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very thorough introduction. A must for anyone planning to travel to Peru, This book is immerse in ancient Nazca information, which I love!! Very generous to andean subjectivities of the cultural objects themselves, I recommend to any andean wishing to have an encyclopedic introduction to andean cultural labor! I read this as a companion piece to Charles C.
Mann'sand I learned a lot more about demographics, cultural and political practices of the Andean peoples, I especially enjoyed learning about the wide range of textiles and ceramics! Rebecca R, Stone not to be confused with other stony Beckys in this book kindly leads us through space and time from the sea, over the coastal plains, up river valleys, higher through terraced mountainsides, to the Altiplano, towards the mountain peaks, into the wet and the dry, the arid deserts, the sacred lakes, and she pauses to allow us to glimpse into the varied greens of the Amazon beyond the Andes.
In time she moves from,BC to the sixteenth century, picking out for particular mention the Chavin, the Paracas amp Nasca, the Moche, the Tiwanaku amp Wari, the Lambayeque amp Chimu amp Chancay, and the Inca.
Stone explains that precolonial prehistory in the Andean region is thought of as divided into horizons generally dominated by one culture broken up by times when several smaller cultures coexist in different places.
The nature of the Andes is such that there are very different ecological zones, to thrive people need resources from many zones fish, maize, potatoes, cotton, llamas,coca, and various other entheogenic plants all like quite distinct environments these might be acquired through dominance of huge areas, or through trade or exchange.
In some cases there may not have been any practical difference between those modes a dominant authority, like the Inca might command food tribute which was redistributed to other regions and 'paid out' in communal feasts to people who themselves provided labour services in tribute say building roads or terracing mountains.
Some things are known about the Inca and their immediate predecessors from colonial era writings, effectively beforeAD these people are only known through their archaeology, specifically tombs and towns not all of which remained urban centres into the colonial era.
I wondered a bit about this and it was not something that Stone discusses, but the picture of the past is only the picture of what has survived, in some cases we know that architectural monuments were sheathed in metal but it was removed in the colonial era, alternatively textiles have survived in certain burial contexts but we mostly have to make assumptions but the rest.
Stone also explained a lot of imagery on ceramics, and on some monuments, and even textiles in Shamanic terms either showing Shaman, or representing their visions or perceptions.
I wondered if researchers had found shaman in the highlands of Peru and shown them Moche ceramics or Wari textiles and asked them their opinion or if the shaman interpretation was the produce of pure brain power, I rather like the idea of the contemporary shaman looking at some of theses ancient artefacts and declaring that intense colours and loads of snakes are simply typical of the shamanic experience not all these shaman were men, several of the cultures described in the book featured woman shaman on their art work.
Aside from such grumbles I loved this book, the kind of thing which for me defines sofa surfing you slump on to your sofa of choice and via the medium of a book surf across time and space.
A common theme across these Andean cultures was labour intensity, everything demanded a lot of work, there were the Moche mummy bundles pp,reconstructed bodies in wicker baskets wrapped in cloth, Some of the textiles were enormous the biggest,metres bymetres, average sized ones might becovered in embroidery, estimates of a bundle taking from,to,hours to make "seemingly whole families devoted their lives to making splendid garments for the dead".
Later entire communities may have been dedicated to specialised artisanial production, The Inca carried on the Tiwanaku tradition of massive stone work, perhaps literally by using the same artisans, they were particularly fond of incorporating natural rock outcrops into their buildings of dressed stone emphasising the organic nature of their regime perhaps through their architecture.
To my surprise Andean people did know and use the wheel Nasca ceramics handmade,utilising a turntable, slip painted, with a rich range of colours and a range of shapes they just did not develop the wheelbarrow.
Traces of human blood on Moche ceramics demonstrate their use in ritual practise, while from portrait vessels it seems that the great and the good of Moche society were either sacrificed or had themselves sacrificed for the common good.
On the Nasca lines "the idea that a human or terrestrial audience is not necessarily privileged should come as no surprise, given the values of Andean art as a whole.
The immensity of the Lines was scaled to that of the Earth itself, and perhaps the celestial and the Underworld realms as well they are if nothing else, global, inclusive statements.
The fact that we enjoy their full beauty from low flying aircraft does not mean that the Ancients were incapable of making them, . . Medieval European cathedrals were erected in the shape of crosses largely invisible to the populace who made and used them, . . " pThis is not necessarily Art on or for a human scale,
Stone describes the key attributes of Andean Art that she holds to be consistent and typical from,BC onwards from Ecuador to the north of Chile
huaca the
special or unusual indicating a link between this world and other realms
camay the infusion or manifestation of energy from a meta realm into our world generally most of the Art described in this book was of that nature
ayni two making a whole, the ruling Inca had to be married, this was held to be anyi the husband and wife forming a single unit
tinku convergence of two to make a third, for example the point where two rivers met and combined to form a single river was regarded as sacred
pachakuti a revolution the overthrow of an old order and its replacement by a new order
ukhu the interior
qumpi tapestry and fine textile production generally which Stone says was valued above all other Arts the Incas' first peace offerings to the Spanish were apparently of textiles.
A delightful book fit to transform the reader into a prisoner of the Sun without the use of any crystal balls, .