Meat, Transport, Fertilizer, and Meaning: Considering the Role of Camelids and Ritual in Moche Food Production

Summary

Camelids (i.e., llamas and alpacas) were domesticated in the Andean region of South America over 6000 years ago. Since then, camelids have occupied a place of central importance in Andean lifeways over the longue dureé. Nevertheless, while camelid pastoralism in the landscape of the highland Andes has been well documented ethnographically, ethnohistorically, and archaeologically, the intimate relationship between people and camelids in the Andean coastal valleys is less understood. In this paper, I consider the social dimensions of camelids and their ties to food production using case studies primarily from the Moche (AD 200-800) sphere, including recent data from elite ritual and household contexts from the Late Moche (AD 600-800) sites of San José de Moro and Cerro Chepén in the Jequetepeque Valley of the North Coast of Peru. In doing so, I examine the unique role that camelids played in rituals related to the production and consumption of food—rituals that may have taken on heightened significance during episodes of social conflict stemming from environmental stress and diminished food production.

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): 21793