ritual-technics

The chapter examines ritual as a foundational mode of political identification and sorting that predates literacy and technology, using the Inca and Aztec empires as key examples of complex ritual technics that regulated social hierarchies, communication, and resource management. It contrasts these ritual systems with the archival and written modes of the Spanish conquistadors, highlighting the catastrophic failures of mutual political legibility and communication during the conquest. The chapter further theorizes ritual's resilience and apotropaic logic, emphasizing its basis in sympathetic magic and performative fantasy, which legitimizes political power by appearing to transcend human agency and persists in shaping identity and international systems through ritualized repetition.