Adaptive strategies or ideological innovations? Interpreting sociopolitical developments in the Jequetepeque Valley of Peru during the Late Moche Period

Environmental perturbations and social unrest are thought to have led to the reconstitution of traditional belief systems and hierarchical political relations on Peru’s North Coast during the Late Moche Period (550–800 AD). Ideological transformations are thus commonly interpreted as adaptive or reactive responses to social, political, and ecological disruptions. Nevertheless, religious practices directly shaped the formation of alternative power structures and ecological systems on the North Coast during the Late Moche Period. This is especially evident in Late Moche Jequetepeque, which witnessed the proliferation of non-elite ceremonial sites and small-scale agricultural facilities throughout the rural hinterland of the valley. Moche-inspired ritual performances orchestrated in the countryside created distinctive new forms of political order which structured economic activities and ecological behavior. In this article, the Jequetepeque case study is mobilized to reassess normative interpretations of the role of religious ideology in cultural adaptation and sociopolitical realignment.     

Moche Politics,Religion, and Warfare

In this essay I briefly review the history of Moche studies, the essential features of this archaeological culture of the North Coast of Peru (ca. 1900–1100 B.P.), and its general economy. I then present current issues, discussions, and debates on Moche regional political organization, religion, warfare, and their interrelations. I suggest that the interpretation of Moche art has been and the interpretation of archaeology has lacked nuance. I question the proposal of warfare as ritual, that the temple mound complexes were centers of political power, that the elite buried in them were rulers, that the compounds and streets near them were cities, and whether proposals for a conquest Moche state are plausible. I suggest that these and other interpretations about the Moche are becoming accepted as facts without considering alternative interpretations of the data and that much information is lacking. Rather than having reached a stage when we can synthesize concepts about Moche culture we are only just beginning to understand it.     

Pueblo Settlement,Architecture, and Social Change in the Pueblo Revolt Era,A.D. 1680 to 1696

Abstract

In A.D. 1680, the Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest united in a revolt that drove Spanish colonists out of Pueblo lands for more than a decade. Dramatic changes in the architecture, spatial organization, and settlement patterns of Pueblo villages occurred during this era as Pueblo leaders sought to revive traditional beliefs and practices. Semiotic and space syntax analyses of 10 Pueblo Revolt-era (1680–1696) villages reveal evidence for an ideology of cultural revitalization, as well as changing patterns of leadership and social interaction. Villages built early in this period exhibit planned communal construction and evidence of strong centralized leadership that resulted in highly structured social interaction. In contrast, later villages are characterized by less centralized leadership and a dispersed layout that facilitated the informal interactions necessary for communal integration in a time of increased migration. The social changes reflected in and shaped by Revolt-era architecture were crucial in the formation of modern Pueblo culture, influencing village alliances and spatial organization down to the present day.     

Hydraulic engineering and irrigation agriculture in the Moche Valley,Peru: c. A.D. 1250–1532

This paper examines the hydraulic properties (i.e. velocity and discharge) of the main late prehistoric canals of the Moche Valley. Velocities, estimated from excavated canal sections using the Manning flow equation, are compared to tables of maximum permissible velocities and reveal that canals were constructed to transport water efficiently, but that on gradients steeper than 1:100 the Chimu and Inca engineers were unable to transport large discharges without severe erosional problems. Discharge estimates are compared with modern field requirements, using a known ethnographic watering cycle. This demonstrates that in almost every instance the channel size was of the same order of magnitude as that predicted from the requirements. The construction of the Inter-valley canal to bring water to the state lands in Moche was a technological disaster.     

Archaeological Perspectives on the Rise of the Okinawan State

This paper presents an examination of processes of secondary state formation that occurred during the emergence of the Ryukyu Kingdom, in southwestern Japan, from the tenth to seventeenth centuries A.D. These processes include the influx of new populations, the appearance of new subsistence strategies and political groupings, shifting patterns of long-distance trade, the development of new patterns of foreign relations with China and Japan, the creation of indigenous culture and new ideology, and the transformation of gender hierarchy. I examine these processes from the perspective of political leadership and the nature of political hierarchy, concluding that the Okinawan case is distinctive in its heterarchical organization. The corporate, collective nature of Okinawan communities was overlain by a state-level network system that developed at the time of tributary linkages with China in the fourteenth century A.D.     

New zooarchaeological and funerary perspectives on Mochica culture (a.d. 100–800), Peru

Abstract

The Mochica culture developed on the northern Peruvian coast between a.d. 100 and 800. A zooarchaeological study of the remains discovered in graves at four main ceremonial sites—Sipán, San José de Moro, El Brujo, and Moche—provides evidence of 12 sacrificed species including domestic animals such as llamas, dogs, and guinea pigs, and wild animals such as bats and parrots. A comparison of zooarchaeological data with Mochica iconography shows that animals served a variety of ritual purposes, for example, as mortuary food and as guides for souls of the dead in the afterlife. They were also considered to be mediators between the world of the living and that of the dead. This study enhances our understanding of funerary and sacrificial rituals linked to animals in Mochica society as well as in the central Andes.     

Urban Settlement Systems and Rural Sustaining Communities: An Example from Chan Chan's Hinterland

Abstract

The study of prehistoric cities has often been marked by research strategies that focus completely on urban centers and thus preclude the delineation of entire settlement systems by ignoring the interrelationships between cities and their rural sustaining communities. A major focus of recent research in the Moche Valley on the Peruvian North Coast has been on elucidating the nature of urbanrural relations between the prehistoric Chimú city of Chan Chan and contemporaneous sites located in its hinterland. Excavation at the village of Cerro la Virgen together with additional evidence obtained from other sites in Chan Chan's rural sustaining area has provided insights into Chimú lifeways in nonmetropolitan areas, as well as evidence suggesting a multifaceted plan for organizing lands outside the civic center of Chan Chan. The archaeological data indicate that an important aspect of the organization of rural argicultural zones was the restriction of settlement to villages circumscribed by the Chimú state.     

Foot amputation by the Moche of ancient Peru: osteological evidence and archaeological context

Three probable cases of foot amputation, with healing, in skeletal remains associated with the Moche culture (AD 100–750) of northern coastal Peru are described. Each case exhibits non‐functional tibio‐talar joints with proliferative bone occupying the normal joint space. The robusticity of the tibiae and fibulae suggest renewed weight‐bearing and mobility following recovery. The osteological evidence is consistent with details shown in Moche ceramic depictions of footless individuals. A footless Moche skeleton with wooden prostheses, described in 1913 by Peruvian physician Vélez López, appears to represent a fourth example of this procedure. The Moche surgical approach was similar to a technique that would be pioneered in western medicine by the Scottish surgeon Sir James Syme some 1500 years later. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Integrated isotopic study of Early Intermediate Period camelid husbandry in the Santa Valley,Perú

ABSTRACT

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope compositions were determined for camelid bone collagen, hair, and wool (fibre) sampled from textiles from archaeological sites in the Santa Valley (north coast of Perú) occupied during Moche III (El Castillo, A.D. 300?500) and Moche IV (Guadalupito, A.D. 500?700) phases; a small number of camelid bone collagen samples were also analysed from the Late Suchimancillo Phase (A.D. 0?300). These data suggest that localised camelid husbandry was practiced in the Santa Valley from at least the Moche III phase. The nature of camelid husbandry likely involved animals being kept spatially segregated and fed a diverse range of fodder. The isotopic compositions of the bone collagen and wool textiles were very similar, which suggests that the wool that was used to produce the textiles was derived from local camelids rather than being acquired from the highlands. The transition from Moche III to Moche IV, which saw a significant increase in Mochica presence in the Santa Valley, was not accompanied by major changes in camelid husbandry practices. Localised camelid husbandry continued through this transition with minimal change; the prolonged droughts of the sixth century A.D. had no discernable effect on camelid husbandry, probably due to the special hydraulic conditions unique to the Santa Valley.     

Identity and state formation in multi‐sectarian societies: Between nationalism and sectarianism in Syria

The relation between state formation and identity in MENA multi‐sectarian societies is examined, taking Syria as a case study. The paper looks at the impact of the mix of sectarianism and nationalism on the formation of state institutions and the impact of the latter on this mix. The flawed export of the Westphalian state system to MENA established the structural context—multiple identities, hybrid states—wherein the two identities compete, overlap, and coexist. Next, the factors that explain varying identity patterns in MENA are surveyed and their likely consequences for state formation; then, reversing the analysis, the impact of state formation and state institutions on the nationalism–sectarianism balance is examined. The Syrian case is briefly discussed in order to illustrate the argument, looking at three periods when the identity balance interacted differently with state formation: pre‐Ba'thist Syria when nationalism eclipsed sectarianism; Ba'thist Syria (1970‐2000) when patrimonial instrumentalization of sectarianism was compensated for by inclusive bureaucratic institutions, populist policies, and nationalist ideology; neo‐liberal Syria under Bashar al‐Asad (2000‐2010) when inclusion shrank, reanimating sectarianism; and civil war Syria (2010‐) when partial state failure fostered exclusionary militant sectarianism at the expense of nationalism.     

Neutron Activation Analysis of Metal Artefacts from the Moche Site,North Coast of Peru

Neutron activation analysis has been used to characterize 60 metal objects from the Moche site, of which four are associated with the Chimú Period, two with the Early Chimú Period and the others with various Moche IV contexts. Different types of utilitarian and non‐utilitarian objects were analysed to identify the metals present, and to investigate their chemical composition and their eventual source. The results clearly indicate the distinction between Chimú and Moche artefacts and confirm the generalized opinion that arsenic bronze was popular after ad 900. They also indicate that gilding copper objects with gold was already a common practice during the Moche era.     

Building a New Jerusalem: The Meaning of a Group of Merchant Houses in Seventeenth-Century Newcastle upon Tyne, England

The political and religious symbolism of buildings is of enduring interest in historical archaeology. Similarly, ideal concepts in urban planning, and utopian communities have been of recent concern. This paper moves beyond iconography and ideology to examine how a new, post-Civil War English elite tried to implement a policy of reforming their town as a New Jerusalem. A group of merchant houses reveals an attempt to build Scripture into the physical environment, and establish the elite as Elect “watchmen” over the lives and souls of the townspeople. Contemporary sermons are integral to the analysis, as are the agency and inter-relationships of a tightly-knit social group.     

The Emergence of Social Complexity in the Chibchan World of Southern Central America and Northern Colombia,AD 300–600

The societies of southern Central America and northern South America, a region historically occupied by Chibchan-speaking peoples, have long been acknowledged as valuable sources of information on chiefdoms and other forms of prestate social organization. Most studies, however, have focused on chiefdoms that are known ethnographically or ethnohistorically with an emphasis on the sixteenth century and the immediate precontact period. This paper reviews archaeological evidence from an earlier period in an attempt to elucidate general patterns associated with the earliest appearance of social inequality. The centuries between AD 300 and 600 are characterized by the first widespread use of prestige goods manufactured from gold and jade, special cemeteries for the interment of elites, and a rich iconography. Detailed consideration of recent research relevant to the events of this period highlights some of the problems inherent in the archaeological identification of hierarchy, chiefdoms, leadership, and other features of prestate complex societies.     

West Indian Archaeology. 3. Ceramic Age

Irving Rouse once calculated that more than 90% of all pre-Columbian artifacts from the West Indies are made of clay. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that the vast majority of research in the region has focused on the ceramic age cultures. The review begins by considering the early ceramic age peoples whose pottery is classified as part of the Saladoid series. These peoples entered the Antilles about 500 B.C. and settled all of the islands as far north as Puerto Rico. For as yet unknown reasons their northward progress was halted in Puerto Rico for nearly 1000 years. The post-Saladoid cultures of the Lesser Antilles, about whom very little is known, and the so-called Ostionoid peoples of the Greater Antilles and Bahama archipelago are discussed next. New, detailed studies of subsistence, settlement patterns, social organization, and iconography are contributing to a richer knowledge of the patterns and processes of cultural evolution in an insular setting.     

New Perspectives in Mississippian Archaeology

In recent years the pace of research on the late prehistoric Mississippian societies of eastern North America has accelerated. New data, methods, and theoretical goals are changing perspectives in Mississippian archaeology. Regional overviews and site syntheses provide unprecedented insights into the Mississippian phenomenon at local, regional, and continental scales. Traditional culture history, processualism, historical processualism, iconography, and neo-Darwinian archaeology are active theoretical orientations. Important research focuses on variability in Mississippian sociopolitical formations over time, organizational diversity among contemporaneous societies, and sources of political power. The new historicism and iconography place agency, identity, origins, factionalism, ideology, and meaning at the center of culture change, while many processualists continue to focus on developmental histories, economy, and control of material resources. Advances in physical and chemical analyses and the availability of remote sensing techniques are changing how Mississippian archaeology is conducted and expanding the kinds of data that are recovered. These diverse interests, methods, and goals have created considerable eclecticism in Mississippian archaeology.     

Neoliberal Urbanity and the Right to the City: A View from Beirut's Periphery

Drawing on Lefebvre's theorization of space in order to examine the compatibility of neoliberalism and the right to the city, this study investigates how the formation of informal settlements since the 1950s had provided low‐income dwellers in Beirut (Lebanon) a means to conceive of and engage in city making (neighbourhood production, management, and organization) at a time when state regulations and/or market constraints would have excluded them from the city. It also examines how the prevailing neoliberal ideology of the 1990s, as translated through Lebanon's sectarian‐clientelist regime, is curtailing these possibilities. Evidence for the article was drawn from interviews with dwellers, developers and public officials, as well as from archival searches and aerial photographs.     

Crucibles of power: Forging copper and forging subjects at the Moche Ceremonial Center of Huaca Colorada,Peru

An analysis of copper production, architectural construction, and feasting rites as interrelated ritual activities at the Late Moche site of Huaca Colorada suggests that power asymmetries were embedded in a distinctive relational ontology and sacrificial worldview. Power was exercised not by alienating communities from their means of production or excluding the majority lower class from the diacritical symbols of power. Rather, the manufacture of copper items enabled subjects to directly contribute to Moche rites of regeneration and social reproduction; the skilled metamorphosis of copper into finished objects paralleled and symbolically reinforced the ritual re-formation of bodies and political subjectivities at Huaca Colorada. Ultimately, an examination of copper production at Huaca Colorada as a ritual of bodily transformation sheds light on the culturally specific structures of power characterizing the greater Jequetepeque region during the Late Moche Period.     

Domesticating gender: Neolithic patterns from the southern Levant

This paper examines the extant evidence regarding gender reconstructions and relations for the Neolithic of the southern Levant of southwest Asia. Data from human skeletal remains, mortuary contexts, architecture, and figurative art provide the empirical bases for a broad assessment of gender in the realms of productive labor, social organization, and ideology. Overall, little evidence is found to support that Neolithic societies in this region were organized hierarchically in terms of gender.     

Landscape bioarchaeology at Pacatnamu,Peru: inferring mobility from δC and δN values of hair

Stable carbon- and nitrogen-isotope ratios were measured for segments along the shafts of hair from eight individuals from the site of Pacatnamu, located in the Jequetepeque Valley on the north coast of Peru. All are from known grave contexts dating from Moche (ca. 450–750 A.D.) to Lambayeque periods (ca. 900–1100 A.D.). The mean δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values of hair segments from individuals are comparable to those of bone, and demonstrate increased consumption of marine resources in the Lambayeque times relative to the Moche period.     

Commoner Power: A Case Study from the Classic Period Collapse on the Oaxaca Coast

This article argues that the agency of commoners has not been adequately theorized in archaeological studies of the political dynamics of complex societies. Recent developments in social theory emphasize that political relations are produced through social negotiations involving commoners as well as elites. This paper considers the role of commoners in the Classic period collapse in the lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico. Regional survey and excavation data demonstrate that the Classic-to-Postclassic transition was marked by dramatic changes in settlement patterns and sociopolitical organization, including the decline of the Late Classic regional center of Río Viejo. The research indicates that rather than passively reacting to the sociopolitical developments of the Classic-to-Postclassic transition, commoners actively rejected many of the ruling institutions and symbols that were central to the dominant ideology of the Late Classic state. Early Postclassic people reused and reinterpreted the sacred spaces and objects of the Río Viejo state such as carved stone monuments and public buildings. The evidence from the lower Verde is examined in the context of an emerging theoretical perspective in archaeology that considers commoner power. We argue that commoners contribute to the social negotiation of dominant discourses through three overlapping forms of social interaction: engagement, avoidance, and resistance.