that many Andean villagers lived lives based on agriculture and herding,
followed other cultural norms long documented in historical records, and spoke
Quechua. These features represented what were commonly termed
“continuities” with Inca practices and customs described in the early Colonial
chronicles and documents. Thus the notion grew among anthropologists that
studying the lifeways of contemporary Andean people could shed light on the
lifeways of people in the Inca Empire. Much has been learned of the lifeways of
highland Quechua- and Aymara-speaking populations of the central Andes
through ethnographic studies. These have often been used as a lens through
which to read Colonial accounts to inform our understanding of Inca-era habits,
practices, and values.
Further Reading
Arguedas, J. M. “Puquio, una cultura en proceso de cambio.” Revista del Museo Nacional 25: 184–232,
1956.
Arguedas, J. M., and J. Roel Pineda. “Tres versiones del mito de Inkarrí.” In Ideología mesianica del mundo
andino, edited by J. Ossio Acuña. Lima: Ignacio Prado Pastor, 1972.
MacCormack, Sabine. “Ethnography in South America: The First Two Hundred Years.” In Cambridge
History of the Native Peoples of the Americas. Vol. 3, pt. 1, South America, edited by F. Salomon and S.
Schwartz, 96–187. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Salomon, Frank. “Andean Ethnology of the 1970s: A Retrospective.” Latin American Research Review 17,
no. 2: 79–129, 1982.
———. “The Historical Development of Andean Ethnology.” Mountain Research and Development 51, no.
1: 78–98, 1985.
■GARY URTON
EXPANSION
The Incas conquered a vast network of provinces in just a few generations,
growing from a centralized state with increasing regional influence around AD
1400 to a mighty empire that ruled over far-flung and diverse territories (see
Archaeology, Cuzco). Early Spanish chroniclers debated the timing, methods,
and justification of Inca conquests. These questions became central to
challenging or justifying Spain’s right to conquer the Inca king and rule over the
Andes, and the portrayal of Inca conquests changed several times during the
century that followed the Spanish conquest. A key distinction that helps to
organize and discuss accounts of Inca expansion is between writers who credit
only two or three Inca rulers with imperial conquests, and sources that state that
all Inca rulers contributed to the growth of the empire.
The earliest narratives of Inca expansion belong to the “late expansion” group.
Detailed narratives of Inca history first appeared in the 1550s and focused on the