New Perspectives on the Archaeology of Social Memory in the Central Andes
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)
For over a decade, social memory has been a mainstay of archaeological inquiry. Scholars have sought to trace the archaeological remains of history, ancestors, monuments, landscapes, and other cultural media reflected in constructions of memory by past societies. Syntheses of archaeologies of memory have been produced for many regions in the world; however, the Central Andes have eluded such an in-depth study. This session seeks to bring together diverse scholarship in order to gain comparative perspectives on both the overall history of memory in the region, as well as the diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches utilized in the study of ancient Andean memory. Related theories that have evolved out of social memory approaches such as persistent place, resilience, and landscape emplacement will also be explored in this session. Topics covered will include the memory of the dead/ancestors, materiality of place, place-making, and ritual landscapes. The purpose of this session is for researchers of this topic to come together in order to survey and synthesize the differing themes on memory and persistence throughout the Central Andes.
Other Keywords
Social Memory •
ritual architecture •
andes •
Architecture •
Pottery •
Ritual •
Food Production •
mortuary practices •
sacred landscape •
Inca
Geographic Keywords
South America •
Department of Martinique (Country) •
Republic of El Salvador (Country) •
Department of Guadeloupe (Country) •
Antigua and Barbuda (Country) •
Belize (Country) •
Anguilla (Country) •
Republic of Guatemala (Country) •
Republic of Honduras (Country) •
St. Lucia (Country)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-7 of 7)
- Documents (7)
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Constructing Social Memory: Inca Politics and Sacred Landscape in the Lurin Valley (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
We will discuss the characteristics and scope of Inca politics in the Lurin Valley by focusing on the results of excavations carried out by Makowski (2016) in Pachacamac with its famous Imperial Inca temple and oracle, as well as in the administrative center Pueblo Viejo – Pucara. The comparison of landscape transformed by Imperial infrastructure between the Highlands of Cuzco (Christie 2016) and the lower Lurin Valley allows to reconstruct the mechanisms through which social memory was...
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The Early Intermediate Period Farmer’s Almanac: Co-Producing Agriculture, Time, and Community on the North Coast of Peru. (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Previous research on plant foods and social memory in the Andes has primarily focused on ritual feasting amongst elite segments of society within the confines of exclusionary monumental spaces. However, it is vital to look beyond elite-directed activities and consider ritualized commoner and quotidian practices as integral to community building and memory making. This paper will demonstrate how domestic food production and consumption, the construction of agricultural landscapes, and wild plant...
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Memento Mori: Scalar reference, architectonic persistence and the continuity of ritual memory at Huaca Colorada, Jequetepeque Valley, Peru (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This paper examines the temporal dimensions underwriting relationships linking humans, architectural representations and the meaningful places they reference in past Andean life-worlds. I argue that for the Moche of the North Coast of Peru, acts of symbolic compression and miniaturization served to reanimate specific times, known ceremonial locales, and the social identities created and reaffirmed in these places. The ritual efficacy of architectural simulacra rests in their mimetic power to...
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Persistence and Material Mnemonics in the Cosma Basin: 5000 Years of Ritual Enactment in the Upper Nepeña River, Peru (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The Cosma Complex is located in the Cordillera Negra at the headwaters of the upper Nepeña River Valley, Ancash Peru. Fieldwork conducted between 2014-2016 documented repeated reconstruction episodes associated with the reuse of monumental ritual architecture originally dated to the Late Preceramic (3000-1800 BCE). By the Early Horizon infant remains and other offerings were placed into earlier architectural contexts as a final capping episode on at least one mound. As settlement patterns...
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The Role of Social Memory in Everyday Bodily Practices of Pottery Production and Consumption during the Late Moche Period (500 – 800 AD) on the North Coast of Peru (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Often the term ‘social memory’ conjures up ideas of grand commemoration events such as statues, museums, large scale construction and other public displays to remember the collective past. We must not forget, however, the seemingly mundane daily practices that help to create, maintain, and change society while simultaneously forming social identities. This study looks at the Late Moche period (500 – 800 AD) on the North Coast of Peru. It was a time of immense social, religious, and political...
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Social Memory and the Development of Monumental Architecture in the Southern Jequetepeque Valley, Peru (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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...
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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)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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...