Aesthetics
The Incas developed an imperial aesthetic with highly recognizable ceramic, textile, and architectural styles, and they designated production specialists (kamayuq) in the capital region and key locations across the empire.
Imperial styles have a surprisingly uneven distribution across Inca territory. In some highland regions, Inca decoration is virtually unknown a few hours' walk from the royal highway network, and local populations appropriated elements of the imperial canon to produce modest amounts of their own hybrid architecture and decorated material culture.[1810] In many regions, local pottery styles incorporated some Inca elements—for example, coastal Chimu blackwares sometimes conform to Inca vessel forms—but in many areas “provincial Inca” styles constitute more or less independent systems of production and distribution. In some instances, local pre-Inca iconography received greater distribution under imperial rule, especially when painted on Inca vessel forms.[1811]It is said that Inca elites promoted this stylistic heterogeneity as a ruling strategy. Early Spanish writers referred to Inca officials as orejones (“big-ears”) because they wore large earspools as a sumptuary privilege communicating noble status. The empire encouraged continuity in local costume, hairstyle, and body art as a way of distinguishing subordinate groups from each other and from the ruling elite. At the same time, Inca informants describe an attempt to flatten local social hierarchies so that local kuraka administrators worked their own fields and did not possess trappings of wealth.[1812] Of course, it should be noted that the most impressive evidence of fine artisan work and wealth display comes from coastal tombs—where such practices had a deep history—so the imperial narrative should be taken with due skepticism.
712 R. ALAN COVEY
More on the topic Aesthetics:
- Aesthetics
- Notes on Contributors
- ThestructureofValues
- Moralistic Fallacy
- Coase’s “Amoralization” of Externalities
- RuskintheRomantic
- Designing With a Dialogical Sensibility
- Background
- References
- Contents