Parsing out Differential Plant Use Among Households During a Period of War in Puno, Peru

Summary

In the Peruvian altiplano near Lake Titicaca during the Late Intermediate period (LIP; A.D. 1100 to 1450) peoples’ lives were overwhelmingly structured by warfare. Martial conflict between competing ethnic groups incited people to live defensively in fortified hilltop villages during the LIP. However, little is known about the agricultural practices and the internal sociopolitical dynamics of these fighting communities. Drawing on recent excavations and macrobotanical data collected from Ayawiri, one of the largest hillforts in the northern Lake Titicaca basin, I present information about the community’s agricultural food products and intracommunity relations during this violent time period. Ayawiri is organized into household compounds. By comparing paleoethnobotanical remains recovered from various compounds throughout the site I identify the distribution of resources and possibly wealth allotment across the Ayawiri community during the LIP. This research also elicits a picture of differential landscape exploitation by various households during the LIP. By comparing household plant use to the landscape ecology surrounding the site, the data will shed light on which households had access to and utilized various microenvironments. These paleoethnobotanical results offer a more nuanced picture of household community relations during the altiplano LIP.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Like Frejoles in a Pod: Examining the Current State of Paleoethnobotany in Peru   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage