"Feeding the Dead" at Chiribaya Alta

Summary

The inclusion of foods and eating utensils within graves at Chiribaya Alta, a Late Intermediate site ~5 km from the mouth of the Osmore river, Peru suggests that "feeding the dead" during funerary rites was a common practice within the Chiribaya polity. Thus far, however, these foods have not been systematically considered in relation to funerary practices. This study examines food items placed within tombs at Chiribaya Alta (n=307) and considers their potential symbolic meanings within funerary practices, as informed by documented ethnographic and ethnohistoric cases. We compare the foods included within graves to the to aggregate diets of skeletal individuals as determined through previously published carbon and nitrogen isotopic analyses. This study will allow for a consideration of the importance of symbolic foods within the daily diet of Chiribaya individuals.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage