｜題目｜

Labor under the Inca Empire: Insights from obsidian and food exchange

｜講者｜

Dr. Di Hu（James Madison University人類學系助理教授）

｜時間｜

2022.11.22（二）10:30

｜地點｜

臺大水源校區階梯教室201室

｜演講簡介｜

The Inca Empire was the biggest pre-contact Empire in the Americas. Unlike most other states and empires in the world, the geography of the Inca Empire was extremely mountainous and travel was arduous. How were the Inca able to conquer and control such a vast, diverse, and rebellious area in the Andes? Ethnohistorical records emphasize certain imperial strategies such as the forced deportation of subject groups, diminishing horizontal social and economic interaction among communities, and increasing vertical control through redistribution and labor tax. In this talk, I investigate these strategies through the lens of obsidian and food exchange of a community of coerced laborers under Inca rule. Archaeological investigations both confirm and complicate the ethnohistorical narratives of Inca state consolidation.