Life, Death, and Renewal: The Collective Experience of Performative Ritual at Huaca Colorada

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Bridging Time, Space, and Species: Over 20 Years of Archaeological Insights from the Cañoncillo Complex, Jequetepeque Valley, Peru, Part 1" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Sector B, the principal monumental area of Huaca Colorada, has long been understood as the locus of rites of social and cosmic rebirth, ancestor veneration, and genealogical continuity. Excavation has revealed a ritual canon that included the construction of ceremonial platforms that staged elaborate mortuary rites, including feasts and the sacrifice of non-human plant and animal kin. In contrast, occupation areas found in Sector A to the northwest were previously considered to represent domestic and informal use spaces. Recent excavations of Sector A have revealed a surprising and deep palimpsest of architectural features including additional ceremonial platforms and a chamber-tomb with several impressive musical instruments. Dedicatory human offerings, primarily of pregnant women, infants, and children, were similarly followed by the ritual termination and destruction of these platforms. Furthermore, subsequent architectural renovation and social renewal in Sector A draws meaningful new parallels with Sector B for interpreting these rites. In this paper, we take a holistic approach to the consideration of Andean lifecycles—birth, reproduction, and sacrifice of human and nonhuman kin, including the huaca itself—and the collective experience of acts of renewal in the maintenance of social and cosmic order.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Bridging Time, Space, and Species: Over 20 Years of Archaeological Insights from the Cañoncillo Complex, Jequetepeque Valley, Peru, Part 1   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38453.0