BOOK DESCRIPTION
Approaching precolumbian art in all of its various forms as the material expression of interlocking systems of visual communication opens a rich terrain upon which to further our insights into the cultural and symbolic lives of Andean peoples. For archaeologists, ethnohistorians, and anthropologists interested in such studies, however, it is no simple matter to determine how the varied graphic, artifactual, architectural, and spatial systems of visual communication found in the precolumbian world can or should be interpreted. This volume focuses specifically on the various systems of visual communication created by, or associated, with the imperial Inca state. This collection of papers advances understanding of Inca forms of representation, as well Andean systems more generally, by attending to the formal, contextual, functional, and ideological processes through which they are constructed and within which they are embedded. In essence, the volume constitutes a joint reflection on the important themes ofrepresentation and material systems of communication in the Andean context.