South America (Geographic Keyword)
126-150 (1,346 Records)
This poster examines belt fragments recovered from the mortuary site of Uraca in the Majes Valley, Arequipa, Peru. The textiles utilized in this analysis were recovered during excavations in Sector I to the south, where interments were placed on a high bluff, and Sector II to the north, where interments were placed closer to the valley bottom. These sectors are not only defined by their geographical separation but also the variation in artifact and skeletal assemblages present between the two...
The Berkeley Schools of Geography and Andean Studies (2018)
This paper explores the legacy of the "Berkeley School of Andean Studies" and its relations to the eponymous "Berkeley School of Geography." We examine the relationships between the key founding figures of both schools including John H. Rowe and Carl O. Sauer, but also their students, disciples, and other scholars influenced by their seminal research. Through a review of the interactions between members of the two schools, as well as academic genealogies and writings, our paper has three main...
Between the puna and the valley: an approximation to local communities-Inca state interactions through road network analysis in Jauja, central Peru (2017)
Research on the Inca occupation in the conquered territories usually addressed the topic from a perspective that has been built on data obtained from state and local sites. The case of Jauja in the central highlands of Peru has not been the exception and much of our current knowledge about the Inca occupation of the region is based on information coming from indigenous settlements and state facilities. This paper proposes an alternative and complementary insight, trying to reach an approach to...
Beyond forgeries: Peruvian neoantiquities and their transnational trajectories, 19th-20th centuries (WGF - Post-PhD Research Grant) (2022)
This resource is an application for a Post-PhD Research Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation. This project examines the dynamics of the Peruvian antiquities market between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through the study of collections of so-called forgeries housed in five museums in Germany. To do so, I rename these works neo-antiquities, a term that better fits their position as objects that engaged the emergent market of Peruvian antiques and souvenirs at this time. To...
Beyond Monumentality: Looking Past the Pyramids of Cochasquí, Ecuador (2017)
The northern highland Ecuadorian site of Cochasquí is one of the country’s most respected archaeological resources. Investigations by archaeologists Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño (1910s), Max Uhle (1932), and Udo Oberem (1964-65) had principally focused on this Late Period site’s highly visible quadrangular earthen pyramids, which can reach heights of approximately 20 meters. The archaeological and public fascination with the visibly monumental has long diverted attention away from between and beyond...
Beyond the Cultural Pale?: Contextualizing El Morro de Tulcán within Regional Earthen Mound Development in the Northern Andes (2016)
El Morro de Tulcán is a massive earthen mound located near Popayán in southern Colombia. This structure towers over the surrounding landscape with a height of 50 meters at its highest point. This pyramid is an anomaly within the surrounding cultural vicinity, where tolas (i.e., earthen mounds) are a rare form of construction throughout much of Colombia. The closest region of tola development is in high concentrations in northern Ecuador, amongst the Caranquis and Yumbos. Research at El Morro de...
Beyond the Marañon: A Consideration of Cajamarca's Changing Relationships with Chachapoyas societies (2016)
This paper offers observations regarding the distribution of Cajamarca fine, painted kaolin-ware pottery recovered to the east, across the Marañon canyon in the Chachapoyas region cloud forests. Cajamarca’s complex societies lay at the center of expansive interaction networks during pre-Hispanic times. The clearest evidence of Cajamarca's long-distance communication networks consists of its signature fine, painted kaolin-ware bowls discovered in sacred and mortuary contexts across the Central...
Big Plans for Small Pots: Development of an Organic Residue Analysis Protocol for Ancient Wari Miniature Wares (2017)
Excavations from the Monqachayaq sector of the site of Huari uncovered an impressive burial that contained over 300 miniature vessels. The vessels were offered by a people known as the Wari (c. A.D. 600 – 1100), an ancient culture thought to be responsible for one of the Andes first great empires. Even more remarkable, the vessels retained the desiccated remains of their contents. The anthropological insight that can be gained has direct implications for a better understanding of Wari practices...
A Bioarchaeological Approach to Ychsma Regional Interactions: Stable Oxygen and Radiogenic Strontium Isotopes and Late Intermediate Period Mobility on the Central Peruvian Coast (2016)
Archaeological and ethnohistoric evidence indicates that, for the Inca Empire and the Spanish Viceroyalty, the Rimac and Lurin Valleys on central Peruvian coast served as a key regional hub for religious and administrative activities. The nature of regional interactions prior to Inca imperial influence in this area, however, remains unclear. Well-known historical narratives claim populations from the adjacent Huarochirí highlands defeated coastal Ychsma populations for agricultural land, but...
Bioarchaeological Research at Castillo de Huarmey, Peru (2017)
The Wari imperial mausoleum, discovered in 2012-13 at the site of Castillo de Huarmey, Peru brought to light remains of 64 individuals buried within the main chamber underneath and additional seven in the contexts directly associated with the mausoleum. The upper layers of the building also yielded a collection of human and animal remains. The collection of human remains brings a unique set of data for bioarchaeologists. The research performed so far include standard analyses like taphonomy,...
A Bioarchaeological Survey of Skeletal Tuberculosis in Prehistoric Southern Peru (2017)
Recent studies of pre-Columbian Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) genomes identify pinnipeds as a source of human tuberculosis in South America (Bos et al. 2014). These results raise questions regarding the timing of this zoonotic transfer and the subsequent human host adaptation and dissemination of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Here we present a survey of skeletal tuberculosis throughout the Osmore Drainage of southern Peru, where the pinniped to human "jump" had occurred by ~AD 1000....
Bioarchaeology in Coastal Ecuador (2016)
Bioarcheology is slowly being integrated into research programs in Ecuador. Ubelaker’s 1981 groundbreaking excavation and analysis of the Ayalán Cemetery, along the southern coast, was the first attempt at incorporating bioarchaeology in this region; however, since then, relatively little work has been done. We seek to investigate human skeletal remains found at different archaeological sites in the Manabí province. The sample comprises diverse burial type, age, and contextual information. Some...
Bioarchaeology of the Chincha Kingdom: Life history patterns in a chullpa population from the Late Intermediate Period and Late Horizon mid-Chincha Valley, Peru (2015)
This paper considers evidence for population health and lifestyle in the Chincha polity during the Late Intermediate Period (LIP) (c. 1000-1400 AD) and Late Horizon (LH) (c. 1400-1532 AD). Beginning with the Chroniclers, scholars have described the Chincha as a large complex society with population organized into distinct economic sectors (e.g., coastal fishermen, merchant core, and inland agriculturalists). Previous archaeological studies have demonstrated evidence for fishermen and artisans in...
A Biocultural Assessment of Gene Flow, the Andes and the Himalayas (2016)
Anthropological population geneticists often attempt to explain the pattern and distribution of human genetic variation globally. Central to this pursuit is understanding the degree to which cultural, biological, and geographic variation impact migration of people, and the genetic traits (alleles) they bear. Gene flow, the transfer of alleles from one population to another, flows in the path of least resistance. All other things being equal, this means that topology creates resistance, and we...
Biocultural Evolution of the Oral Complex in Coastal Atacama and the Interplay of Selection, Plasticity, and Population Histories (2017)
Indigenous groups have inhabited and exploited the coastal valleys of the Atacama Desert since Paleoindian times. Contact with the altiplano began early on but marine-based diets were eventually supplemented by agricultural adaptations as influence turned to population movement over time. We propose that the oral complex was likely subject to some degree of selection early in the sequence in response to dietary demands, but would have been relaxed as diet diversified and softened. This trend...
Biography and Symbolism of Sicán Painted Textiles: First Approximation (2015)
Simple cotton cloths primed as canvases and painted with complex imagery are the rarest group of fiber arts found in the Andes. Long-term excavations of Middle Sicán (900-1100 CE) elite cemeteries at the site of Sicán on the North Coast of Peru, however, have shown that high quantities of these paintings, often in polychrome and over 10m in length, decorated the interior surfaces of elite tombs. In this paper we present evidence for their manufacture and use, as well as approaches to preserving...
Birthing amid violence: Obstetric reform and legacies of conflict in Medellín, Colombia (WGF - Dissertation Fieldwork Grant) (2025)
This resource is an application for a Dissertation Fieldwork Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation. This project explores the challenges of bringing life into a context of death. Colombia has suffered one of the longest internal armed conflicts, and Medellín has been one of its most affected territories. I am interested in how multiple scales of violence are understood, experienced, and/or resisted in birth contexts in Medellín. Obstetric violence has been used in various Latin American...
Blade production at El Sosiego locality, southern Patagonia, Argentina. (2016)
Evidence for blade production has been found in the Santa Cruz River basin, with chronologies between ca. 1900 and 1100 years BP, although not all the cases gexhibit the same characteristics. Differential frequencies in blade numbers have been used to argue that the Santa Cruz River was a frontier between human populations, but there is also variability in knapping methods. I will focus on El Sosiego locality, which includes an archaeological site dating to ca. 1900 yr BP and surface materials...
Bodies of Technology: Dress in Colonial Peru (2015)
The textiles of Magdalena de Cao Viejo provide an opportunity to study technological changes in one coastal Andean settlement between the late 16th and the early 18th century. As a colonial reducción, Magdalena was home to people of both Andean and Spanish descent. Among the more than 3,000 textile artifacts are examples of cloth woven with pre-Columbian methods and indigenous fibers, fabrics created on European-style floor looms, and examples which combine Andean and European techniques and...
THE BODY AND THE ANCESTOR: COMPARING EVIDENCE OF INDIVIDUAL BIOGRAPHY AND SOCIAL REPRESENTATION AT PARACAS NECROPOLIS (2015)
Until recently, our understanding of Paracas Necropolis was based on objects divorced form their contextual data. Research in archives and museum collections has allowed us to re-link object with context, and a complete restudy has been carried out for some gravelots. In these cases, systematic bioanthropological observations have provided more reliable and more detailed information on the persons at the center of the mortuary bundle. Age and biological sex have been re-evaluated based on...
The Body as Machine, the Body as Commodity, and the Body as a Temple: Treatments of Enslaved African Laborers on Buena Muerte Sugar Estates in Cañete, Peru (2017)
From its arrival in Lima in 1709 until the abolition of slavery in 1854, La Orden de la Buena Muerte was among the largest slaveholders in the sugar industry of Cañete, Peru. Moreover, as an order explicitly founded to oversee the physical and spiritual well-being of marginalized communities, the Buena Muerte also played a critical role in public health programs throughout the region. These activities were grounded in fundamentally different, and often opposing, perspectives towards the...
Bone Modification Pattern Produced by the South American Carnivore Lesser Grison (*Galictis cuja) (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study is part of an actualistic taphonomic project designed to characterize the bone modification patterns generated by native South American carnivores. We present the results of the bone modifications (skeletal representation, breakage, and tooth marks) produced by a captive lesser grison (Mustelidae: *Galictis cuja) that was fed 10 wild guinea pigs...
Bonin Site: a circular village on Southern Brazilian Highlands? (2017)
Bonin site is one of many pit house villages located in Santa Catarina state, southern Brazilian highlands. It has been excavated since 2011. In this paper, we aim to present new data on pottery analysis, chronology, and spatial analysis which are suggesting a village plan organized in a circular shape. Dated from 13th to 17th centuries this village has 23 pit structures, many of them used as pit ovens, filled with basalt rocks and ceramic vessels. Micro-botanical remains analysis reveals the...
Borderlands in the Amazon forest: can we draw boundaries? (2015)
Amazonian occupations from 2500 BP to contact have been characterized into expansive traditions based on ceramic vessels. Meanwhile, ethnographic records point to diverse ethnic groups residing across the basin. Seeking variables that may be associated with pre-columbian cultural diversity we explore a possible intersection between groups, an area located at the headwaters of five tributaries to the Negro and Amazon Rivers. Archaeological data deriving from analyses of settlement structure,...
The bravery and beauty within: Skeletal analysis of the ancient Chachapoya people at Kuelap (2015)
In early 17th century historical descriptions, Garcilaso de la Vega describes the Chachapoya people of Peru as "very brave", "the men well-formed and the women extremely beautiful". While the archaeological remains cannot address the veracity of these statements, the analysis of the skeletal remains from important Chachapoya complexes, such as Kuelap, provide the only direct means of reconstructing a biological profile of these ancient people, including aspects of their physical morphology,...