Pots, Politics, and Power Huari Ceramic Assemblages and Imperial Administration

In this paper, we assess early state feasting practices associated with the Huari of Middle Horizon Peru: We consider the types of food and drink served and con- sumed by the political elite of the Huari state, the ceramic vessels that mediated this process, and the architectural spaces in which such activities occurred. Our goal is to reveal how feasting figured in the negotiation of identity, status, power, and prestige among Huari administrators and between administrators and sub- jects. Additionally, we wish to show that such practices occurred under certain circumstances in prescribed architecture with selected ceramic assemblages that underscored imperial Huari rule. The Middle Horizon (A.D. 540-900) Huari empire of the central Andes is the focus of our study. Huari is one of the least known Andean polities and has confounded researchers since the first references to it were published by the Spanish soldier, Pedro Cieza de Leon 1986 (1553), in the early colonial era. The site of Huari was only rediscovered by archaeologists in the 1950's. Prior to this time, Huari materials tended to be mis-classified or confused with those of Tiwanaku, a contemporary rival polity centered in the altiplano of modern day Bolivia (see Goldstein, this volume). Since the early 1970s, archaeological investigations have greatly advanced our knowledge of the Huari empire. With the growing amount