Search

Soon after conquest, authorities targeted several pre-Hispanic Andean recording and communications systems in an attempt to control indigenous voices. This paper highlights some aspects of co-optation and repression policies implemented during the government of Viceroy Francisco de Toledo in the Viceroyalty of Peru (1569–1581). We hypothesize that these policies conformed to the project of colonial domination when they were applied to systems such as theatrics and over visual systems such as keros (or ceremonial vessels) or over rock art. We identify some of the changes that occurred in the visual texts carved and painted on the surfaces of keros as a result of the implementation of these Toledan policies. They allow us to postulate that the decoration called 'formal style' can be dated as pre-Toledan, while vessels with 'free style' would have developed in part as a result of the control policies applied by the Viceroy Toledo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]