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The Social Agency of Things? Animism and Materiality in the Andes

Bill Sillar

Cambridge Archaeological Journal / Volume 19 / Issue 03 / October 2009, pp 367 377

DOI: 10.1017/S0959774309000559, Published online: 01 October 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0959774309000559

How to cite this article:

Bill Sillar (2009). The Social Agency of Things? Animism and Materiality in the Andes. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 19, pp
367377 doi:10.1017/S0959774309000559

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 Sillar — The Social Agency of Things?

The Social Agency of Things?

Animism and Materiality in the Andes

Bill Sillar

A major focus of inter-disciplinary debate has been the need to bridge the Cartesian
divide between people as active subjects and inert passive objects, to better reflect how
things provoke and resist human actions through their ‘secondary agency’. Many Central
Andean people express a deep concern about their relationship with places and things,
which they communicate with through daily work and rituals involving ‘sympathetic
magic’. A consideration of Andean animism emphasizes how agency is located in the
social relationship people have with the material world and how material objects can
have social identities.
The close bond that exists between Special Section
people and — Animating
things is well illustrated in our use of the motor car.
As drivers we can treat the car as an extension of
our bodies, changing gear with minimal conscious
effort, yet we can also treat it as a willful living
entity, venting our anger at cars that ‘refuse’ to start relationship with other places, things or people are
(Gell 1998). Similarly we may shout at the computer
that deletes our files, or fondle the keep-sake that
reminds us of a departed friend. Are these actions
provoked by our minds and the ideas we project
onto things? Are they inherent within the
materiality and actions of the object? Or, is agency a
quality of the relationship between people and
objects that cannot adequately be located in either
of them separately? I consider the last of these
options a more fruitful route for discussion and,
because this ‘relational’ view is fundamental to the
practices that Tylor (1923) categorized as animism, a
consideration of animistic world-views may assist
this discussion.
I start this article with a review of work on
agency and materiality which outlines my own view
of human and material agency. In the next section I
review animism in the Central Andes in relation to
historical and archaeological work relating to the
Inca state and recent ethnographic research by
myself and others. The aim is to show how Andean
people construct social relationships with the
material world, how this relational view gives
identity to things, and how offerings and daily work
are used to develop reciprocal social obligations with
these animate objects
and places.Archaeology
Through this discussion I seek to draw
out issues that are central to the practice of Andean
ani- mism that are also of concern within current
theories of agency and materiality. For instance, I
will show how objects that have had a prior
thought to remain in communication even after their
physical separation; some Andean people use this
‘inalienable’ character of things to construct offerings
that draw places, things and people into reciprocal
obligations. This provides a different perspective on
Gell’s discussion of ‘second- ary agency’ which has a
very direct bearing on how we should interpret the
selection and composition of
‘ritual deposits’ in archaeology.
The agency of people and things
Human agency is usually located in both the capac-
ity of people to develop ‘aims’ and the actions they
undertake to try to achieve those aims (Dobres &
Robb 2000). Human agency is the ability to both
imagine and enact different actions while continu-
ally re-evaluating the efficacy of these actions
within changing situations (Emirbayer & Mische
1998). A person’s agency requires self-awareness and
volition, but it is socially embedded and constrained
within wide-ranging economic and social structures.
One of the primary outcomes of our individual
agency is to reproduce these structures, often as the
unintended outcome of our actions (Bourdieu
1977; Giddens

Cambridge Archaeological Journal 19:3, 367–77 © 2009 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
doi:10.1017/S0959774309000559 Received 1 April 2009; Accepted 20 May 2009; Revised 30 July 2009
367
112
1984). Human agency only have developed (Mead 1932, 87). But it physical or mechanical
is not the ability to through our ancestor ’s can also involve the things lacking in social
achieve specified aims, engagement with attribution of human- or living characteristics
a definition that may material culture like personalities and to be a further stage of
better describe a (Mithen 2001; Renfrew desires to animals, mental development.
computer or machine, 2004). Mead (1934; plants, places and Yet what characterizes
it is rather the 1938) argued that our things. Mead animistic beliefs is
motivation and self-conscious- ness suggested that precisely an empathetic
individual creativity emerges out of the ‘primitive man keeps concern for places and
incorporated in the dynamic process of our en rapport with things which are
human body through interaction with implements and considered to have
which we gain the physical objects weapons by social identities
physical ability to act including our own and conversations in the (although not always
and engage in social other people’s physical form of magic rites and ‘human-like’).
relations. Gardner bodies. A fundamental ceremonies’ (Mead Most researchers
usefully defines corollary of this ‘self- 1932, 169), and make a clear
agency as an active perception’ is the considered the distinction between
human involvement in capacity to delimitation of objects the agency of people
the world conceptualize the as purely and materials as physi-
perspective of another cal resources; however
both as a capacity person. This is what the degree to which
or quality of being Mead calls our people (such as slaves
human and as a
capacity for sociality, and factory workers) or
process or
relationship of the ability to ‘take the things (such as
engagement with a attitude of the other ’ mountains and
social and material (Mead 1932, paintings) are
world. This means 87). Mead uses the attributed social
that there is no term sociality in a identities, and
agency without broad sense to considered to have the
individual describe the process power to act depends
humans, who have through which two or on cultural
a distinctively
more entities went perceptions, and this
active, embodied
consciousness, but through a ‘contact affects what constitutes
that equally there experience’ which ‘social relations’.
can be no influenced the physical Things engage our
autonomous agent, entities involved (such emotions and evoke
as this active as the relationship memories, ideas and
consciousness can between planets). But meanings in our minds
only really develop here I am refer- ring to giving them a ‘social
through inter- Mead’s (1932) concept life’ (Merleau- Ponty
action
of the more developed 2002; Appadurai 1986;
(fundamentally
binding agency to sense of sociality which Jones 2007), and the
structure) allows humans to ‘inalienable’ character
(Gardner 2007, 103 remember past actions of some things allows
— emphasis in and anticipate future them to carry some of
original). responses, and to the identity of the
imagine how different maker or previous
If we are to identify participants may owners (Weiner 1992).
what makes human interpret and respond Robb (2004) has
agency different to that to the situation. discussed the idea of
of other animals, we Sociality provides us the ‘extended artefact’,
need to con- sider how with the ability to highlighting the com-
human self-conscious empathize with other plex web of
cognitive abilities human beings by interdependent
developed. Many of using our imagination relationships that
the cognitive abilities to ‘take the attitude’ of many things embed us
that we consider another individual or in, providing much of
central to our self- the ‘generalized other the structure of society
consciousness could ’ of a social group 113 and the tools for
human agency. All of ‘effective’ agency
this gives artefacts originates in how
‘secondary agency’ people perceive and
(Gell 1998), even if an engage with things
artwork lacks volition through their
or intentionality it can conscious agency.
have an effect on other Below, I will discuss
people that is how Andean concepts
independent of the of animism are a
original maker ’s potential challenge to
intentions. While most this view as they
of these authors consider places and
discuss how things things to be sentient
have some power or entities that have the
capacity to elicit power to act.
human emotions and
influence our actions, a
few introduce the
possibility that things
actually have a degree
of intentionality of
their own. Latour ’s
(1993) symmetrical
anthropology has chal-
lenged our prioritizing
of human agency by
exploring causal
agency from the
viewpoint of material
objects as well as
human ‘subjects’. Gell
(1998) and Gosden
(2005) both explore the
possibility that
artefacts with
particular forms and
designs use people as a
medium for their own
reproduction. Gardner
(2007, 103) points out
that these stronger
claims for the active
agency of things could
have the dangerous
effect of undermining
individual human
responsibilities and
rights (e.g. blaming the
Columbine student
massacre on guns or
video games: Strauss
2007). The material
world is not passive, as
it both provokes and
resists human actions,
however I agree with
Robb (2004) that the
degree to which things
have a ‘secondary’ or 114
Special Section — Animating Archaeology

115
Animism properties
Sillarto—things
The Social Agency
requires a belief in
A social relationship souls, and
with the material world he adopted the
Tylor (1913) defined Melanesian word mana
animism as the belief to describe
that an this vitalizing force.
entity has a soul or Recent discussions of
animating spirit. Many animism
people have continued to
consider some or all critique the focus on
ancestors, animals, the ‘spirit’ or
plants, places ‘soul’ as somehow
and things to have a beyond nature or the
vital force, spirit or experienced
identity aspects of the physical
that directly affects the world (Ingold 2006). A
human world, and that large
these part of what Tylor was
non-human ‘persons’ describing as animism
deserve respectful is a very
relationships direct and personal
from humans (Harvey engagement with the
2005). Tylor ’s work materiality
can be of the natural and
criticized for the cultural world, what is
underlying distinct is
assumptions of the assumption that
progres- some or all aspects of
sive social evolution, the material
and one of the fall-outs world are sentient and
from this can be communicated
has been the frequent with in
stress on examples of a direct and social way.
animism This led Bird-David
as a ‘primitive’ aspect (1999) to
of hunter-gatherer adopt the term
societies. ‘relational
However, animism is a epistemology’ to
wide-spread ontology describe
that is the core values of
maintained within a animism as a belief in
wide range of social the ability of
structures, people, places and
economies, beliefs and things to communicate
world-views. The idea with each
that a other rather than Tylor
‘spirit’ was needed to ’s focus on the super-
account for ‘primitive’ natural
beliefs world of spirits (Ingold
in animate objects was 2006; Hornborg 2006).
in part due to the Today, in the
projection Central Andean
of Tylor ’s Christian highlands of Peru
concepts. Maret (1914) and Bolivia, the focus
criticized of animism is most
Tylor for assuming clearly
that the atribution of expressed in relation to
life-like prominent mountains
116
(Apus),
of Things? malevolent and
agricultural fields potentially violent to
(Pachamama), the house, those who are careless,
the recently exploitative or
dead and miraculous immoral. Many Andean
saints (Bastien 1978; people today commit
Allen 1988; time, thought and
Gose 1994). These materials to making
entities have a power, various offerings in
or sphere of order to supplicate
influence, that extends these entities. Almost
beyond their physical all ritual activity is
location: focused on justifying
the ancestors and interventions such as
pachamama influence ploughing, mining and
the growth of travelling as well as
crops, the mountains requesting well-being
have a wide ranging and productivity. This
influence, is achieved through
including control over developing a personal
camelid herds and relationship with
mining specific animate places
activities, and the saints through repeated
teach people craft skills, offerings, annual
pro- pilgrimage, and
vide security during frequent evocation. The
travel and promote ‘success’ of sacrifice is
good health not measured in any
(Allen 1988; Gose 1994; visible response or
Sallnow 1987). The change but is
mountains considered an essential
and saints can offer part of the continuity of
benevolent daily life. In fact it is a
productivity to those mistake to separate
who engage in such ritual offer- ing
appropriate from other activities
reciprocity, or become such as agricultural
work, animal
husbandry, music and
dance which are also
considered to be acts of
communication and
exchange with the
animate forces of
pachamama and the apus
(Gose 1986; Laurencich-
Minelli 1991; Stobart
2006).
Highland Andean
people do not use
terms such as
‘god’ or ‘super-natural’
to describe the animate
world
which is usually
considered to be
immediate and tan-
gible. Although
ethnographers have
used terms such as Special Section
their inability to — Animating Archaeology
‘mountain deities’, the perceive or interact
sentient mountains are with the living.
usually Deafness to the
greetings of the
equated with powerful
living is the most
people (such as Pre- common way these
Columbian almas are detected
ethnic leaders — apus) as such. Since the
that ‘commoners’ try to ánimo is supposed
suppli- to maintain the
cate and senses, it is logical
occasionally that these almas
remonstrate wandering in a
state of sepa-
against.
ration would be
The Andean oblivious to the
people do not presence of others
separate the (Gose 1994, 116; cf.
natural from the Stobart 2006, 28;
spiritual Allen n.d.).
environment. They It is the ánimo, the
believe that, like
vitalizing animation
ani- mals and
people, all which people, animals
elements of nature and some things
live, feel, and possess, which
breathe. provides the activity
Pachamama, the and senses vital to
Apus, lakes, rocks, perception and
springs, and communi- cation, not
animate and the human soul.
inanimate beings
— all aspects of
nature need food
and drink, love
and consideration
(Bolin 1998, 43).
While I have only been
told that people have a
soul
‘alma’, both people
and other entities (e.g.
alpacas,
maize, illas) can have
‘ánimo’, the vitalizing
energy that
animates life (cf. Allen
1982; 1988, 60–62; Gose
1994,
115–16; Stobart 2006,
27–8) It is interesting to
note that
when the people of
Huaquirca, Apurimac,
Peru, report
to Peter Gose seeing
the almas separated
from the
ánimo of dying
people they could be
recognized by
117
Sillar — The Social Agency of Things?

118
 In his long, andSpecial Sectionmuch
thing were — Animating
illustrated leter to the less clear in the Andes
king of Spain, the of the fifteenth century
native author Guaman than Cartesian views
Poma (1988) depicts the would allow (Bray, this
Inka period huacas (cult issue). Although the
objects and locations animate power of the
that were the focus of material world is also a
veneration) with eyes feature of modern
and mouths. Although Andean beliefs there
wooden and stone have been significant
carvings were made changes since 1532.
and worshipped before Gose (2006) has
the Spanish conquest drawn atention to the
this form of fact that the earliest
anthropomorphizing is Spanish records
not a feature of cur- suggest that many
rent Andean animism. huacas were specific
It seems likely that in objects, but mountains
order to communicate and large-scale
the idea of the animate landscape features
world to the Spanish, became a more
Guaman Poma felt the dominant focus of
need for some illustra- Andean animism after
tive convention to the Spanish
depict the animate extirpation of
entities, whereas native idolatries. While Inka
Andeans did not rituals frequently
require the addition of focused around specific
facial features to objects, such as the
perceive the material Huanacaure stone
world as living. The huaca, they also focused
material world can be on wider landscape, as
conceived of as sentient can be seen in the high
without the need to mountain Capacocha
impute purely human- sacrifices (see below).
like qualities or Since the Spanish
‘spirit’ to it. For priests put great effort
instance, the huaca of into finding and
Huanacaure, one of the destroying the material
most important huacas focus of any native
of the Inca state, was Andean rituals such as
overlooked by the huacas and mummy
Spanish when sacking bundles, broad,
its cult site, because indestructible,
they only saw a ‘rough landscape features
stone’ (Cobo 1990, 74). have gained ever
Yet this ‘rough stone’ greater strength. While
was considered to be in the colonial period,
the petri- fied body of saints’ effigies joined
Ayar Cache, a the hierarchy of
founding ancestor of Andean animate
the Inka lineage. The beings, and more
fact that material recently trucks and
objects and places computers have joined
could be drawn into houses and animal
human kinship shows herds as a focus for
how the boundaries protective rituals. Thus,
between human, place the focus of animism is
119
not Archaeology
fixed, but is make offerings that
continually developing seek to reciprocate the
within the social benevo- lence of the
history of the area. animate world, or stave
off malevolence. A
Mutua central purpose of
l these rituals is to
consu engender and promote
mptio a commitment on the
part of the mountains,
n —
ancestors and other
feed animate forces to the
the people making the
world offerings. This
Today Andean relational view of
animism is most animate non-human
clearly expressed entities is embedded
within a series of within a moral con-
practices through ception of society (cf.
which people Descola 1994). Andean
concerns about
appropriate reciprocity
are described both in
relation to people and
in terms of ritual
obligations to the saints
and apus (Isbell 1985).
As with all gifts, the
aim of ritual offerings
is to create a tie of
obligation between the
animate entity and the
devotee making the
offering (Mauss 1990;
Sillar 2004), these gifts
are a material
expression of an on-
going commitment to
care for the house, the
fields and the animals
that is also expressed in
less overtly ritual acts
such as ploughing,
irrigating and planting
crops.
A major
expression of the social
relationship between
people and things is the
fact that people are
responsible for feeding
the mountain (apus),
mother earth
(pachamama),
miraculous saints and
other enti- ties. This is
a form of ‘mutual
consumption’ as it is
only if people give
nourishment to the 4. Sillar
An offering
— The Social
can beAgency of Things?
animate world that buried or placed at a
they can expect to be specific
fed in return (Isbell location (e.g. when
1985; Weismantel 1988; constructing a
Gose 1994; Sillar 2000). house).
This feed- ing takes Each of these methods
place through feasts combines the
and offerings that bind preparation of
the household and/or particular goods and
the community to each directing their life-
other and to the focus giving force
of their sacrificial acts through the location,
(Isbell 1985; orientation and
Abercrombie 1998; composition of
Gose 1986; Allen 1988). the offering as well as a
In the Andean verbal evocation of the
highlands today recipi-
such offerings ent. Similar techniques
may be ‘sent’ through are also reported for
four major routes (cf. the Inka
Allen (
1 C
9 o
8 b
2 o
,
1
1 9
9 9
1 0
) ,
:
1. Food offerings can 1
be sent through the 1
body of a 5
participant who –
consumes food and 1
drink for the 7
stated recipient (e.g. )
a living person or .
ancestor). Drinks such as
2. A small amount of maize beer and
drink can be poured alcohol provide
or the a major route for
essential essence communication with
(sami) of coca leaves the dead, but
can be blown
towards a named
recipient such as a
house, moun-
tain apu or saint.
3. A prepared offering
can be burnt in a fire
(referred
to as a dispachu from
the Spanish term for
a mes-
sage).
120
Special Section — Animating Archaeology

121
 Sillar — The Social Agency of Things?
may also be directed at other entities
such as the mountain apus and saints
(Abercrombie 1998). Prior to drink-
ing, a small libation (ch’alla) is
poured on the ground or a litle of
the chicha is flicked into the air
(t’inka) with pachamama an apu,
saint, ancestor or animate entity
being stipulated as the recipient of
the essence of the drink (sami) (Allen
1988) (Fig. 1). Although most
modern domestic pottery in the
Andes is not highly decorated, the
most complex potery forms and
elaborate decoration are applied
to vessels used in the preparation
and particularly the consumption
of chicha (Sillar 2000). This prefer-
ence for decorating drinking cups
is partly because chicha-drinking is
a communal activity, but it is also Figure 1. Itinerant potter from Ticatica, Potosi, Bolivia with 34 sacks of
because chicha is used as a form of maize acquired in exchange for the pottery he made. Before his return home he
communication with the ancestors is making a burnt offering (smoking to the left) and libations of chicha (from
and animate world. The form and the gourd in the potter’s hand) for the maize and his safe journey.
decoration of the drinking vessels
express ideological concepts such
as animal fecundity and balanced
complementarity (Stobart 1996) and these symbolic
messages are directed not just at other people but at
the animate world to whom the chicha offerings are
made (cf. Sterner 1989) (Fig. 2).

Sympathetic magic: the inalienable connectedness of

things In Raqchi, Department of Cuzco, Peru, an
offering is made by most households on the night of
San Luis (24 August) when family members chew
coca, and make libations over a ritual cloth. Next to
this cloth are placed the illas, carved figures or
natural pebbles that evoke animals, houses, or crop
plants (Fig. 3). These illas are living beings said to be
found on the hillside that come as gifts (indeed as
the children) of the mountain deities (apus) (Flores-
Ochoa 1979; Isbell

Figure 2. (on right) Drinking chicha and making

libations (ch’alla) during Todos Santos, Pumpuri, Potosi,
Bolivia. The turuwasus the men are drinking out of are
wooden bowls with carved plough teams in the middle, at
other times of the year each individual drinker holds both
of the paired vessels for ritual drinking, but during Todos
Santos, when participants are drinking with the dead,
the turuwasus are used singly. At their feet is a wich’i
being used to serve chicha, and two pottery llamas
(samiri) also used for ritual drinking and libations.

122
 the place from which the and 2005 and there is
animals are thought to quite considerable
have originated) is filled variation in each
with wine which the family’s practices. But,
small illa of a sheep all offering consist of
within it drinks from. carefully preparing
groups of three good
1985). Illas are a source coca leaves (k’intu) and
of life and productivity, blowing the essence
dur- ing rituals they are (sami) to a variety of
said to be drinking the entities. The naming of
chicha and chewing the offering recipients
coca given in the starts with the house,
offerings (Allen 1988, hearth and stores, and
54, 150). Miniatures are the family members
frequently used in themselves both living
Andean rituals either and dead. Each field
as offerings or, as in worked by the family
this case, to act as a and each bit of pasture
channel to transfer land or path used by
offerings from people their animals is named,
to the apus (Sillar 1996). and the clay mines,
I have observed about roads and market
ten of these offerings places that the
being prepared in household members
Raqchi between 1987 com- monly visit. After
this each k’intu of three
coca leaves is placed
onto the cloth or paper
alongside a maize
Figure 3. Raqchi, Dept. kernel. The maize
Cuzco, Peru. At the kernels are significant
start of preparing the as they come from one
second k’intuqwi of the household’s best
offering, which gives maize cobs, stressing
thanks for and requests continuity of the seed
the health and fertility crop which is grown in
of the household’s the fields of the
animals. The carved householder ’s parents.
stone illa of a plough Once they are prepared
team is marked using one bundle of coca
the same hematite-rich leaves is taken into the
clay used to mark sheep household patio to be
and llamas and to paint burnt and the other is
pottery. The bowl of coca taken to one of the
leaves chewed during the household’s fields to
preparation of the be consumed in a fire
offerings, the content of (Fig. 4). At both
the small bottles of locations it is important
alcohol and wine, and to move back to the
the little jug of chicha house and chew coca as
will all be included in soon as the fire has
the burnt offering taken hold of the
(dispachu). At the offering. Only later do
centre of the people return to
photograph, behind the observe the ash and see
father’s hands, a small if the complete burning
bowl (referred to as a of the offering shows it
cocha or lake, evoking has been fully accepted.
The household’s illas
are then stored away
carefully until the next
offering needs to be
prepared.
In this ritual
many of the features of
Andean animism can
be identified including
how the blowing of
coca essence (sami) and
the consumption by
fire (dispachu) serve to
send the offering to the
correct recipient. There
are clear differences
between the recipient
of the offering (e.g.
apu), the constituents of
the offering (e.g. coca),
material intermediaries
used to help transmit
the offering (e.g. illa),
and the target of
concern (e.g. fields,
animals and
households). Even
though all of these
possess animating
energy (e.g. sami or
ánimo) they occupy
different positions in
the social hierarchy of
animate entities. The
mountains and
miraculous saints are
somewhat distant
bodies that are thought
to be observant
guardians concerned
about the well-being of
fields, crops, animal
flocks, craft production
and human health
(Allen 1988; Sallnow
1987). While lower-
order intermediaries
such as illas, village
crosses, and specific
offering locations are
in the care of
households and serve
to support
communication and
direct offerings to the
great animate powers.
In order to
understand these
rituals we need to
reconsider Frazer ’s
(1915) concept of
‘sympathetic magic’, as
this has a direct bearing
on how the compo-
sition of the offering
brings together a wide
range of important
locations through
evocation and
materials. Frazer (1915)
identified
‘homeopathic magic’
where
like produces like, or connected to previous centuries Inka state
an effect resembles its human owners, even if ritual specialists
cause (which he called physically separated, prepared elaborate
the law of similarity), Frazer ’s concepts of offerings that involved
and ‘conta- gious similarity and the sacrifice of carefully
magic’ where things contagion stress how selected objects and
which have once been objects are connected sometimes animals and
in contact with each to other objects, children. For instance
other continue to act on places, or animate capacocha offerings
each other at a distance entities through their were prepared in
even though the raw materials and Cuzco and sent to
physical contact has form. The assumption many different
been severed (which he that you can influence locations. These could
called the law of one thing based on its include mullu
Contact or Contagion). prior relationship to (Spondulus shells from
Frazer placed both of another person, place, the Ecuadorian coast),
these under the thing or process is a
umbrella term of primary principle of
‘sympathetic magic’, as present day Andean
they both assume that ritual practice. The
things act on each other composition of many
at a distance through a ritual offerings,
‘secret sympathy’. including the ones
Although Frazer’s prepared in Raqchi,
Victo- rian atitude to requires the
evolutionary components to be
progression from brought together from
magic, through religion a wide range of
to science has been environments and
widely criticized, his contexts to influ- ence
analysis correctly the animate forces of
identified widespread the material world Figure 4. Raqchi, Dept.
practices that utilized through their evocative Cuzco, Peru. At the
the principles of form and the corner of a field, next to
similarity and continuing communion an Inca carved stone,
contagion and his with their prior source where this household
examples also showed (Bolin 1998, 40–41; cf. always burns their
great variability in the Zedeño offering. The father has
specifics of their 2008). Thus, places and prepared a small animal
application. things are considered to dung fire onto which he
These are have a similar social places the offering
important concepts in relatedness to those of coca leave k’intus,
how people conceive surrounding human maize kernels, animal fat
materials to have a kinship. Just as people and herbs, he then added
social relationship and remain connected and the alcohol and sprinkled
influence that is quite obliged to their some chicha from the
distinct from their biological family and to cups by his feet before we
physical properties. A those whom they returned to his house
critical reconsideration acknowledge through while the fire consumed
of materiality in past marriage, adoption or the offering for the apu.
societies requires a re- fictive kin
evaluation of Frazer ’s relationships, so too the coca leaves from the
important concepts. ‘inalienable character of lowlands, cumbi (fine
This could be things’ means objects textiles), miniature
described as the continue to exert an gold, silver and shell
‘inalienable character influence on their statuetes of people and
of things’. Whereas origin or referent. camelids, featherwork
Weiner (1992) focused In the fifteenth from Amazonia,
on how objects remain and early sixteenth highland camelids, a
range of potery vessels
manufactured in
diverse locations, keros
(wooden drinking
cups) and youthful
boys and girls aged
between about 5 and 15
(Cobo 1990, 154;
Reinhard 1992; 1996;
Bray et al. 2005; Wilson
et al. 2007). Like the
present-day domestic
offering in Raqchi,
these Inka state
offerings develop
relationships between
disparate places
through the materiality
of the offering’s many
components (and no
doubt the prayers and
evocations: Bray et al.
2005,
86–7, 95–8).
 Although the
elaborate ceremonies of
the Inka in Cuzco were
reported to the
chroniclers, it is
important to consider
that the mountain-top
sacrifice could not
have been witnessed
by many. Like the
dispachu in Raqchi, it
was the huaca or the
apu that were the
intended
observer/consumer.
Rather than seeing
these offerings as the
Inka state ‘physically
claiming sacred sites
and spaces’ (Bray, this
issue), I believe that
Inka offerings are
beter understood as an
act of commu- nication
with the sentient power
of these places. Like the
maize kernels, coca
leaves, and illas used in
Raqchi, the children,
food vessels and metal
figurines used in the
Inka capacochas each
had complex
biographies that made
‘inalienable
connections’ to their
places of origin or
manufacture and
symbolic referents
through their form and
decoration. The act of
sacrifice was intended
to make these source
locations and referents
into links of reciprocity
with the animate
mountain, these were
no doubt further
directed through the
prayers and rituals that
went into preparing the
offer- ing. The
composition of these
offerings aimed to bind
the animate mountain
or huaca recipients into
social obligations that
requested the power
and fecundity of the
mountain to contribute life has a material base’ ship with the material
to the many parts of (Allen 1988, 62). Both world. For many
the Empire that Tylor ’s people in the Central
contributed to the (1913) focus on the Andean highlands
offering, particularly belief that animistic today, rituals that focus
the ritual centre of entities have a on the apus and the
Cuzco where the soul or a spirit, and the saints are a more
offering was first ethnographic focus on explicit expression of a
prepared. the ritu- continuous daily
als and offerings where commitment to care for
Relating Andean animistic concerns are the fields, the animals
animism to agency most and the household. The
theory clearly expressed and assumption that the
enacted, has had the material world is
Our social relationship unfortu- sentient and can be
nate effect of over- incorporated into social
with the material world
exoticizing animism. relationships is central
Animism locates people
Animism is an to this commitment
as participants in the
ontology which has at (Allen 1982; 1988; Gose
material
its core the simple 1994.).
world and demands
philosophy If ‘agency is
that they take
that people have an located not simply
responsibility for
inter-dependent social within bounded human
their relationship with
relation- bodies but within the
animals, plants, places,
things wider set of social rela-
and people (Ingold tionships that make up
2000; Bird-David 1999; the person’ (Brück
Hornborg 2001, 655), then in the
2006). Animism does Andes such wider
not make people social relations would
fatalistic or extend to include social
disengaged: in fact one interaction with the
of the strongest material world. Andean
components rituals are based on the
of Andean animism is a concept that things that
concern over moral have had a prior
behaviour relationship, or evoke
and social similarities, with other
responsibility to other places, things or people
people, as well as the may continue to have
animate world. an effective
Although there are relationship with their
spirits and danger- origin or referent. In
ous non-corporeal fact the human kinship
beings in the Andean and the animistic
world-view, relatedness of
the essence of Andean ‘sympathetic magic’ are
animism is not in the com- bined when stone
‘spirits’, it huacas are considered to
is in the social be human ancestors.
identities of material This is expressed in the
places and things idea of mutual
which are considered consumption where the
to be sentient: ‘for people and the animate
Andeans, places and things of the
all mater is in some Andes feed and nurture
sense alive, and each other. This could
conversely, all be considered in
relation to Robb’s
(2004) relationship and
‘extended artefacts’ communal commitment
and Gell’s (1998) that we invest in
‘distributed persons’ specific items that gives
where the identity of them their agency. The
people and meaning of idea that some places
things are co- and things have greater
constructed, and yet agency than others is
each person, each object similar to the
and each place have variability of human
distinct histories with agency (where a
particular networks of president’s agency is
relationships. greater than a slave’s),
the social
Animism as an
essential aspect of
human engagement
with the material
world?
Almost all theoretical
discussions of material
agency focus on
human-made-artefacts
and technology, but
Andean animism
primarily focuses on
places and natural
features, although some
artefacts such as illas,
carved huacas and
buildings are also
powerful entities. This
focus on the power of
the natural
environment partly
reflects rural Andean
communities’ funda-
mental concern with
agriculture and animal
herding. Although
many Andean people
see everything as
potentially having
animate qualities, they
are selective in which
features they choose to
engage with in active
rituals. Everyone
invests some things
and places with more
emotional engagement
than others and these
items, or locations, tend
to be strong reference
points for our personal
and cultural identity
(e.g. cars, homes, flags
or Kula necklaces). It is
the personal
agency of things, just provide detailed earliest ways in which social meaning, and the
like that of people, technological and artefacts and materials idea of symbolic
depends on their material explanations were used to storage (Donald 1991;
context and the for their building work communicate meaning Renfrew 2004), would
network of as well as preparing was in their use to not have been possible
relationships that they offerings for the direct messages at non- without the ambiguous
are involved in. strength and well- human entities. This is sociality that allows
Hornborg (2006) being of their expressed in the people to have social
argues that in buildings. In practice common interpretation relationships with
practice we all have we neither have a that Upper Palaeolithic things while at the
animistic tendencies. purely animistic belief rock art was created as same time objectivizing
While we may take a in the social agency of a form of sympa- thetic them as manipulable
modernist detachment things nor a purely magic during hunting material resources.
in relation to objective rituals (Lewis-Williams
construction or understanding of our & Clottes 1998). I H
engineering, we are physical exploitation of suspect that the ability u
content to adopt a more material properties. to give things m
relational and morally Part of the creativ- ity a
driven attitude to our of our social
n
homes and personal engagement in the
life. ‘We probably all world is precisely the
have reassured spaces ability to move a
in our lives where we between, or combine, g
are practising animists, our technical e
in the sense that manipulation of n
engagement and materials and our social c
“relatedness” take relationship with them y
precedence over as emotive things. This
detached observation’ facilitates our ability to
(Hornborg 2006, 23). creatively combine i
Unlike the rigours of diverse components to n
writen logic, in make material culture
practice we can that is both functional t
accommodate diverse and meaning- ful, and h
perceptions and it also gives many e
explanations, and objects a powerful
choose to highlight second- ary agency to
A
different aspects at move beyond any
different times. Many physical function and n
of us combine an engage our atention at d
acceptance of objec- an emotional level. e
tive scientific Humans s
explanations, religious differentiated As discussed above,
convictions, the rituals themselves from other Andean animism
of Father Christmas animals partly through considers the
and belief in the ‘power developing their wider material world to be
of love’, without social- ity (Mead 1932). sentient and critically
needing to fully This was accomplished respon-
reconcile them. through their (our) sive to human actions.
Similarly the people of social engagement with What I am less clear
the Andean highlands the material world, about
farm, herd and mine, including the relational is if, or how, the
they discuss pollution view of the ‘inalienable distinction between the
and global warming, char- acter of things’, agency of
go to Catholic churches which permits places people and the agency
and communicate with and things to carry of things would, or
landscape features identities and could, be
and ancestors. Andean meanings. It is likely articulated by Andean
construction workers that some of the people. Perhaps this is
partly exchange. In the first n
expressed in the section of this article I o
alma/ánimo distinction. expressed w
While many my opinion that human
l
entities have the agency is the creative
vitalizing social ability e
energy of ánimo, to imagine aims and d
only people possess a enact these through the g
soul (alma). While the human e
concept body and its sociality. m
of the human soul may But, if Andean people e
have been introduced were to n
into the talk of ‘human agency’,
t
Andes as a part of the I think they would
conversion to stress how s
Christianity, this it is located in the
I would like to thank
distinction does seem reciprocity between
Tamara Bray and Ben
to express a fairly people, places Alberti for inviting me to
fundamental and things and the participate in a
characterization of hard physical work stimulating WAC session.
what it is to be that people Andrew Gardner, Sarah
human. Unlike undertake to maintain Byrne, Cesar
ánimo, the alma these relationships. If Astuhuaman, and stu-
continues to exist as it human
journeys after agency is considered to
death, revisiting their be distinct from that of
former communities other
and fields forces in the Andean
at the start of each world it is because of
rainy season and the energy
eventually the people bring to
almas join a working cooperatively
community of the with animals,
dead who undertake fields and mines, and
essential the social relationships
complementary that they
agricultural work to develop not just with
that of other people but also
the living (Allen 1982; with the
Harris 1982). While the m
animate a
powers of the t
mountains, fields and e
saints are largely r
described as guardians i
who watch and react to a
what l
people do, it is people
who strive to work on w
the o
land and make r
offerings. Indeed the l
core duty of a d
responsible person in .
the Andes is to care for
animals, A
fields, and family c
through their labour k
and social
dents in the UCL Masters
in Artefact Studies
seminar were influential
in discussing some of
these ideas with me.
Diura Thoden van Velsen,
Tamara Bray, Andrew
Gardner and Ben Alberti
helpfully critiqued and
edited previous versions
of this article which
allowed me to develop
and clarify some points.
Henry Stobart and
Catherine Allen kindly
shared with me some of
their understanding of
Andean animism and
possible distinctions
between alma and ánimo. I
would particularly like to
thank the patient people
of Raqchi and Pumpuri
who generously included
me in their activities and
tried to educate me into a
beter understanding of
the world. Any errors in
this article remain my
responsibility, and reflect
the fact that my education
is ongoing.
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Author biography
Bill Sillar is a Lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology,
Uni- versity College London. Much of his research and
teaching has focused on how people make and use
material culture, particularly potery. He has undertaken
ethnographic and archaeological fieldwork in Peru,
Bolivia and England with much of this focusing on the
perception and use of the landscape.
 Sillar — The Social Agency of Things?

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