La cerámica provincial inca como producto y como expresión de estatus en la población mitmaquna de Pueblo Viejo-Pucará

Abstract

Pueblo Viejo-Pucará, 15 km from Pachacamac, founded by the mitmaqunas from Huarochiri on the initiative of the Inca imperial administration. The results of analysis of pastes and finishes by means of digital microscopy were compared with previous studies on the origin of the clay sources, which involved the analysis LA-TOF-ICP-MS and the study ofthe ware’s variety.
This approach makes it possible to critically review two widely disseminated research assumptions about the relationship between the Inca style and local traditions in the context of debate about the cultural, ethnic and political identities of
the producer and user: 1) The hypothetical control exercised by the Inca State over ceramists, which would be expressed in the imposition of morpho-stylistic and technological Cuzco canons on local potters and 2) The supposed direct relationship between ethnic identity and the stylistic preferences of the local ceramic user, e.g. the Ychsma or Puerto Viejo style. The validity of none of these assumptions could be confirmed in the production of provincial Inca ceramics by local
potters and the probable northern mitmaquna; likewise, their use reflects a complex process of constructing new identities in the cosmopolitan context of the empire, not without some aspects of the identity of origin having been rationalized, affirmed and materialized