Calendar
Traditional High Cultures
Oral and Written Traditions and Rock Art as the Histories of Both Ancient and Living Peoples, Especially of the Americas before the Arrival of Europeans
 
Andean History from Non-Cuzco-Centric Sources
 

Abstract of session as a whole. The session co-chairs are Juha Hiltunen, Finland, and Lloyd Anderson, USA.

Session is scheduled for 23 June, in the morning

 Though relatively less studied, there are numerous sources for history of the Andes independent of the Inka capital in Cuzco. Our goal is to make some progress in linking or validating parts of these sources. Materials include parts of Blas Valera's work, Montesinos book II (source possibly from Quito), and various "provincial" documents. Chanka history is still in archives. There are continuing discoveries in coastal archaeology such as the Moche which can be linked with records from early chroniclers.

Separating Invention from Possible Inherited Traditions
in the Chronicle of Montesinos

by Juha Hiltunen, Docent for Native American Studies, University of Oulu, Finland

Email Juha Hiltunen

Draft text of paper

 The chronicle of Fernando de Montesinos, Memorias Antiguas y Historiales del Peru (1642), has until recently largely been neglected by Andean scholars due to its claims about writing skills of the ancient Peruvians, and its claims that a ver long list of pre-Incaic kings descended from Ophir, the great-grandson of Noah. Modern research, however, supported by archaeology (in the Cuzco region), has brought forth interesting data, suggeting that particular ethnohistorical records in this chronicle have considerable historical value. It is truly challenging work, and requires a multidisciplinary approach, to distinguish such useful historical information from the much larger mass of inventive, fabulous and manipulated data. The dynastic lists recorded in Montesinos' chronicle can be correlated with the current prehistoric periodization in the Andes with promising results. In this new way of looking into the Andean past, we can consider that Middle Horizon and Late Intermediate Period Wari-kings may have been recorded into this unique written source, the only one available to us from its time.

Discussion: Perspectives on Hiltunen's Hypotheses

by Lloyd Anderson, Ecological Linguistics

Email Lloyd Anderson

 Juha Hiltunen's 1999 book *Ancient Kings of Peru* is pioneering in refusing to give up the possibility that the Montesinos chronicle actually refers to real history. We badly need a strong advocate for such a view. How much has been achieved? Sabine Hyland has pointed out that the closer places are to Quito, the more accurately the place names are spelled, and that an important source of the document may therefore have been in Quito. This might call into question Hiltunen's hypothesized assignment of the king list to Huari. But Hyland and this discussant are both impressed with Hiltunen's finding that the distribution of references to Quipucamayocs matches quite closely to the maximal limits of the Huari empire. Hyland and this discussant agree that Hiltunen does not sufficiently consider the variant spellings of the manuscripts, and is too free in presuming to "correct" such spellings. We can certainly look forward to her future more detailed publications on this. However, where Hyland argues against the possibility that three separate "dynasties" were recorded, on the grounds that there is no chapter division or similar marker of change of "dynasty", this discussant sees a stronger argument the other way. There are three "titles" which occur mutually exclusively in three sections of the king list, and that is quite beyond chance unless there was some significant change between those sections. Hyland correctly notes that Hiltunen's discussion of multiple portents in the sky shortly after 800 CE should be extended by checking all occasions when portents are mentioned in the text. But the Halley's comet of 837 CE *did* come the closest of any in known human history, only 13 times as far away as the moon and spanning 80 degrees at its longest. Recent findings of strong continuities from Huari to Inca (from investigations at Conchopata and elsewhere?) make it slightly more plausible that a source in Quito descended from late Inca nobility might preserve information about Huari kings.

Risk Management on the North Coast of Peru in the 13th Century AD:
Coping with Extreme Events

[Ethnographic and Archaeological Perspectives on El Niño Disasters]
by Patricia Netherly, Dept. of Anthropology, University
of Kentucky

 Archaeological field studies of the Chimu state on the North Coast of Peru have shown that an extreme El Niño (ENSO) event occurred c.1250 AD. Much has been made of the catastrophic nature of the event and the devastation caused by this “mega” event Faced with recurring high-risk ENSO events and frequent earthquakes, the Chimu society developed a series of coping strategies based on the social and political structures present in the society. Mid-rank rulers at the valley level were able to mobilize work crews from the nested groups below them in hierarchical order; they controlled stored supplies of foodstuffs to maintain people until the next harvest and seed for replanting. In extreme cases, they were able to shift groups from damaged or destroyed lands to others. Finally, as intermediaries with the supernatural for their subjects, the rulers became the scapegoats, surrogates to appease the apparent wrath of the gods on behalf of their people. These mechanisms allowed Chimu society and the Chimu state to endure, prosper and expand in a high-risk environment.
Additional possibilities below: Additional possibilities below; session still in development. Some of the people we would love to have speak are unfortunately in the field at this time of year.

[Continuities Huari to Inca]

[The Conchopata project is finding more continuities from Huari to Inca. What are the implications?]

[Chokepukio excavations and a change of dynasty]

 [What are the latest findings in this area?]

[The Chanca in Abancay -- a different view of Inca?]

[Brian Bauer is the leader of a Chanca project, and Sabine Hyland is the ethnographer for that project, but they are in the field and not available at the time of WAC5. The Chanca materials will take some time to be analyzed, so we can look forward to news of them in the future.]

[Is history derivable from the Huarochiri Manuscript?]