Review and criticism of the terminology related to the Tiwanaku culture in the Andean area

Abstract

The plurality of concepts that, over so many years of research, have been defined to qualify different aspects of the problem of the Tiwanaku Culture and its influence in the Andean area, has become a confounding factor that hinders better knowledge and communication. of that matter. Overcoming the ambiguity of some terms and clarifying the correct meaning of others is an essential task. The presentation and discussion of the concepts is done following the sequence of their appearance in the investigations on Tiwanaku and the phenomena integrated to its problematic, on the basis of confrontations between the definitions elaborated by the different authors. It is demonstrated that the same phenomenon receives different names and, conversely, that the same concept is used with different meanings. The Expansive Tiwanaku concept and the ambiguity that its use implies today is discussed, depending on whether we consider Tiwanaku only expansive or starting from its phase V, or I from its phase IV, as the latest research seems to show. The expression residual Tiwanaku influences is proposed to define that "common cultural factor" evident in late cultures, in a post-Tiwanaku time, product of the period of direct Tiwanaku influences.