This useful volume exists basically for the sake of its photographic illustrations. The accompanying text is broken up into twelve short essays covering matters such as agriculture, writing, the human face, gold and jewelry, etc. These textual sections present accurate though somewhat disorganized factual information. It is pleasing to record that in regard to two very controversial subjects, namely the Inca state and Inca writing, Disselhoff is eminently sound in what he says, as one would expect.
The translation from German into English is acceptable—occasionally jerky and at least once piquant, as when Atahualpa, in the square at Cajamarca, is supposed to have been punished by being “fired from a rusty Spanish cannon.” There are some typographical errors, and the bibliography is weighted on the side of German scholarship. The book includes an accurate map of sites and a brief chronological table. Many of Huaman Poma’s illustrations are interestingly interpolated in the text, but it is generally left for the reader to make detailed sense of their contents. This material, then, is useful for that reader who wants accuracy in his information without being overwhelmed by erudition.
The illustrations will be most welcome to the Peruvianist on this side of the Atlantic, for many of them are photographs of objects in German collections, now available to our easy inspection for the first time. There is an excellent ceramic series showing styles of building, many quite new to this reviewer, and some imposing additions to the justly famous Mochica art of portraiture in clay. The series of photographs on music and dancing is also excellent. The section on clothing has two lovely color plates illustrating the glories of Peruvian textiles.
This reviewer’s only real criticism applies to practically every book published on Peru. Especially in the captions to the illustrations Disselhoff does not properly distinguish the Incas—a very small and peculiar caste—from other Peruvian Indian groups. Until writers adequately clarify this distinction, students of Peruvian history and archaeology will not accurately see the Inca state for what it was or the Inca people as a politically created caste.
