Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T23:31:20.509Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

To Unite and Divide: Canals, Tinku, Liquids and Time in the Moche World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2022

Michele L. Koons Open the ORCID record for Michele L. Koons [Opens in a new window]
Michele L. Koons*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology Denver Museum of Nature & Science 2001 Colorado Blvd Denver, CO 80205 USA Email: michele.koons@dmns.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Here I evaluate Andean concepts understood from the Quechua and Aymara languages to test their applicability to Moche archaeology—a region where the languages once spoken are now extinct. By focusing on geographical features common to the highlands and the coast (mountains and rivers) and archaeological evidence, I look at broad patterns of Moche material culture and consider how these relate to canal-fed irrigation systems, ceramic spatial patterning and fractaline socio-political organization documented in the colonial-era Chicama Valley. I then present a case study from Licapa II in the Chicama Valley to show that the physical components of the site's layout and the spatial patterns of artifact distribution relate to temporal and socio-political divisions that have their roots in long-standing ideas in Andean thought. Overall, this study shows that through careful evaluation some Quechua and Aymara concepts, namely tinku—or two parts coming together to make a whole—is relevant to the Moche worldview. This concept is manifest through canals uniting and dividing physical space, both socio-politically and temporally. Liquids running through the canals ensure the well-being and energetic flow of Moche society.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , November 2022 , pp. 689 - 706
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, C.J., 1997. When pebbles move mountains: iconicity and symbolism in Quechua ritual, in Creating Context in Andean Cultures, ed. Howard-Malverde, R.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 73–84.Google Scholar
Allen, C.J., 1998. When utensils revolt: mind, matter, and modes of being in the pre-Columbian Andes. Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics 33, 18–27.Google Scholar
Bastien, J.W., 1978. Mountain of the Condor: Metaphor and ritual in an Andean ayllu. Long Grove (IL): Waveland Press.Google Scholar
Bauer, B.S., 1998. The Sacred Landscape of the Inca: The Cusco ceque system. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Benson, E.P., 2012. The Worlds of the Moche on the North Coast of Peru. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beresford-Jones, D.G. & Heggarty, P., 2012. Broadening our horizons: towards an interdisciplinary prehistory of the Andes, in Archaeology and Language in the Andes, eds Heggarty, P. & Beresford-Jones, D.G.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 61–84.Google Scholar
Bourget, S., 2006. Sex, Death, and Sacrifice in Moche Religion and Visual Culture. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouysse-Cassagne, T. & Harris, O., 1987. Pacha: en torno al pensamiento Aymara [Pacha: around Aymara thought], in Tres Reflexiones Sobre El Pensamiento Andino [Three reflections on Andean thought], eds Bouysse-Cassagne, T., Harris, O. & Platt, T.. La Paz: Hisbol, 11–59.Google Scholar
Bray, T.L., 2009. An archaeological perspective on the Andean concept of camaquen: thinking through late pre-Columbian ofrendas and huacas. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 19(3), 357–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bray, T.L., 2013. Water, ritual, and power in the Inca empire. Latin American Antiquity 24(2), 164–90.Google Scholar
Bray, T.L., 2018. Archaeology, temporal complexity, and the politics of time, in Constructions of Time and History in the Pre-Columbian Andes, eds Swenson, E. & Roddick, A.P.. Boulder (CO): University Press of Colorado, 263–78.Google Scholar
Burger, R.L., 1992. Chavin and the Origins of Andean Civilization. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Calancha, A. de la, 1638. Coronica moralizada del orden de San Avgvstin en el Perv, con svcesos egenplares en esta monarqvia [Moralized chronicle of the Order of San Augustin in Peru with exemplary events in this monarchy]. Barcelona: Pedro Lacavalleria.Google Scholar
Caramanica, A., 2018. Land, Labor, and Water of the Ancient Agricultural Pampa de Mocan, North Coast, Peru. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Carrera, F. de la, 1644. El arte de la lengva yvnga de los valles del obispado de Truxillo del Peru, con vn confessonario, y todas las oraciones christianas, traducidas en la lengua, y otras cosas [The art of the Yunga language of the valleys of the bishopric of Trujillo del Peru, with a confessional, and all Christian prayers, translated into the language, and other things]. Lima: Joseph Contreras.Google Scholar
Castillo, L.J. & Donnan, C.B., 1994. La ocupación Moche de San Jose de Moro, Jequetepeque [The Moche occupation at San Jose de Moro, Jequetepeque], in Moche: Propuestas y Perspectivas [Moche: proposals and perspectives], eds Uceda, S. & Mujica, E.. Trujillo: Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, 93–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castillo, L.J., Fernandini, F. & Muro, L., 2012. The multidimensional relations between the Wari and the Moche states of northern Peru. Boletín de Arqueología PUCP 16, 53–78.Google Scholar
Castillo, L.J. & Uceda, S., 2008. The Mochicas, in The Handbook of South American Archaeology, eds Silverman, H. & Isbell, W.H.. New York (NY): Springer, 707–29.Google Scholar
Cereceda, V., 1987. Aproximaciones a una estética andina: de la belleza al tinku [Approaches to an Andean aesthetic: from beauty to tinku], in Tres Reflexiones Sobre El Pensamiento Andino [Three reflections on Andean thought], eds Bouysse-Cassagne, T., Harris, O. & Platt, T.. La Paz: Hisbol, 133–231.Google Scholar
Cerrón-Palomino, R., 1995. La lengua de Naimlap (reconstrucción y obsolescencia del mochica) [The language of Naimlap (reconstruction and obsolescence of Mochica)]. Lima: Fondo Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.Google Scholar
Clément, C.M., 2015. Paysage socio-culturel et architecture dans la culture Chimú: L'implantation humaine à l'Intermédiaire Récent (1000–1470 apr. J.-C.) dans la vallée de Chicama (côte nord du Pérou) [Socio-cultural landscape and architecture in the Chimú culture: Human settlement in the Late Intermediate (1000–1470 AD) in the Chicama valley (north coast of Peru)]. (BAR International series S2748.) Oxford: BAR Publishing.Google Scholar
Cummins, T. & Mannheim, B., 2011. Editorial: the river around us, the stream within us: the traces of the sun and Inca kinetics. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 59/60, 5–21.Google Scholar
Dean, C., 2007. The Inka married the earth: integrated outcrops and the making of place. Art Bulletin 89(3), 502–18.Google Scholar
Donnan, C.B., 2010. Moche state religion: a unifying force in Moche political organization, in New Perspectives on Moche Political Organization, eds Quilter, J. & Castillo, L.J.. Washington (DC): Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 47–69.Google Scholar
Donnan, C.B., 2011. Moche substyles: keys to understanding Moche political organization. Boletín del Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino 16(1), 105–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donnan, C.B. & McClelland, D., 1999. Moche Fineline Painting: Its evolution and its artists. Los Angeles (CA): UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History.Google Scholar
Franco Jordán, R.G., Gálvez Mora, C. & Vásquez Sánchez, S., 2003. Modelos, función y cronología de la Huaca Cao Viejo, Complejo El Brujo [Models, function and chronology of the Huaca Cao Viejo, El Brujo Complex], in Moche: Hacia El Final Del Milenio [Moche: towards the end of the millennium], eds Uceda, S. & Mujica, E.. Lima/Trujillo: Fondo Editorial, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú/Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, 125–78.Google Scholar
Gelles, P.H., 1995. Equilibrium and extraction: dual organization in the Andes. American Ethnologist 22(4), 710–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gose, P., 1994. Deathly Waters and Hungry Mountains: Agrarian ritual and class formation in an Andean town. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Gose, P., 1996. The past is a lower moiety: diarchy, history, and divine kingship in the Inka empire. History and Anthropology 9(4), 383–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hocquenghem, A.M., 1987. Iconografía Mochica [Moche iconography]. San Miguel (Peru): Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú Fondo Editorial.Google Scholar
Holmquist, U., 2013. The symbolic language of ancient Peruvian art, in Peru: Kingdoms of the sun and the moon, eds Wuffarden, L.E., Majluf, N., Bondil, N., Holmquist, U., Pimentel, V. & Alva, W.. Montreal: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 66–73.Google Scholar
Hopkins, D., 1982. Juego de enemigos [Enemy game]. Allpanchis 14(20), 167–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howard-Malverde, R., 1990. The Speaking of History: ‘Willapaakushayki’ or Quechua ways of telling the past. London: Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London.Google Scholar
Kelly, L., 2017. The Memory Code: The secrets of Stonehenge, Easter Island and other ancient monuments. New York (NY): Pegasus Books.Google Scholar
Koons, M.L., 2012. Moche Geopolitical Networks and the Dynamic Role of Licapa II, Chicama Valley, Peru. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Koons, M.L., 2015. Moche sociopolitical dynamics and the role of Licapa II, Chicama Valley, Peru. Latin American Antiquity 26(4), 473–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koons, M.L. & Alex, B.A., 2014. Revised Moche chronology based on Bayesian models of reliable radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 56(3), 1039–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lansing, J.S., 1987. Balinese ‘water temples’ and the management of irrigation. American Anthropologist 89(2), 326–41.Google Scholar
Larco Hoyle, R., 1945. Los Mochicas (Pre-Chimu, de Uhle y Early Chimu, de Kroeber) [The Mochicas (Pre-Chimu, by Uhle and Early Chimu, by Kroeber)]. Buenos Aires: Sociedad Geográfica Americana.Google Scholar
Lau, G.F., 2012. The first millennium AD in north-central Peru: critical perspectives on a linguistic prehistory, in Archaeology and Language in the Andes, eds Heggarty, P. & Beresford-Jones, D.G.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 163–96.Google Scholar
Mannheim, B. & Salas Carreño, G., 2015. Wak'as: entifications of the Andean sacred, in The Archaeology of Wak'as: Explorations of the sacred in the pre-Columbian Andes, ed. Bray, T.L.. Boulder (CO): University Press of Colorado, 47–74.Google Scholar
Mauricio, A.C. & Castro, J., 2008. La última sacerdotisa Mochica de San José de Moro. Excavaciones en el Área 42 [The last Mochica priestess of San José de Moro. Excavations in Area 42], in Programa Arqueológico San José de Moro Temporada 2007 [Archaeological Program San José de Moro season 2007], ed. Castillo Butters, L.J.. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Perú, 67–117.Google Scholar
Middendorf, E.W., 1892. Das Muchik oder die Chimu-Sprache, mit einer Einleitung über die Culturvölker, die gleichzeitig mit den Inkas und Aimaras in Südamerika lebten, und einem Anhang über die Chibcha-Sprache [The Muchik or Chimu language, with an introduction to the civilized peoples who lived in South America at the same time as the Incas and Aymaras, and an appendix to the Chibcha language]. Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus.Google Scholar
Nakatsuka, N., Lazaridis, I., Barbieri, C., et al. , 2020. A paleogenomic reconstruction of the deep population history of the Andes. Cell 181(5), 1131–45.e21.Google ScholarPubMed
Netherly, P.J., 1984. The management of late Andean irrigation systems on the north coast of Peru. American Antiquity 49(2), 227–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Netherly, P.J., 1990. Out of many, one: the organization of rule in the north coast polities, in The Northern Dynasties: Kingship and statecraft in Chimor, eds Moseley, M.E. & Cordy-Collins, A.. Washington (DC): Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 461–88.Google Scholar
Netherly, P.J., 2009. Landscapes as metaphor: resources, language, and myths of dynastic origin on the Pacific coast from the Santa Valley (Peru) to Manabí (Ecuador), in Landscapes of Origin in the Americas: Creation narratives linking ancient places and present communities, ed. Christie, J.J.. Tuscaloosa (AL): University of Alabama Press, 123–52.Google Scholar
Netherly, P.J. & Dillehay, T.D., 1986. Duality in public architecture in the Upper Zaña Valley, northern Peru, in Perspectives on Andean Prehistory and Protohistory: Papers from the Third Annual Northeast Conference on Andean Archaeology and Ethnohistory, eds Sandweiss, D.H. & Kvietok, D.P.. Ithaca (NY): Latin American Studies Program, Cornell University, 85–114.Google Scholar
Ossio Acuña, J.M., 1992. Parentesco, Reciprocidad y Jerarquía En Los Andes: Una aproximación a la organización social de la comunidad de Andamarca [Kinship, reciprocity and hierarchy in the Andes: an approach to the social organization of the Andamarca community]. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Perú, Fondo Editorial.Google Scholar
Platt, T., 1986. Mirrors and maize: the concept of yanantin among the Macha of Bolivia, in Anthropological History of Andean Polities, eds Murra, J.V., Wachtel, N. & Revel, J.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 228–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Platt, T., 1987. The Andean Soldiers of Christ: confraternity organization, the Mass of the Sun and regenerative warfare in rural Potosi (18th–20th centuries). Journal de la société des américanistes 73, 139–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qespi, A.E.M., 1994. Pacha: un concepto andino de espacio y tiempo [Pacha: an Andean concept of space and time]. Revista Española de Antropología Americana, 24, 155–89.Google Scholar
Quilter, J., 2002. Moche politics, religion, and warfare. Journal of World Prehistory 16, 145–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quilter, J., 2010. The Moche of Ancient Peru: Media and messages. Cambridge (MA): Peabody Museum Press.Google Scholar
Quilter, J. & Koons, M.L., 2012. The fall of the Moche: a critique of claims for South America's first state. Latin American Antiquity 23(2), 127–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramírez, S.E., 1995. De pescadores y agricultores: una historia local de la gente del valle de Chicama antes de 1565 [Of fishermen and farmers: a local history of the people of the Chicama Valley before 1565]. Bulletin de l'institut français d’études andines 24, 245–79.Google Scholar
Ramírez, S.E., 1996. The World Upside Down: Cross-cultural contact and conflict in sixteenth-century Peru. Stanford (CA): Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, M., 1990. Ethnohistorical considerations about the Chimor, in The Northern Dynasties: Kingship and statecraft in Chimor, eds Moseley, M.E. & Cordy-Collins, A.. Washington (DC): Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 447–60.Google Scholar
Russell, G. & Jackson, M., 2001. Political economy and patronage at Cerro Mayal, Peru, in Moche Art and Archaeology in Ancient Peru, ed. Pillsbury, J.. Washington (DC): National Gallery of Art, 159–75.Google Scholar
Salas García, J.A., 2002. Diccionario Mochica–Castellano [Mochia-Castilian dictionary]. Lima: Universidad de San Martín de Porres, Escuela Profesional de Turismo y Hotelería.Google Scholar
Salomon, F., 1991. Introductory essay: the Huarochirí Manuscript, in The Huarochirí Manuscript, eds Salomon, F. & Urioste, G.L.. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press, 1–38.Google Scholar
Sánchez Garrafa, R., Casas Salazar, L. & Dolorier Torres, C., 2012. Cosmos Moche [The Moche cosmos]. Lima: Museo Andrés del Castillo.Google Scholar
Scher, S., 2012. Markers of masculinity: phallic representation in Moche art. Bulletin de l'institut français d’études andines 41(2), 169–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherbondy, J., 1982. The Canal System of Hanan Cuzco. Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Sikkink, L., 1997. Water and exchange: The ritual of ‘yaku cambio’ as communal and competitive encounter. American Ethnologist 24(1), 170–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spence Morrow, G. 2018. Scaling the huaca: synecdochal temporalities and the mimetic materialization of Late Moche timescapes, in Constructions of Time and History in the Pre-Columbian Andes, eds Swenson, E. & Roddick, A.P.. Boulder (CO): University Press of Colorado, 207–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spence Morrow, G. & Swenson, E.R., 2019. Moche mereology: synecdochal intersections of spatial and corporeal ontologies at the Late Moche site of Huaca Colorada, Jequetepeque Valley, Peru, in Andean Ontologies: New perspectives from archaeology, bioarchaeology and linguistics, eds. Tantaleán, H. & Lozada, M.C.. Gainesville (FL): University Press of Florida, 91–123.Google Scholar
Swenson, E.R., 2018. Sacrificial landscapes and the anatomy of Moche biopolitics, in Powerful Places in the Ancient Andes, eds Jennings, J. & Swenson, E.R.. Albuquerque (NM): University of New Mexico Press, 247–86.Google Scholar
Swenson, E. & Roddick, A. (eds), 2018. Constructions of Time and History in the Pre-Columbian Andes. Boulder (CO): University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar
Swenson, E. & Warner, J., 2016. Landscapes of mimesis and convergence in the southern Jequetepeque Valley, Peru. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 26(1), 23–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Topic, T.L. & Topic, J.R., 2009. Variations in the practice of prehispanic warfare on the North Coast of Peru, in Warfare in Cultural Context: Practice, agency, and the archaeology of violence, eds Nielsen, A.E. & Walker, W.H.. Tucson (AZ): University of Arizona Press, 17–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trever, L., 2016. The artistry of Moche mural painting and the ephemerality of monuments, in Making Value, Making Meaning: Techné in the pre-Columbian world, ed. Costin, C.L.. Washington (DC): Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 253–80.Google Scholar
Uceda, S., 2010. Theocracy and secularism: relationships between the temple and urban nucleus and political change at the Huacas de Moche, in New Perspectives on Moche Political Organization, eds Quilter, J. & Castillo, L.J.. Washington (DC): Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 132–58.Google Scholar
Urban, M., 2019. Lost Languages of the Peruvian North Coast. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag.Google Scholar
Weismantel, M., 2004. Moche sex pots: reproduction and temporality in ancient South America. American Anthropologist 106(3), 495–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weismantel, M. 2021. Playing with Things: Engaging the Moche sex pot. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Weismantel, M. & Meskell, L., 2014. Substances: ‘following the material’ through two prehistoric cases. Journal of Material Culture 19(3), 233–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, K.R., 2017. Incamisana: engineering an Inca water temple, in World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2017, eds Dunn, C.N. & Van Weele, B.. Reston (VA): Environmental and Water Resources Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 346–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zuidema, R.T., 1990. Inca Civilization in Cuzco (trans. Decoster, J.-J.). Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.Google Scholar