Aruba (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
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Much of the research done on weaning practices among ancient societies is directed toward biological aspects of the weaning process. Some researchers have, for example, attempted to identify a ‘natural’ weaning age determined by human primate origins. Surveys of weaning age among modern and ethnohistoric populations, however, demonstrate that weaning age is highly variable across diverse economies and categories of social organization. This pattern (or lack of pattern) suggests that a range of...
Social and Physical Landscape Changes at Buen Suceso (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Finding Community in the Past and Present through the 2022 PARCC Field School at Buen Suceso, Ecuador" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Four seasons of excavation at the Valdivia site of Buen Suceso allow for a preliminary reconstruction of an occupational history of the site. Areas with likely ritual significance point to social changes at the site that demonstrate the unique nature of the Buen Suceso community. This...
Social Differentiation and Hierarchy at a Central Place in the Eastern Andes of Ecuador (2017)
This paper focuses on the development of a central place in the Quijos Valley, Eastern Andes of Ecuador. Based on an intensive survey of the site complemented by small excavations, I offer a spatial, demographic, social and economic characterization of this central place with the goal of discussing and contrasting views on the development of social differentiation, hierarchy, and centralized political authority in ancient chiefdoms. Contextualizing this in a body of regional settlement pattern...
Social Dynamics of the Past through the Body of the Camelid: Utilizing Evidence from Late Moche Peru (2017)
Assessing social dynamics in the past through archaeometry is more readily possible by constructing questions that more actively engage with issues beyond subsistence and technology. As archaeologists we are capable of reaching these higher-level interpretations of the past. In this paper, the use of camelid age profiles will bring insights into the kinds of value placed on the camelid body and the kinds of constrains and affordances that camelid herds would have placed on the Late Moche...
Social Inequality and Polity Organization in Prehispanic Southern Andean Populations (Argentina and Bolivia, 500 BCE–1500 CE) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "To Have and Have Not: A Progress Report on the Global Dynamics of Wealth Inequality (GINI) Project" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this communication we will focus on inequality and the forms of social organization in those Andean societies that developed in northwestern Argentina and southern Bolivia during the Formative (500 BCE–600 CE), Regional Development (1200–1450 CE) and Late (1450–1550 CE) periods. Our...
Social inequality as reflected in dietary and mobility practices of South American maritime chiefdom societies: Contextual and isotopic analysis of burials excavated in La Tolita, Ecuador (2017)
This project explores social inequality in relation to dietary and mobility practices of maritime Pacific polities in La Tolita (600 BC-200 AD) of Ecuador and Colombia. The research question driving this project aims to identify: How is social inequality reflected in the diet and spatial mobility as practiced by maritime chiefdom societies through time and space? A cross-site comparison between the dietary and mobility practices of individuals buried in mounds associated with the chiefly class...
Social Interaction and Exchange Networks in Eastern Honduras: Late Classic-Early Postclassic Period (AD 600-1000) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Pre-Columbian Cultures of Honduras after AD 900" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ceramics have been the most reliable indicator of social interactions in eastern Honduras. However, these material indicators have also been described sometimes as being rather homogeneous throughout the region. On the other hand, some scholars point out intraregional variations regarding eastern Honduran ceramic assemblages and what...
Social Memory and the Development of Monumental Architecture in the Southern Jequetepeque Valley, Peru (2017)
Numerous theoretical concepts associated with social memory have been employed by archaeologists working throughout the world as a means of explaining continuities and discontinuities in the archaeological record. These social memory-based approaches are varied and include specific avenues of inquiry such as how social memories were actively manipulated for political gain; the role played by monumental architecture in the coalescing of shared memories; and the interrelationship between social...
Social Memory and the Re-Use of Archaeological Ruins: Preliminary Insights from a Chimú-Inka Elite Gravesite at Samanco, Nepeña Valley, Peru ca. 1470-1534 CE (2017)
Social memory and ancestor veneration are recurring themes throughout Andean belief systems. Yet, the relationship between ancient Andeans and the archaeological ruins they encountered remains an underexplored research topic. Recent fieldwork at Samanco, an Early Horizon coastal settlement in the Nepeña Valley, shows intriguing mortuary practices of reutilizing site ruins as cemeteries. After an abandonment hiatus over several centuries, Samanco’s ruins of stone enclosures were reutilized as a...
Social Networks and Community Features: Identifying Neighborhoods in a World War II Japanese American Incarceration Center (2021)
This is an abstract from the "People and Space: Defining Communities and Neighborhoods with Social Network Analysis" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Socially defined neighborhoods develop through frequent face-to-face interactions among residents and their self-identification as neighbors. Archaeological evidence of neighborhoods is usually dependent on artifact frequencies, boundaries, or shared features. This paper explores how effectively...
Social Transition at Tumilaca la Chimba: A Bioarchaeological Analysis of Terminal Middle Horizon and Late Intermediate Period Mortuary Contexts (2017)
The centuries following Tiwanaku state decline circa AD 1000 were characterized by political fragmentation and social flux. In the Moquegua Valley, Peru, the first 250 years following the state’s demise are referred to as the terminal Middle Horizon (AD 1000-1250), a period during which considerable cultural continuity with Tiwanaku is evident despite political collapse. The following Late Intermediate Period (LIP) (AD 1250-1450) is marked by major changes in material culture, domestic...
Societal Boundaries and Material Production: Stylistic and Spatial Analyses of Ceramics from Late Intermediate Sites in the Huamanga Province of Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Social actors interact with their material environment rather than simply reacting to it; they manipulate the meanings of, or meaningfully constitute, material culture according to their own needs and interests. As such, people use material culture to communicate and negotiate self-identity, as well as group affiliation and dissociation, and leaders can...
The Socio-economic Dynamics of Iron Production in Viking Age Northern Iceland (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SANNA v2.2: Case Studies in the Social Archaeology of the North and North Atlantic" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Understanding how an agricultural society organized the production of iron and the trade of farming implements allows us to describe how they managed natural resources and non-agricultural activities as a community. In the North Atlantic region known for its ephemeral material culture, slags and other...
Socio-spatiality of an Antiguan Plantationscape (2018)
Caribbean Sugar production during the 18th and 19th centuries expanded rapidly, fueled by increasing proletariat consumption across the globe. In response, sugar planters in 18th century Antigua, West Indies, deforested over 90 percent of the landscape, carving the island into proto-industrialized plantations defined by sugarcane monoculture and labored by enslaved Africans. New World plantation organization was once ascribed as a balance between profit and surveillance: simultaneously...
Sociocultural Changes in Cajamarca Region during the Early Intermediate Period and the Middle Horizon (2017)
In this paper we discuss the chronology of the Cajamarca culture of the Peruvian Northern Highlands to consider the social dynamics during the Early Intermediate Period and the Middle Horizon. We present the excavation data from the two archaeological sites, Complejo Turístico Baños del Inca and El Palacio that correspond to the period from the final part of the Early Cajamarca Phase to the Middle Cajamarca Phase. The Cajamarca culture during the Middle Cajamarca Phase A (A.D. 600-750) presents...
Sociocultural Trends and Innovations along 13,000 Years of Plant Use in the Atacama Desert, Chile (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Histories of Human-Nature Interactions: Use, Management, and Consumption of Plants in Extreme Environments" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Atacama Desert, plant resources are scarce and unevenly distributed due to water availability. However, by compiling all the available archaeobotanical evidences since the late Pleistocene (ca. 13,000 BP) until the Inka epoch (ca. 450 BP) in a single database, we demonstrate...
Soil Conservation Past and Present: A Study of Archaeological Raised Fields in North Coastal Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Humble Houses to Magnificent Monuments: Papers in Honor of Jerry D. Moore" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Casma Valley, on the central-northern coast of Peru, is home to a relatively unique system of raised agricultural fields. Relicts of prehispanic culture, these fields are unusually well preserved. The most significant research on these fields was completed by Jerry Moore, along with excavations of the nearby...
Solar Architecture and the Making of Inca Sacredness (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sunlight has long been curated within religious spaces to imbue them with a sense of sacredness and trigger a spiritual response among worshippers. The Coricancha was considered the most sacred temple in the Inca empire. Located in the capital of Cuzco and dedicated to the Sun, this religious center exhibited a simple design in its form and layout. A...
Solutions for Stabilizing and Caring for Organic Archaeological Collections (2018)
Care of archaeological materials should begin in the field. Care and stabilizing of objects, if started in the field, will greatly increase the objects research and exhibit potential when it finally finds a home in a museum. How do you identify problems and then what do you do? Proper care and stabilization of objects can and should be a priority for all object users—excavators, lab analysts, museum staff, and researchers. In this paper, object care, conservation environments and stabilizing...
Some Remarks on Early Social Complexity in the Central Andes (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Dedication, Collaboration, and Vision, Part II: Papers in Honor of Tom D. Dillehay" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The well-known protohistoric Inca Empire of the late fifteenth century had achieved a remarkable degree of social complexity preceded by a similar expansive state some 500 years earlier. The lack of pre-European writing systems, however, obscures access to these earlier social formations. Thus, the social...
Some Thoughts on "Clovis": Where Were They From, Where Did They Go, Where Do They Fit in the Peopling of the Western Hemisphere (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This talk will present some opinions I have about Clovis - woven with facts to convince the skeptical. I will define what I mean by "Clovis", show what some others mean by "Clovis", and add some additional ways to think about "Clovis" in both synchronic and diachronic directions. I will present what I think about its origins and about where we might be finding...
The Sonorous Univers of the Jama-Coaque Culture: A Historical-Ecological Approach to Past Soundscapes (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Musical creation, starting with the intonation of defined sounds through the construction of sonorous artifacts, can be understood as the way in which humans give a voice to the abstract of their soul. Consequently, human soundscapes, constitute an integrated and holistic reflection culture. Therefore, following the concept of religious routinization...
Sources of Variations in Breastfeeding and Weaning Practices among Caribbean Populations (2017)
Breastfeeding in humans is a biocultural process shaped by complex interactions of beliefs about health and nutrition, construction of childhood and parental identities, religious values, and lifestyle. While some studies have stated that the type of subsistence does not determine weaning ages in a population, these factors could have affected weaning food choices. This paper analyzes carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in bone collagen of four pre-colonial Caribbean populations: Paso del Indio...
The South Coast and Yungas as Seen from the Highlands during the Middle Horizon (2018)
In this presentation we will discuss different non-local materials recovered from the Wari site of Conchopata and the imperial capital of Huari to better understand the interactions between costa, sierra, and selva during the Middle Horizon. The mapping of the origins of exotic material recovered at these sites will help us understand and better characterize how people in these regions were interacting with each other. By exploring least-cost pathways, among other criteria, we will make...
The South Gap Site: A 9,000-Year-Old Submerged Hunting Site in Lake Huron with Far Reaching Connections (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Liquid Landscapes: Recent Developments in Submerged Landscape Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The South Gap site is at a depth of 105 feet beneath Lake Huron on a submerged landscape referred to as the Alpena Amberly Ridge (AAR). Once exposed as dry land between 11,000 and 8000 cal BP, the AAR provided a causeway for migrating animals, such as caribou, to cross the Lake Huron basin. The landform also...