Kevin J. Vaughn

CRAFTS AND THE MATERIALIZATION OF CHIEFLY POWER

Published in the edited volume The Foundations of Power in the Prehispanic Andes, edited by Kevin J Vaughn, Christina Conlee, and Dennis Ogburn, pp.113-130. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, Washington D.C., vol. 14, 2005.

Abstract In this paper I argue that in pre-industrial societies where re-
sources were difficult to monopolize and physical coercion was not an
option, ideology provided a significant source of social power. This avenue
towards social power was especially important in the prehispanic Andes, and
the establishment and negotiation of that power was often through ritual
feasting involving politically charged crafts bearing the principal symbolic
elements of an ideology. This "materialization" of ideology was particularly
important to emerging elites in Nasca, an Early Intermediate Period (ca.
A.D. 1-750) society of the south coast of Peru. In this paper, I summarize
recent data and present findings from ongoing research in the Southern
Nasca Region to support this argument. I suggest that by controlling the
production of polychrome pottery --the principal material form of ideology in
Nasca-- and by distributing this pottery in feasting at the ceremonial center
Cahuachi, materialized ideology provided the crucial source of power for
Early Nasca elites.