Archaeological studies of alcohol have tended to focus on consumption while production, particularly of beer, has been more difficult to recognize and interpret. The ethnoarchaeological study of ...modern maize beer or
chicha production on Peru’s north coast provides information on (1) production steps and their material correlates, (2) labor and raw material inputs at different scales and possible labor bottlenecks, and (3) variation in technology and organization that is linked to contexts of consumption and cultural differences through time across the Andes. Because of this variation, the ethnoarchaeological observations reported here should not be directly projected onto the past, but rather should serve as points of comparison with the archaeological record.
Rethinking the Inka Hayashida, Frances M; Troncoso, Andrés; Salazar, Diego
02/2022
eBook
2023 Book Award, Society for American Archaeology A
dramatic reappraisal of the Inka Empire through the lens of
Qullasuyu. The Inka conquered an immense area extending
across five modern nations, yet ...most English-language publications
on the Inka focus on governance in the area of modern Peru. This
volume expands the range of scholarship available in English by
collecting new and notable research on Qullasuyu, the largest of
the four quarters of the empire, which extended south from Cuzco
into contemporary Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile.
From the study of Qullasuyu arise fresh theoretical perspectives
that both complement and challenge what we think we know about the
Inka. While existing scholarship emphasizes the political and
economic rationales underlying state action, Rethinking the
Inka turns to the conquered themselves and reassesses imperial
motivations. The book's chapters, incorporating more than two
hundred photographs, explore relations between powerful local lords
and their Inka rulers; the roles of nonhumans in the social and
political life of the empire; local landscapes remade under Inka
rule; and the appropriation and reinterpretation by locals of Inka
objects, infrastructure, practices, and symbols. Written by some of
South America's leading archaeologists, Rethinking the
Inka is poised to be a landmark book in the field.
Ecologists have increasingly turned to history, including human history, to explain and manage modern ecosystems and landscapes. The imprint of past land use can persist even in seemingly pristine ...areas. Archaeology provides a long-term perspective on human actions and their environmental consequences that can contribute to conservation and restoration efforts. Case studies illustrate examples of the human history of seemingly pristine landscapes, forest loss and recovery, and the creation or maintenance of places that today are valued habitats. Finally, as archaeologists become more involved in research directed at contemporary environmental issues, they need to consider the potential uses and abuses of their findings in management and policy debates.
The Atacama Desert is among the driest places on Earth, yet ancient agricultural systems are present in the region. Here, we present a study of terraced agricultural soils in the high‐altitude ...eastern margin of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, mainly dating to the Late Intermediate Period (ca. 950–1400 AD) and Inka period (ca. 1400–1536 AD). Terraced fields were compartmentalized to distribute limited irrigation water originating mainly from springs. Natural soils used for agriculture are mostly Aridisols developed on Pleistocene alluvial fan terraces and hillslopes underlain by volcanic bedrock. One research objective is to evaluate long‐term soil change from agriculture. In this hyperarid climate, agriculture is only possible with irrigation, so natural soils on the same geomorphic surface adjacent to irrigated soils provide baseline data for assessing anthropogenic soil change. Data from soil profiles and surface transects indicate intentional soil change through terracing, removal of soil rock fragments, and probable fertilization. Agricultural soils have anthropogenic horizons ranging from 16 to 54 cm thick. Most agricultural soils have higher phosphorus levels, suggesting enrichment from fertilization. Changes in soil organic carbon and nitrogen are also evident. Unintentional anthropogenic soil change resulted from CaCO3 input through irrigation with calcareous spring water. Initial studies suggest that agriculture here was sustainable in the sense of conserving soils, and maintaining and possibly improving soil productivity over centuries.
Large-scale irrigation agriculture formed the economic backbone of civilizations on the north coast of Peru. Contrary to the notion that large systems required the guiding hand of the state, ...historical sources suggest that management was largely local and segmentary. At the same time, water and land are a potential source of economic and political power for state administrators who may intervene in the supervision and management of farming. The Pampa de Chaparrí, in the Lambayeque region, is an unusually well-preserved system of canals, fields, and settlements where the dynamics of water, land and politics can be observed. Systematic survey documented a Middle Sicán (A.D. 900-1100), Late Sicán (A.D. 1100-1375), Chimú (A.D. 1375-1460) and Inka (A.D. 1460-1532) occupation. During Middle and Late Sicán, settlement patterns reflect the segmentary organization described in historical accounts. With conquest by the Chimú and Inka Empires, state administrative centers were constructed, existing social groups were reorganized and communities and households were transformed. Thus, though local management is an effective and stable strategy for managing large irrigation systems, the wealth and power that these systems represent make them potential targets for more direct state control, with significant consequences for local inhabitants.
According to historical sources, the Inka relocated groups of craft specialists to provincial centers to manufacture goods for the state. Recent fieldwork in the Leche Valley on the north coast of ...Peru provides insights into the organization and technology of pottery production at these centers. While Inka style jars were added to their repertories, potters continued to manufacture vessels in local styles using local techniques. These results caution against a reliance on style in identifying products made in administered contexts, and question the equivalence of style with polity in the Inka provinces. They also highlight a need to critically evaluate Inka cultural policies and the significance of subject styles in the empire.
Massive yet elegantly executed masonry architecture and andenes (agricultural terraces) set against majestic and seemingly boundless Andean landscapes, roads built in defiance of rugged terrains, and ...fine textiles with orderly geometric designs—all were created within the largest political system in the ancient New World, a system headed, paradoxically, by a single, small minority group without wheeled vehicles, markets, or a writing system, the Inka. For some 130 years (ca. A.D. 1400 to 1533), the Inka ruled over at least eighty-six ethnic groups in an empire that encompassed about 2 million square kilometers, from the northernmost region of the Ecuador–Colombia border to northwest Argentina. The Inka Empire brings together leading international scholars from many complementary disciplines, including human genetics, linguistics, textile and architectural studies, ethnohistory, and archaeology, to present a state-of-the-art, holistic, and in-depth vision of the Inkas. The contributors provide the latest data and understandings of the political, demographic, and linguistic evolution of the Inkas, from the formative era prior to their political ascendancy to their post-conquest transformation. The scholars also offer an updated vision of the unity, diversity, and essence of the material, organizational, and symbolic-ideological features of the Inka Empire. As a whole, The Inka Empire demonstrates the necessity and value of a multidisciplinary approach that incorporates the insights of fields beyond archaeology and ethnohistory. And with essays by scholars from seven countries, it reflects the cosmopolitanism that has characterized Inka studies ever since its beginnings in the nineteenth century.
Food, Foraging, and Farming takes a historical and comparative look at food acquisition, production, and distribution and how we are tied to the land, plants and animals, and people that sustain us. ...By learning about food production in very different times and places, students learn to critically examine our current system with its deep but often hidden or obscured social, health, and environmental costs. The course was originally designed as a capstone for undergraduates in the Department of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico (UNM)–Albuquerque, and encompasses the different subfields of anthropology.
Throughout the course, ideas about heritage
Rethinking the Inka Frances M. Hayashida; Andrés Troncoso; Diego Salazar
Rethinking the Inka,
02/2022
Book Chapter
Extending from the capital of Cuzco toward the south, Qullasuyu was the largest of the four sectors of Tawantinsuyu, the Inka Empire of the Andes. It encompassed a diverse physical and social ...landscape that included parts of what is now southern Peru, Bolivia (and possibly Brazil just across the eastern border of Bolivia), northwestern Argentina, and Chile as far south as the Cachapoal Valley, south of Santiago (figure 1.1; Pärssinen 2015; Uribe and Sánchez 2016). Multiple lines of evidence—linguistic, genetic, and archaeological—indicate that Inka origins can be traced at least in part to Qullasuyu, specifically the southern shores
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