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ABSTRACT This article addresses Inca state formation in the central highlands of Peru. Using ethnohistoric materials and new archaeological survey data from three areas surrounding Cuzco, the capital of the Inca empire, we argue that rapid Inca expansion after C.E. 1400 was made possible by long-term processes of state formation and regional consolidation. From C.E. 1000-1400, a centralized state developed in the Cuzco Valley, extending its direct administrative control over numerous neighboring groups. Less powerful neighboring polities accepted Inca administration early on, perhaps even initiating Inca patronage. Strong rivals to Inca control maintained their independence, at times depopulating intermediate areas and settling in defensive sites to protect settlements and resources. Finally, groups of intermediate complexity used alliances and violence to align themselves with the strongest regional competitors. Such variability in regional integration strategies reveals how Inca state formation processes influenced later patterns of imperial conquest and administration. [Keywords: Inca, state formation, imperialism, archaeology, ethnicity]
IN THIS ARTICLE WE EXAMINE the dramatic social transformations that occurred in the Cuzco region between C.E. 1000-1400, sometimes called the Late Intermediate Period.1 Conceptually, this encompasses regional developments following the decline of the Wari empire in the south central Andes and leading up to the first Inca territorial expansion outside of the Cuzco region. As such, this era represents the critical time when the Inca transformed themselves from one of many competing complex polities on the post-Wari political landscape into a wellintegrated state capable of dominating the central Andean highlands.
Because Inca imperialism occurred just before the Spanish conquest of the Andean highlands (C.E. 1532), some information recorded in 16th- and 17th-century colonial documents can be compared critically with archaeological data recovered through excavations and settlement surveys in the Cuzco region (Figure 1). References to the interactions between Cuzco's ethnic groups during the Late Intermediate Period facilitate a more detailed discussion of Inca state development than would otherwise be possible.
In considering the ethnohistoric record, we acknowledge the problems inherent to the study of these documents (see Bauer 1992; Julien 2000; Rowe 1946:192-197), at the same time asserting that their anthropological study can yield important perspectives on long-term regional processes. While individual Inca rulers are often credited with specific events or achievements, we use the documents to construct multiple...