The Politics of Identity and Affiliation in a Middle Jequetepeque Valley Community

Summary

This paper draws on recent research at Ventanillas, a community in the middle Jequetepeque Valley in northern Peru, to explore how local communities negotiate ethnic identity and political affiliation at the outskirts of large scale polities. On one hand, Ventanillas could be easily understood as the easternmost outpost of the coastal Lambayeque and Chimú states. On the other hand, elite households seem to have been drawing on coastal and highland practices, hosting household-based feasts and other gatherings, and in this context engagement with coastal states may be seen as a locally relevant political strategy. This paper explores how local, rural communities engage with political institutions, and how broader political and religious institutions come to have meaning at the local level.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• The Rise, Spread, and Dominion of Human Institutions

Keywords

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