ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the economic and political change initiated by the Inka empire as part of imperial strategies to create and maintain state domination over the Wanka, one of the 80 conquered ethnic groups that made up the empire. Vertical ties to the Inka as local elites became subordinate to the state and at the same time became increasingly dependent on the state to uphold their social distinction and legitimize their authority. Some goods recovered in Wanka households were used in ceremonial activities that served to support status distinctions in Wanka society. Originally published as Cathy Lynne Costin and Timothy Earle, Status distinction and legitimation of power as reflected in changing patterns of consumption in late prehispanic Peru. The types of luxuries most important in status differentiation had explicit symbolic reference to the state and/or their manufacture was under close state control. In the Wanka II period, status and power were signaled by locally defined symbols.
