Ancestor of stone: The wak’a rocks in the Apus of Kollasuyu

Abstract

This paper explores, from an Andean ontological perspective, the role of wak’a stones as animated entities in high-altitude sanctuaries of the Kollasuyu. Drawing on colonial sources, contemporary theories, and archaeological evidence from more than thirty Andean peaks, the study analyzes how these stones—many of foreign origin, carved or deliberately arranged—acted as ancestral subjects, ritual agents, and political markers. Special attention is given to six wak’a stones from four mountains in Argentina and Peru, whose formal features, materials, and locations reflect a state-sponsored strategy of territorial sacralization. It is proposed that these stones, together with the wawqi and tirakuna, formed a living ontological network through which the Tawantinsuyu inscribed its power via relationships of reciprocity between humans and more-than-humans. The work calls for a rethinking of archaeology through a relational and non-anthropocentric lens, where stones are not mere objects but actors endowed with biography, memory, and agency.