Ritual Violence and Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Andes: New Directions in the Field
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Ritual Violence and Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Andes: New Directions in the Field" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Examples of ritualized violence, specifically human sacrifice, are often interpreted as religious/political acts and tools of statecraft employed to terrorize a population into submission. Alternate scenarios include a response to climate calamities and political disasters and the establishment of political/social alliances or sociopolitical integration. To what extent are these proposals integrated into long-standing ideological and political structures in the Andean world? How should we understand the sustained occurrence of ritual violence in the central Andes for centuries before the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century? The organizers of this symposium believe it is appropriate to hold an academic gathering to learn about new discoveries and analyses carried out by different research teams. More importantly, we want to delve deeper into the theoretical perspectives’ scholars employ to interpret their case studies. Our main objective is to evaluate whether the examples presented belong to organized and sustained rituals imbedded in the social structure of the groups studied or if they resulted from exceptional circumstances. Although a combination of both could be the case, presentations and discussion in this symposium will foster new ideas and a better understanding of the complicated world of ritualized violence and human sacrifice.
Other Keywords
Bioarchaeology/Skeletal Analysis •
Andes: Late Intermediate •
Warfare •
Violence •
and Conflict •
Mortuary archaeology •
Andes: Late Horizon •
sacrifice •
Mortuary Analysis •
Incas
Geographic Keywords
Republic of Peru (Country) •
Republic of Panama (Country) •
Republic of Colombia (Country) •
Netherlands Antilles (Country) •
Aruba (Country) •
Republic of Ecuador (Country) •
Republic of Chile (Country) •
South America (Continent) •
South America: Andes
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-8 of 8)
- Documents (8)
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Chimú-Era (AD 1000–1450) Child Sacrifices from Pampa la Cruz-Monticulo 1, Episode 3, and Pampa la Cruz-Monticulo 2: Biodistance Comparisions with Other Chimú Sacrifices and Regional Skeletal Populations (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ritual Violence and Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Andes: New Directions in the Field" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In recent years, hundreds of Chimú-Era child sacrifices have been discovered at locations to the north of the Chimú’s capital—Chan Chan—by the Programa Arqueológico Huanchaco. He we report on biodistance results for 22 recently excavated child sacrifices from Pampa la Cruz-Monticulo 1, Episode 3 (~AD...
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The Killing of Captives by the Moche of Northern Coastal Peru: Veneration or Violation? (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ritual Violence and Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Andes: New Directions in the Field" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological and Bioarchaeological data and a rich iconographic tradition provide complementary perspectives on the taking and killing of captives by the Moche (c. AD 200-900). While these practices clearly had important ritual aspects, there continues to be debate over the source of captives and...
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Life before Death: A Bioarchaeological Study of the Biosocial Histories of Human Sacrifices at Pampa la Cruz (Montículo 2), Moche Valley, Peru (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ritual Violence and Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Andes: New Directions in the Field" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Human sacrifice is a form of ritual theater staged by emerging empires to articulate new power asymmetries and legitimize imperial enterprises. The culmination of the event is the death of the victim because ritual homicide transforms the body into an efficacious offering while generating vivid images...
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The Origins of the Capacocha Victims: Results of Stable Isotope Analyses of Individuals Sacrificed at Ampato, Misti, and Pichu Pichu Volcanos (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ritual Violence and Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Andes: New Directions in the Field" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Capacocha was one of the most important rituals performed in the Inca Empire and involved the sacrifice of children and young women. The victims were selected from the provincial elite based on their beauty and health. They were gathered from across the Empire and brought to the capital, Cusco, in...
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Proteomic Sex Estimation of a Gendered Sacrificial Context in Pampa la Cruz, North Coast of Peru (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ritual Violence and Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Andes: New Directions in the Field" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Protocols of ritual violence result from an interplay of political structures with multiple social factors, including roles of gender and age. These patterns often manifest as a biological sex-bias in sacrificial bioarchaeological contexts. In the Chimu Pampala Cruz site (AD 1050–1520), 86 individuals...
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Sacrifice as Politics, Killing as Identity: Regional Synthesis and New Evidence of Late Prehispanic Human Sacrifice in the Lambayeque Valley Complex, Peru (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ritual Violence and Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Andes: New Directions in the Field" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Diverse new understandings involving human sacrifice on the north coast of Peru have surfaced since 1994. In the Lambayeque Valley Complex on the northern north coast of Peru, an extensive and diachronic record of human sacrifice from several sites spanning nearly 400 individuals have been documented...
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Sacrifices, Retainers, or Disposal? The Social Roles of Ychsma Children from Funeral Contexts at the Site of Pachacamac (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ritual Violence and Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Andes: New Directions in the Field" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The excavation of numerous subadult burials from late prehispanic contexts at Pachacamac led us to question the archaeological and anthropological criteria used to identify human sacrifice. Identifying this practice requires a robust conceptual framework and analytical approach, and this is...
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“Sowing” Children in Arid Lands Irrigated with Artificial Hydraulic Canals in the Moche Valley, North Coast of Peru (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ritual Violence and Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Andes: New Directions in the Field" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The discovery of hundreds of sacrificed children in the North Coast of Peru, has opened new opportunities to study ritual violence in ancient societies. Current studies have identified that mass sacrificial events were performed at moments of sociopolitical and economic instability due to climatic...