Documented plaza use in the southern Nasca region (SNR) has demonstrated that communal spaces were absent at residential sites during the Early Nasca epoch. Indeed, communal rituals and performance ...were apparently limited to the pilgrimage center of Cahuachi and associated features of the built environment such as the Nasca geoglyphs. This pattern differs significantly from the pre and post-Cahuachi eras, when plazas, and the communal activities that took place in them, were central to many settlements. In this article, we build on previous work to evaluate the use of communal ritual space in the form of plazas and other aspects of the "built exterior" through time in the Nasca region. We employ data collected from multiple sites, from the SNR to the northern Nasca region (NNR) in Ica. We conclude that cycles of sociopolitical complexity, integration, and patterns of pilgrimage were factors in determining the amount, kind, and arrangement of public ritual space in the Nasca region during the Formative and Early Intermediate periods.
The analysis of food, drink, and crafts has formed the foundation of archaeological research in multiple world regions. The contexts of production are equally as important as those of consumption, ...particularly when multiple production activities occur within a single space. Here we present a residential production locale from Cocahuischo, a Late Nasca (A.D. 450-650) settlement on the south coast of Peru. Food, drink, and craft production are not well understood in the Nasca region, due to a dearth of settlements with evidence of suprahousehold production locales. Drawing from recent ethnographic, ethnoarchaeological, and archaeological research, we examine the material expressions of food and craft production activities represented in an atypical building at Cocahuischo. We argue that the structure was a multi-function production facility used for food preparation, chicha beer brewing, and low output copper metallurgy, illustrating an example of "cross-craft production."
By employing a household-based perspective, this dissertation investigates how communities and traditions are created and reimagined through periods of sociopolitical reformation. Drawing from ...archaeological and bioarchaeological data, I examine the end of the Early Intermediate Period, a transitional phase in Andean prehistory. Following the collapse of a regional ceremonial cult, Late Nasca society on the south coast of Peru underwent a period of sociopolitical balkanization and reformation. I situate my research at Cocahuischo, a large Late Nasca settlement in the Tierras Blancas Valley. I utilize mapping, excavation, and artifact analysis to examine the internal politics of community and tradition at Cocahuischo and whether residents formed relationships with other Late Nasca and Andean communities during a time of change. Patterns in spatial organization, household structure, artifact assemblages, and mortuary practices were used to investigate the level of social cohesion within the local community. Diachronic changes in tradition were evaluated by comparing fineware pottery and domestic architecture to earlier Nasca sites. Pottery, lithics, and intra-site spatial organization were then examined to better understand inter-regional interaction and extra-local community affiliations. I draw from theoretical perspectives of practice, community, tradition, and cultural reformation to illustrate how these processes are embodied through daily life. Broad similarities were found throughout Cocahuischo in the form of domestic space, style of pottery, mortuary practices, and form of tools and objects used in daily subsistence and production activities. These data suggest the presence of a local Late Nasca community constituted through daily life and activities of production and consumption. The differences between these data and the architecture and pottery of earlier Nasca settlements indicate changes in where ceremonial feasting occurred, how religious ideology was mediated through pottery, and the size of corporate social entities over time. The diversity of pottery styles and domestic architecture at Cocahuischo also illustrates the presence of sub-local communities that crosscut the settlement. Stylistic similarities in pottery suggest that these sub-local communities were linked to other highland, Estrella, and Late Nasca groups. The data from Cocahuischo thus illustrate a series of nested communities at sub-local, local, and supra-local levels.
Through the study of archaeological, ethnographic, linguistic, and historical evidence from northern Peru to northern Chile, Bolivia, and northwest Argentina, the authors in this volume show the ...significance of ritual from pre-contact to present day in the Andes. These volume essays deal with theoretical and methodological concerns in anthropology and archaeology including non-human and human agency, the development and maintenance of political and religious authority, ideology, cosmologies, and social memory, and their relationships with ritual action. By providing a diachronic and widely regional perspective on ritual in the Andes, this volume shows how ritual is both persistent and dynamic and is key in understanding many aspects of the formation, reproduction, and change of life in past Andean societies.
In this chapter we examine the relationship among ancient mining, landscape perceptions, and ritual through the intersection of archaeological and linguistic data. More specifically, we consider ...contemporary place names in the Upper Ica Valley of southern Peru to be a link between ancient landscapes and past beliefs about mining. We propose that places where ancient mining was performed may have been regarded as special and perhaps dangerous, as recent archaeological evidence of ritual activity in mines indicates. Furthermore, we suggest that these perceptions carried over into the historical period and became embedded in (1) the maintenance of ancient place names
The goal of this study is to evaluate archaeological interpretations of ritual based on the spaces in which the rituals occurred. In order to better understand the validity of the archaeological ...interpretation of ritual, I evaluated 38 community rituals from a cross-cultural ethnographic sample of 15 cultures. Thus, archaeological assumptions of ritual material remains were tested against ethnographic descriptions of actual rituals. For each culture, I synthesized ethnographic descriptions of rituals and undertook an architectural analysis of the spaces used for community ritual. The analysis resulted in a more complete picture of community rituals and the spaces in which they occurred. Specifically, I found considerable variability in the relationship between rituals and architecture cross-culturally, however some patterns emerged that archaeologists may use to interpret ancient ritual. In particular, the results indicated that archaeologists studying ritual in non-state societies should be wary of making interpretations using characteristics based on monumental architecture in states. Based on these results, archaeologists can generally expect specialized ritual spaces to be less frequent in relation to the residential community, and architecturally restricted spaces to be the locale of exclusive rituals.
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