Description
Imperial frontiers are an interesting stage for studying the interactions of people, institutions, and their environments. In some of the first books to explore the Inka frontier through archaeology, Sonia Alconini examines a part of present-day Bolivia that was once once a territory at the edge of the Inka empire. Along this frontier, some of the New World’s most powerful polities came into repeated conflict with tropical lowland groups that it might never subject to its rule.
The use of extensive field research, Alconini explores the multifaceted socioeconomic processes that transpired in the frontier region. Her unprecedented study shows how the Inka empire exercised keep an eye on over vast expanses of land and peoples in a territory situated hundreds of miles away from the capital city of Cusco, and how people on the frontier navigated the cultural and environmental divide that separated the Andes and the Amazon.