South America (Geographic Keyword)
1,251-1,275 (1,291 Records)
This paper traces the gradual acquisition of increasingly complex mental and haptic operations as a girl learns to weave in the Andes. She starts early with fingertip ‘synaesthetic’ knowledge of fleece thickness and quality as she prepares raw materials and spins them, and the mental-visual knowledge of counting herd animals in her pasturing duties. She passes on to the visual recognition of selection and counting patterns in simple crossed-warp weaves, in belt straps, and then to the...
Viracocha’s Vulcanism: The Cultural Biography of a Volcano (2016)
The paper uses archaeological, historical, ethnographic and geological approaches in an investigation of a small volcano in the department of Cuzco, Peru. Kinsich’ata erupted around 10,000 years ago, but its presence in the landscape is attributed to the animating deity Viracocha in an origin myth that ties Kinsich’ata into a wider narrative cycle locating the social order within the experienced landscape. Kinsich’ata’s eruption disrupted the landscape, altering the path of the river Vilcanota...
Visually Linking the Ritual and the Quotidian at Tiwanaku, AD 500-1100 (2017)
In this paper, I examine ceramic vessels, primarily serving wares, from the site of Tiwanaku, the preeminent city in the Central Andes between AD 500 and 1100, in order to examine the political effects of visual media in the ancient Andes. The paper’s empirical focal point is a comparison of ceramics recovered from the monumental core and from a residential sector at Tiwanaku. My analysis is based on both attribute and iconographic data I collected during fieldwork that sought to examine the...
VIVIR Y MORIR EN TIBANICA, REFLEXIONES SOBRE EL PODER Y EL ESPACIO EN UNA ALDEA MUISCA TARDÍA DE LA SABANA DE BOGOTÁ (2016)
This paper studies the relation between feasts and other issues that are traditionally related the power of Muisca chiefs in their communities. The research question deals with the linkage between different dimensions of the social stratification in the La the Muisca site of Tibanica, including: feasting itself, health, kinship and nutrition. It is argued that there is no lineal relation between such variables, and that Muisca social organization is best understood from a multidimensional and...
A Wake of Change: Investigating Biocultural Interaction During the Early Colonial Period in the Central Andes, Peru (2017)
Burial practice in the Central Andes was transmitted continuously from the Middle Horizon (AD 700-AD 1000) onward, if not earlier in some areas, reflecting an agreed-upon understanding of Andean social identity throughout time. However, when the Spanish colonized the Andes, they drastically altered this continuity, forcing indigenous populations to bury their dead under the Church in idealized Catholic tradition. This sudden change in burial practice ruptured Andean identity as indigenous...
Walls Speak: Architectural "Neighborhoods" in Late Intermediate Period Peru (2015)
In the Yanamarka Valley in central Peru, the Late Intermediate Period saw dramatic changes. Whole villages moved from the valley floors to dense, defensible hilltop settlements, and were still living there when the Incas colonized this region a century later. The remote locations of many of these sites – both those forcibly abandoned under Inca rule, and those which continued on into the early Colonial Period – mean that numerous domestic round houses, storage spaces, patio walls and pathways...
Wares in moving: people, technology and political issues in Northwest Argentina (2015)
Results obtained from fabric analysis using thin-section microscopy (TSM) and various other analytical strategies (e.g. Raman micro spectroscopy, FTIR, XRD –microX ray diffraction- XRF, SEM-EDAX, and INAA) provide insights into production technology and the provenance of selected pottery sample from Prehispanic archaeological sites in Northwestern (NW) Argentina, North of Chile, and Bolivia (AD 900-1530). Iconographic and morphological analyses sustain the idea of interregional contacts that...
Wari Ceramic Production in the Heartland and Provinces (2016)
Between 500 and 600 AD, the first expansive state of the central highlands of Peru emerged in the Ayacucho Basin. This state, known as Wari after its capital city located in the same region, established far flung colonies covering much of the mountainous region of modern day Peru. Research in the heartland sites of Conchopata and Wari and in the provincial sites of Cerros Baul and Mejia have yielded new insights into the economic production of the early imperial state, including significant new...
Wari funerary contexts: An elite funerary chamber in Cerro de Oro, Cañete Valley (2015)
Evidence of looted tombs from Conchopata and Huari -the capital of Wari- have allowed archaeologists to identify up to three formal types of funerary structures. Researchers also point out that variants of these types of funerary enclosures identified at both sites might have held local chiefs and provincial governors. Evidence of such elite Wari funerary contexts has also been found in Espítiru Pampa, in the high jungle of Vilcabamba, and Batan Urqo, in Cusco, among others. Although the...
Wari Imperial Presence in Cajamarca: A view from Yamobamba (2016)
The Wari empire built at least two main centers in the Cajamarca region as part of its expansion to different regions of the Central Andes. One of them, Yamobamba, 25 km southeast on the road to Huamachuco, presents an architectural pattern that corresponds to Wari canons, including square patios, narrow corridors, and peripheral galleries. In particular, its distribution, size, and orientation show a strong resemblance to Jincamocco (Ayacucho), almost 900 km away. Recent research at Yamobamba...
Wari-Style Khipus from El Castillo de Huarmey (2017)
Archaeological evidence suggests that khipus—devices made of wrapped and knotted cords—were used by people living in the Wari Empire at least as early as Middle Horizon 1B. These Wari-style khipus, like their later, more famous, Inka descendants, likely carried and conveyed information using color and knots. Wari khipus differ from Inka khipus, however, in many respects including their use of colorful wrapping to make bands and patterns to convey information. Wari-style khipus survive in far...
Water, mines and wak’a at Belen valley in the highlands of Arica: the Inca making of a central place within the Andean transect of Arica and Parinacota (18°S) (2017)
Located on the edge of the Atacama Desert at the foot of the Carangas Altiplano, the Belén Valley witnessed substantial construction of imperial infrastructures during the late pre-Hispanic period. The Inca occupation was mainly related to agriculture, metallurgy and a sanctuary. The Belén Valley contains, in fact, the most important water resources in the upper basin of Azapa, copper and tin mines and an important mountain summit, which formed both economic and symbolic resources of special...
Weaving people and places: A long-term term perspective on obsidian circulation and social value in NW Argentina (2015)
The south-central Andes have a very rich record of long-distance circulation of things, animals, and people, the origins of which can be traced to the earliest hunting-gathering societies that occupied the territory ca 9600BP. We summarize the available information on obsidian circulation resulting from nearly three decades of research in the area, with a particular focus on the Calchaquí valleys area of north western Argentina (NWA) from early sedentary settlements until the Inca...
The Weeping Eye Motif (1959)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
Western Patagonia subsistence strategies: zooarchaeological studies of marine hunter-fisher-gatherers of the Chonos Archipelago, Chile (2016)
The Chonos archipelago (43°50’-46°50’S) at the western Patagonian channels of Chile was peopled by marine hunter gatherers known as Chonos. Archaeological occupation spans from 6260 cal years BP unto the 18th century. Recently the archaeological record has been described and characterized through surveys, test pits and systematic excavations in different parts of the region. This work presents a first synthesis of faunal resource exploitation for a range of islands, considering archaeological...
WGF - Wadsworth International Fellowship to Aid Training in Anthropology at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2018)
This resource is an application for the Wadsworth International Fellowship from the Wenner-Gren Foundation. This Wadsworth International Fellowship is to aid training in Anthropology at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
What Once Was…: Taphonomical processes and their implications for understanding Tiwanaku funerary practices and social identities (2015)
Archaeological investigations into group affiliation and status, gender and other social identities are often based on human burials and their grave goods. Once deposited burials become subject to a series of cultural and natural taphonomic processes that alter the material record. The systematic recovery of over 200 provincial Tiwanaku burials from the Middle Horizon Period (A.D.500-1000) settlement of Omo M10 in the arid Moquegua valley (southern Peru) presents a compelling case study for...
What’s in your ancient chicha?: Ethnoarchaeology and organic residue analysis (2015)
Ethnoarchaeological chicha brewing was conducted on modern ceramic sherd samples for organic residue analysis. The goal was to identify botanical biomarkers that can evidence the use of Schinus molle L., Erythroxylaceae coca, and Echinopsis pachanoi (San Pedro cactus) for ancient brewing in the Middle Horizon (MH) era (c. 600-1100 CE). There is strong evidence that during this period socio-political influence was inexorably linked to the ability to provide chicha in exchange for labor, goods,...
What’s that mound? Answers from interdisciplinary approach (2015)
Modern archaeology must diversify its scientific approaches. First, it is essential to get various viewpoints and different scales to understand better the artifact. Moreover, the interdisciplinary methodology improves considerably the interpretation. The Amazonian raised fields study is a good example of such multiple scientific approaches. While raised field agriculture is no longer widely practiced today, it was quite widespread in the past. These structures are frequently found on the coast...
When Archaeology Meets History: Documenting the Conquest and Transition Period at Pachacamac, Peru. (2017)
Traditional accounts of the conquest of Peru are well known and universally accepted: in 1535, Francisco Pizarro – who had arrived two years earlier – decided to create a new capital in the neighbouring Rimac river valley, which would one day become the current city of Lima. In order to achieve this, Pizarro forcibly displaced all the contemporary inhabitants of Pachacamac, leaving this major Inka pilgrimage site completely abandoned. However, new finds recovered during the 2016 excavations at...
When Technological Analysis Becomes a Setback: The Case of the Points in the Interior of São Paulo State, Brazil (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Historically, the shift from the study of form to the study of techniques was guided by the transition from the Cultural History approach to the New Archeology. This theoretical readjustment was incorporated into Brazilian archeology decades later, strongly impacting the way that the collections was studied. Today the reality is that, although lithic...
When Traditions Are Manufactured, Used and Broken: examples from Tupian contexts in Amazonia. (2017)
One of the most insightful contributions recently put forward by Anthropology and Ethnoarchaeology is related to the concept of the "communities of practice". It is naturally connected to issues such as the relation between language and material culture, transmission, identity, persistence, structure as well as the limits of socially permitted restructuring of practices, and even the possible contingencies which might cause deep change and break the structure and, therefore, Tradition. The...
Where are the camelids? II: contributions from the stable isotope ecology to understand mobility and exchange patterns in the South Central Andes (2017)
There is a growing volume of literature arguing that camelids were a local resource for Prehispanic societies that inhabited the coastal and intermediate Andean valleys from Peru. Indeed, existing evidences show uninterrupted herding practices along the Peruvian lowlands (>2,000 masl) at 8°S-16.5°S during the interval 800 BC-1100 AD. Although camelids archeofaunal remains, textiles and iconographic representations are recurrent in low-elevation sites from the northernmost Chile (17°-19°S), the...
Where are the camelids? Mobility models and caravanning during the Late Intermediate Period (ca. 1000-1400 A.D.) in the northernmost Chile, South Central Andes (2017)
Llamas were one of the most valued animals in the Andes. Their importance has transcended the subsistence sphere as they were not only used as a source of food but also served for medicinal and ritual purposes; their fiber was fundamental for manufacturing textiles, and they were a source of symbolism and "food" for thought and ideologies. Nevertheless, their use as pack animals in exchange caravans has been prominent, stimulating intense mobility and long distance traffic between diverse...
Where condors reign: Methodological challenges in the bioarchaeology of Chachapoya cliff tombs in Peru (2017)
Traditional archaeological practice involves horizontal mapping and excavations of ancient settlements and cemeteries, but bioarchaeological research of mortuary practices in the Chachapoyas region of northeastern Peru is stymied by the challenging vertical slopes, almost constant rain, and the placement of burial structures on seemingly impossible to reach ledges on exposed rock escarpments. Exploring and registering archaeological vestiges of these cliff cemeteries requires the combination of...