Formation and Transformation of Identities in the Andes: The Constructions of Childhood among the Tiwanaku

Summary

Despite their importance, little attention has been paid to childhood and the roles of children in the ancient Andes. Here, we focus our case study on the Tiwanaku polity of the South Central Andes, which expanded through migration and culture contact across parts of Bolivia, Peru, Chile and Argentina between ca. 500-1100AD. The way the lives of children are structured and shaped are fundamental to understanding the formation and maintenance of states and their impact on the life experiences of children and adults. Using multiple lines of evidence, we focus particularly on the formation and transformation of social identities, the lived childhood experience, and constructions of childhood in the Tiwanaku state. Our data include ethnographic and ethnohistoric sources, bioarchaeological data on cranial modification, paleopathology, and funerary patterns, as well as biogeochemical indicators of paleodiet and paleomobility. This research on Tiwanaku shifts the debate from the traditional questions about the manifestations of state power in the public sphere to considerations of the state in the private sphere, through the perspective of childhood.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• On the Move: Archaeological Approaches to Children and Childhood

Keywords

Spatial Coverage