Allies and Enemies Pukaras in Their Spatial World

This chapter discusses the pukaras in their local and regional sociopolitical environment, based on evidence about pukara variability and pukara interrelationships. The chapter moves outward from the scale of the pukaras and their close neighbors to reveal a regional picture of Colla fragmentation and loose coalition that emerges from ceramic styles, patterns of pukara visibility, and documentary evidence. This chapter argues that Colla pukaras were neither node in a single large polity nor politically autonomous communities. The dense archipelago of Colla hillforts, with a mosaic of...

This chapter discusses the pukaras in their local and regional sociopolitical environment, based on evidence about pukara variability and pukara interrelationships. The chapter moves outward from the scale of the pukaras and their close neighbors to reveal a regional picture of Colla fragmentation and loose coalition that emerges from ceramic styles, patterns of pukara visibility, and documentary evidence. This chapter argues that Colla pukaras were neither node in a single large polity nor politically autonomous communities. The dense archipelago of Colla hillforts, with a mosaic of distinctive ceramic and architectural styles, indicates a relatively fragmented and Balkanized world. But the pukaras were also embedded in alliance and hierarchy relationships with nearby people within and without pukara walls. The regional patterns indicate that the Colla territory was broken into smaller zones in which big, strongly defended pukaras and small, vulnerable pukaras were linked in dependency relationships. These social networks are best conceptualized as defensive coalitions.