Pre-Inca to Inca Demographic Shifts in the South Central Andes Using Stature Estimation

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

During times of social upheaval, such as the implementation of new imperial rule, major demographic changes can occur in populations. One osteological aspect that can be scored are changes in stature through time due to new stressors, inequalities, immigrations or migrations, and/or other such phenomena. This study aims to discover if there were major demographic shifts in stature for communities in the Andahuaylas region of the southcentral Andes dated between the Late Intermediate Period (LIP, AD 1000-1400) and Late Horizon (LH, AD 1400-1532). During the LIP, the Chanka cultural group were the prominent population, but then the Inca expanded into the region during the LH. The LIP sample population consists of Chanka individuals at the site of Cachi (n=37). The stature variation of the Chanka at Cachi will be compared to the newly excavated individuals at the complex site of Sondor (n=11), which has evidence of both LIP Chanka and LH Inca occupations. Using the Chanka at Cachi as a baseline, this project is the first step in understanding what happened to the local culture of the Chanka at Sondor and how the Inca influenced them.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25400