Social Dynamics in the North Highlands of Peru during the Formative Period: Pacopampa project’s Contribution for Understanding the Early Complex Societies in the Andes

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Social Dynamics in the North Highlands of Peru during the Formative Period: Pacopampa project’s Contribution for Understanding the Early Complex Societies in the Andes" at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Since the late 1970s, Japanese teams have been investigating early ceremonial centers in the Peruvian North Highlands, with an intensive focus on the Cajamarca region. The importance of the region in the formation of Andean civilization is becoming clear based on long-term investigations carried out at the sites of Huacaloma, Kuntur Wasi, and Pacopampa. In particular, recent data from Pacopampa provide new perspectives on important issues in Andean Archaeology, such as the emergence of monumental architecture and social complexity in relation to the acceleration of interregional interactions and transformations in subsistence economy which includes the development of animal domestication in the region. In addition, the data obtained from early highland centers in the Central Andes made it possible to carry out productive comparative studies between Pacopampa and other centers. Therefore, this session aims to discuss the Early Andean societies based on the data from the North Highlands, represented by those from Pacopampa, and thus focuses on three topics: (1) ongoing research results of the Pacopampa Archaeological Project; (2) the nature of the socioeconomic process during the Formative Period in the North Highland; (3) comparisons between the North Highlands and other regions such as the North Coast and Central Highlands.