Caring for Children in the Ancient Andes: Bioarchaeological and Biogeochemical Data from the Andean Middle Horizon (AD 500–1100) Tiwanaku Polity

Summary

Bioarchaeological approaches can contribute much to our understanding of how children were cared for in the past. Here, we examine social, cultural, and physical care of children in the Tiwanaku polity of the South Central Andes between approximately AD 500 and 1100. Using multiple lines of evidence, we reconstruct patterns of childcare practices as well as the formation of different social identities at archaeological sites in the Moquegua Valley of southern Peru and the Bolivian Lake Titicaca Basin. More specifically, we use data from ethnographic and ethnohistoric sources, bioarchaeological data on cranial modification, paleopathology, and mortuary behaviors, and biogeochemical indicators of paleodiet, including weaning patterns, and paleomobility. By recreating individual life histories and lived experiences in the past, we examine how Tiwanaku-affiliated communities cared for their children in the past.

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): 21319