The discovery of human remains from the Lauricocha cave in the Central Andean highlands in the 1960's provided the first direct evidence for human presence in the high altitude Andes. The skeletons ...found at this site were ascribed to the Early to Middle Holocene and represented the oldest known population of Western South America, and thus were used in several studies addressing the early population history of the continent. However, later excavations at Lauricocha led to doubts regarding the antiquity of the site. Here, we provide new dating, craniometric, and genetic evidence for this iconic site. We obtained new radiocarbon dates, generated complete mitochondrial genomes and nuclear SNP data from five individuals, and re-analyzed the human remains of Lauricocha to revise the initial morphological and craniometric analysis conducted in the 1960's. We show that Lauricocha was indeed occupied in the Early to Middle Holocene but the temporal spread of dates we obtained from the human remains show that they do not qualify as a single contemporaneous population. However, the genetic results from five of the individuals fall within the spectrum of genetic diversity observed in pre-Columbian and modern Native Central American populations.
A partir de una tradición de estudios de los pueblos indígenas americanos que se remonta a Alexander von Humboldt y que en el Perú cuenta con personalidades como Johann Jakob von Tschudi y Ernst ...Middendorf, Max Uhle aparece en el horizonte de la historia de las ciencias como un notable continuador y un perspicaz innovador. Sus investigaciones de más de cuarenta años, de 1892 a 1933, particularmente en el ámbito andino, incluyendo Ecuador, Perú, Bolívia, el noroeste de Argentina y el centro-sur de Chile, estuvieron dedicadas a la lingüística y la etnografía, a la arqueología y a los procesos históricos de los pueblos prehispánicos. El artículo ofrece una visión de conjunto de la obra de Uhle, vinculando esos trabajos con la tradición germánica a la que pertenece, llama la intención sobre su propuesta interdisciplinaria y destaca la intencionalidad política que ese investigador atribuyó al quehacer en el campo de la historia prehispánica en el espacio sudamericano.
How can we achieve knowledge of the past of peoples who lived in South America before the arrival of the Europeans? Did they possess notions of historical consciousness in spite of the absence of ...written sources or are we confined to myths based on present memories or inventions of a past guided by political interests? This paper aims at answers for these questions by discussing little known contributions from the beginning of scientific work in the Americas (Uhle) and modern approaches in areas traditionally considered as devoid of historical spaces (Amazon). These approaches are based on the acceptance of early historicity that can be obtained by applying interdisciplinary, international, and comparative studies within scientific guidelines instead of politics. This is exemplified by the presentation of the experiences from two international symposia Pontificia Universidad Católica. These experiences resulted in the necessity of sustained discussions on empirical and theoretical advances towards the acceptance of a complex and dynamic pre-European past that seem to represent this past better than nationalisms which are used to «exotize» essentially unaltered pasts in order to legitimize the presence of modern national states.
Las etiquetas “andino” y, en menor grado, “amazónico” se caracterizan por simplificacionesesencialistas basadas en prejuicios políticos e indigenistas que se descubren comoinvenciones poco realistas ...y desprovistas de elementos de juicio sustentados, sobretodo en sus dimensiones históricas y prehistóricas. Desde perspectivas arqueológicas sepresenta un panorama distinto complejo, dinámico, multidireccional en historias longevasde desarrollos independientes y de intercomunicaciones de diferentes intensidades yalcances. Por tanto, deberían superarse supuestas fronteras culturales o de otro tipo parallegar a una especie de megahistoria que cubriría buena parte de Sudamérica.
¿Cómo se puede alcanzar un conocimiento del pasado de los pueblos que vivían en América del Sur antes de la llegada de los europeos? ¿Existen nociones de conciencia histórica pese a la ausencia de ...escritura o se trata de una mitificación basada en las memorias actuales o en invenciones de pasados guiados por intereses políticos? En el siguiente artículo se trata de buscar respuestas a estas preguntas al discutir enfoques poco conocidos del inicio de los estudios respectivos (Uhle) y modernos en áreas tradicionalmente poco consideradas como espacios históricos (Amazonía). Estos enfoques postulan una aceptación de historicidad que se puede obtener por medio de trabajos interdisciplinarios, internacionales y comparativos dentro de conceptos más científicos que políticos. Como ejemplo se presenta las experiencias obtenidas por la realización y publicación de dos simposios internacionales organizados por el autor en la Pontificia Universidad Católica. Estas experiencias apuntan hacia la necesidad de discusiones sostenidas sobre aportes empíricos y teóricos en foros que permitan el intercambio libre con el fin de avanzar hacia una aceptación del pasado pre-europeo dentro de la complejidad y dinámica que le caracteriza en vez de aceptar nacionalismos que enfatizan lo «exótico» y esencialmente inalterado de pasados que legitiman la presencia de los estados nacionales modernos.
Se presentan formas de memoria y se indaga sobre su relación con la historia, con el fin de aplicar estos conceptos a la forma de visiones del pasado de los incas. De este modo, se formulan niveles ...que ordenan el pasado en ciclos que vinculan el mundo de los dioses con los incas "históricos". La memoria es de importancia fundamental para consolidar el papel del gobernante y para preparar su futuro destino de ancestro. La ancestralización, por ende, es de relevancia fundamental para la legitimación del poder y de su perpetuación. En dos casos, Pisac y Sipán, se presentan formas de ancestralización del paisaje y de la corporalidad que demuestran facetas diferentes, cambios en la conceptualización y su relación con la élite. En este sentido, la memoria se forma con las élites y comparte su ocaso, pero retiene o reutiliza memorias previas Palabras clave : conceptos de memoria; conciencia histórica; historiografía andina; ancestralidad; Pisac; Sipán. Abstract This paper enquires how different types of memory relate to history, and applies resulting concepts to reach a greater understanding of the way the Incas might have envisioned their past. A series of levels are formulated in this manner, ordering the past into cycles that link the world of the gods with the "historical" Incas. Memory is fundamental to the reinforcement of the ruler and his future role as ancestor. Hence, `ancestralization' is basic to the legitimation and perpetuation of power. The cases of Pisac and Sipan reveal forms of ancestralizing the landscape and corporality that are differently faceted, with conceptual differences and their links to the elite. Memory comes into being with elites and shares their downfall, but it always retains or reuses parts of previous memories Palabras clave : concepts of memory; historical consciousness; Andean historiography; ancestrality; Pisac; Sipan.
Se presentan formas de memoria y se indaga sobre su relación con la historia, con el fin de aplicar estos conceptos a la forma de visiones del pasado de los incas. De este modo, se formulan niveles ...que ordenan el pasado en ciclos que vinculan el mundo de los dioses con los incas "históricos". La memoria es de importancia fundamental para consolidar el papel del gobernante y para preparar su futuro destino de ancestro. La ancestralización, por ende, es de relevancia fundamental para la legitimación del poder y de su perpetuación. En dos casos, Pisac y Sipán, se presentan formas de ancestralización del paisaje y de la corporalidad que demuestran facetas diferentes, cambios en la conceptualización y su relación con la élite. En este sentido, la memoria se forma con las élites y comparte su ocaso, pero retiene o reutiliza memorias previas. This paper enquires how different types of memory relate to history, and applies resulting concepts to reach a greater understanding of the way the Incas might have envisioned their past. A series of levels are formulated in this manner, ordering the past into cycles that link the world of the gods with the "historical" Incas. Memory is fundamental to the reinforcement of the ruler and his future role as ancestor. Hence, 'ancestralization' is basic to the legitimation and perpetuation of power. The cases of Pisac and Sipan reveal forms of ancestralizing the landscape and corporality that are differently faceted, with conceptual differences and their links to the elite. Memory comes into being with elites and shares their downfall, but it always retains or reuses parts of previous memories.
Archeologists have always considered the beginnings of Andean civilization from c.13,000 to 6,000 years ago to be important in terms of the appearance of domesticated plants and animals, social ...differentiation, and a sedentary lifestyle, but there is more to this period than just these developments. During this period, the spread of crop production and other technologies, kinship-based labor projects, mound-building, and population aggregation formed ever-changing conditions across the Andes. From Foraging to Farming in the Andes proposes a new and more complex model for understanding the transition from hunting and gathering to cultivation. It argues that such developments evolved regionally, were fluid and uneven, and were subject to reversal. This book develops these arguments from a large body of archaeological evidence, collected over 30 years in two valleys in northern Peru, and then places the valleys in the context of recent scholarship studying similar developments around the world.
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.
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