Andean Bioarchaeology

Early state formation on the Andean coast resulted in the creation of monumental, densely populated urban centers. The prehispanic Peruvian site of Huacas de Moche (wA.D. 100e850) was one of the largest sites that developed during the Early Intermediate Period, and we examine its urban population dynamics and community interaction here.We use phosphate oxygen isotope compositions (d18Op) of tooth
enamel (formed during childhood) and bone (continuously remodeled during life) to reconstruct the residential histories of 34 Moche individuals interred in urban tomb and sacrificial contexts at this site. These data are also used to explore the highly debated origin of Moche sacrifices and discuss the shift in victims’ geographic origins over time.
Local baseline water sources (d18Ow) were used to interpret the human d18Op values. Females from urban residential compound and platform mound tombs have more variable d18Op values than males, which suggest a patrilocal residence pattern. Males from the same elite contexts have d18Op values that reflect local water compositions, demonstrating lifetime residential stability and therefore a local elite. An earlier sacrificial group (Plaza 3C) appears to consist mostly of local individuals, but the greater inclusion of non-local individuals in a later sacrificial group (Plaza 3A) reflects more variability in origins of victims during later Moche state development. While the nature of Moche socio-political structure remains
contentious, these data suggest a high degree of population mobility among distant Moche centers.

Cranial modification, the intentional reshaping of an infant's head, was likely tied to notions of proper childrearing in the ancient Andes. However, its relationship to other aspects of childhood experience and socialization is rarely interrogated. This study assesses childhood diet and weaning practices among 85 modified and unmodified individuals from the Colca Valley, Peru (1100-1450 CE), analyzing carbon and oxygen isotope ratios from 190 enamel carbonate samples from 110 teeth. Increasing δ 13 C values between cuspal and cervical enamel, and between early and later forming teeth, suggest that the diets of infants and children, regardless of social identity, were gradually supplemented by maize. Although average isotopic values do not differ systematically by site, sex, or presence or absence of cranial modification, modified individuals show greater variance in δ 13 C than unmodified individuals. Stable carbon isotope data from modified individuals with more than one tooth sampled further underscore the maintenance of distinct diets across juvenile life histories. This dietary diversity may be the outcome of more geographically expansive patterns of resource use that involved temporary residence outside of the valley. This interpretation follows from ethnohistorical models of vertical economy in the Andes, but requires further testing with other lines of isotope data.

An individual or group social identity is created through the comple~ interplay between internally derived and externally applied definitions Qenkins 2003). The process of internal
definition involves ~he self-ascription by the actors and can manifest individually or collectively. While this process ~ay initially be internal, it is a process that can draw upon an external social framework and is contingent upon the existence of an audience. The process in which the other is created and contested with the us necessarily calls upon social interaction. This transaction may range from consensual, in which the internal and external definition are isomorphic (or nearly so), to confrontational, in which the external definition may have a significant effect on the social experience of the categorized Qenkins 2003; Stein 2002). In this chapter we explore the reconstructed identity of the Chachapoya as fierce warriors, a name and characterization that have come to be applied to a group of people that inhabited a region in northern Peru between AD 1000 until the early Colonial period (after AD 1532). This identity has largely been based on textual sources and to some degree archaeological data, and is therefore predominantly a product of forces external to the region. The current research relies upon the analysis of skeletal trauma as the prevalence and distribution can serve as markers of shared collective experiences and therefore provides another perspective of the role of violence in this constructed identity.

Objectives: This study aims to determine whether adults from the site of Uraca in the Lower Majes Valley, Arequipa,
Peru altered their diets in late-life—if so, were those short-term changes related to accessing distinct foods during periods of short-term mobility, seasonal subsistence strategies without accompanying mobility, or some other type of short-term change. We address this question by comparing stable isotope variability (δ13C/δ15N) of Uraca hair keratin and bone collagen to published archaeological hair data from Peru. We propose and apply a landscape bioarchaeology approach—here, the spatially-informed meta-analysis of published δ13C/δ15N data
from archaeological hair keratin of known provenience—to determine thresholds for different types of short-term
dietary change.
Materials and methods: We conducted stable isotope analysis (δ13C/δ15N) of archaeological hair keratin (n = 40
samples) and bone collagen (n = 5 samples) from Uraca, including adult male trophy heads and adult male and
female villagers. We then compiled published archaeological hair keratin data from the Andes and coded the 11 sites according to biogeographical zones. We compared late-life averages for the entire dataset (n = 131 segments) and ranges for individuals with more than six months of data (n = 101 segments) between sites and between subgroups based on elevational zones, sex, and trophy subgroupings. We compiled archaeological and modern baseline food web data for the region (n = 401 samples) and compared hair data adjusted to diet.  Results: Meta-analysis shows greater late-life median δ13Ckeratin (VPDB) and δ15Nkeratin (AIR) for yunga vs. coastal burials, greater δ13Ckeratin (VPDB) ranges for coastal burials, greater δ15Nkeratin (AIR) ranges for females, greater
median δ15Nkeratin (AIR) for trophy individuals, and greater δ13Ckeratin (VPDB) ranges for trophy individuals. Given
these distinct late-life diets and ranges for coastal and yunga burials relative to southern Peruvian food web data, two females and three trophy individuals from Uraca likely changed diets during a short-term move, while the remainder show no evidence for dietary change.
Discussion: These analyses demonstrate distinct dietary practices between coastal and yunga groups, between
males and females, and between trophy head victims and non-trophy villagers. Understanding the nature of latelife dietary change through a comparative synthesis of archaeological hair provides key insights into individual life trajectories, communal practices, mobility, and foodways relative to altitudinally variable landscapes of the Peruvian Andes.

La bioarqueología ha demostrado ser, desde sus inicios en la década de 1970, una fuente de información en continuo crecimiento que colabora de manera dinámica a redimensionar nuestra concepción acerca de las sociedades humanas del pasado. En Latinoamérica, la disciplina ha experimentado un particular impulso durante las últimas décadas, el cual estuvo guiado tanto por la implementación de desarrollos teórico-metodológicos generados en todo el mundo como por los intereses particulares por conocer distintos aspectos de las sociedades precolombinas y por el pulso de los interrogantes científicos y sociales locales. La bioarqueología se constituye en la actualidad como un activo ámbito de producción de conocimiento que genera discursos propios, originales y en ocasiones contestatarios, para descifrar cómo vivían los pueblos prehispánicos y qué cambios sufrieron como consecuencia de la colonización europea.
La génesis del libro que usted tiene en sus manos surgió de la búsqueda de reunir un conjunto de contribuciones que mostraran la gran variedad de enfoques bioarqueológicos que actualmente se abordan en nuestro continente. El objetivo es, entonces, ofrecer un panorama general del estado de la disciplina en Latinoamérica. Los capítulos comprenden desde estudios de casos específicos hasta síntesis regionales resultado de proyectos de trabajo de largo aliento.