South American Archaeology Research Papers (original) (raw)

- by and +1
- •
- Maritime Archaeology, Indigenous Studies, Pre-Columbian Art, Ceramics (Archaeology)

According to Matsigenka mythology, the harpy eagle, Pakitsa, long ago walked the earth in human form and taught shamans its own hunting secrets: special toxic plants to sharpen vision, cleanse the body and purify the soul. To this day, Matsigenka shamans ascend to the heavens in hallucinogenic trance [see "Return of the Secret Shaman"] to obtain novel varieties of sedge, manioc and other crops and medicines from the spirits.[1] The Matsigenka recognize four general kinds of hunting medicines: 1) aromatic sedges used to steady the hands and guide the arrow; 2) caustic eye drops to improve vision and heighten the senses; 3) purgatives and emetics to flush impurities from the body; 4) and hallucinogens and narcotics to transport the soul to other dimensions where the hunter communes with spirit beings. Cultivated sedges (Cyperus spp.) are probably the most important of all Matsigenka plant medicines, used for a spectacular diversity of ailments. Matsigenka men grow dozens of sedge varieties in their gardens as hunting remedies, each one prized for its ability to enhance skills for tracking and killing a specific game animal—spider monkey, woolly monkey, various game birds, certain types of fish. Other sedge varieties are rubbed on the hands while planting certain crops to make them more hardy. Women, too, have their own sedge varieties—to bathe babies, soothe fevers, staunch hemorrhages during childbirth, to treat infertility or, on the other hand, as a natural form of birth control. Other sedges are used to treat common health complaints such as headaches, fevers, cuts and diarrhea. Still others are used to treat snakebite, to ward off ghosts and vengeful spirits, to treat depression and nightmares[3], or to cure insanity. Some dangerously potent cultivars are believed to cause insanity. There are even sedge varieties to give one a beautiful singing voice, to become a better weaver, to calm a belligerent drunk, or to pass through military check points and park guard posts without hassles.

- by Glenn Shepard
- •
- Anthropology, Ethnobotany, Ethnopharmacology, Ethnobotany in South America

Research in two distinct steppe landscapes in southern Patagonia—the western basaltic plateaux and the central Deseado Massif— compares hunter-gatherer strategies in the two environments, focusing on the use of hunting blinds and associated tactics in the hunting of guanaco. The evidence obtained brings this region into discussions about the use of rocky structures and the recognition of tactics used for hunting ungulates in a global perspective. The authors also emphasise the importance of highland settings as major and reliable sources of critical resources for foraging peoples, a topic still not fully appreciated in archaeological studies of hunter-gatherers.

- by Gustavo Barrientos and +1
- •
- Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology, Archaeology of Hunting, South American Archaeology
- by Jean-Jacques Hublin
- •
- Evolutionary Biology, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Human Evolution
- by Patricia Ayala and +1
- •
- Museum Studies, History of Museums, Chilean and Andean Archaeology, Indigenous Archaeology

The fifth community archaeology workshop was held in June of 2013 on Cayo Sal in the Los Roques Archipelago, Venezuela. The workshop, designed for the students of the secondary school of Gran Roque Island, was the first historical archaeology initiative of the ongoing community archaeology program and the first initiative of its kind in Venezuela. The experience involved group-building activities and lectures by the team on archaeological methods and the history of Cayo Sal. This was followed by two days of excavation on the 19th-century archaeological site of Cayo Sal, located by the saltpans. Students were given the task of excavating, recording and documenting the dig and the materials as they recovered them in their units. An identification guide of diagnostic artifacts was given to each group which facilitated the understanding of what was being excavated in situ. Following the excavation, the students identified and analyzed the recovered material remains assisted by the archaeologists. Finally, they were encouraged to creatively juxtapose the material evidence and the historical background with their own experiences, to inquire on the quotidian life and work of the 19th-century Cayo Sal salt workers. The schoolchildren empathized with their direct past, identified its similarities and differences with their current realities, and communicated this through lively presentations that were both insightful and transformative for them and the archaeological team.

A Apresentação compara os resultados das pesquisas arqueológicas feitas para o licenciamento ambiental da antiga UHE Kararaô, Rio Xingu, PA, mais de 20 anos atrás, com os resultados das pesquisas arqueológicas ainda em andamento para o... more

Objective: In this study, we analyze breastfeeding and weaning practices in pre-Columbian complex hunter-gatherers from the lower Paraná River basin (South America). Materials and Methods: We carried out bone isotope analyses concerning δ... more

The early ethnological works of Alfred Métraux are analysed bearing in mind his first fieldwork trip to the Chiriguano, in 1929. The paper discusses personal, academic and professional features of Métraux’s ethnological experience, the nature of the 1929 trip and his concrete relationships with the Chiriguano groups and individuals. Next, we analyse his ideas on material culture as a privileged means of understanding the synthesis of Andean, Chaco and Amazonian cultural influences. Finally, the dilemmas and limitations of his analytical approach regarding Créole cultural influence and social and cultural change are discussed. [Key words: Alfred Métraux, Chané, Chiriguano, material culture, change.]
Se analiza la etnología temprana de Alfred Métraux a la luz de su primer viaje de campo a los chiriguanos, en 1929. Se discute el perfil personal, académico y profesional de Métraux, las peculiaridades de su trabajo de campo en 1929 y sus relaciones concretas con los indígenas chiriguanos en el terreno. Se examinan luego sus ideas sobre la cultura material como campo experimental privilegiado para rastrear procesos de síntesis de influencias culturales andinas, chaqueñas y amazónicas, así también sus dilemas y límites a la hora de interpretar el factor de la influencia criolla y el proceso de cambio social y cultural en un sentido amplio. [Palabras clave: Alfred Métraux, Chané, Chiriguano, cultura material, cambio.]

- by Diego Villar
- •
- Religion, Cultural History, Ethnohistory, Sociology
- by Veronica N Zuccarelli Freire
- •
- South American Archaeology

Resumen: Este artículo presenta los resultados preliminares de una investiga-ción sobre los sitios arqueológicos conocidos en portugués como «estearias», nombre que procede de los «esteios» —troncos de árboles—, colocados den-tro de los ríos y usados para la construcción de aldeas en las tierras bajas de Sudamérica durante el periodo precolonial. Las «estearias» estudiadas están ubicadas en el sureste amazónico, en el actual Estado brasileño de Maranhão. A través del análisis de las fuentes coloniales y de los vestigios materiales, este artículo discute quiénes eran estos pueblos y por qué habitaban en el me-dio acuático. Abstract: This article presents the preliminary results of research on the archaeological sites known as estearias (" pile dwellings "), referring to piles (tree trunks) placed in rivers for the construction of villages in the precolonial period in Low-land South America. The estearias studied are in the southeastern Amazon, in the present-day Brazilian state of Maranhão. Through analysis of colonial sources and material remnants, this article develops theoretical discussions about the identity of the people who inhabited these aquatic environments and why they did so.

- by Alexandre Guida Navarro
- •
- South American Archaeology

Several khipus-Inka knotted-string recording devices-were recently excavated at a storage facility at the Peruvian south coast site of Inkawasi, found buried under agricultural produce (i.e., chili peppers, peanuts, and black beans). These khipus contain a formulaic arrangement of numerical values not encountered on khipus from elsewhere in Tawantinsuyu (the Inka Empire). The formula includes first, a large number, hypothesized to record the sum total of produce included in a deposit, followed by a "fixed number," and then one or more additional numbers. The fixed number plus the additional number(s) sum to the original large number. It is hypothesized that the fixed number represents an amount deducted from the deposit to support storage facility personnel. As such, it represented a tax assessed on deposits, the first evidence we have for a system of taxation on goods in the Inka Empire. It is proposed that the size and complexity of the storage facility at Inkawasi prompted the "invention" of a kind of financing instrument-taxation-not known previously from Inka administration. We also consider , but provisionally set aside, the alternative hypothesis that the fixed values recorded on the Inkawasi khipus could have represented amounts of seeds set aside from deposits for the next year's planting. Durante las excavaciones de un complejo de almacenamiento (Qolqawasi) del sitio de Inkawasi, en la costa sur del Perú, se hallaron varios khipus-instrumentos de registro Inkas empleando cordeles anudados-asociados a diferentes cultivos agrí-colas (e.g., ají, maní y frijoles negros). Estos khipus presentan una disposición de valores numéricos que no se ha encontrado en otras partes del Tawantinsuyo (el Imperio Inka). Esta secuencia incluye un valor alto, el cual correspondería a la cantidad total de un determinado producto depositado en un almacén (qolqa), seguido de un "valor fijo" y uno o más números adicio-nales. Si se suman el valor fijo y los números adicionales, se obtiene al valor alto. Proponemos que el valor fijo representa un monto que era deducido de los productos almacenados en las qolqas para el mantenimiento del personal encargado y el fun-cionamiento de los almacenes. Ante esta evidencia de un posible impuesto a los productos almacenados, estaríamos ante las primeras manifestaciones de un sistema tributario sobre bienes en el Imperio Inka. Proponemos que, ante el tamaño y com-plejidad de las instalaciones de almacenamiento, en Inkawasi existió la necesidad de "inventar" un tipo de instrumento finan-ciero-el impuesto-desconocido previamente en estudios de la administración Inka. También podemos considerar como hipótesis alternativa que los valores fijos de los khipus de Inkawasi representen una cierta cantidad de semillas no depositadas en los almacenes que habrían sido empleadas para la siembra de la siguiente cosecha.

- by Gary Urton
- •
- History, Economic History, Latin American Studies, Economics

This article is a response to Dillehay [2019. “Un ensayo sobre genética, arqueología y movilidad humana temprana.” Mundo de Antes 13 (2): 13–65] and Dillehay, Pino, and Ocampo [2020. “Comments on Archaeological Remains at the Monte Verde Site Complex, Chile.” PaleoAmerica. https://doi.org/10.1080/20555563.2020.1762399], who criticized our comments about Monte Verde-I and Chinchihuapi-I as well as our suggestion of the tightening of the age of Monte Verde-II [Politis, G. G., and L. Prates. 2018. “Clocking the Arrival of Homo sapiens in the Southern Cone of South America.” In New Perspectives on the Peopling of the Americas, edited by K. Harvati, G. Jäger, and H. Reyes Centeno, 79–106. Tübingen: Kerns Verlag]. They claimed that we purposefully ignored pertinent data to support our opinions, and that we made several mistakes when analyzing the evidence. In this article we demonstrate that we did not ignore any relevant data, and that the putative errors are in fact alternative interpretations based on the available data and recent studies about site formation processes.

We explore the implications of the spatial structure of the artifact assemblages at the Binushmuka I site, located in the north coast of the Beagle Channel (Tierra del Fuego). The information corresponding to the stratigraphy, chronology and composition of the archaeological assemblages of this site is described. We focus on the spatial distribution of artifacts, which mainly depend on the number and duration of the occupations and the size of the group, to evaluate the temporal structure of the assemblages. For assessing pattern mobility, we also consider the spatial consistency of the location of the site in relation to features of the paleogeography and the archaeological landscape.
The confined size of the assemblages (~7-8 m2) are likely to represent occupations by small sized groups. The spatial consistency between early Holocene occupations and marine hunter-gatherer assemblages observed at a regional level suggests that groups with similar mobility and foraging strategies could have occupied the site.
Keywords: coastal site, early Holocene, early coastal foragers, lithic technology, spatial analysis.

- by Hein B. Bjerck and +3
- •
- Spatial Analysis, Settlement Patterns, Coastal and Island Archaeology, Lithic Technology

La malacología en contextos arqueológicos tuvo, en los últimos años y a nivel mundial, un notable impulso con un aumento considerable del número de publicaciones en este campo multi e interdisciplinar donde convergen (a través de los moluscos como eje organizador) las ciencias naturales y sociales. En Latinoamérica se destaca como uno de los antecedentes el Simposio Arqueología y Malacología: casos de estudio, perspectivas de análisis y abordajes metodológicos, realizado en el marco del Primer Congreso Argentino de Malacología (2013) y que contó con la participación de profesionales de la arqueología y la biología. La idea de realizar el presente volumen surgió luego de la realización del Primer Simposio Latinoamericano de Arqueomalacología, en el marco del X Congreso Latinoamericano de Malacología (X CLAMA) que tuvo lugar el día 2 de octubre de 2017 en el Argentino Hotel de la ciudad de Piriápolis. Respecto a la relación del Homo sapiens con los moluscos, actualmente se conoce que la especie humana ya consumía moluscos hace unos 300.000 años (Classeen 1998). No obstante, además de la dieta, muchos grupos humanos de la antigüedad utilizaron también sus conchas con diversos propósitos. En tal sentido, entre los hallazgos que tendrían mayor antigüedad podemos mencionar al sitio Skhul, en Asia occidental (con edades entre 100.000 y 135.000 años; Vanhaeren et al. 2006) y la Cueva de Blombos, en Sudáfrica (aproximadamente 76.000 años; Henshilwood et al. 2004) en que se recuperaron cuentas realizadas con la concha de caracoles marinos del género Nassarius (respectivamente, N. gibbosulus y N. kraussianus). A partir de allí hay registros de su utilización como elementos utilitarios tales como monedas e instrumentos; y también en ámbitos simbólicos como medio de transmisión de información social (ornamentos, ofrendas funerarias, etc.).

- by Sebastián Pastor and +1
- •
- Archaeomalacology, South American Archaeology
- by Andrey Tabarev
- •
- Colombia, South American Archaeology

Even after a century-long investigation spearheaded by world-class historians, scientists, archaeologists alike, the two millennia old Peruvian mystery remains unresolved. The enigmatic, several kilometres long Nazca Lines are composed of 800 straight lines, 300 geometric figures and 70 animal and plant designs. These Lines appear to have been etched into the sun-baked Pampa Colorada region of Peru, and have remained self-preserved for thousands of years. This book provides an overview of these ingenious Peruvian lines, its rich historical background, and its archaeological significance today. Taking a deep dive into the culture, traditions and rituals of the Nazca people will help appreciate the impact of this ancient marvel on tourism, arts and pop-culture today. Characterized by history, archaeology, culture, art, pop-culture, and conspiracy theories, The Nazca Lines reveals the known identity, importance and impact of this long-drawn mystery.

- by Austin A Mardon and +1
- •
- History, Peruvian History, South American Archaeology, Peru Archaeology

Praca ma na celu zebranie, usystematyzowanie i analizę informacji na temat antropogenicznych zmian w krajobrazie prekolumbijskiej Amazonii.
W wyniku badań okazało się, że należy zerwać z mitem fałszywego raju i zapomnianego ogrodu, przypisywanego do tej pory Amazonii. Określenia te zastąpić należy innym, bardziej uprawnionym mianem – krajobrazu zmienionego ręką człowieka.

- by Michał Kłosowski
- •
- Landscape Archaeology, Amazonia, Amazonian Archaeology, Archeologia

O artigo revisa as pesquisas arqueológicas realizadas na porção paulista do Vale do Rio Paraíba do Sul, mostrando as contribuições das pesquisas de arqueologia preventiva ali realizadas para alterar uma visão que mostrava uma área dominada por tribos Tupi, registradas pelo colonizador europeu, mas que a arqueologia demonstrou ter sido precedida por tribos Macro-Gê, sendo ao norte testemunhadas por sítios arqueológicos da Tradição Aratu e, ao Sul, pela Tradição Itararé, que até então se pensava estar associada a índios Kaingang, cuja dispersão geográfica teria se estendido do Sul do país até a margem esquerda do Rio Tietê, em território paulista.

- by Kurt Rademaker and +4
- •
- Andean Archaeology, Anthropology of Mobility, Settlement Patterns, High altitude environments

This paper presents new data on the initial settlement of the southeastern region of South America, based on recent research conducted at the Tigre archaeological site (K87), located in the middle Uruguay River basin, near the Uruguayan border with Brazil and Argentina. The current archaeological excavations carried out in this open-air site confirmed that it is a multicomponent site. A new series of 20 radio-carbon dates refined the chronology of recurrent human occupations at this site during the late Pleis-tocene (13,260 cal BP), the Pleistocene-Holocene transition (12,920e11,750 cal BP), the early Holocene (11,300e9300 cal BP), and the late Holocene (1180 cal BP), demonstrating the strategic importance of this site during the prehistory of the region. In this paper, we describe the archaeological and stratigraphic contexts of the site, and analyze the artifact assemblage of the early components. Tigre points recovered from the archaeological excavations confirm that this is a Paleoamerican point design that circulated in the region between 12,000e11,100 cal BP. In addition, associated with these points, bifaces, fractured preforms and a type of asymmetric biface with a crescent/half moon shape were recovered. These " crescent artifacts " show a high standardization in form, size and knapping technique, which is described in this paper. Finally, we discuss the geographic distribution of the Tigre points, the blade technology present in the Uruguay River basin, the presence of prestige artifacts during the settlement, and the chronology of the " Umbu tradition " of southern Brazil in relation to the previous and recent data obtained in the Tigre site.

- by Rafael Suárez Sainz and +1
- •
- Southeastern Archaeology (Archaeology in North America), Lithic Technology, Uruguay, Paleoindians
- by Alisa Zubova
- •
- Archaeology, Neolithic Archaeology, Ceramic Analysis (Archaeology), Paleodemography

Over the past decade, archaeology has expanded its analytical toolkit by utilizing organic residue techniques. This methodology has greatly increased our ability to determine the nature and origins of organic remains and, in turn, bolster our understanding of prehistoric lifeways. As a subfield of biomolecular archaeology, organic residue analysis has advanced considerably, with improvements in spectroscopic and chromatographic instrumentation, along with associated methods of sample preparation. New developments in metabolomics complement these advances and increase the power of analysis and identification of organic compounds preserved due to past human activities. We at the Departments of Anthropology and Geological Sciences as well as Florida Museum of Natural History are seeking to further expand the efficacy of organic residue analyses by combining metabolomic approaches available at the Southeast Center for Integrated Metabolomics with other techniques of residue analysis of organic extracts derived from archaeological materials conventionally being done at the University of Florida. Hence, this poster presents the results of the metabolomic analysis using ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry of organic residues on archaeological pottery from four different geographic areas, namely, Central America, South America, Southeastern United States, and Southeast Asia. These results demonstrate how metabolomics can be useful for the chemical analysis of organic residues on archaeological materials.

- by John Rick
- •
- Paleoclimate, South American Archaeology, Chronology, Central Andean Preceramic Period

This chapter surveys the early domestication of camelids,
the precursor event to the studies in this volume
dealing with llamas and alpacas. Domesticated
camelids were central to the expansive complex societies
of South America. Beyond South America, camelids are a
key example for understanding the importance of specific
variables in animal domestication and pastoralism.
Camelid domestication has been extensively researched
and reviewed (Bonavia 2008; Gilmore 1950; Mengoni
Gonalons and Yacobaccio 2006; Stahl 2008; Wheeler 1999;
Yacobaccio 2007). Even so, a comprehensive picture seems
elusive. I still get asked by colleagues what the "answer" is
to the question of the origins of llamas and alpacas. The
detailed zooarchaeological record of camelid domestication
from central Peru does not resemble the abundant
archaeological record of the south-central Andes. This
chapter emphasizes recent contributions to the study of
camelid domestication from three angles: an increasingly
detailed and comparable zooarchaeological record, new
data from the genetics of living and prehistoric camelids,
and new understanding of living wild and domesticated
camelids. The behavioral and biological data come from
programs for managing wild camelids for sustainable harvest
of their wool and from the recent global popularity of
llamas and alpacas as specialty herd animals and pets.

The early colonial period witnessed new scales of connectivity and unprecedented projects of resource extraction across the Spanish Americas. Yet such transformations also drew heavily on preexisting Indigenous landscapes, technologies, and institutions. Drawing together recent discussions in archaeology and geography about mobility and resource materialities, this article takes the early colonial route as a central object of investigation and contributes to new emerging interpretive frameworks that make sense of Spanish colonialism in the Americas as a variable, large-scale, and materially constituted process. Using three case studies—the ruta de Colón on the island of Hispaniola, the routes connecting the southeastern Caribbean islands with mainland South America, and the ruta de la plata in the south-central Andes—we develop a comparative archaeological analysis that reveals divergent trajectories of persistence, appropriation, and erasure in the region's routes and regimes o...

- by Jorge Ulloa Hung
- •
- Geography, Archaeology, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Historical Archaeology
- by Gary Urton
- •
- Mythology And Folklore, Mythology, Andean Culture, Andean studies

Biografia de Hiram Bingham

The Aztlander is hyperactive. Explore all of the Ancient Americas.

The publications by Storey et al. (2007, 2008a, 2008b) describing the discovery and radiocarbon dating of pre-Columbian chicken remains from the archaeological site of El Arenal-1 in south central Chile reinvigorated longstanding debates about the presence of prehistoric domestic chickens in the Americas. Some have questioned the validity of the link between prehistoric Polynesian voyagers and the pre-Columbian chickens of El Arenal-1, requesting more details to verify the dates and the likely origin of the introduction. In this paper we provide an expanded account regarding the dating of the chicken remains from the site of El Arenal-1 in order to reaffirm their authenticity. Their prehistoric age established, we focus attention on a critical reanalysis of arguments surrounding the source of the first introductions of chickens to the Americas. These include historic accounts and hypotheses developed as a result of comparative morphology. Particular attention is focused on assessing the utility of evidence from the study of physical
characteristics of both black-boned, black-meat chickens and the phenotypic traits of the Araucana (Gallus inauris) breed to support pre-Columbian introductions. As a result, we reinforce the previous hypothesis that a pre-Columbian introduction of chickens from Polynesia is the most parsimonious explanation for the available evidence.

ADE, a result of domestic, economic, and agricultural activities in and around human settlements, are noted for their extraordinary fertility and resilience and for the significant quantities of organic carbon, much in the form of charcoal. The deepest and most extensive areas of ADE are generally located on the bluffs of major rivers adjacent to floodplains, but significant areas of ADE have also been found in floodplains and in headwater and interfluvial areas. Our research aims to shed light on the distribution of modified soils in distinct regions of the Amazon in relation to landforms and the environment. Although research on ADE has led to a proliferation of studies on charcoal in soil management and the development of a ‘biochar’ industry that promotes the incorporation of charcoal into the soil for the dual purpose of improving fertility and sequestering carbon, there is a notable lack of research attempting to quantify the carbon over the scale of a site or region in Amazonia. We undertook this challenge in the Upper Xingu region of southeastern Amazonia in partnership with the local Kuikuro indigenous community who have shared their valuable traditional knowledge on the creation and management of ADE. We used data from over 3500 soil samples from diverse contexts, both ancient and modern, that we collected and analyzed over the past two decades for organic carbon and a range of other chemical and physical properties. Dark earth samples from profiles down to 1 m depth in archaeological sites ranged from 20% to 150% more OC than unmodified forest soil and dark earth profiles in current and historic villages ranged from 20-90% more. We used the results from soil sample transects to estimate the carbon in landuse zones within and surrounding modern, historic, and ancient settlement sites. In continuing work, we are attempting to use satellite remote sensing and artificial intelligence with ground truth data to extrapolate our results across the Upper Xingu region and beyond.

- by Morgan Schmidt and +1
- •
- Geography, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Anthropology

The data of the Pastaza province in the Ecuadorian Amazon, although still very incomplete, indicates the presence of pottery cultures (Pambay complex) at least since the Formative period, about 2000-1500 BC. Then, the ceramic complexes evolve without major disruption, showing in a broad sense obvious stylistic links between themselves and the Andean world. A major change occurs between the seventh and ninth centuries AD, marked by the arrival of pottery with large pots (pots for Chicha and urns), and the presence to some extent important of corrugated style decor. Current tradition of pottery Quichua-Canelos, despite the fact it comes from a colonial and republican endogenesis, is heir of this period and at the same time integrates elements of the Napo River Polychrome tradition.

- by Geoffroy de Saulieu and +1
- •
- Andean Archaeology, Amazonia, Amazonian Archaeology, South American Archaeology

Marine resource exploitation is documented for the central coast of Ecuador from 10.000 yr B.P., with a wide range of fishing techniques developing through time. Most recently, dozens of stone fishing structures have been identified at the Liguiqui archaeological locality, on the Manta Peninsula of Manabí Province. These resemble fish traps such as have been recorded worldwide, though no similar devices have previously been reported on the Pacific coast of tropical or subtropical South America. A preliminary study of the Liguiqui structures is presented here, assessing their geologic, environmental, cultural and chronological context. It is hypothesized that they could have had a double function as fish traps and as fish attractors/containers, and that they were most likely built during the Pre-Hispanic Manteño cultural period.

- by Daniela Storchi Lobos and +1
- •
- Maritime Archaeology, Geoarchaeology, Ecuador, Sea Level
- by Glaydson J Silva and +1
- •
- Arqueología, South American Archaeology, Arqueologia, Arqueología Sudamericana

In this paper we propose the conceptual framework of the assemblage of practice as an effective middle-range heuristic tool that bridges deep theory and the data available to archaeologists. Our framework foregrounds vibrant things as opposed to static objects, and sympathetically articulates the current concepts of entanglement, correspondence, and assemblage. To us an assemblage of practice is a dynamic gathering of corresponding things entangled through situated daily and eventful human practice. Once reassembled by comprehensively and critically marshalling all the evidentiary lines available to archaeologists today, the assemblage of practice becomes a powerful analytical tool that illuminates changes, continuities, and transformations in human-thing entanglements and their impacts not only on local and short-term socio-cultural developments, but also their repercussions on phenomena of much larger spatiotemporal scale. Our goal is to present archaeologists with a pluralistic, integrative, and evolving middle-range framework that pays close attention to terminological precision and theoretical clarity and is conceptually accessible and widely applicable.

- by Konrad A. Antczak and +1
- •
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Historical Archaeology, Archaeological Method & Theory
- by Sebastián Pastor and +6
- •
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, South American Archaeology
- by Lisa Trever
- •
- Art History, Indigenous Studies, Art Theory, Andean Archaeology
- by Sebastián Pastor and +1
- •
- Archaeology, Ancient Agriculture & Farming (Archaeology), South American Archaeology, Ancient Agriculture

Un estudio de la astronomía, cosmología y iconografía andina con el fin de explicar el origen y organización del sistema de ceques de la ciudad del Cuzco. Con referencias a laimportancia del X de la via lactea y los centros radiales en... more

- by Gary Urton
- •
- Latin American Studies, Andean Archaeology, Cosmology (Anthropology), Andes