Changing Food Practices of Post-Tiwanaku Agropastoral Communities at Los Batanes (Sama Valley, Peru)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Scaling New Heights: Recent Advances in Andean Zooarchaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Following the collapse of the Tiwanaku state in the 11th c. CE, some Tiwanaku-affiliated communities moved to the coastal valleys of southern Peru to establish new settlements. While not much is known about this period immediately following political collapse, coastal migrants adapted to the temperate climate and hyperarid environment by adopting a mixed subsistence of maize-based farming, gathering marine resources, and pasturing their llamas and alpacas. To understand more about how diasporic communities respond to crisis and collapse, especially in agropastoral societies, we conducted zooarchaeological analysis of animal remains recovered from multiple domestic archaeological contexts from the site of Los Batanes in the Sama Valley. The site, situated at the boundary between the Andean cordillera and coastal plain, is located in a desert oasis that offers seasonal and perennial sustenance for humans and camelids. Our zooarchaeological analysis sheds light on changing diet, subsistence, and economic pursuits of Tiwanaku-descendant migrants on the coast, as well as elucidates information on shifting identities and daily routines of people living post-collapse. Specifically, we explore how a diasporic agropastoral community negotiated its highland practices and identities within new environments and a rapidly changing sociopolitical landscape.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Scaling New Heights: Recent Advances in Andean Zooarchaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51137