Anthropologists often talk about the relationship of the present to the past because we want to know about diversity and similarity across both space and time. Anthropological archaeologists working in the Andes often speak at great length on Inca stonework, especially the ways that natural outcrops and bedrock were aesthetically and structurally incorporated into Inca walls. Those walls were often built by part-time specialist laborers during extensive works projects that were part corvee labor, part tax duty paid in effort, and part conspicuous spectacle that asserted the paramount's power, the empire's reach, and humankind's intimate relationship to Pacha Mama, Mother Earth. Specifically, the coordinated juxtaposition of constructed wall, bedrock outcrop, and undulating topography indicates to anthropologists that the Incas were incredibly concerned with the interrelation of human to terrestrial worlds.
Are Western North Americans so different? In Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island (pronounced locally as "dessert"), the stonework that supports modern roads intercalates beautifully with the granitic bedrock mountains born from ancient vulcanism and sea-floor uplift. In this case, a combination of cultural factors account for the masonry composed of stones alternately called "coping stones" or even "Rockefeller's teeth."
The Rockefeller family bought, developed, and then donated much of Acadia in the early 20th century, including many of the roads. The National Park Service, WPA, and later Friends of Acadia National Park volunteer corps have all had a hand in road building, maintenance, and repair. So it's impossible for me to be sure who placed these stones and under what conditions they did so. What is clear is that the masonry in both Acadia National Park and at Inca sites is equally aesthetic, functional, and a testament to two very different cultures' relationship to stones, terraces, and the movement of people. And both societies, no doubt, intend(ed) for these works to be appreciated in all their dimensions by locals and visitors alike.
PS: Just like in Peru, they have apachitas in Acadia, too. Here the instructions inform visitors of the locally characteristic form of the apachitas, their functions, and advise visitors not to intervene in inappropriate ways that would screw it up for other visitors.
