Alternative Complexities in the Central Andes: An Anarchist Approach to Chancay Political Organization in the Huanangue Valley

Summary

Understanding the political organization of Late Intermediate Period (1000 – 1470 CE) societies along the central coast of Peru has remained challenging. The urban/proto-urban settlements that are characteristic of groups like the Chancay, Ichma, and the Chinca (among others) have been interpreted as material manifestations of elite power, however, many of these societies don’t fit traditional models of chiefdoms or states. Using a combination of ethnohistoric data, settlement pattern analysis, and excavation data, this presentation draws from recent trends in anarchist theory to explore the applicability of "horizontal-complexity" models for some LIP Andean societies. This paper examines the case of the Chancay, who which rose to prominence on the north-central coast of Peru between 900 – 1532 CE. Specifically, this paper explores the relationship between two Chancay sites in the Huanangue Valley, Cerro Blanco and Salitre, to argue that the Chancay complexity may have developed out of a resource sharing system that was created as part of a local level responses to environmental challenges. As a result, the Chancay polity may be better understood as a horizontal network of loosely affiliated nodes bound together by principals of mutual aid instead of as a centrally organized chiefdom or state.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22229