CrIlprnn 11 .:{ | ii ;;; ;i , rii i:' ;r lil ";". ";io .j" ! { ;::! ,!:' ii':i, i. iur 1 l; ';:;' 'i. C ontextuali zing th e'Wari' Huamachuco Relati on ship TnEnnse LeNcr Toprc AND JonN R. Toprc HE INTERnRETATToN oF'W'enr asan imperial powerin prehistoric Peru(e.g., Isbell r9gra,ry9tb; Schreiber r99L, zoor) has come under closer scrutiny in the last few yearsby scholars who are reas- sessing data that have been gatheredin areas assumed to be under'V7aricontrol and who pre quesrioning the applicability of the imperial model that underlayprevi- ous explanations of rhe Middle Horizon. Participants in the symposium from which this volume srems were encouraged to reconsider the Middle Horizon scenario in the regionsin which they had worked nor as a time of peripheriesunder central control-or nor solelyas peripheries under central control-but as a time of regionalenclaves, each with its own intricate interweav- ing of history, custom, social relations, and landscape. From this perspective, Wari would be a factor, but not the only factor, affecting social dynamics in each area during the Middle Horizon. For severaldecades Huari has been conceptual- ized as a core site that exerted political, administrative, economic, and ideological control over an extensive territory in highland and coastalregionsof the central Andes. The territory in which'Wari infuence could be documented was interpretedasa peripheryunder direct administrative control from an urbanized center (e.g., Schreiber ry92:Chapter 8). With the core-periphery r88 model structuring interpretation, the impact of \Vari wasdescribed by analogy to the Inca Empire and to other imperial systemsknown from history, ethnohistory, and archaeology (e.g., Schreiberzoor). It was assumed that the centerexercised a high levelof control and that provinceswere dependenton the center for economic, ideological, andpolitical direction. The acrual datafrom 'S7ari "peripheries" were of uneven quantity and quality, but the puzzling irregularities in that data were given analyticalshort shrift. The implicit assumption wasthat once peripheral areas were better known, there would be a good fit with the imperial model of strong cen- tral control. The meansby which \Vari imperial power was expanded and maintained was not well explained. Many scholars drew parallelsto the much better docu- mented Inca Empire, arguing that \Vari expansion could be attributed to a combination of military threat and action, economicpower, and building of alliances between people living in the powerful center and groups in the peripheries who, weighing their political options, chosealliance rather than confrontation. Control was maintained through imposed administrative centers in the provinces that had been brought into the empire. The identification of 'S7'ari administrative cenrers had pro- ceeded apace through the r97osand r98oswith general acceptance ofthe identification ofcenters close to Huari,