ABSTRACT
In Oriental Despotism Karl Wittfogel argued on the basis of studies of China and Southeast Asia that large scale irrigation required the centralization of political power because of the need to build and maintain massive water works, allocate and schedule water distribution, and defend the system against attack. The dichotomization of the relationship between irrigation and political power has been criticized for being plagued with inconsistencies and contradictions. Irrigation systems in the highlands of the Central Andes are of considerable interest in the clarification of these issues and the construction of theoretical models of the relationship between irrigation and political power. Irrigation management roles involve provisions for communal labor organization, water distribution, and conflict resolution. Spatial organization of irrigation systems was influenced by Inca concepts of cosmological integration of celestial and terrestrial space. The creation of the village wide-irrigation association reinvigorated a long-dormant sphere of irrigation management.
