What was Chachapoyas?: Towards a cultural geography of the northeastern Peruvian Andes

Like other areas of the eastern Andes, the region of Chachapoyas in northeastern Peru holds great potential for understanding the relations that took place over time between Andean and Amazonian societies. While research has lagged behind neighboring regions, Chachapoyas archaeology has now reached a point where it is possible to contribute to these and other topics. Nevertheless, many questions must still be addressed, first and foremost of which concerns basic chronology and cultural geography: to what and to whom do we actually refer with the terms “Chachapoyas” and “the Chachapoya”? Others include: what was the relationship between better documented Late Intermediate Period societies (post-AD 900) and earlier ones? Did cultural or biological connections exist between these populations? How should we interpret sub-regional variations in material culture such as residential architecture, ceramics, and mortuary treatment? Is variation so substantial as to impair the argument that greater “Chachapoyas” was a meaningful concept to pre-Inka populations, or to undermine its worth for contemporary scholars? Are persistent characterizations of Chachapoyas as “remote” and/or “isolated” supported by archaeological data? By responding to these core questions, we aim to finally bring the archaeology of this important region into dialogue with broader scholarship across prehispanic South America.