Gender Complementarities and the Construction of Late Moche Political Landscapes

Summary

Recent investigations at the Late Moche center of Huaca Colorada in the southern Jequetepeque Valleys suggests that gender complementarity constituted an overarching structuring principle that underwrote Late Moche conceptions of ecology, cosmos, political authority, and the power of sacred places. The dualistic layout of the huaca’s ceremonial nucleus resonates with general Andean philosophies that moral order was founded on the balanced if dialectical interdependence of male and female forces. However, an investigation of the ritual practices of the center along with the spatial differentiation of gender-specific activities within the larger site reveals some of the distinguishing features of Late Moche ideologies of sex and complementarity. Ideals of male, female, and their union (yanatin) were spatially inscribed and appear to have formed the common denominator of a whole series of complementary oppositions, including production and consumption, life and death, senior and junior, day and night, highland and lowlands, and possibly sky and earth. In the end, the data suggest that gender identity was not so much determined by biological sex but by the activities and rituals performed by cooperating groups at Huaca Colorada.

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): 18827