Dissertation Research: Sacrifice in the Southern Andes During the Inka Period

在威廉·伊斯贝尔博士的指导下，约翰·贝索姆先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。早期的西班牙记录描述了印加帝国在秘鲁、智利和阿根廷所遵循的文化习俗。它们表明，印加人出于许多不同的原因牺牲了人类，在某些情况下，受害者被留在高海拔地区的地面上。在高海拔和低海拔地区都发现了一些这样的“埋葬”和随之而来的墓葬物品。贝索姆将研究所有这些遗骸，并参观三个相关国家的博物馆。他的工作不仅包括检查身体本身，还包括检查受害者的衣服和相关的坟墓物品。Besom先生的目标是了解印加人用来建立一个帝国的战略，这个帝国横跨广大地区，包括许多不同的语言和种族群体。考虑到涉及的地区、沟通的困难以及印加人既缺乏书面语言又缺乏轮式车辆的事实，印加帝国是人类组织能力的纪念碑。民族志和历史文献表明，宗教和操纵宗教信仰是政治控制的重要手段，牺牲受害者是这一制度的重要组成部分。人们注意到了许多类型的祭祀--每种祭祀的功能都不同。通过对所有已知样本进行系统和完整的研究，贝索姆希望对印加的社会和政治组织有更深入的了解。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将提供许多考古学家感兴趣的数据。它将揭示大规模帝国最初是如何产生和维持的，并将有助于培养一位有前途的年轻科学家。

Isbell Under the direction of Dr. William Isbell, Mr. John Besom will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. Early Spanish records describe cultural practices followed by the Inca empire in Peru, Chile and Argentina. They indicate that humans were sacrificed by the Incas for many different reasons and that in some cases victims were left above ground at high altitude sites. A number of such "burials" and accompanying grave goods have been discovered at both high and low altitude situations. Mr. Besom will study all of these remains and visit museums in the three relevant countries. His work will include examination not only of the bodies themselves, but also the clothing of the victim and the related grave goods. Mr. Besom's goal is to understand the strategies which were used by the Inca to establish an empire which extended across vast areas and encompassed many different linguistic and ethnic groups. The Inca empire stands as a monument to human organizational ability given the area involved, the difficulty of communication across it and the fact that the Incas lacked both written language and wheeled vehicles. Ethnographic and historic documents indicate that religion and the manipulation of religious beliefs provided an important method for political control and that the sacrifice of human victims constituted an important part of this system. Many types of sacrifice were noted - the function of each differed. Through a systematic and complete study of all known samples, Mr Besom hopes to gain insight into Inca social and political organization. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will shed new light on how large scale empires first arose and were maintained and it will assist in the training of a promising young scientist.