Inca and Spanish Imperial Transformations: Toponyms and Regional Settlement Patterns in Cuzco, Perú
FAIN: RZ-50818-07
Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX 75205-1902)
R. Alan Covey (Project Director: November 2006 to June 2010)
Archival research, the systematic collection of place names, and a regional environmental study to consider the impact of the Inca empire and then the Spanish empire on local populations in the Cuzco area of present-day Perú. (28 months)
The Hanan Cuzco Toponym Survey will use NEH funds to conduct an interdisciplinary research project in Cuzco, Peru. This region was the heartland of the Inca empire, and local farming and herding populations experienced two waves of imperial transformation between AD 1400-1650. The Inca empire reshaped the economic, political and ethnic landscape of the region to facilitate the administration of its provinces, while the Spanish empire restructured the region as it was converted from an imperial core to a provincial region of their empire. The proposed project will conduct archival research, systematic collection of place-names, and a regional environmental study to consider the impacts of imperial policies on local farming populations.