The role of ideology in the development of hierarchical relations is investigated with archaeological data recovered at the site of Panquilma, a community of the 13th to 15th centuries located in the hinterland of one of the most important religious centers of the ancient Andes: Pachacamac. By focusing on a community dominated by an important religious center, this study offers a new perspective on the ways in which rural leaders used the ideological ascendance of the religious center and shows how this process was articulated with local economic and political forces in the development of social power. Toward this end three scenarios were envisioned in which ideology played different roles in the development of power. These three models were evaluated based on the relative importance that ideological control had in the development of power strategies in two segments of Panquilmas population: the ruling elites that resided in walled pyramid complexes and the heads of the different extended family groups that resided in the surrounding15 household compounds.
Evidence from Panquilma indicates that, regardless of its proximity to Pachacamac, hierarchy at the site was mainly based on local political and economic conditions. Ideological factors were very important in the context of validating economic and political differences but did not constitute by themselves a viable source of power. Panquilmas ruling elite competed with other elite factions for prestige via feasting activities without any special religious significance. However, when they were dealing with the lower ranking residents of the household compounds, the control of ritual space and esoteric knowledge validated the elites economic supremacy and facilitated surplus extraction. In a similar manner, the development of inter-household relations between the leaders of extended families was based in great part on competition for economic resources, as evidenced by contextual and proportional information. On the other hand, within the compounds, the privileged position of the familys leaders was validated through religious notions of ancestry and redistributive mechanisms in the form of ancestor veneration rituals and feasting.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-08182011-031457 |
| Date | 29 September 2011 |
| Creators | Lopez-Hurtado Orjeda, Luis Enrique |
| Contributors | ROBERT D. DRENNAN, JAMES B RICHARDSON III, MARK ABBOTT, MARC BERMANN |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-08182011-031457/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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