The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas Volume I, II, and III

Inka Power & Its Social Foundations 843
represented a technical improvement over immediately pre-Inka vessels.
Technical standards were high, and the clean geometric polychrome
designs, though rather limited in range, are vibrant and appealing. Modeled
ornaments took the shape of puma heads, and bird heads often
served as handles of plates. Rare pieces modeled the human form.
The role of pottery in the material culture of the state was relatively
narrow. Of course, its primary use was in the preparation, serving, and
storage of food and drink. The brewing and storage of maize beer
required great quantities of jars. Pottery was provided as containers for
offerings of food, including offerings placed in graves.
Ceramics in standardized Inka styles are found mainly in Cusco and
the centers built by the Inka along their road system. In some cases the
Inka established ceramic manufacturing enclaves, uprooting skilled potters
from one part of the realm and resettling them in others, such as at
Hupi or Milliraya near Lake Titicaca and at El Potrero-Chaquiago in
Argentina. During the reign of Thupa Yupanki, potters from Collique in
the Lambayeque Valley in northern Peru were resettled in Cajamarca. 112
THE FALL OF THE INKA EMPIRE
Reciprocity-based policy fostered a rapid pace of conquest right from the
onset of Inka expansion. This mechanism, however, carried with it unforeseeable
consequences. The need to accumulate enormous quantities
of agricultural produce and manufactured goods to fuel the constant
demands of reciprocity forced the Inka to increase agricultural production.
This in turn obliged the Inka to mobilize vast numbers of mit'a
workers, mitmaq, and yana to work the state lands and, consequently, fill
the state warehouses. They also had to mobilize artisans to produce
pottery, cloth, and objects in metal.
The state felt pressured by the constant stream of gifts it was forced
to lavish on the greater and lesser lords, the military chiefs, the priests,
and the powerful tvak'as. The constant demands for compensation required
by the mechanisms of reciprocity became a never-ending expense
for the state. Tawantinsuyu's solution was to embark on new conquests
and territorial annexations, but these in turn promoted more entreaties
and gifts. This compelled the Sapa Inka to acquire ever-greater sources
of production to fulfill the demands of the system. Use of better technol-
112 Espinoza Soriano 1973; Rowe 1982.
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