From Predation to Gifting in the Ancient Andes: Some Thoughts on Camelids and Reciprocity after the Chavín Cult

Summary

This is an abstract from the "A Movable Feast: Mobility and Commensalism in the Andes" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

One of the most salient and widespread innovations after the Chavín-period cults was the depiction of camelids across various ancient Andean cultures, from Moche to Nasca, and Pukara to Recuay. We can surmise that camelids played an increasingly prominent role in their respective social worlds, expanding horizons both economically and cosmologically during the early first millennium. Using Recuay culture as its starting point, and archaeological evidence of camelid use/imagery from Pashash (Ancash, Peru), this talk considers the transformative impacts of camelids and herds, crucially as new and mobile forms of wealth in social interaction and exchange. They involved fundamental alterations to how Andean groups, like the Recuay, coordinated resources, ritual and the landscape. Ultimately, I suggest it was a move from predation to reciprocity, when camelids rapidly came to hold status as gifted objects and gifting subjects.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• A Movable Feast: Mobility and Commensalism in the Andes

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52460