Ayllu There in the Upper Marañón? Founding Ancestors and Political Dynamics in the Rapayán Region of Ancash/Huánuco during the LIP

Summary

Andean scholars generally conceive the ayllu as representing a group of people who consider themselves to be related by common descent and who collectively possess and exploit resources (land and water). In many regions of the Andes during late pre-Hispanic times, ayllu members retraced their common origin and kinship ties through the celebration of a mummified founding ancestor. Ayllus could either be small or large and often the smaller units were hierarchically integrated into the larger ones. As result, ayllus tended to be nested and multi-scalar social organizations where an individual could be linked to a hierarchy of ancestors. In this paper, we seek to determine whether the largely farming communities of the Rapayán region of the Upper Marañón during the LIP (1000-1450 C.E.) displayed a social organization characteristic of the ayllu or not. Through excavated evidence and the analysis of architectural forms and spatial distribution, we are able to infer the existence of hierarchy of founding ancestors as well as some of the water and farming lands exploited by their descendants.

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): 20268