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)
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)
Proteomic Sex Estimation of a Gendered Sacrificial Context in Pampa la Cruz, North Coast of Peru (2024)
Sacrifice as Politics, Killing as Identity: Regional Synthesis and New Evidence of Late Prehispanic Human Sacrifice in the Lambayeque Valley Complex, Peru (2024)