The Stone Ancestors: Idioms of Imperial Attire and Rank among Huari Figurines

Abstract

Two caches were recovered at Pikillacta, the largest Huari state installation (A. D. 550-1000) in the southern Andean highlands; each contained 40 richly garbed votive turquoise figurines. The figurines are analyzed in terms of their production, use, and deposition as well as their overall morphology. To the extent possible, the rank associated with the costumes worn by each figure is also considered. Reference is made to Inca apparel and its potential for interpreting Huari official garments. Because the number 40 also held special importance in Inca state organization as an administrative unit or division, the Inca example provides concepts of administration vital to the interpretation of the figurines. A more unusual source—origin myths associated with the Chimor Kingdom—supports the relation between turquoise figurines and ancestor worship. I argue that the stone figurines embody qualities and convey concepts that are central to Andean political administration, and that they are intimately tied into the web of ancestral cults through which kinship, hierarchy, and inheritance were determined.