World Archaeology

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Engineered highlands: the social organization

of water in the ancient north-central Andes (AD
1000–1480)

Kevin Lane

To cite this article: Kevin Lane (2009) Engineered highlands: the social organization of water
in the ancient north-central Andes (AD 1000–1480), World Archaeology, 41:1, 169-190, DOI:
10.1080/00438240802655245

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Published online: 21 Feb 2009.

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Engineered highlands: the social
organization of water in the ancient
north-central Andes (AD 1000–1480)

Kevin Lane

Abstract

Recent research in the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000–1480) north-central Andes has
emphasized the segmentary and egalitarian nature of late prehispanic Huaylas communities in the
region. This form of devolved power nevertheless conceals investiture of authority in a person or
group, albeit temporarily. Given the ubiquitous importance of water in the Andes, I suggest that this
type of power could well have rested on special ‘managers’ closely involved in the organization of
water and its concomitant hydrological infrastructure, working for the wider community and its
leaders.
Centring on archaeological evidence from the Cordillera Negra in the Ancash highlands the area
demonstrates the development of a complex suite of hydraulic technology. It is this unique setting,
including previously sparsely recorded structures such as silt dams and silt reservoirs, which provides
the technological suite necessary to test these preliminary ideas. The approach taken here is an
attempt to revisit some of Karl Wittfogel’s concepts, adapting them to include a community-based
bottom-up perspective to the ‘hydraulic hypothesis’.

Keywords

Andes; communitized; Huaylas; hydraulic technology; prehispanic; Wittfogel.

Things look bad for great Causes today, in a ‘postmodern’ era when, although the
ideological scene is fragmented into a panoply of positions which struggle for
hegemony, there is an underlying consensus: the era of big explanations is over, we need
‘weak thought,’ opposed to all foundationalisms.

(Žižek 2008: 1)

World Archaeology Vol. 41(1): 169–190 The Archaeology of Water

ª 2009 Taylor & Francis ISSN 0043-8243 print/1470-1375 online
DOI: 10.1080/00438240802655245
170 Kevin Lane

Introduction

This article suggests some initial considerations pertaining to the social organization of
water in the prehispanic north-central Andes during the phase known as the Late
Intermediate Period (AD 1000–1480, henceforth referred to as the LIP). The area selected
for this article lies within the Cordillera Negra in the region above 3000m in the suni/
paramo and puna/jalca ecozones (see Fig. 1). These two ecozones are categorized
respectively as alpine and tundra environments (Pulgar Vidal 1946; Tosi 1960).
Hydrologically, the area is the setting for a vast array of water complexes and hydraulic
features that shaped the landscape (Lane 2005). Politically, the region fell under the Inca
province of Huaylas (c. AD 1480) (Pärssinen 2003; Rowe 1946), although it is debatable
how much of a homogeneous political entity the Huaylas people might actually have been
prior to domination by the Incas (Lane 2007).
This paper is divided into three main sections. An initial section introduces a new
categorization of hydraulic architecture, dividing between ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ technologies,
followed by a brief description of the more common hydraulic technologies in use in the
Andean highlands. The second part details silt dams and reservoirs, as two technologies
that have not been described in detail previously for the Andes (a very preliminary
introduction to these technologies is available in Lane (2006)), including a brief historical
contextualization of these technologies within the area. Finally, I analyse the central role

Figure 1 Map of study.

 Engineered highlands 171

played by hydraulic technology in structuring social organization in the region from an

adapted Wittfogelian perspective (Wittfogel 1957).

Hydraulic architecture in the Andes

In the Andes, coastal hydraulic systems have been studied intensely (e.g. Billman 2002;
Farrington 1980; Kosok 1965; Ortloff 1993, 1995; Park 1983; Rostworowski 1998) while
the highlands (excepting the circum-Titicaca Lake area) have generally escaped close
attention (Sherbondy 1969). The reasons for this disparity range from difficulty of access
through to the low visibility of the specific features within the rugged terrain. This bias has
only relatively recently started to be partially addressed in the form of pioneering
work into highland terracing, or andenes (Bonavia 1967–8; Donkin 1979; Treacy
1994), raised field systems, also known as waru-waru or camellones (Erickson 1986;
Erickson and Chandler 1989), pond fields, also called either q’ochas or cochas (Flores
Ochoa and Paz Flores 1986; Flores Ochoa et al. 1996; Rozas 1986; Valdivia et al. 1999)
and artificially irrigated moors, commonly referred to as bofedales (Palacios Rios 1977,
1981, 1996).
Although the technological exigencies of two of the main physical environments of the
Andes, the coastal strip and the highlands, differ greatly they do share technology in
common, such as the ubiquitous canals and reservoirs. The coastal desert strip is
characterized by water flow rather than water storage, as seen in features such as irrigation
canals, filtration galleries and diversion embankments, geared towards floodwater and
irrigation farming. The central highlands, with their vertical gradients, narrow valleys and
highland alpine pampas, favour a series of technologies that emphasize water storage.
Coastal hydraulic architecture emphasizes agricultural production, while the highlands
display a more varied retinue of hydraulic features that have so far eluded simple
categorization into solely agricultural production.
In the highlands, all hydraulic technologies have to be viewed with a certain degree of
flexibility (Lane 2006). By flexibility, what is meant is that technology can have a dual
productive purpose: use, on the one hand, for farming and, on the other, for herding. This
system of dual-productive technology is a pattern that has been detected in the south
Andean highland region (see Erickson 2000; Flores Ochoa and Paz Flores 1986; Flores
Ochoa et al. 1996), but never really contemplated for the northern region. Nevertheless,
the archaeological evidence from the study area confirms a similar pattern of technological
use in the northern highlands (Lane 2005).
I divide hydraulic architecture into two main types, ‘dry’ and ‘wet’. ‘Dry’ hydraulic
features are those of which water is a periodic component such as canals, terraces and
fields, whereas ‘wet’ features are those for which water is a constant element of the
technology, as in the case of dams and reservoirs (see Table 1). Within this last category I
include three important features of field technology: raised fields, sunken gardens and
irrigated moorlands. These three types of hydraulic features occur specifically in the
circum-Titicaca area and singly in other parts of the Andes (e.g. Plazas et al. 1993). In the
highlands these features are important in that they have dual productive uses, for both
agriculture and herding. For instance, these three features formed an integral part of the
172 Kevin Lane

Table 1 ‘Dry’ and ‘wet’ hydraulic architecture

Category Type Description

Hydraulic architecture
Dry Terraces Built steps or benches creating cultivation platforms
on sloped terrain
Irrigation canals Canals distributing water to fields and land features
Fodder chakras Fields for the cultivation of animal fodder
Wet Camellones Raised field cultivation fields
Q’ochas Sunken pond fields
Water dams Artificial lake
Water reservoirs Artificial pond
Silt dam Large artificial silt trap
Silt reservoir Small artificial silt trap or silt terrace

LIP agro-pastoralist Lupaca confederacy of the Titicaca basin (Erickson 2000; Murra
2002 [1968]).
One type of ‘dry’ hydraulic system requires further explanation, namely fodder chakras.
Fodder chakras are an ethnographically recorded example of the human cultivation of
fodder for animals (Lane 2005). Although previously unknown for the Andes, the
cultivation of fodder is a longstanding practice in Europe where during the harsh winter
months, especially in the north, natural pasture is scarce. In a similar fashion, it is possible
that prehispanic Andean agro-pastoralists cultivated plants for use as fodder in areas
above 3500m during the months in the Antipodean winter (August to September) when
almost all natural pasture has been either exhausted or sun- and wind-burnt through lack
of rains and exposure to the area’s high rate of solar radiation.
Circumstantial evidence, on the basis of isotope analysis, for the feeding of maize stalks
to prehispanic camelids for the region of Chavin would seem to support this hypothesis
(Burger and van der Merwe 1990). Ethnographic evidence from the study area attests to
the rehabilitation of ancient rain-fed sloping fields (chakras) solely for the purpose of
planting of ryegrass (Lolium perenne) and alfalfa (Medicago sativa) for use as fodder at c.
3950m. As part of the dual productive system, suggested above, these fodder chakras
would be used to cultivate bitter potatoes (Solanum x juzepczukii and Solanum x
curtilobum) in the odd years when the soil matrix has been enriched sufficiently by animal
defecation and plant-matter decomposition. Indeed, this system of herding/bitter potato
rotation has analogues in the southern Andes and is an important means of replenishing
spent soils (Flannery et al. 1989).
In a similar sense, artificial bofedales store water geologically (see Fairley 2003) for use
in agricultural irrigation and provide important niche grassland habitats for animal
pasture (Lane 2005, 2006; Palacios Rios 1977, 1981, 1996). Irrigated bofedales prevail
across a large geographical scope and are also obliquely referenced in an important early
ethnohistoric source by Guaman Poma de Ayala (1993 [1615]: 780). Archaeologically, the
prehistoric existence of large-scale artificial bofedales is corroborated by Erickson (2000:
343). In the north-central Andean region geological water storage has emphasized the
construction of two types of previously sparsely documented hydraulic architecture,
 Engineered highlands 173

namely silt reservoirs (reservorios de limo) and silt dams (represas de limo). These silt dams
and reservoirs have been found in close association with water dams and reservoirs.

‘Wet’ hydraulic technology in the Cordillera Negra

The four types of dams and reservoirs share certain features in common. For instance all
construction is of double-faced stone walling infilled with rubble (see Plate 1) with a lower
layer of larger foundation stones (see Plate 2); all the stone is rough cut and locally
sourced. Extant archaeology and literature attests to the existence of some of these
hydraulic features: water reservoirs are known from Guaman Poma de Ayala (1993 [1615]:
937) and more recently recorded by others (Donkin 1979; Farrington 1980; Gambini
1983–4; Kosok 1965; Netherly 1984; Venturi and Villanueva 2002); although water dams
have received scant mention in the archaeological literature (see Denevan 2001: 157;
Donkin 1979: 105; Scarborough 2003: 59), they are mentioned ethnohistorically (de Avila
1999 [1598?]: 419) Also, new evidence emerging from current investigations in the
Cordillera Negra demonstrates a marked reliance on water from large highland dams. This
strategy of reservoir and dam construction would seem to be a logical reflection of the
naturally occurring, wet weather conditions that exist at this ecological juncture between

Plate 1 Section cut of the water dam wall of Estanque (Ti 1) in the Quebrada Tinko.
174 Kevin Lane

Plate 2 Detail of dam wall of Rakacocha (Pa 4) in the Quebrada Uchupacancha.

the puna and paramo habitats. It should be noted that these dams and reservoirs form one
feature in a complex hydraulic system, which include silt dams, silt reservoirs, terraces and
canals that can encompass whole side valleys (Lane 2006).
These large dams are gravity structures, in that the volume of their own weight holds
back the water. Our survey revealed twenty-nine such sites, from major dams to reservoirs
in series (see Table 2). Eighteen of the lakes identified were the result of damming1 and
only one, Itchicocha, was wholly natural. The dams and lakes are all located above 4100m.
Meanwhile, water reservoirs are located in close association with cultivated fields and
therefore occur at a much lower altitude, usually between 3200 and 4000m, hugging the
limits of viable cultivation. The reservoirs are generally round, ovular or roughly
rectangular and vary between 10 and 15m in relative diameter or length. Construction is of
a rough coursed-stone internal wall and either a similar external wall or an earthen
embankment. Unlike the other hydraulic structures considered here, they are closed
constructions, meaning they enclose a specifically bounded area on all sides.
Aside from water dams and reservoirs two new hydraulic features, silt dams and
reservoirs, have been identified within the study area. These features are local
technological adaptations that enhance the available moorland (bofedales) available for
pastoralist use. They are closer in type to the large moorlands created and nurtured by the
Chichillapi herders of Puno (Palacios Rios 1977, 1981, 1996) than to the household-scale
bofedales identified in various parts of the Andes (see Aldenderfer 1998; Carhuallanqui
1998; Kuznar 1995). Through the construction of silt dams and reservoirs, large areas of
the puna were turned into a rich plant biota and mineral trap for use by camelids,
especially alpacas (Lama pacos).
Five silt dams have been identified for the study area with enough combined acreage to
feed 1200 animals adequately in a total area of 372,027m2 of artificial bofedal (calculation
based on formula elaborated by Browman (1990)). Outwardly, these dam-like structures
bear striking similarities to the normal water dams yet, unlike the water dams, the silt
Table 2 Table of hydraulic architecture within the study area

Altitude Surface Volume

Site code Sector Site name (m) area (m2) capacity (m3) Source

Breque-Chorrillos-Rico area
Chorrillos
Cho 1 Yanacocha 4550 55,468 554,680 Water dam Freisem 1998
Cho 2 Oleron Cocharuri 4200 53,125 Silt Dam Survey 2002–3
Cho 6 Orconcocha 4660 35,000 Water dam Survey 2002–3
Cho 7 Putacayoc/Kaukayoc 3900–4050 150,000 Silt reservoirs/estancia Survey 2002–3
Cho 8 Llanapaccha 3600–3900 170,000 Necropolis/water Survey 2002–3
reservoirs and
terraces
Rico-Breque
Cj 1 Nununga 3800 340 Water reservoirs Survey 2000
Cj 4 Represa Decisión 3890 480 26 Silt Reservoirs Survey 2000
Co 1 Copalococha 3825 284,375 3,000,000 Silt dam Freisem 1998
Co 2 C Intiaurán 3985 75 Silt reservoir Survey 2000–3
Ra 1 A Ricococha Baja 4485 20,625 97,600 Water dam Programa
Cordillera
Negra 1999
Ra 2 Ricocochoa Alta 4560 18,750 92,500 Water dam Programa
Cordillera
Negra 1999
N/A Quebrada Rico 4050–4400 150,000 Silt reservoirs Survey 2002
Pc 7 Togllakita 4310 6,000 Water dam Survey 2003
Paucarmás-Cruzcatac area
Pc 11 Alalakmachay 4450 10,000 Water dam Survey 2003
Ti 1 Estanque 4140 6,000 Water dam Survey 1999
N/A Pacarinancocha 20,535 600,000 Water dam Freisem 1998
Other
Engineered highlands

Pa 3 Tayapucro 4250 286 Estancia/lake Survey 2002

(continued)
175
 176
Kevin Lane

Table 2 (Continued)

Altitude Surface Volume

Site code Sector Site name (m) area (m2) capacity (m3) Source

Pa 4 Rakacocha 4350 7,850 Water dam Survey 2002

Pa 5 Tsaquicocha 4625 1,027 Silt dam Survey 2002
Pa 6 Carhuacocha 4550 38,392 383,920 Water dam Freisem 1998
Rac 1 Huancacocha 4425 17,500 Silt dam Survey 2002
Rac 2 Sacracocha 4590 35,000 Water dam Survey 2002
Rac 3 Huaytacocha 4500 22,500 225,000 Water dam Freisem 1998
Rac 4 Iscaycocha 4575 13,392 133,920 Water dam Freisem 1998
Rac 5 Yanacocha Macho 4725 32,291 Water dam Freisem 1998
Rac 6 Yanacocha Hembra 4725 21,875 Water dam Survey 2002
Rac 7 Alichococha 4325 17,500 Water dam Survey 2002
Uc 2 Agococha/ 4525 68,750 687,500 Water dam Ministerio de
Negrahuacanan Agricultura 1996/
Freisem 1998
Uc 3 Tsaquicocha 4300 16,000 Silt dam Survey 2002
 Engineered highlands 177

dams are located lower down the altitudinal ladder of the Andes, occurring between 3825
and 4425m. Silt dams also tend to be free-standing rather than anchored onto rock (as
many of the water dams are) with usually only one discernible outtake sluice located along
the base of the structure, normally at its centre. The basic principle governing the silt dam
is that of geologic water storage (Fairley 2003); the accumulated soil basin acts as an
aquifer in which water is stored and purified. More ‘sieve’ than dam, these structures
siphon excess water out of the basin while retaining enough saturated moisture for the
growth of bofedal-type conditions ideal for camelids.
Silt dams are the result of a process of construction and years of careful nurture. In the
main, the initial silt basin would probably have been small and would have grown slowly
through silt accretion during the annual rains, a system of accretion known as varve
formation (Boreham and Moxey 1997; Leet 1982). It is probable that periodic de-silting of
these structures occurred with the excess being used for cultivation in terraces and fields;
this has been observed among similar structures in South Asia, the gabarband silt-traps
(Possehl 1975). The example of the 28.5ha silt dam of Collpacocha (Co 1), located at the
confluence of the Rico and Huinchos Rivers, is a classic of this type of technology (see
Plates 3 and 4). Collpacocha (Co 1) is 100m long, 11m wide, constructed of three major
stone steps to a height of 5.4m. The bofedal at Collpacocha (Co 1) would have allowed a
massive concentration of animal wealth at this juncture, which might well have been a
major consideration in the placement of the Inca administrative site of Intiaurán (Co 2) in
close proximity. This develops from the concept of ‘storage on the hoof’ suggested by
Bökönyi (1989).
As a counterpart to water reservoirs, the area has yielded evidence for silt reservoirs.
These occur in clusters along three of the side valleys in the Breque-Chorrillos-Rico area
and there is evidence to suggest that they occur in the side valley that leads from
Pacarinancocha Lake, located at the headwaters of the Loco River. Over-silting makes
these structures hard to detect, yet they cover an approximate area of 300,415m2, or 300ha
of bofedal, enough to sustain 975 animals adequately. They thus constitute an important
technology for the provision of pasture at a local level. Unlike water reservoirs they are
open, usually semi-circular or horseshoe shaped, ranging between 7 and 20m in length,
with an average height that ranges between 60 and 200cm. Within the broad sloping fields
in which they occur silt reservoirs are positioned so as to distribute water and silt across
the widest extent possible (see Fig. 2 for an example of how this works in practice).
Another notable difference is that these features have a drainage sluice, usually along the
centre of the structure, which drains excess water from the reservoir in much the same way
as occurs with the silt dams (see Plate 5 for examples of silt reservoirs from the study area).
Similar to the silt dams, they occur at a height (3900–4400m) low enough for them to
benefit from natural erosion episodes that occur annually in the highlands and high
enough so as not to impede generalized farming at lower altitudes. Their range is
significant, as these reservoirs represent a natural progression from the slightly higher-
placed silt dams, which they succeed, and crucially at 3900m they edge, by over 200m, into
the upper suni area, which is traditionally viewed as the upper limits of primary
agriculture. This returns us to the ongoing debate about the nature of the agricultural
frontier during the prehispanic period. The fact that bofedal construction extends well into
the suni zone makes it pertinent to question the use of the suni area solely for agriculture
178 Kevin Lane

Figure 2 Schematic of part of a silt reservoir system (Scale 1:500).

and suggests a fully integrated agro-pastoralist economy utilizing this liminal zone
between agriculture and herding for both types of livelihood (Lane 2006).

Towards a prehistory of use

The use of all these varied hydraulic features represents a significant breakthrough in our
conception of these prehispanic highland people’s economic organization, in which we
have herders at ease with the use of technology that aided in the maximization of animal
yields, as well as benefiting the farming economy. To understand this interrelated
relationship between water, crops and animals it is necessary to understand that silt and
water reservoirs and dams were particular elements in a system that implemented an
integrated vision of water use for both agriculture and pastoralism across valleys.
In the high Andes, the pursuit of a successful economy has always necessitated the
interlinking of two types of production – agriculture and herding – as a symbiotic whole
that aimed to control risk through economic diversification (Browman 1990). In the
Cordillera Negra, by the LIP, we see the development of a highly specialized highland
mixed-farmer and mountain agro-pastoralist economy where herding in the puna (4000
and above) was integrated with tuber, legume and semi-cereal cultivation in the suni
(3000–4000m) (Lane 2005, 2006). This farmer-herder economy was based on small
dispersed settlements located near to primary production zones (from Mayer 1985, 2002)
along the tightly compressed, tiered ecological niches of the high Andes, zones made all the
more viable through the construction of a flexible hydraulic management system that
seamlessly accounted for the exigencies of these two types of production.
Ethnohistoric sources for the period in question allude to these two forms of production
being exclusively practised by two separate ethnic groups – Huari farmers and Llacuaz
herders (Duviols 1973, 1986, 2003; Rostworowski 1988). I disagree. In a recent article I
argue that by the LIP the Huari and Llacuaz were not separate ethnic groups, but rather
 Engineered highlands 179

Plate 3 Detail of aerial photograph showing silt dam of Collpacocha (Co 1) and silt basin.

Plate 4 Silt dam of Collpacocha (Co 1).

180 Kevin Lane

complementary, though with unequal moiety divisions within the ayllu (ayllu is an Andean
term generically signifying ‘community’) that existed side by side exploiting the resources
of the highlands (Lane 2009). A similar form of organization has been observed among the
farmers and herders of Sardinia (Angioni 1996).
As in the Sardinian case, this does not preclude difference between these economic
groups. Rostworowski (1988) and Gose (1992) have shown how tension existed between
these herders and farmers for control of resources, and especially water. As custodians of
the puna ecozone, Rostworowski (1988) in particular has demonstrated that in many cases
it was the Llacuaz element of the community that primarily controlled water access within
the community. Yet, suggesting that we have a set hierarchical system of elites or castes
based around a form of economic production simplifies matters in what was a fluid and
dynamic relationship between high-altitude farmers and herders that shifted according to
geography, ecology and local politics across the north-central Andean highlands.
For instance, in the study area we know from the domestic settlement pattern and
material evidence (such as ceramic) that there is little apparent differentiation between
houses or indeed settlements other than that of size (Lane 2007). In the mortuary evidence
the emphasis is rather on communal family sepulchre-type tombs commonly found
throughout the region (Lane 2005); see also Isbell (1997) for a regional perspective. Again
the sepulchres, also known locally as chulpas, machays or pukullos (Herrera and Lane 2004),
demonstrate little to differentiate them in the manner of function or scale that might
indicate a more important family clan vis-à-vis their peers within the community. In effect
the only anomaly seems to be the truly monumental scale of the hydraulic structures in the
region.
Chronologically within the study area the settlement and mortuary evidence
demonstrates a steady colonization of the puna highlands commencing in the Early
Intermediate Period (EIP) (100 BC–AD 600). Currently there is very little evidence to
suggest that prior to the EIP the area was used for more than transit or ephemeral and
non-permanent hunting and subsequently small-scale herding (Lynch 1980). Intensive
colonization of the suni and puna eco-zones was followed by the adoption of the system of
agro-pastoralism described above during the Middle Horizon (MH) (AD 600–1000) and
the LIP (AD 1000–1480). The construction of hydraulic infrastructure to facilitate these
strategies is clearly reflected by the establishment of permanent settlements and cemeteries
close to these features within the study area during this period. The archaeological
evidence points to a substantial increase in pastoralist production during this period
culminating with the Inca occupation of the region (AD 1480–1532).
During this long period of highland occupation, structural construction and accretion
over time are crucial in understanding the chronology of these hydraulic systems. Given
the complexity and scale of these hydraulic features, it is necessary to consider their
construction as part of a long process of harnessing the region’s scarce water resources.
This process took a long time, with settlement and mortuary evidence demonstrating
extensive occupation of the area from perhaps AD 100, and definitely from AD 600
onwards. This timescale would allow for the periodic innovations and re-modelling that
these hydraulic systems would have necessitated, taking into consideration important
cultural and human fluctuations through time. Abandonment of these structures occurred
during the Spanish colony (AD 1532–1821).
 Engineered highlands 181

The wealth of ancient hydraulic architecture correlates directly with the lack of a
constant, reliable source of water in the region. As opposed to the Cordillera Blanca, the
Cordillera Negra has no permanent snow-caps to provide glacial melt; therefore water is
restricted to rainfall, highland lakes and spring. This lack of water coupled with the severe
natural gradient of the area means that modern communities usually complain of water
scarcity two months after the rainy season (November to April). Essentially, the vertical
landscape renders a region with rainfall between 600 and 800mm per year into a semi-
arid region. The archaeological evidence posits that this might not always have been so, and
that past indigenous responses to variable yearly water supply were both innovative and
technologically complex. This technological variability in turn begs the question of what
type of organization underwrote the maintenance of these hydraulic systems.

Water and social authority

Given the postmodernist reaction to grand theories it is perhaps with a degree of

trepidation that one might re-approach Wittfogel’s original ‘hydraulic hypothesis’. Yet,
taking on board Žižek’s (2008) recent clarion call in defence of unfashionable grand ideas,
this is precisely what I intend to do. Nevertheless, my approach to Wittfogelian theory is
tempered by consideration of the large body of scholarly criticism that has emerged
around his original ideas (e.g. Erickson 2006; Lansing 1987; Mitchell 1973; Stanish 1994,
2006). I suggest a more critical approach to Wittfogel that shies away from broad cross-
cultural commonalities and considers rather questions of scale and context. Nevertheless,
I subscribe to the basic Wittfogelian tenet that water was a crucial agent in the negotiation
of power in prehistoric societies, especially those in arid and semi-arid regions, and created
hydraulic societies (from Steward 1955b).
I disagree with Stanish’s (1994, 2006) neo-Wittfogelian position on the primacy of the
state in creating the necessary conditions for the intensification of hydraulic systems. I do
not dispute the fact that this can happen, I argue, though, against its determinism. Instead,
I subscribe to Mitchell’s (1973) concept that, in pre-industrial societies, centralized control
of irrigation systems is rather the exception than the norm. This concept has been popular
with Clark Erickson (2000, 2006) and his investigations in the circum-Titicaca area.
Erickson is vehemently against many of the undertones of Wittfogel’s ‘up-down’ position
to power and water control, opting rather for a ‘bottom-up’ approach of community water
organization and power. Yet I believe that there is room within Wittfogelian theory to
accommodate much of Erickson’s criticism.
A major problem of Erickson’s work has been that his studies have been conducted in
the Lake Titicaca region, an area for which there has been abundant evidence of complex
socio-cultural formations such as Tiahuanaco and the Inca (Stanish 2001). This is not the
case in the study area considered here: other than for the coming of the Inca (c. AD 1480)
there is a lack of evidence suggesting state-like formations in the ancient province of
Huaylas from at least the end of the EIP (100 BC–AD 600) onwards, and probably longer
(Lane 2007). It is this condition which, I believe, favours the application of Erickson’s
bottom-up community-centred model of water control and social authority within a
Wittfogelian reinterpretation.
182 Kevin Lane

In essence, what I am advocating is a non-state, community-managed complex

hydraulic agro-pastoralism operating in the north-central Andean highlands during the
late prehispanic period. As can be seen, in the area, the archaeological evidence posits an
eschewing of the centralization of water and power around a permanent dominant clique
or elite; yet the environmental conditions – a naturally semi-arid region whose scarcity of
water is circumvented by the construction of hydraulic technology – would suggest that
water is the key raison d’eˆtre around which society is organized.
When characterizing a hydraulic society, Wittfogel (1957: 22) considered three separate
elements as integral to its constitution: intensification of production, a substantial
cooperative arrangement and a specific kind of labour division. If the concept of an
intensification of production and a cooperative factor are self-explanatory and understood
as given within the construction of a hydraulic society, then I believe that it is the final
element that needs further detailing, especially within the social context of the north-
central Andes. Originally, Wittfogel (1957) envisaged this labour division as one between
elites and commoners. Here I posit that another relationship sequenced between this
hierarchical extreme and an opposite stance centred on unitary family-type subsistence
farming can exist, a relationship centred on the community. The Cordillera Negra has had
to contend with water scarcity as an essential environmental element for at least the last
thousand years. Given this fact it is highly probable that in the past water availability was
indeed the factor around which social organization pivoted, much as it does nowadays.
This would in some way explain the juxtaposition between poorly stratified settlements
and large complex hydraulic systems. Given these conditions a ‘communitized’ system of
water control would emerge, in which the unifying social unit for this hydraulic society
would be the community. The implication is that a group elected from within the
community, either hereditary or more likely for a particular period of time, oversees access
to water and necessary work within the hydraulic system. Under this remit the central role
of the Wittfogelian ‘despot’ would be taken up by a sub-segment of the community.
Therefore, while espousing certain key concepts of the hydraulic hypothesis (Wittfogel
1957), I see power in the study area embedded around the community in a manner similar
to that advocated by Erickson (2006): technological and organizational complexity at a
rural level without obvious elites – a bottom-up approach to authority and power. The
lack of distinguishable elites suggests that power and authority were distributed according
to segmentary or acephalous leadership organized around the ayllu or community. In this
case the ‘elites’ would be the heads of households or individual ayllus who would comprise
the acephalous directorship from which the individual water managers would be chosen.
The ‘commoners’ would be comprised, as nowadays, of non-heads of households (such as
younger sons or grandsons) and widowed women. These, especially the former, would
comprise the bulk of the community. To summarize, within the context of segmentary
communities we would witness a chosen group or set of individuals working as adjunct
‘bureaucracy’, at the behest of heads of households, regulating water for the greater
group – a veritable non-state hydraulic society.
Incidentally, it would be from within these ‘elites’ that the chosen water managers would
emerge, to an independent though transient position whose power was circumscribed, by
the nature of their election, by the dictates of the community, especially the ‘elite’ group of
household heads. Nevertheless, within their transitory roles their regulatory powers did
 Engineered highlands 183

imbue the holders with authority. Paerregaard (1994) makes this point when he states that
water in the past was both ritual and politics, such that water judges and distributors were
relatively independent of the rest of the community. This meant that a particularly
foresighted group of water judges could, with community cooperation, initiate or continue
the construction of valley-wide systems of water management such as the ones evidenced
here.
This last point is crucial, as we can see that the hydraulic systems described here were
most probably the end effect of centuries of careful construction and nurturing of the
water table and concomitant landscape. This would have been possible only through
concentrated community action united around a worldview that understood and planned
around the limitations of the land and water towards the fulfilment of their own needs.
That the system seems to have survived in use for at least the better part of 500 years is as
much a tribute to the people of this region as to their organizational capacity.
What we would be evidencing is a fully communitized managerial form of organization.
This form of communitized organization could well come under the blanket term of
heterarchy (Crumley 1995), although I prefer the more particularist definition used here as
it implies the organizational supremacy of the community unit. These empowered
communities would be heavily involved in non-subsistence surplus production for trade
and exchange with nearby intermontane communities and even the coast, evidenced in the
importation of exotic goods such as ceramics, textiles and shell (Lane 2005).
Ethnohistorical evidence highlights the importance of the community within this form
of social organization, for instance the position of the water judge or cilquiua named by
2
Guaman Poma de Ayala (1993 [1615]: 780–1) or the water camayuc or cochacamayuc
mentioned in the Huarochirı́ Manuscript (de Avila 1999 [1598?]: 935). Similarly, the
documents state that these people were in charge of water distribution and importantly of
the rites and offerings to lakes, canals and rivers. In the past, control of water always
incorporated the physical with the cosmological, and hence the political. Yet, whereas in
the case of the cilquiua the position was chosen, that of the position of cochacamayuc of
the Huarochirı́ district seems to have been vested in two lineages, those of Llacsamisa and
of Rapacha clans, from which ‘water priests’ or yancas were chosen (Salomon 1998). These
two ancestors represented two lineages and it is possible that they alluded to moiety halves
of a given ayllu, or community, and thus in fact comprised the majority of the community.
Therefore there is the subtle implication that people might have been in a manner of
speaking elected from within these moiety halves. This last example would seem to bear
similarities to the Llacuaz and Huari situation described for the study area.
The scale of hydraulic architecture documented in the Huarochirı́ district accords well
with that found in the study area, and suggests that water was perhaps managed in a
similar communal fashion in the Huaylas highlands (contra sensu stricto Steward 1955a;
Wittfogel 1957). The low population of the study area, estimated at between 2250 and
4000 people for the whole study area (Lane 2005: 205), supports this hypothesis as it seems
to preclude significant social stratification beyond that of the local groups or clans
(Johnson and Earle 2000). These low population figures also support the concept of slow
accretion of hydraulic construction over time within a communitized setting.
The ethnographic present also suggests the communitized organization of water seen in
the position of the alcalde de agua (water mayor) or varayocs (staff-holders) recorded for
184 Kevin Lane

Plate 5 Examples of silt reservoirs from study area.

many communities in the south (see Boelens et al. 2006; Gelles 2000; Mitchell and Guillet
1994; Paerregaard 1994; Trawick 2003). In the study area the present-day system of water
organization is similarly embedded in the community through its Comite´ de Regantes
(Irrigators Committee) which comprises all the heads of households within a given
community. This committee in turn elects either tomeros (‘sluicers’) or aguaceros
(‘waterers’) from among its number, depending on the community, for a single year,
with the possibility of the position being ratified for another term.
The tomero or aguacero is nominally independent and in charge of distributing water
and, crucially, regulating the cleaning and maintenance of the hydraulic systems, mainly
canals, in the area. This canal cleaning, involving the whole of the community,
usually takes place twice a year. Canal cleaning is undertaken through cajoling and the
actual threat of water restrictions on recalcitrant parties imposed by the tomero or
aguacero, the underlying reason being that negligence by members of a community in their
water duties can have larger repercussions across the larger community. There is usually
more than one tomero or aguacero per community as this reduces the possibility of water
access bias by these individuals on behalf of their own family (Gonzalez Rosales and Lane
2007).
Nowadays, these positions are seen as particularly onerous and the recipients, usually
upstanding members of the communities, often resent their election. This is due to the
 Engineered highlands 185

conflicts and tensions that often occur during the allocation of access to canal, and hence
water, rights by the various members of the communities in respect to their fields. Tensions
often erupt both at community and at intra-community level; it is the duty of the tomero or
aguacero to negotiate through these disputes as the designated representative of the Comite´
de Regantes. This last point is an important one, for, although the tomero or aguacero is
seen as independent, his position and power are derived from and ultimately dependent on
the Comite´ de Regantes on behalf of the community which sets the rules and future
direction of water management for the given hydraulic society, much in the same way as
has been suggested for the prehispanic past.

Conclusion

Although more than 500 years separate these modern communities from the prehispanic
ones, I believe that it has been profitable for our purposes to evaluate the communitized
element of water organization inherent in these modern systems and what it might
elucidate about the Andean past. These modern communities similarly do not possess a
large degree of internal social differentiation, although this is changing as individual
families engage to a greater and lesser degree with the modern nation-state, and
particularly the inherent inequities of access to wage labour. It is therefore tempting to
suggest that it is this lack of social differentiation that underwrites the heart of community
organization in the region in the present as it did in the past (Lane 2007). Similarly, the
thin veneer of modern state control of water distribution is a possible model for reflecting
on Inca control of the prehispanic system post-AD 1480.
Also, this study, hopefully, serves to demonstrate the viability of adapting Wittfogelian
theory to a community-centred non-state managerial system within a given context and
time. Indeed, the fact that we still argue the viability of Wittfogel’s hydraulic hypothesis is
a sure indication of its allure and the appreciable applicability of the underlying structure
of many of these grand theories. It is tempting to suggest that in many cases these grand
old thinkers may have given us the tools and basic structure to important currents of
thought; it is for us to criticize, but also to revisit and were possible recycle. In a small way
this is what I have attempted here.
A final point: in the past, this communitized managerial system of control might well
have been further complicated by the existence of Llacuaz agro-pastoralists and Huari
mixed farmers. The data recovered to date from the study area do not elucidate further
the intricacies of their internal relationship regarding water rights. While circumstantial
evidence from the Canta province would seem to indicate Huari negotiation of water
rights with the dominant Llacuaz (Rostworowski 1988), we also know from other sources
that this was not always the case, with Huari dominance registered for other areas further
to the north (Duviols 1973). Indeed, within the study area the archaeology would seem to
indicate that the southern Loco Valley was more agricultural and hence possibly Huari
dominated, while Llacuaz herders seemed to have favoured the northern Chaclancayo
Valley (Lane 2005). The matter of the relationship between these complementary halves
within this system of communitized managed water authority is an important subject that
requires further reflection and study.
186 Kevin Lane

Acknowledgements

The fieldwork for this article was made possible by generous sponsorship from the
Leverhulme Foundation, the British Academy, the Wingate Trust, the Cambridge
European Trust, Trinity Hall – Cambridge. I would also like personally to thank
Alexander Herrera and all the people who have worked with me on these various field
projects and especially the communities of the Cordillera Negra. Thanks also go to the
anonymous reviewers. As always any errors remain my own.

School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, The University of Manchester

Kevin.Lane@manchester.ac.uk

Notes

1 The dammed water lakes are Cho 1, 6; Ra 1, 2; Pc 7, 11; Ti 1; Pacarinancocha; Pa 4, 6;

Rac 2-7, Uc 2, 3.
2 There is no translation for the word cilquiua and it probably represents a lost Quechua
word; cochacamayuc translates as ‘keeper of the waters’.

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Kevin Lane completed an MA and PhD in Andean archaeology at the University of

Cambridge in 2005. He has undertaken extensive fieldwork in Spain, Italy, UK and
Germany. He is currently a Leverhulme Fellow at the University of Manchester.