Scaling the Huaca: Constructing Late Moche Identity through Architectonic Re-presentation of Place at Huaca Colorada, Jequetepeque Valley, Peru

Summary

Following Descola’s "modes of identification", Andean ontology has recently been suggested to represent a combination of animism and analogism that establishes strong intersubjective relationships wherein humans, objects and places are intrinsically linked while simultaneously creating a highly hierarchical scale based on the properties of each autonomous entity. In order to operationalize this animistic-analogical ontology, mimetic processes of imitation and transformation serve to link and effectively collapse these asymmetric relationships. Through a consideration of how ontologies of spatial scale and the mimetic properties of miniaturization have been manifested among the ancient Moche of the Jequetepeque Valley, Peru this paper will present a set of material symbols that served to construct individual and community identities. Specifically, the role of portable maquetas or miniature architectural models of ceremonial edifices as they relate to full-scale architecture found at Huaca Colorada will serve as the focus of my discussion. This examination will analyze these particular examples of scalar transformation not merely as acts of representation but as the mimetic distillation of temporal, spatial and material aspects of modes of being in the world, and how renovation sequences of sacred architecture were simultaneous acts of place-making and identity construction.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• See How We Are: Representing Identity in the Ancient Americas

Keywords

Spatial Coverage