Beyond the Round House: Spatial Logic and Settlement Organization across the Late Andean Highlands

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Beyond the Round House: Spatial Logic and Settlement Organization across the Late Andean Highlands," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This session examines the socio-spatial logic of late Andean settlements, where architectural preservation is often excellent, and considers how these logics varied across the highlands. These sites are typically large villages and towns of round houses that appear to have grown organically without apparent "order," and they are sometimes described in terms of what they lack (public architecture, plazas, central planning, etc.) Here, we focus on how these spaces actively structured social, political, and economic organization. For example, what was the size and arrangement of social building blocks such as families, lineages, and larger groups? Over time, where did new generations and new arrivals settle and build? How did people move through the settlement as they went about daily tasks? What did they see, and what did they know about their neighbors? How were the dead placed in relation to the spaces of the living? Did communities continue previous traditions of socio-spatial organization and architectural construction, or did the foundation of new settlements entail the creation of new forms of order? What changed with the transition to Inca rule? This session aims to achieve a better understanding of these continuities and contrasts across late Andean societies of the highlands.

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  • Documents (9)

Documents
  • An Alternative Pattern of Coalescence: A Study of Architecture and Organization at a Non-fortified, Pre-Inca Town in the Southern Highlands of Peru (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ryan Smith.

    This is an abstract from the "Beyond the Round House: Spatial Logic and Settlement Organization across the Late Andean Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents a detailed analysis of architecture and spatial organization at Maukallaqta de Nuñoa, a pre-Inca site in the highlands of southern Peru. Maukallaqta was constructed at a time when societies across much of the central Andean highlands were constrained by persistent...

  • Ancient Andean Scalarity (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Steve Kosiba. Bruce Mannheim.

    This is an abstract from the "Beyond the Round House: Spatial Logic and Settlement Organization across the Late Andean Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Scholars of the Andes often assume that the social units they study—residence, community, and region—are monotonically scaled, nested from smaller to larger. This suggests universal correspondences between the analytical and observational objects through which social units are known; hence...

  • Behind the Walls: LIP Architecture and Settlement Organization across the Peruvian Titicaca Basin (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Elizabeth Arkush.

    This is an abstract from the "Beyond the Round House: Spatial Logic and Settlement Organization across the Late Andean Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. At hilltop sites in the Titicaca basin, the good architectural preservation of house foundations, patios, walkways, tombs, and dividing walls offers a glimpse of the organization and day-to-day functioning of LIP communities. These architectural choices potentially had implications for the...

  • Conflict, Spatial Organization and Group Identity during the Late Intermediate Period in the Bolivian Southern Altiplano (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Alejandra Sejas Portillo.

    This is an abstract from the "Beyond the Round House: Spatial Logic and Settlement Organization across the Late Andean Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the Late Intermediate Period, the Southern Altiplano region was characterized by the presence of conflict and fortified settlements. These societies have been described as having a corporate leadership, linked to a founding ancestor, which granted them privileged access to...

  • Constructing Difference: Defense, Sensory Experience, and Social Difference at a Late Prehispanic Hillfort (Arequipa, Peru) (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lauren Kohut.

    This is an abstract from the "Beyond the Round House: Spatial Logic and Settlement Organization across the Late Andean Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The fortified settlement of Auquimarka was one of many hilltop fortifications built during the Late Intermediate Period (1000 – 1450 CE) in the Colca Valley of the southern Peruvian highlands. While most fortifications fell into disuse following Inka expansion into the region, Auquimarka...

  • Contrasting Use of Space among Neighbors: Puna versus Quechua/Suni Residential Settlements of the Rapayán/Tantamayo Region during the LIP (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Alexis Mantha.

    This is an abstract from the "Beyond the Round House: Spatial Logic and Settlement Organization across the Late Andean Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Late Intermediate settlements in the Rapayán/Tantamayo region are distributed in two main ecological zones: quechua/suni between 2500 to 3900 m.a.s.l. and puna above 4000 m.a.s.l. The majority of residential sites occupy the quechua/suni ecological zone. These settlements display a fairly...

  • Houses and the Puzzle of "Public Space" in Ceja de Selva Communities of Northeastern Peru (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Anna Guengerich.

    This is an abstract from the "Beyond the Round House: Spatial Logic and Settlement Organization across the Late Andean Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Researchers seeking to systematically compare built environments across the late Andean highlands have frequently noted the absence of monumental corporate architecture at hilltop sites. A number of alternative candidates that fulfilled the function of public architecture have therefore...

  • Neither Up nor Down? The Late Intermediate Period Occupation of the Andes-Amazonia Frontier in Southern Peru (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Darryl Wilkinson.

    This is an abstract from the "Beyond the Round House: Spatial Logic and Settlement Organization across the Late Andean Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper will examine the Late Intermediate Period (LIP) occupation of the eastern Andean piedmont (1200-3000 masl) in the Province of La Convención, Peru. Based on data obtained from recent archaeological survey and excavations, it will focus mainly on the distinctive spatial patterns...

  • Where Are the Cinchecona? Mortuary Architecture and Socio-political Organization in Jauja, Peru, during the Late Intermediate Period (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Manuel Perales.

    This is an abstract from the "Beyond the Round House: Spatial Logic and Settlement Organization across the Late Andean Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Late Intermediate period constitutes a time of important changes in the life of pre-colonial Andean societies, including new mechanisms for the construction of power and authority. In the case of the Yanamarca valley in Jauja, central highlands of Peru, previous investigations have...