Reinvention and History Making in Huarochirí

Within just two generations, communities in the Peruvian Andes experienced conquest by the Indigenous Inka Empire (1450–1532 CE) and the European Spanish (1532–1821 CE), leading to three centuries of colonial subjugation. Reinvention and History Making in Huarochirí is an archaeological and historical rendering of the experience of the people of Huarochirí (Lima, Peru) and their interactions with successive waves of colonialism.

Using archaeological and historical datasets and spatial modeling, this book centers on local memory and experience throughout colonized landscapes as the thread that connects the long history of Indigenous engagement with expanding colonial empires and the emergent Peruvian nation. The author builds on Andean epistemological frameworks to argue that in the face of drastic sociopolitical changes, the people of HuarochirÍ turned to their own history. They created analogies and shared spaces between local and Inka landscapes and materiality and incorporated written representations and ideas of settled lives to validate their claims.

This exciting new work moves the field of Andean archaeology into conversations with decolonial and decolonizing methodologies and shows how Indigenous communities captured and made sense of their long history, reframing colonialism as a local experience.