Bill Sillar

Who's indigenous? Whose archaeology?

Abstract The International Labour Organisation, the United Nations and various indigenous Organisations have raised and/or objected to diverse criteria through which indigenous groups have been defined and the rights that should be accorded to them. This paper discusses the implications of these issues in relation to archaeological research and heritage management and uses this to position the other papers in this volume. Specific themes that are addressed include: the impact of colonialism and nation-forming on indigenous groups; the continuing influence of 19th and early 20th century social evolutionary concepts on the representation of indigenous groups and the role of archival material from this period today; the contrasting processes of cultural continuity and assimilation within ‘dominant’ societies in which indigenous communities have participated, and the effects that this has had on more recent claims over land rights; the cultural differences that surround the concepts of individual and community ownership, particularly in relation to copyright; the role of academia, museums and the media in the representation of indigenous people in the past and the present.

The building and rebuilding of walls: Aspirations, commitments and tensions within an Andean community and the archaeological monument they inhabit

Walls are at the foundation of ‘civil society’: physical and symbolic barriers that differentiate people and activities. Cooperation in construction work expresses people’s aspirations and can be a focus for the development of group solidarity. However, walls change the control and use of space, causing tensions and social divisions. In Raqchi, a small Peruvian village whose houses and fields are located within the ruins of a major archaeological complex, walls are a major concern. The work involved in house building, community projects, a monumental Inka temple and recent heritage reconstruction shows how the choice of materials and techniques is influenced by social relations and labour exchange. Tensions are expressed over land ownership and community priorities as well as with heritage management. The community’s identity and status are also strongly influenced by building work that is dependent on the Catholic Church, NGOs, the municipality and the nation state.Walls can be read as a document of this contested history.

Using the present to interpret the past: the role of ethnographic studies in Andean archaeology

ABSTRACT Within Andean research it is common to use ethnographic analogies to aid the interpretation of archaeological remains, and ethnographers and archaeologists have developed shared research in technology, material culture and material practice. Although most of this research does not follow the detailed recording methods of spatial patterning envisioned in earlier formulations of ethnoarchaeology, it has had a profound effect on how archaeology in the region has been interpreted. This paper uses examples from the study of pottery production to address earlier debates about the use of ethnographic analogy, discusses the dangers of imposing an idealized or uniform vision of traditional Andean societies onto earlier periods (‘Lo Andino’) but stresses the benefits of combining ethnographic and archaeological research to explore continuities and changes in cultural practice and regional variations.

Miniatures and Animism: The Communicative Role of Inka Carved Stone Conopa

Andean offerings use miniaturization and synecdoche to enact connections within a relational animism (where people, places, and things participate in an interactive network), allowing the person preparing the offering to make material links between them and more distant, nonhuman entities. Catholic priests working in the Andes during the Spanish colonial period tried to eradicate these practices in which small objects called conopa were used. Conopa included unmodified stones and carved stone figurines, which were understood to be active agents that helped those who were preparing offerings to communicate with animate locales in the landscape. An analysis of Inka and colonial period stone conopa carved in the form of camelids reveals that some of them were produced in an organized system of manufacture under the auspices of the Inka state. This contributes to a discussion of how Andean household rituals have adapted in response to distinct social, economic, and political contexts.

Communicative Technologies in the Ancient Andes: Decoding the Inka KhipuSigns of the Inka Khipu: Binary Coding in the Andean KnottedString Records. By Gary Urton. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003.

The development of any communicative system requires the imposition of order and agreement about the meanings of signs. In Signs of the Inka Khipu Urton identifies an important aspect of the order that Andean people used in constructing and reading the elaborate bunches of knotted strings that were sent round the Inka Empire. Although coloured strings hanging off a primary cord were used in the Middle Horizon (ca. AD 600–1000), the more consistent system of knots and cord positioning which characterizes most of the khipus surviving from the Inka and early colonial periods seems to have been fully elaborated as a feature of the Inka state. Previous work by Leland Locke (1923) demonstrated that many khipus held numerical information using a decimal system, and later Marcia and Robert Ascher (1975, 1981) suggested that numerals might be used to identify nonquantitative information (similar to the way International Standard Book Numbers identify books or passport numbers individuals). Urton highlights a range of previously unrecognized variables suggesting that khipus were capable of encoding much more information than was previously recognized. Urton demonstrates that most khipus were constructed using a consistent and widely shared range of features that were “written” into their fabric. He identifies seven aspects of “technological choice” that could be exercised in the creation of each khipu cord: (1) raw material (cotton or wool), (2) colour (“red” and “dark” rainbows), (3) direction of spin and ply (Z/S or S/Z), (4) direction of attachment of the pendant to the primary cord (front or back), (5) direction of knot (S or Z), (6) even or odd numbers, (7) decimal or non-decimal structure. He is convinced that these seemingly diverse categories were in fact treated in very similar ways in that the khipu maker selected between two alternatives in each case.

Communicative Technologies in the Ancient Andes: Decoding the Inka Khipu

The development of any communicative system requires the imposition of order and agreement about the meanings of signs. In Signs of the Inka Khipu Urton identifies an important aspect of the order that Andean people used in constructing and reading the elaborate bunches of knotted strings that were sent round the Inka Empire. Although coloured strings hanging off a primary cord were used in the Middle Horizon (ca. AD 600–1000), the more consistent system of knots and cord positioning which characterizes most of the khipus surviving from the Inka and early colonial periods seems to have been fully elaborated as a feature of the Inka state. Previous work by Leland Locke (1923) demonstrated that many khipus held numerical information using a decimal system, and later Marcia and Robert Ascher (1975, 1981) suggested that numerals might be used to identify nonquantitative information (similar to the way International Standard Book Numbers identify books or passport numbers individuals). Urton highlights a range of previously unrecognized variables suggesting that khipus were capable of encoding much more information than was previously recognized. Urton demonstrates that most khipus were constructed using a consistent and widely shared range of features that were “written” into their fabric. He identifies seven aspects of “technological choice” that could be exercised in the creation of each khipu cord: (1) raw material (cotton or wool), (2) colour (“red” and “dark” rainbows), (3) direction of spin and ply (Z/S or S/Z), (4) direction of attachment of the pendant to the primary cord (front or back), (5) direction of knot (S or Z), (6) even or odd numbers, (7) decimal or non-decimal structure. He is convinced that these seemingly diverse categories were in fact treated in very similar ways in that the khipu maker selected between two alternatives in each case.

Comments on 'Technological choices in ceramic production', Archaeometry, 42 (1), 1-76, 2000

Sillar, B., and Tite, M. S., 2000, The challenge of ‘technological choices for materials science approaches in archaeology, Archaeometry42, 2–20. Livingstone Smith, A., 2000, Processing clay for pottery in northern Cameroon: social and technical requirements, Archaeometry42, 21–42. Sillar, B., 2000, Dung by preference: the choice of fuel as an example of how Andean pottery production is embedded within wider technical, social, and economic practices, Archaeometry42, 43–60. Pool, C. A., 2000, Why a kiln? Firing technology in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz (Mexico), Archaeometry42, 61–76.