This session proposes a critical reassessment of the dominant chronologies and narratives about Inca society, based on the premise that the past constitutes a space of permanent debate and reflection in which knowledge, power and memory are articulated. Within the framework of the axis “The Past Always Present,” it is argued that chronologies constitute epistemological infrastructures that have underpinned hegemonic historiographical models, many of them still anchored in inherited schemes, which require profound revision.
In this context, recent advances in radiocarbon dating and chronological modeling contribute to refining temporal sequences and critically revising established interpretations of the processes of expansion, territorial articulation and political organization of the Tawantinsuyu. In particular, these tools make it possible to problematize the linearity of imperial processes, question assumptions of synchrony between different regions, and bring to light local dynamics of negotiation, adaptation and resistance that complicate traditional narratives about Inca processes of domination.
In dialogue with the axes “Technologies, Regeneration and Society” and “Territories, Power, Culture and Climate Change,” the session critically examines the role of analytical technologies in the production of archaeological knowledge, emphasizing that such technologies are neither neutral nor merely instrumental, but actively intervene in the reconfiguration of historical narratives and in the legitimation of certain temporalities and scales of analysis over others. Likewise, the relationships between territory, imperial infrastructure and sociopolitical control will be addressed, as well as the diverse local responses to processes of domination and landscape reconfiguration.
Finally, the session situates these discussions in the present, highlighting how the Inca past continues to be mobilized, reinterpreted and disputed in contemporary contexts marked by conflicts over heritage, identity, territory and climate change. In this sense, contributions are invited that, from archaeological, historical and anthropological perspectives, provide new data and explicitly question established interpretive frameworks, exploring the political, conceptual and epistemological implications of reconstructing the Andean past today.
