ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses certain symbolic continuities within indigenous peoples life in relation to coloniality/ modernity and its variants as internal colonialism. Coloniality refers to the logic of domination embodied by colonial structures through which indigenous peoples were subjected and discriminated against since the conquest. The killing of Atawallpa was part of this habitus that persists in contemporary Bolivian society, its culture, and its power relations. The conquest of the New World and colonization became the most immediate antecedent upon which archaeological knowledge in the Andes was based. Twentieth-century modernity began with these antecedents, thus implying processes of cultural and material devastation. Large amounts of monumental pieces were used to build the railway to Guaqui and the houses of the landowning classes. Although archaeological studies of Andean indigenous peoples have treated them as a homogenous unit or as lacking knowledge, the Andean indigenous world is characterized by internal relations that have an intercultural character and great temporal depth.
