Water Technology and Symbolism in the Andes (Cordillera Blanca, Ancash, Peru)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Water Management in the Andes: Past, Present, and Future" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Dominated by the glaciated mountain couple Huascarán (male, 6768 m) and Tullparaju (female, 6395 m), the cultural landscape of the Callejón de Huaylas has long been shaped by stark contrasts in water availability. This paper showcases how water infiltration and surface runoff catchment technologies developed, as techné and as logos. Drawing on survey and excavation data from the environs of Tullparaju, it argues that glaciers became increasingly key for gravity irrigation farming under irregular climatic conditions marking the End-Formative (EF, ca. 2400–1800 BP) and late Middle Horizon (1200–1000 BP), and suggests the rise of paramount ceremonial centers as associated with the development of major inter-catchment water transfer systems. The complementary male/female opposition in the present landscape is discussed in the light of rock art at the pacarina of Keushu and suggested to reflect a precolonial moiety division. The interplay of anthropic lakes, bofedal wetlands, and glacier-fed gravity irrigation in ritual and mortuary practices is sketched out, and contrasted with the violent decoupling of the technical and symbolic aspects of water management during the early colonial period. Present mismanagement of water surplus triggered by ongoing glacier retreat is seen rooted in this process.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Water Management in the Andes: Past, Present, and Future   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38076.0