Alterity, Resistance, and Autonomy: Mortuary Archaeology and the Diversity of Indigenous Responses to Spanish Conquest in Lambayeque, Peru

Summary

Over the last few decades, archaeological narratives have shifted towards far more nuanced understandings of colonized peoples in favor of reconstructing nuanced and integrated understandings of indigenous perception, identity, biosocial interplays, and other responses to conquest. This work merges archaeological, ecological, and bioarchaeological contexts to help understand the significance of mortuary pattern data to compare postcontact cultural outcomes in Mórrope and Eten, two contemporaneous north coast Peruvian communities inhabited by native Muchik peoples (circa late A.D. 1530s – 1750). In Mórrope, a biological disaster unfolded as the survivors of conquest created a resistance-driven hybrid Andean-Iberian culture. In Eten, microenvironment and a prosperous economy buffered against similar biological experiences as local peoples became thoroughly acculturated into the Spanish sphere. These outcomes are interpreted within a multi-scalar framework of alterity to explore how this diversity reflected diverse community strategies, engagements, and perceptions of "the other" in the negotiation of indigenous agendas and identities while enduring colonial subjugation.

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): 22081