The Effect of the Inka State on Sausa Agricultural Production and Crop Consumption

Abstract

Through detailed paleoethnobotanical data analysis, this paper discusses the agricultural production of the prehistoric Sausa people of the Andean central highlands in the context of their autonomous regional political organization. This pattern then is compared with changes in agricultural production when the Sausa were part of the Inka empire. The evidence implies that the Inka not only required local residents to work for state production but also influenced individual household production and access to resources. The data suggest that the Inka intervened in local production at the household level, perhaps even requiring individual groups to produce crops for the state on their own lands. Paleoethnobotanical data are best used for discussions of crop production, yet by selecting specific subsets of data a view of crop consumption also is provided. Paleoethnobotanical data from household floors are compared to more direct stable-isotope data from human bones, again providing evidence for how the Inka affected the Sausa diet.