Identidad étnica y muerte: torres funerarias (chullpas) como símbolos de poder étnico en el altiplano boliviano de Pakasa (1250-1600 d. C.)

Abstract

In this article, the authors describe several tradicional ways to build chullpas inside the historical area of Pakasa. They prove that it really exists a strong correspondence among the architectonic styles of the funerary towers and the territories of some etnic groups in the prehispanic bolivian plateau. It seems to be that when the chullparian tradition was sudenly becoming more general in the XIV century, the señorío of Pakasa was not as uniform as it was described in the documents of the time of the Spanish Conquest. Besides, they prove that the style of inca rubblework in the round chullpas can have its origin in the south west area of Pakasa as well as in Lupaca. Nevertheless, the scenery chullpas of adobe seem to have been built mostly during the Inca time. In general, the article contributes to the theorical debate about the correspondence between the ethnical identity and the material culture.

Keywords

• Inca
• ethnic identity
• customs
• cultural patrimony
• andean archaeology
• colonial history