Social inequality as reflected in dietary and mobility practices of South American maritime chiefdom societies: Contextual and isotopic analysis of burials excavated in La Tolita, Ecuador

Summary

This project explores social inequality in relation to dietary and mobility practices of maritime Pacific polities in La Tolita (600 BC-200 AD) of Ecuador and Colombia. The research question driving this project aims to identify: How is social inequality reflected in the diet and spatial mobility as practiced by maritime chiefdom societies through time and space? A cross-site comparison between the dietary and mobility practices of individuals buried in mounds associated with the chiefly class to individuals buried in shallow/mass graves at the site of La Tolita will be assessed to test if variables including time, space, age, sex, and/or social inequality influenced these aspects of life. In addition, a statistical analysis of mobility patterns will be conducted to distinguish the degree of spatial mobility by individuals in relation to social class and the variation of their dietary practices (e.g. luxury-non-luxury foods). Material and human remains recovered from excavated burials in La Tolita, indicating a variable population (e.g. age, sex, rank, time period), will be examined through a distributional and contextual analysis, complemented by an isotopic analysis of human bone and teeth to assess the paleodiet (15N/14N, 13C/12C) and individual’s degree of mobility (87Sr/86Sr, 16O/18O).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Northern South America II: Mobility, Landscapes, and Socialscapes   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15247