Violence and Trauma in the Wari Heartland: a Study of One Civilization’S Treatment of Their People
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VIOLENCE AND TRAUMA IN THE WARI HEARTLAND: A STUDY OF ONE CIVILIZATION’S TREATMENT OF THEIR PEOPLE by Jaclyn Elaine Meagher Submitted to the Faculty of The Archaeological Studies Program Department of Sociology and Archaeology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science University of Wisconsin-La-Crosse 2013 Copyright © 2013 by Jaclyn E. Meagher All Rights Reserved ii VIOLENCE AND TRAUMA IN THE WARI HEARTLAND: A STUDY OF ONE CIVILIZATION’S TREATMENT OF THEIR PEOPLE Jaclyn E. Meagher, B.S. University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, 2013 The Wari civilization lasted from A.D. 600 – 1000, in central Peru. They conquered other cultures during their reign, and their power spread from their capital city, Huari. However, little data has been compared to study the physical treatment of their people. In this paper, the trauma studied in the bones of the Wari people were compared with age, gender, and social status, respectively. This study shows that violence was seen in both sexes, but more so in the male population. However, 25% of the female population showed trauma, indicating that females could have possibly been involved in warfare, or more likely, ritualistic violence. When studying trauma by age, the age ranges that showed that violence was more common in young and mid-adults, although most of the trauma had healed, indicating that most of the attacks were nonlethal. However, due to the large sample size of the unaged adults, it was difficult to specifically see if trauma was more present in one age than another. Lastly, when studying burial treatments, it was concluded that intermediate and ruling elites had significantly less trauma than the general population, as well as fewer diseases and malnutrition. While there was not a lot of data to use for this particular study, it does seem evident that the elites had better treatment and less experience with violent situations. While more research still needs to be conducted, this study is a good start in understanding how the Wari treated their people. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank many people who helped me with writing this thesis. Firstly, to Dr. David Anderson, my professor, and Dr. Timothy McAndrews, my advisor. They both provided constructive criticism that helped shape my paper, in addition to reading numerous drafts. I could not have accomplished this paper without their guidance. I would also like to thank Tiffiny A. Tung, whose research was extremely valuable in this paper, and provided me with data sets that I could not have gotten anywhere else. Her dissertation and other papers written about the Wari were very helpful in understanding this society, and she provided the structure for me to start my paper. Christine Stelman was also incredibly helpful during the process of this paper. As my roommate, she dealt with my panic and stress in a very supportive way, and listened to me ramble when I needed to talk through my ideas. She also sat through many mock presentations to help me prepare for class. Lastly, I would like to thank my family. While they were not present in person, they made me see that I could accomplish this thesis, and were very supportive through this entire process. Without them, this would have been much harder. iv INTRODUCTION Violence has been used for centuries to control people and populations, using their fear as a catalyst for emerging power. Hitler used it to extinguish millions of people he deemed inferior, and Stalin used it to keep his power when he feared that others were trying to take it from him. Violence is the key for conquering those cultures that resist. The signs of this violence can be seen and heard – in historical documents, on video, and from oral accounts, among others. However, when the civilization existed fourteen hundred years ago, the records of such violence will be scarce. When this situation arises, the bodies of the victims that sustained the violence are, perhaps, the best evidence for studies of violence. This is the case with the current research of violence in the Wari civilization. The Wari civilization existed in the Middle Horizon from A.D. 600 – 1000, and dominated the central Andean highlands, in what is now Peru (Tung 2008). They were the first empire to emerge, rise, and fall in this area. At their peak, they ruled over a vast expanse of territory and people. Their influence extended from the Moquegua Valley in the south of Peru to Pikillacta in the east and Viracochapampa in the north (Figure 1). Their wide-ranging rule suggests that they conquered and incorporated groups into their culture, which very likely included violence. The site of Huari served as their capital city, containing ceremonial buildings, mortuary areas, and ritual structures (Tung 2008). 1 Figure 1. “Map of Peru showing several Wari sites and major valleys. Areas shaded in gray show an estimate of the geographical extent of the Wari empire…(Schreiber, 1992). The checkerboard area has been little studied, so Wari’s influence there has yet to be fully documented”. (Tung 2008, Fig. 1) 2 There are two main theories of how the Wari came to power. They were one of many independent polities in the Andean region during the Middle Horizon, and they came to dominate a wide region of the central Andes, incorporating many communities into their society until their decline. One hypothesis states that the Wari empire was just one autonomous polity among many others. It states that the Wari’s control did not extend to the north as far as others think it did (Tung 2008). Instead, Wari-related sites were made up of kin groups and lineages. The general idea that is shared among researchers is that no one society was dominant over another (Tung 2008). The second hypothesis states that the Wari were politically centralized and expanded their empire through militaristic means. This view places emphasis on the militaristic means the Wari employed, and studies have been conducted on the ceramics from the site of Huari that illustrate Wari soldiers wielding weapons and armor, and displaying trophy heads of their conquered enemy. This theory is the more widely accepted view among scholars (Schreiber 1987). The evidence suggests that the Wari were extremely violent when defeating other societies, so the question remains – were they just as violent to their own people? While studies have been conducted on what types of weapons the Wari used and how they defeated their enemies, more research still needs to be conducted on how they treated their own people. Violence against members of the Wari civilization would demonstrate how they governed their society and how they conquered them violently, and might possibly shed some light on how they treated certain subgroups within their own population. Studying the bones of the Wari people is the most accurate way of determining how they were treated by their government and rulers. This paper will compare the violence, trauma, and pathologies seen in the bones of the Wari people with respect to age, gender, and social status. It will also take into account whether 3 the bones belonged to a local of the Wari civilization, a migrant, or a captive using the measurements of the strontium isotope (specifically strontium isotopes 86 and 87) in their bones. The four main sites from which the remains were excavated are Conchopata in central Peru, Beringa and La Real in the south, and Pikillacta in the east, with a couple of remains coming from small communities. All three main sites lie within the boundaries of what is considered to be Wari territory, and Conchopta lies at the heart of the Wari empire (Tung 2008). Conchopata is considered to be an urban Wari site, while Beringa is a village site, with domestic and mortuary services, and La Real is seen as a site that served rituals and ceremonial purposes (Tung 2008). Trephinations and trophy heads are also considered, and included as trauma. This study will shed light on living conditions for the Wari, and will help others studying the Wari civilization to understand how they governed their society. 4 BACKGROUND In the past 3000 years, there have been periods of time in the Andean region known as “Horizons” that have widespread continuity in them, such as similar ceramics, architecture, and/or rituals, among other similarities (Tung 2003). The Wari civilization existed from A.D. 600 – 1000, also known as the Middle Horizon, in what is now modern day Peru (Tung 2012). It evolved out of the remains of the Huarpa Empire, and expanded by incorporating other societies in to their own culture (Tung 2012). They existed during the same time period as Tiwanaku, which was less expansive than the Wari. Scholar John Rowe was the first to split the Wari and Tiwanku civilizations into separate societies, as they were previously thought to be branches of each other (Tung 2012). It is not known how the Wari fell, and it was completely forgotten until its ruins were encountered by Spanish chronicler Pedro de Cieza de Leon in 1550 (Tung 2012). The Wari Empire seems to have been the inspiration for the Inca imperial state. It had its main sites along a highway system, with the largest site in the heartland of Wari territory, serving as the primary location of information and goods (McEwan 2005). It was a state-level society, as seen by its architecture and iconography, and they focused on the expansion of their empire in terms of economic and social activities (McEwan 2005). They were a “centralized hierarchical system growing out of hydraulic management requirements”, utilizing storage facilities along their highway system as administrative sites, as well (McEwan 2005, 4).