Cajamarca: Identity through movement

Summary

The Cajamarca Valley, located in the northern Andes of Peru, is a space of encounter and movement of material from different ecological areas since early times to the present. This is mainly due to its strategic location within Andean geography as an enclave of natural points of access to different ecological zones (coastal valleys, Amazon rainforest, southern highlands). Cajamarca culture (100 BC - 1400 AD) is characterized precisely by the mobility of its inhabitants, as indicated by their white pottery—a result of the use of the kaolinitic clay found in its mountains. Although we know much about this contact from the remains left outside its borders, we know little about cultural motivations and dynamics that took place in Cajamarca and what drove these people to move outside. Here, I will focus on two key points about the nature of this culture: its possible malleability in adapting to different ecological zones due commercial activity, and second, given its nomadic nature through the landscape, the way in which characteristic Cajamarca ceramic style was used as its seal of "denomination of origin", and as a reminder of identity or political affiliation to the Cajamarca group.

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): 21788