80 CHAPTER 5 THE REVALUATION OF LANDSCAPES IN THE INCA EMPIRE AS PEIRCEAN REPLICATION CHARLES STANISH UCLA Abstract Archaeological research on the Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca reveals a highly structured solstice ceremony marked by an elaborate built landscape, including two towers, buildings, and walls. The solstice towers functioned in a manner similar to those described by Spanish chroniclers for Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire. I suggest that the concept of Peircean replication allows us to understand this phenomenon as the instantiation of a cultural ideal present among the Inca political class and used as one strategy in their imperial repertoire. This paper deļ¬nes Peircean replication and uses it to help us better understand Inca political domination in the rich Titicaca region of their empire. Introduction It is virtually a truism that empires transform or revalue select landscapes as part of their imperial strategies in transforming former enemy states into provincial terri- tories. We have come a long way in the last 30 years in theorizing this process. The ideological transformation of place must be seen as a necessary factor in imperial expansion and not as some kind of incidental or epiphenomenal one. To restate what is now the obvious, you cannot build an empire if you do not manage the ideology Papadopoulos.indd 80 1/12/12 4:31 PM