Rejection and Reinvention: a diachronic perspective on ritual and collapse in the south central Andes

Summary

Scholarship on Tiwanaku (AD 600-1000) emphasizes the ceremonial nature of its capital city and the role of ritual practice in incorporating diverse groups as the state’s influence expanded across the south central Andes. Although debate continues about its cause, recent research indicates that the Tiwanaku state’s political collapse played out over several centuries. In this paper, I draw on data spanning that period of fragmentation to take a diachronic perspective on the ways in which ritual, which had been so tightly intertwined with state politics and elite authority, was impacted following collapse. Examining both community ceremonial activity and funerary rites I propose that, during the height of the Tiwanaku state, ritual practice played an important role in the shifting socio-political landscape brought about by collapse. In the short term (AD 1000-1250), many Tiwanaku rituals were maintained but subtle shifts in funerary rites and the resituating of collective ceremonies reveal how populations confronted intra and inter community tensions. I then examine the longer term rituals (post AD 1250), and explore why Tiwanaku collective ceremonial practice ultimately disappeared from the archaeological record, but elements of funerary ritual endured.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Ritual during Periods of Decline, Collapse, and Regeneration in Archaic States

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15215