Abstracts
Conference Presenters
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Benjamin Alberti
Email: balberti@frc.mass.edu
Institution: Framingham State College
Gender, Form, and Substance:
Interpreting Anthropomorphic Vessels from Northwest Argentina
Approaches to gender in archaeology have traditionally focused on the visible and easily definable relationship between men and women in the material remains of past societies. Northwest Argentinean archaeologists have only recently begun to examine the effect of this common-sense approach. One impact has been an imbalance in research between regions and the implicit "gendering" of entire "cultures" based on the assumed gender of key motifs in art. Such material includes both figurative representations of humans and anthropomorphic vessels.
In this paper I suggest a theoretical approach to the process of gendering of the objects themselves, one that takes into account the specific form of the material. I focus on anthropomorphic vessels, present in assemblages from the Formative through Late Periods. These objects can be understood as actuating relationships between people, animals, and things rather than simply representing a universal human form upon which are inscribed fixed symbolic meanings, whether relating to gender, storage, or cosmology. Recent scholarship in archaeology and anthropology has emphasized the use of bodies, sex, and substances as metaphors for community, society, and identity. Central to the success of such metaphors is the exchange of substances between social actors, whether people, animals, or objects. The form of these bodies-as-vessels suggests both exchange and storage. I argue that anthropomorphized vessels "represent" gender and identity through the continuous articulation of elements rather than by fixed symbolization. Does the presence of this class of material in various contexts in the Argentinean northwest suggest a common understanding of "gender in process"?
Catherine J. Allen
Email: kitallen@gwu.edu
Institution: George Washington University
Computerized Diagrams of Ch'unchu Dance Choreography
In his book Danzas y Estructuras Sociales en los Andes (1981), Juan Van Kessel published meticulous descriptions of ritual dance choreography accompanied by hundreds of detailed diagrams. While Van Kessel's work can potentially provide useful insights into various aspects of Andean habitus, he was, unfortunately, limited by the print medium of his time. In their static print format the diagrams are difficult to understand and use and, so far, have had little impact in Andean studies. I will present a preliminary attempt to computerize the Van Kessel's ch'unchu dance diagrams in order to better study the dynamic interactive geometry inherent in the choreography. I think possible parallels with weaving techniques are especially suggestive. This is very much a "work in progress," which I present in hopes of fostering discussion.
Lloyd Anderson
Email: ecoling@aol.com
Institution: Ecological Linguistics
History and Distinct Polities in Moche Fineline Pottery
Among Moche fineline pots, there are only one or two which are widely believed to depict distinct cultures, one of them non-Moche. Further, it is now usually assumed that differences in designs on clothing and armor reflect only artistic variation, not even distinct polities within Moche society. However, closer study can support quite the opposite view.
Where we can recognize scenes as depicting members of the same group vs. of distinct groups, as when all individuals face the same direction or face opposite directions, or where individuals engage in the same type vs. different types of activity, we find a very strong correlation between group membership and design motifs. This goes considerably beyond merely scenes of combat. Such strong correlations would certainly not be expected if the cause were mere "artistic variation."
It may also be possible to identify some polities, using the few instances where we have objects and images whose provenience is known. This would now include at least some items from Sipan, Sican, Farfan, San José de Moro, El Brujo, and Dos Cabezas. Some designs are unique to these last two (see a near-future publication by Christopher Donnan). We can recognize two groups of highlanders who are not Moche.
Distinct periodizations of southern Moche (I to V) vs. northern Moche (analog of I continuing as late as the southern IV) can also contribute to identification of distinct cultural groups, possibly linked with political divisions. Results so far are summarized to encourage others to note additional provenienced designs, to fill in gaps, or to assemble counter- arguments.
Monica Barnes, David Dickason, David Fleming
Email: 103225.12@compuserve.com
Institution: Andean Past, Western Michigan U, Andean Past
Flight over the Andes: The Pioneering Air Photographs of Mary U. L. Meader
(This presentation will be offered as a gallery talk at the SWG
reception, Friday, October 28, from 7–9 pm)
On September 16, 1937 the former Mary Upjohn took off from her home airport in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In the pilot's seat was her first husband, Richard Upjohn Light. Mary was to serve as co-pilot, radio operator, and photographer on a journey that took the couple over Texas, Mexico, and Central America, down the western side of South America and then from Santiago de Chile to Mendoza, Argentina and on to Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. From Rio the couple shipped their plane to Capetown where they flew an aerial photographic transect along East Africa to Cairo. Three hundred and twenty three of Mary's African photographs were published in 1941 under the title Focus on Africa, and a selection has recently been exhibited in Michigan. However, the South American photos, with a few exceptions, have never been published or exhibited. They include the earliest known air photo of any of the Nasca lines, the first non-military air photos of the Pica and Matilla puquios, many shots of Andean coastal valleys, forma urbis depictions of a variety of cities and towns, landforms, and aerial views of agricultural installations, as well photos taken while on the ground. Hundreds of five by seven inch contact prints are housed in the American Geographical Society Library at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. These have been digitalized and reprinted by David Dickason and his team at Western Michigan University. The present exhibition at the Society of Woman Geographers is the first time Mary Meader's Latin American photographs have been shown to the public.
Leonardo Benitez, Alexei Vranich
Email: lbenitez@imap.sas.upenn.edu
Institution:
Urban Planning and Conveying the Sacred at Tiwanaku
All religious structures have some phenomenological element, especially religious structures. The unique quality of Tiwanaku is the use of two methods of conveying the sacred:
- established along astronomical lines;
- fabricating awe inspiring experience through a play between architecture, landscape and the human body.
Conveying the sacred to an increasingly diverse audience was a primary concern for city planning. The change in the method, scale and the meaning of this numinous experience reflects the development of Tiwanaku from a locally important site to the center of a religious phenomenon affecting the southern Andes.
Helene Bernier
Email: helenebernier13@yahoo.ca
Institution: University of Maryland
For Daily Life or for Rulers' Artifice? The Purposes of Craft Specialization at Moche
In complex societies, craft specialization develops in response to economic pressures, to a search for adaptative advantages, or to the pursuit of political power. Economic and adaptative purposes of craft specialization are closely related to the efficiency of production and to the optimal exploitation of ecological resources. In these cases, specialization is associated with the needs of a broad spectrum of the population. Political purposes directly aid the elite's ambitions. Political leaders benefit from controlling the production of luxury items to increase and legitimate their authority.
This paper will examine the purposes of craft specialization at the urban site of Moche, considered to be the capital of the Southern Moche Polity during the Early Intermediate Period. What were the primary functions of the ceramic, stone, and metal objects produced in a specialized framework? Which classes of the Moche social fabric gained from the work of artisans? Answers are provided by the analysis of archaeological evidence resulting from consumption activities at Moche. Thousands of objects made by craft specialists were found in domestic and funerary contexts, associated with residential, public, and monumental architecture. A close examination of these objects and their distribution leads to a better understanding of the purposes of craft specialization in the Moche State.
Carrie Brezine
Email: cbrezine@fas.harvard.edu
Institution: Harvard University
House of Cords: Investigating the Rapaz Khipu
Examples of khipu can still be found in a few isolated villages around Lima. These locally produced "patrimonial" khipu are of uncertain antiquity, but play an important role in community civil-religious ceremonies. In the village of Rapaz, a large assembly of camelid cords is kept in a sacred house in the middle of town. In the summer of 2005, the Proyecto de Khipu Patrimonial de Rapaz was given permission to remove the object from its sacred space for description and conservation. This talk reviews the complicated task of describing the Rapaz khipu and highlights unusual features of this artifact. The Rapaz sample forms an interesting contrast to Inka khipu, raising questions about the evolution of these communication devices in the post-Conquest Andes.
Proyecto Rapaz is under the direction of Frank Salomon, and is funded by insitutions including the NSF, Telefonica Perú, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation.
William J. Conklin
Email: Bilconklin@aol.com
Institution: Research Associate, Field Museum & Textile Museum
Tiwanaku and Huari Textiles: Commonalities, Differences and the Implications
(This presentation will be offered at the Smithsonian
Natural History Museum’s Baird
Auditorium on Friday, Oct 28th at noon)
- A Brief Outline of the Geographic and Chronological Relationship between the Two Cultures
- A comparison of their "shared iconography" as commonly understood
- A comparison of the differing textile structures, materials, and loomsmanship used in tunics, bags, hats and other textile items produced by the two cultures
- A comparison of the expression of the mythic dimension in the textiles of the two cultures
- A comparison of the organizing horizon concept in the two cultures
- A discussion of materialistic explanations: possible chronological differences between the two, possible resources differences
- A Dialectical Middle Horizon? Consideration of the concept of a dialectical agreement between the two cultures, related to the concept of the operative agreements between two Andean moieties
Andrea M. Cuellar
Email: andrea.cuellar@uleth.ca
Institution: University of Lethbridge
Social Hierarchy, Demographic Change and the Organization of Agricultural Production among the Quijos Chiefdoms of Ecuador's Eastern Piedmont
This talk outlines recent research in Ecuador's Eastern Piedmont, the setting of the ethnohistorically documented Quijos chiefdoms. I used settlement pattern information and botanical remains (pollen, phytoliths and macroremains) from households positioned differently in a social hierarchy to reconstruct the demographic history and the organization of agricultural production of the late occupation.
The interplay between settlement distribution, demographic change, and food procurement allowed me to explore the extent and ways in which political change impacted the configuration of the population and the practices of food production and consumption. I examine what it meant for different sectors of the population to have become part of an elite community or to have remained at the periphery in demographic and economic terms. I also explore the applicability of models of Andean economies or middle-range societies to this case. Concretely, I question the idea that specialized agricultural production (verticality) was typical of Andean hierarchical societies, or that specialization and control of production are crucial for leadership to crystallize in middle-range societies.
My research suggests that sweeping demographic changes did not take place for the population at large, but had the greatest impact on the elite sector of society. This questions prevailing notions about demographic change and the nature and scale of political centralization in middle-range societies. In terms of production and consumption, I find that while there is some variability across settlements, this is very limited and by no means represents specialization resulting from environmental factors or elite control of production.
Mary Glowacki
Email: mmglowacki_1@netzero.com
Institution: Pre-Columbian Archaeological Research Group, Inc.; Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research
Excavations at Cotocotuyoc
Recent archaeological investigations at Cotocotuyoc, located in Cuzco's Huaro Valley, provide new information on the Wari settlement of Huaro. Cotocotuyoc is one of many Wari-period sites, which formed a large Wari complex spanning much of the Huaro Valley. Excavations conducted this past summer at Cotocotuyoc demonstrate that the site was initially built and occupied by the Wari but became a Lucre settlement, the Lucre traditionally viewed as a Cuzco Late Intermediate archaeological culture. Excavations suggest that this later occupation was not that of another people but rather Wari societal members whose state infrastructure was in decline. Investigations further demonstrate that Cotocotuyoc was defensive in nature, and that it likely became a stronghold for the Wari as the valley occupation destabilized and finally collapsed. The use and abandonment of Cotocotuyoc may be associated with a shift in its water supply, a canal system linking the site to hillside springs. The socio-political transition from Wari to Lucre is most compellingly seen in the context of an elite cemetery, where Wari and Lucre offerings and interments were virtually contemporaneous.
Amy Groleau
Email: agrolea1@binghamton.edu
Institution: SUNY Binghamton
Housework Is Never Done: Ritual Offerings and the Maintenance of a Conchopata Household
The Wari site of Conchopata located in the Ayacucho Valley, Perú has become known for deposits of elaborately decorated, intentionally broken oversize ceramic vessels. The deposits have been interpreted as elite, religious, or civic-ceremonial in nature, and often linked with mortuary activity. And while investigations into iconography and composition of deposits have proved fruitful, little is understood about the practice of smashing ceramics itself.
Excavations in 2003 yielded a new oversize ceramic offering that included plainer wares and occurred in a domestic context. This find in conjunction with multiple ritual deposits and human burials interred in the floor of these rooms that housed smashed ceramics suggest an integrated approach to examining ritual.
I consider these deposits as a series of linked practices that include household renewal, cyclical rededication, commemoration, and ultimate abandonment. Residents of this household repeatedly incorporated human bodies, camelid bodies, and finally ceramic bodies — in the form of anthropomorphic vessels — into the building itself. Abandonment in this case should not be read as a negation of the space; rather it is a marked place that continues to be visited, and remains a site of memory and memorial. While not typical of other finds at Conchopata, approaching smashed ceramic offerings as part of a larger set of practices may shed new light on earlier finds. Further, considering the distribution of rooms sealed with ceramic deposits across the site, we may begin to imagine the lived experience of Conchopata as composed of open and closed spaces punctuating the cityscape.
Charles Hastings
Email: charles.hastings@cmich.edu
Institution: Central Michigan University
Archaeology and Sustainable Development in the Eastern Andes of Perú
A recent archaeological project conducted in the upper montaña zone of Chanchamayo Province in central Perú is noteworthy not only for the research itself but also for the extraordinary local support it has received. The project, undertaken during 2003 and 2004, is a study of eastern outposts that were established and maintained by Andean populations in late prehistoric times in the transition between highland and lowland regions. The challenges of surveying, mapping, and excavating remote sites high in the cloud forest became manageable through a combination of financial support provided by the Heinz Foundation and unanticipated logistical support provided by local organizations, most notably the Asociación Perúana para la Promoción del Desarollo Sostenible (APRODES). The extraordinary contributions made by APRODES, a Perúvian NGO, in the field are even more impressive in the context of its efforts to foster and facilitate long-term programs of multidisciplinary, internationally based research in the area. As sustainable development programs become more widespread across the eastern Andean and upper Amazonian regions, archaeologists should pursue expanding opportunities for collaborative research in environments long overlooked by our discipline.
Frances Hayashida
Email: fmh5@psu.edu
Institution: Pennsylvania State University
Chicha Production on the North Coast of Perú:
Ethnoarchaeological Observations from Piura
In Piura, on Perú's far north coast, a thriving commercial industry has preserved the vessels, tools, and technologies of traditional maize beer or chicha production. In this paper, I discuss the results of a recent ethnoarchaeological study of chicha production in and around the town of Chulucanas. Here, chicha is still cooked in large earthenware ollas, cooled in massive tinajones, fermented in narrow-necked cántaros, and served in gourd cups (potos), though these are rapidly giving way to aluminum pots and plastic storage and serving containers. Production is at the household level, though output can be quite high (over 500 liters per batch with one batch produced per week). The owner of the chichería is typically assisted by her female relatives and other women who work for wages, though men may help with certain tasks (carrying water, tending the fire, and transferring the chicha from vessel to vessel). Research included interviews with brewers, observations of the production process, mapping of breweries of different scales, and notes on use-life and use-wear of the pottery and tools used in production. Vessel fragments and soil samples from the areas used for cooking, cooling, and fermenting and serving, were also collected to test for residues.
William Isbell, Masaki Doi, Juan Leoni
Email: Huari@aol.com
Institution: SUNY Binghamton
A New Type of Architectural Model: Implications for the Development of Huari
Models representing built environments, sometimes with people engaged in social activates, have become a significant source of information about the past of certain Andean cultures. This paper presents information about models from Ayacucho, suggesting the existence of a new type — based on three examples belonging to the end of the Early Intermediate Period and beginning of the Middle Horizon. This new type is described, as we also explore its relevance for understanding changes in settlement form, social identity, and political organization during early phases in the development of the Huari polity.
Daniella Jofré*, Jason Nesbitt**,
John R. Topic*, Kory Tyka Avila Vereau***,
Alfredo Melly Cava***, Anne Albers*,
and Nathan Contant*
Email: daniellajofre@trentu.ca
Institution: * Department
of Anthropology, Trent University
**
Department of Anthropology, Yale University
***
Proyecto Yanacocha, Cajamarca, Perú
The Ceremonial Landscape of Huamachuco: A Report on the Catequil Project 1998-2005
Sixteenth century historical records describe Catequil as an oracle, thunder and lightning deity and the principle huaca of Huamachuco. Catequil was also an Apu associated with a mountain (Cerro Icchal) in the ex-hacienda of San Jose de Porcon. Since 1998, excavations have been carried out at a number of sites in San Jose de Porcon, including Namanchugo, Cerro Icchal, Chulite, and Chuquicanra. The results of these excavations suggest that all of these sites are related to the cult of Catequil, prompting us to refer to the whole region as a "ceremonial landscape." In this paper we summarize the results of our research, focusing on changes and continuities in the nature of occupation in the region from the Early Intermediate Period until the Late Horizon.
Elisenda Vila Llonch
Email: eli_vila5@yahoo.fr
Institution: University of Maryland
Litters for the Living, Litters for the Dead
Litters played a crucial role in public displays of power and status in many Andean cultures. Actual litters have been found archaeologically, as well as representations such as ceramic figurines, reduced models and fine line drawings. For example, they were present in Moche, Sican and Chimu societies, thus proving the importance of litters throughout time in the Andes.
Ethno-historical sources and colonial representations have repeatedly recorded litters use by the Inkas, giving us rich information on their public display and physical appearance. Thus, Inka litters become a unique case of study even if little contemporary visual and material evidence remains. Among these sources, Guaman Poma de Ayala illustrates the use of litters extensively. In his Cronica, he provides rich information on the form, construction and coded decoration of litters, allowing for a better interpretation and understanding of their use and role in Inka society.
My paper explores the close associations between specific types of litters and the status of the people carried in them during Inka times. The different use of litters for the living and for the dead further shows how public displays were highly codified. Litters, which could be easily changed and manipulated, were an effective means of conveying the official message of the imperial elite to the general populace.
Bernhard Lorenz
Email: Lorenz@geophysik-Lorenz.de
Institution: Büro für Geophysik
Geophysical Survey at Sechín Bajo, an Initial Period Site in the Casma Valley, Perú
The Casma Valley on the Perúvian north coast is well known for its concentration of large early sites with monumental architecture of the Initial Period (ca. 1800 BC). The archaeological complex of Sechín Bajo consits of a main platform of 140x200m, a rectangular court with lateral structures an an annex-building with a forecourt. An archaeological projekt of the Latin-America-Institut of the Free University of Berlin combined archaeological investugations with geophysical survey. The main construction material were quarried stones an bricks made from clay (adobe). These adobes mostly have a significant resistivity contrast to their enviroment. Therefor, they can be suitable as objects of combined archaomagnetic and archaeo-elektromagnetic survey. The recent excavations (2005) performed on geophysical interpretations uncovered structures of an earlier construction phase of the monumental complex of Sechín Bajo which presumablay belong to predecessor buildings of very high ages.
Ann Peters
Email: mundocomun@lightlink.com
Institution: Cornell University
A Tello and Mejía Revival: Recontextualizing the Paracas Materials
Three Perúvian institutions have recently taken important measures to begin to reconstruct the contextual relationships that constitute the real significance of Tello and Mejía's work at Paracas. While spectacular Paracas textiles are found in museums around the world, only those excavated by the National Museum team in the 1920s are imbedded in contextual data — key to analysis of quotidian and ritual practices and social relationships in a Southern Andean nation 2,000 years ago.
For fifty years work on the Paracas contexts has been practically paralyzed, due to Tello's untimely death and the inability of subsequent researchers to gain access to the archives on the National Museum expeditions to the Paracas Peninsula, as well as subsequent bundle dissections and materials analysis carried out in Lima. The research of Edward and Jane Dwyer, Anne Paul, Mary Frame and others dealt with such chaotic and limited accession and inventory data, that at times we wondered about the quality of the original research. The good news is that there is a truly impressive quantity of systematic descriptive and analytic documentation in the Tello and Mejía archives, and recent improved access to those archives has initiated a new era in Paracas studies. The bad news is that fifty years of Lima weather and biological agents and drastically under-funded museum management without full access to original accession data has led to separation of large quantities of materials from their original contextual data. Here we report on progress to date in putting it all back together.
Ruth Anne Phillips
Email: ruthanne_phillips@yahoo.com
Institution: Graduate Center, CUNY
Art of the Andes in U.S. Architecture, 1910-1940
On the floor of the central interior courtyard of the Pan-American Union Building in Washington, D.C., (now Organization of American States, Albert Kelsey and Paul P. Crét, 1910) is the running, winged anthropomorphic Sun Gate figure from Tiahuanaco surrounded by Chimu-like earspool designs. A trapezoidal doorway, rendered in the style typical of elite Inka structures, adorns an interior opening in the Aztec Theater in San Antonio, Texas (Robert Kelley, 1926). Fallingwater, a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Ohiopyle (Bear Run), Pennsylvania (1935-1939) uses living rock in its intermingling of the natural with the man-made in a strikingly similar fashion to Inka architecture at Machu Picchu and throughout the Sacred Valley in Perú. What are the sources of the Andean material appropriated by the architects and designers responsible for the appearance of Andean elements in U.S. architecture? Why were Andean and other Pre-Columbian forms incorporated into U.S. architectural designs during the first four decades of the twentieth century?
This paper explores the trend that witnessed the appropriation of Pre-Columbian, and particularly Andean, forms in U.S. architecture from 1910 through 1940. Through this study, one can see how explorers and archaeologists impacted not only the state of knowledge of past peoples, but popular culture in the United States. Additionally, this appropriation of the Pre-Columbian in U.S. structures represents an increasingly rare juncture between archaeology and popular culture that ultimately gauges the perception of Pre-Columbian cultures in U.S. society.
Joanne Pillsbury, Lisa S. Trever
Email: Pillsburyj@doaks.org
Institution: Dumbarton Oaks, Harvard University
The King, the Bishop, and the Creation of an American Antiquity
Bishop Baltasar Jaime Martínez Compañón (1737 – 1797), the force behind some of the most detailed and sophicated archaeological work known in the Andean region until the twentieth century, has always stood out as a curious anomaly in the history of American archaeology. He is absent from general histories of the discipline, appearing only occasionally in the more specialized reviews of Andean studies. When he is discussed, it is usually to point out the quality of his detailed maps and drawings; there is little or no examination of how he fits into larger trends in the development of the field in the Americas. In many ways, his detailed and sophisticated work at Chan Chan and other sites on the north coast of Perú seem at odds with general trends in American archaeology at the time. Indeed, there is no precedent for his work in the Americas. What was the impetus of his work? What were his influences and training? And finally, what was his legacy in American archaeology?
To a certain degree, and with certain exceptions, our histories of American archaeology are written from an Anglo-American perspective: we view the fundamental early developments as coming primarily from the United States and England. Widening the lens, however, may allow us to rethink the history of the discipline. Rather than view Martínez Compañón as a peculiar one-off in the history of archaeology, this paper seeks to examine the bishop's international sphere in order to understand the inspiration and articulation of his work. We argue that the excavation and study of Chan Chan and other sites on the north coast were the direct result of developments in archaeology earlier in the century in Naples, then ruled by Charles III of Spain. If we substitute shifting sands for pyroclastic surges, we can allow ourselves to ponder whether Chan Chan became Martínez Compañón's American Pompeii.
James Richardson
Email: RichardsonJ@CarnegieMNH.org
Institution: Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Atlantis: Are There Drowned Sites on the Continental Shelf?
There has been no speculation as to the significance of drowned sites from the Perúvian continental shelf to our understanding of the cultural development on the coast prior to 5,000 B.P. Yet drowned coastal sites may answer a nunber of questions on Early and Middle Preceramic maritime adaptations and the emergence of temple centers in the Late Preceramic. For the Early and Middle Preceramic there are only a few sites (i.e. Amotape, Siches, Paijan, Paloma, Jaguay, Ring, and Tachuay), most of them preserved by being located near fresh water sources well back from the modern shoreline, giving us a skewed picture of the intensity and distribution of these earliest fishers and shellfish gatherers. Those on paleo-shorelines are now underwater. The Paijan most probably relied on the extensive use of marine resources, similar to the subsistence pattern at Jaguay or Paloma. Thus the extant Paijan sites represent one part of the seasonal round of maritime peoples who spent much of their time on the now submerged continental shelf.
Temple centers in the Late Preceramic "burst" out of the landscape on the Perúvain north coast circa 5,000 B.P with little archaeological evidence for the developments that led up these monumental sites. The Middle Preceramic is key to determining if there was a long development leading up to the rise of temple centers in the Late Preceramic or if these centers developed within a few hundred years, when the Perú current moved northward, bringing with it the enormous marine riches that formed their economic basis as proposed by Richardson and Sandweiss.
Ann Rowe
Email: arowe@textilemuseum.org
Institution: The Textile Museum, Washington DC
Indigenous Costume in Quito
Although a local indigenous costume is not apparent in Quito today, there is a remarkable amount of historical evidence for it during the Spanish colonial period and later, including chronicles, wills of nobles, travelers' descriptions and engravings, and costumbrista paintings. This evidence is sufficient to provide a nearly continuous account, from the period of the Inca conquest until the early twentieth century. The costume vividly reflects the changing position of indigenous people within the dominant Hispanic society.
Social stratification within indigenous society is obvious, including hints that Cuzco nobility present in Quito continued to have an effect. Certain occupations, such as male medical practitioners and female house servants, are at times also distinguishable by their costume. Hispanicization took place faster among the indigenous nobility and for certain costume items there was a trickle-down effect over time. But some indigenous features were remarkably persistent and others were not as early as might be supposed.
Lucy Salazar
Email: Lucy.Salazar@yale.edu
Institution: Yale Peabody Museum
Analysis of Metal Artifacts from the Gallinazo Group, Virú Valley, Perú
A summary is offered of a laboratory analysis of a sample of artifacts produced by the Gallinazo culture and excavated at the Gallinazo Group by Wendell Bennett. Among the most interesting results of this study is the evidence for depletion guilding during Gallinzo times.
Jeffrey Splitstoser
Email: jcs@ancientamerica.net
Institution: The Catholic University of America
The Chavín Textiles of Cerrillos, Ica Valley, Perú
Excavations since 1999 at the Paracas ceremonial site of Cerrillos, located in the Ica Valley on the south coast of Perú, have revealed the largest known collection of Paracas textile fragments. Whereas the majority of these are plain and undecorated with no distinguishing iconography, this paper will discuss "staff god" imagery found on two notable exceptions, comparing this imagery with depictions of the Chavín Staff God. This paper will also compare the weave structures found in the Cerrillos staff-god fragments with weave structures from Chavín textiles discovered elsewhere.
Kary Stackelbeck
Email: kstacke@aol.com
Institution: University of Kentucky
Variability in Middle Preceramic Lifeways on the North Coast of Perú: Implications for Addressing Long-Term Culture Change in the Central Andes
Recent research in the lower Jequetepeque Valley on the north coast of Perú resulted in the documentation of over 300 Preceramic sites in the Quebradas del Batán and Talambo, representing one of the densest concentrations known in the Central Andes. Based on radiocarbon dates, features, and lithic technology, over 150 sites in this project area appear to have been occupied during the late Early (ca. 8500-8000 bp) and Middle Preceramic Periods (ca. 8000-4500 bp). Data from these sites offer insight into changes and consistencies in Preceramic domestic occupations, settlement patterns, subsistence, and technology. The nature of occupation of this area during this time was quite different than that of their Paiján predecessors in the Jequetepeque Valley, and their Middle Preceramic contemporaries in the neighboring Zaña Valley. This diachronic and synchronic variability in Preceramic lifeways is also apparent when drawing comparisons with other coastal and highland societies of the Central Andes. Traditional stage-based models of cultural evolution do not account for the dynamics apparent in the Jequetepeque case. This research is therefore relevant not only for understanding long-term patterns of culture change on the North Coast, but also for addressing broader models of in situ development of complex societies in the Central Andes.
Lidio M. Valdez, Nilton Rios, Craig Smith, Annette Baus
Email: lvaldez@uvic.ca
Institution: University of Victoria, Canada
Wari Ceremonial Ceramics From La Oroya, Acarí Valley, Perú
In this paper we report the recent discovery of several large-sized Wari ceramics from the site of La Oroya, in the Acari Valley, of the Perúvian South Coast region. The vessels, resembling those from Conchopata in the Central highlands, were intentionally broken and buried. In addition, Cajamarca style vessels were found in the same context. This is the first finding of its kind in the entire Acari Valley.
Elka Weinstein
Email: elka.weinstein@utoronto.ca
Institution:
Depictions of the Cucurbitaceae in Chorrera Ceramics
This paper treats modeled images of cucurbits in the ceramics of the Late Formative Era (or Chorrera culture) of coastal Ecuador (ca. 900 B.C. to 100 A.D.). These images provide good evidence for the sophisticated cultivation of cucurbits by the native peoples of the coast of South America from very early time periods in Ecuador. Their importance in the iconography of Late Formative cultures certainly demonstrates that the domestication of fruits with both hard and soft rinds must have been well-established by the time ceramic production had begun. Depictions of animals and people with gourd-shaped bodies in the mortuary ceramics of the Chorrera period also demonstrate that cucurbits were an essential part of life (and death) on the coast of Ecuador.
Steve Wernke
Email: wernke@unc.edu
Institution: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
A Negotiated Settlement:
Reducción and the Prehispanic Landscape in the Colca Valley, Perú
The establishment of the Toledan reducciones through the forced resettlement of Andean populations from their prehispanic settlements is usually considered the Ur moment of colonial domination that ended many indigenous practices and institutions. Here, I analyze archaeological and documentary evidence in a spatially-integrated manner to illustrate how reducciones were actually, at least in some cases, "negotiated settlements" that carefully balanced competing local interests with those of the colonial state. I first review archaeological evidence from my survey in the central Colca valley demonstrating that the reducción of Coporaque was situated in a location that was virtually unoccupied during prehispanic times. While this would seem to confirm that Toledan administrators sought to eradicate prehispanic settlement and land use patterns, I demonstrate through GIS-based reconstruction of ayllu land tenure patterns registered in a visita from 1616 that the village actually straddled the dividing line of a dualistic organization based on ranked sets of "right side" and "left side" ayllus. Moreover, simulation of walking distances to fields from the reducción shows that those of the higher ranking "right side" ayllus were significantly shorter than those of the "left side" ayllus. Thus, the location of the reducción simultaneously constituted a new kind of center in an autochthonous duality and favored its higher-ranking half. These results show not only how local structures of power affected the specific emplacement of a reducción in its local landscape, but how the durable features and invested interests of that landscape had powerful agentive force in the negotiation of resettlement.
Patrick Ryan Williams, D. Nash, S. deFrance, M. Moseley, A. Miranda, M. Ruales
Email: rwilliams@fmnh.org
Institution: The Field Museum
Excavating an Imperial Brewery at Cerro Baul
The state-sponsored Wari incursion at Cerro Baul Perú entailed large-scale agrarian reclamation as well as the edification of mountain slopes and summits to sustain the occupation of two hills and the adjacent high mesa of Cerro Baul. Excavations in 2004 recovered the remains of a large-scale chicha production facility atop Cerro Baul. In previous years, we have reported on the abandonment ceremonies that closed the adjacent libation halls. New excavations provide insight into Wari politics of incorporation, as well as to the practice of reserving exclusionary items of distinction for feasts in the Wari colonial capital.
We review the evidence for this form of specialized feast production by Wari lords, characterized by 1) segregated and specialized facilities for beverage production and fermentation, 2) full-time feast preparation specialists (brewers), and 3) the exclusive use of a special ingredient for the production of Wari chicha and in feast foods. This form of distinctive, large-scale feasting in a venue expressly created for this purpose is probably characteristic of the most important centers of Wari culture throughout the realm. It is, however, not seen in the same way in smaller Wari settlements, which suggests certain culinary traditions and certain types of feasts were reserved for special venues and select participants. Being "Wari" may have been reserved for limited segments of Wari society at large, and the rituals of inclusion in that group were carried out in discrete locales within the Wari realm.
Isabel Yaya
Email: isa.mckenzieyaya@free.fr
University of New South Wales
The Import of Initiation: Politics and Kinship in the Account of Yahuar Yahuac's Childhood
Among all the Inca sovereigns whose memory had been preserved by the Spanish chroniclers, Yahuar Huacac holds a unqiue position. He is famed for having shed tears of blood as a child when a foreign (Ayarmaca) lord kidnapped him. The name he later adopted originated from this event and the surrounding circumstances: Yahuar Huacac means, "The one who shed tears of blood." The narrative of this abduction surprisingly ends with matrimonial alliances binding the Incas and the main actors of this drama, all important figures of three foreign 'nations.' These last events, together with the initiatory ordeals the child suffered, as well as the several places in which the action occurs, reveal a complex content based on a structure of interwoven ritual events and kinship patterns. A leading characteristic of the foreign nations' privileged status is therefore illustrated by the matrimonial pattern of this narrative. This paper thus examines how the various stages of the future heir's journey over many territories could forge a distinctive relationship between the Cuzqueñan ruling elite and the outer non-Inca populations. This political scheme not only challenges the homogenised definition of Inca society but also brings to light their social organisation, their mode of filiation and eventually the composition of their royal lineages. In this analysis, specific attention is given to the onomastic and semantic values of the names and places evoked in the account of Yahuar Huacac's abduction. Finally, this paper will reconsider the different uses of classificatory kinship links and how they can be extended to a particular social status.
