Encyclopedia of the Incas

Pedro de Cieza de León in the sixteenth century through to Louis Baudin in the
early twentieth century) saw large-scale accumulation as evidence for a
benevolent state that emphasized the redistribution of staple goods to the general
populace, the last fifty years of scholarship has moved firmly away from this
position.
This alternative approach questioning the state’s role in redistribution had
some of its origins with John V. Murra and Craig Morris’s seminal
archaeological and ethnohistorical work in the central highlands, elaborated
further in the 1980s and 1990s, particularly by a group of UCLA scholars.
Explicitly drawing upon the economic anthropological focus on the role of
specific cultural contexts, the emphasis was on the distinctive institutional
characteristics of Tahuantinsuyu, rather than attempting to fit the Inca case into a
reductive evolutionary framework. Moving away from previous assumptions of
bureaucratic power, Morris argued for a political strategy of Inca state hospitality
based on his investigations of the administrative center at Huánuco Pampa, with
episodes of feasting and gift giving drawing upon the resources accumulated in
centralized storage complexes.
The evidence from Huánuco Pampa—including the massive central plaza,
locations for large-scale food preparation, and the monumental rows of collcas
separated from local population centers—seemed to point toward such a strategy
that emphasized political performance over larger interventions in the
subsistence and crafting economies. Unlike a classic tributary state, the
integration between the state and the local community was relatively loose given
the focus on labor mobilization rather than tributary goods. Critically for the
topic at hand, it was argued that the interregional movement of staples was
minimal, with an emphasis on the long-distance movement of people instead;
hence collcas at administrative centers acted as locally oriented storehouses
rather than warehouses for large-scale transfers.