Different Dead for Different Purposes: The Ancestors and Ancestral Spirits of Rapayán in the Peruvian Central Andes.

Summary

During the Late Intermediate Period (1000-1450 C.E.), the inhabitants of the Rapayán region in the Peruvian central Andes created a complex landscape for the dead. These were disposed of in natural caves along cliffsides surrounding residential sites as well as in a variety of above-ground mausoleums constructed at highly visible locations. In this paper, I develop a typology of sepulchres and analyze their spatial patterning. Building on ethnographic and ethnohistorical material, I argue that the different types of mortuary constructions and their specific distribution across the Rapayán landscape reflected different kinds of mortuary programs. On the one hand, rituals honoring the dead located in caves and smaller mausoleums grounded people in place and participated in the construction of group identity. I suggest that the deceased in this funerary program became ancestral spirits and were likely commemorated as an anonymous collectivity. On the other, rituals celebrating the deceased placed in tall multi-story buildings distributed at the top of hillside embodied political competition among kin groups and were ultimately used to legitimize power. I suggest that the deceased in this funerary program became ancestors and were celebrated as the named founding ancestors of kin groups.

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): 20270