Encyclopedia of the Incas

actions were accommodated to an imperial rhythm and hierarchical order.
Subjects were permitted or required to be present within the facilities at specific
times, either for labor duties or events within the Incas’ politico-ceremonial
cycle.
With respect to more portable things, distinctive styles were created for
insignia, textiles, metals, stonework, and ceramics that immediately identified
any object as having been made under imperial auspices. The ruler had an array
of personal insignia, notably the fringed headgear that was equivalent to a
crown, a painted standard, a wooden seat, and a feathered staff (see Costume;
Feathers). More generally, the Incas’ material culture marked its status,
exclusivity, and power. The decoration of many manufactures (especially textiles
and pottery) was geometric and highly standardized; it was therefore easily
recognized and reproduced throughout the domain. Only a few representational
objects were made, such as rulers’ body doubles, or brother icons (huauque) or
the human and camelid figurines that were interred in offerings. With a few
exceptions like the huauque, however, they were generic representations. The
presence of Inca textiles, pottery, or drinking vessels implied the extended
persona of the ruler or his personal approbation (see Keros). The textiles
denoted status, while the ceramics were used for the commensal hospitality in
which imperial politics were played out and edicts were announced (see
Ceramics; Feasting, State-Sponsored).
Numerous landscape modifications, such as terrace complexes and irrigation
systems, also marked imperial authority. In a more subtle, but equally potent,
manner, the Incas asserted a special relationship with the sacred places and
beings of the landscape. Unusual rocks or outcrops were carved or enclosed
throughout the realm, and, in the southern part of the empire, shrines were
placed on over 50 high peaks. Those acts worked as part of the Inca imperial
effort to revere or even civilize the many nonhuman actors of their world, or at
least to insert themselves as the mediators between humanity and those powers
(see Capac Hucha; Huacas; Religion).
In the less tangible realm, the use of Quechua as the imperial lingua franca
structured communication at the highest levels of the domain. Similarly,
standardized methods of accounting with quipus dictated the ways that people
and things were classified and tabulated, within imperial contexts of activity.
Finally, the cycles of ceremonial, productive, and political activities that Incas
conducted imposed a broad imperial vision of the proper order of life within
Tahuantinsuyu.