread the imperial ideology; and to achieve the indoctrination or ‘Inkaization’ of some of their subjects, especially those allied groups who acted as representatives of Tawantinsuyu in provincial lands. This dissertation demonstrates that Inka settlements were highly structured built environments that produced a guided and controlled experience. In these places, people’s movements and senses were oriented and constrained. I argue that the Inkas carried out a political economy of the senses, or the political and ideological manipulation of experience, through their spatial forms. I do not analyze here whether the Inkas actually achieved these goals. I am interested instead in the empire they attempted to create. Moreover, I do not study these landscapes and places from an external perspective. Rather, I intend to imagine people’s experiences and perceptions within landscapes and places. People moving within space: seeing, touching, smelling and earring.
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Key Words
IDEOLOGYLANDSCAPEINKAINEQUALITY