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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
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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

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