Dynamic Display, Propaganda, and the Reinforcement of Provincial Power in the Inca Empire

Abstract

A primary objective of the Inca state and other early empires was to maintain control over the inhabitants of conquered territories. In addition to overt tactics such as military force, resettlement, alliance formation, and cultural and economic integration, I suggest that many other activities of the Inca state also served to reinforce state power in the provinces. This was achieved by establishing and maintaining a “psychology of submission” in subject peoples through frequent reminders of imperial power, that is, advertising state control over labor. Display in this form was a major implicit element in various activities of the empire, such as the movement of armies, the transport of building stones from Cuzco to Ecuador, and the construction of imperial temples and palaces. These activities served as potent public demonstrations of the state's ability to mobilize large armies and control enormous amounts of labor. Propaganda also played a major role in maintaining the psychology of submission by disseminating information about those activities having an element of display and about other accomplishments of the state to people who did not witness them firsthand. Considered in light of these mechanisms of display and propaganda, many of the apparently wasteful activities of the Inca state can be understood as deliberate and integral to overall imperial strategies for maintaining control in the provinces.

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