Exchange Competition in Coastal Ecuador during the Late Integration Period

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Political Economies on the Andean Coast" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Exchange relationships were fundamental for the rise of political complexity in ancient coastal Ecuador. Prior to the Spanish conquest, three regional polities compete to dominate long-distance exchange systems in the coast. But, while most of the literature focuses on the Manteños, given to the rich chronicle data, few studies have emphasized on the neighboring Jama-Coaque and Milagro-Quevedo groups. Most of the current reconstructions on coastal exchange systems indicate that the Manteños controlled the large coastal navigation using “balsas” (rafts), trading Spondylus and other shells as well as metal objects. A closer look at the material evidence, however, indicates that Manteños did not dominate the entire coastal region. Instead, the entire coast was a terrain of competition and collaboration with the Jama-Coaque and Milagro-Quevedo groups.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Political Economies on the Andean Coast   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37359.0