A Culture of Stone offers new insights into Inka culture and the interpretation of non-Western art. Dean focuses on rock outcrops masterfully integrated into Inka architecture, exquisitely worked masonry, and freestanding sacred rocks, explaining how certain stones were imbued with life and played a vital role in the unfolding of Inka history. Through analysis of Inka stonework, colonial-period accounts of the Inka, and contemporary ethnographic and folkloric studies of indigenous Andean culture, Dean explores the relationships between stonework and other aspects of Inka life, including imperial expansion, worship, and agriculture. She also scrutinizes meanings imposed on Inka stone by the colonial Spanish and later by tourism and the tourist industry in Peru.