ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some general theoretical points that should be taken into account when addresses an archaeological perspective on heads. It argues that the recurring patterns of territorial conformation, the power relations at play, and their associated imagery are organized around personal, familial, and corporeal aspects, especially the place of human bodies and above all heads. But the real evidence of an Inka presence was expressed through his body, particularly his head, as these became the focus of imperial power. At the heart of many Inka rituals that constructed their political power were human dramas of death and regeneration, transposed into other levels of meaning and cultural practice, just as the author has argued for the cultural practices of today. The chapter shows how the head, in its material and symbolic dimensions, epitomizes in some contemporary Andean groups the essence of regeneration in the cycle of life and death.
