Colonial Encounters in the Prehispanic Andes
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)
Over the past three decades, research on colonial processes in the South Central Andes has advanced substantially. This session explores the social, political, economic, and ideological transformations in the Andean past through a millennia of colonization in Southern Peru. We examine the roots of social inequality in colonial settings through a diverse set of archaeological data, with a special focus on the Wari, Tiwanaku, Inca, and Colonial Spanish enterprises. This work, built upon the Programa Contisuyo's three decades of research, draws now on the work of the next generation of scholars working in the region under the rubric of the Programa Colesuyo, a multi-year, interdisciplinary research program that unites three excavation projects and a set of museographic studies to highlight patterns in the process of colonization over the past 1500 years.
Other Keywords
roads •
Political economy •
andes •
tiwanaku •
Migration •
Ethnohistory •
Ritual •
Obsidian •
Infrastructure •
Empire
Geographic Keywords
South America
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-11 of 11)
- Documents (11)
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Ampare y Perjuicios: Land and Legality in a Colesuyo Village during the Colonial Period (2016)
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Land tenure is a prominent theme in the study of political and economic transition during the Spanish Colonial Period (AD 1550-1824) in Peru. Previous investigations have tended to focus on the concentration of land ownership into the hands of the ethnically Spanish elite minority, first through encomienda and later through the evolution of haciendas. However, native Andean communities were just as active in engaging the legal system to delineate their holdings and defend them from encroachment....
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Ceramic Production in the Colonial Moquegua Valley (2016)
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Recent scholarship demonstrates a growth in archaeological analysis of Spanish colonial reducciónes (which is the resettlement of several small villages into one larger Spanish controlled town) in Andean South America. Critical to understanding the impact of reducciones on indigenous populations is examining the ways in which the production and circulation of craft goods was reworked with Spanish conquest. In characterizing the elemental composition of archaeological pottery, Laser Ablation...
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Colonial enclaves of coastal Colesuyo during the Inca influence (2016)
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How small communities of coastal Colesuyo were transformed under Inca authority? What roles were played by local and regional elites? Previous worked conducted at the coastal site of Tacahuay has suggested that this site was an altiplano enclave controlled by more powerful Lupaca group. This enclave was established with the aim of obtaining coastal products, and in return Tacahuay elites would have access to Inca sumptuary goods. In this session I present different lines of analyses for future...
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Colonization as Imperial Strategy: the Wari Settlement of Moquegua, Peru (2016)
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When Wari colonists arrived to Moquegua (ca. 600CE) there were several groups occupying different valley ecozones but a relatively small population. In order to establish the colony Wari officials invested a great deal of labor and resources in the upper drainage, which engaged local and colonial populations. In this paper I consider imperial expansion as a process, which was a multi-generational affair. I examine the construction of three major sites: Cerro Baúl, Cerro Mejía, and Cerro...
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Fragments of the Past: Applying Microarchcaeological Techniques to House Floors at Tumilaca, Moquegua, Peru (2016)
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For decades archaeologists have been trying to develop methodologies that will help them determine what activities took place in and around domestic structures. Since people tend to clean activity areas, especially those that are used repeatedly, visible artifacts like pottery, bones and stone tools are rarely discovered in the context where they were originally used. Instead, such artifacts are usually discovered in refuse heaps or other secondary contexts. Microarchaeology, the study of the...
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Inca and Local Household Economic Interactions in the Chinchaysuyo, Asia Valley, Peru (2016)
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Empires establish large scale interregional interaction networks with their provinces. Along with these large scale networks, pre-imperial small scale local economic interaction networks may continue (endure), diminish (decrease) or intensify (increase). Within this context, Imperial and local economic networks create a more complex web of interactions capable of been examined at the household level. In the Chinchaysuyo, the Inca conquered several coastal groups and established a range of...
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Late Intermediate Period (A.D. 1250-1470) Mortuary Practices at Tumilaca La Chimba: spatial and temporal mortuary variation in the Moquegua Valley, Peru (2016)
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In this paper we present recent fieldwork focused on Estuquiña mortuary contexts at the site of Tumilaca La Chimba in the Moquegua Valley of Peru). Estuquiña is the local expression of the Late Intermediate Period, and conventionally dated to approximately AD 1250-1470. In summer 2015, a total of eight intact circular below ground tombs were excavated at the site. This represents the largest sample of intact Estuquiña burials excavated since fieldwork was conducted by Programa Contisuyo members...
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An Obsidian Stone Tool Workshop at Cerro Baúl?: Wari Provincial Craft Production and Political Economy (2016)
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Here we present a preliminary chaîne opératoire analysis of obsidian stone tools and associated debitage recovered from a single architectural compound at the site of Cerro Baúl. As the only known direct interaction sphere of the prehispanic Wari and Tiwanaku empires, research at Cerro Baúl in the Moquegua Valley, Peru offers a rare perspective of colonial encounters and intertwined political economies. During the 2015 excavation season we exposed a dense midden context consisting of various...
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Ritual Practices and the Negotiation of Wari-Tiwanaku Relations at Cerro Baúl (2016)
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The presence of both Wari and Tiwanaku colonies in the Moquegua Valley (southern Peru) offers a unique opportunity to study the colonial strategies of these empires and their interactions during the first millennium AD. Here, we more specifically explore the role of ritual practices in mediating relations between the Wari and Tiwanaku empires. We focus on a Titicaca basin inspired platform and court complex located outside of the main Wari administrative sector of the site of Cerro Baúl,...
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Road Networks of Southern Peru: Connecting Landscapes of Colonialism (2016)
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Increasingly relevant to studies of geopolitical state expansion is the role of infrastructure: the networks of communication, travel, and commerce that embed local human landscapes within broader processes of imperialism. In pre-industrial communities, formal roads and highways were often the only localized presence of an overarching state, promising greater interconnectivity and shaping the colonial experience. I utilize geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing applications to...
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Tiwanaku colonization in historical context – Directed, Diasporic or Daisy chain? Evidence from Moquegua, Locumba, Azapa (2016)
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The expansion of Tiwanaku civilization is the earliest example of large-scale demographic colonization under an Andean state. Between the 7th to 11 centuries CE, household, mortuary and settlement archaeology attest to large migrant populations of altiplano Tiwanaku cultural affiliation who established permanent residence and governance in the western oasis valleys of Moquegua, Locumba, Sama, Caplina and Azapa. However the regional historical context of this demographic colonization is not...