THE ROLE OF DISASTER IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL COMPLEXITY IN THE SOUTH-CENTRAL ANDES BY PATRICK RYAN WILLIAMS A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1997 Copyright 1997 by Patrick Ryan Williams ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The dissertation is never the product of the investment of only one financial, individual, and I could not have completed this work without the emotional, and professional support of a great number of people. I have invariably left off the names of some of my closest supporters and advisors, but I will not forget what they have done for me. The National Institute of Culture in Lima was extremely helpful in issuing Bertha Vargas, an my permit, and I would especially like to acknowledge independent archaeologist from Moquegua who served as my liaison with the its staff provided me a INC when I was in the field. The Museo Contisuyo and home away from home, research space, and an institutional affiliation while in Peru. institutions funded my research. A W. J. I would like to thank those who Fulbright scholarship sustained my stay in Peru during the 1995 -1996 academic year, and Marcia Koth de Paredes and her staff at the Fulbright commission office in Lima were extremely helpful. Additional financial and logistical assistance in the field was provided by the Asociacion Contisuyo, a research institution underwritten by the Southern Peru Copper Corporation. A National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and associated research funds from the University of Florida financed my early research and dissertation write up. in field of archaeology. Jim Brown, I owe a great deal to my mentors the Gil Stein, John Hudson, and Karen Wise guided my early forays into archaeology with a great deal of encouragement and support. Joyce Marcus ushered me into graduate work and provided some of the best advice I have ever received: watch and learn, always thinking about how you would improve the research design. Mike Moseley has been an ideal mentor, showing me teacher. what it takes to be both an excellent researcher and an extraordinary My doctoral committee, chaired by Mike Moseley and comprised of Susan Anton, Scott Smith, Tony Oliver-Smith, Joann Mossa,and Lynnette Norr, provided invaluable commentary and criticisms of this work. I am extremely grateful to them all. this dissertation Finally, I would like to thank my family for making possible. My parents encouraged me to follow my heart rather than my wallet and helped me through every step along the way. My children, lain, Arica, and Ryan have been a source of motivation during my graduate career. My wife, Donna, has been my primary inspiration, my closest companion, my biggest fan, and my best critic. She has enlightened and encouraged me throughout our study of archaeology. advice and consult of all these Although I have benefitted from the sage people, responsibility for any flaws in interpretation, errors, or omissions in the dissertation are entirely my own. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii ABSTRACT viii CHAPTERS 1 DISASTER THEORY AND CULTURAL EVOLUTION IN THE ANDES 1 Crisis and Change in Andean Archaeology 3 Disaster Defined 12 Social Contexts of Disaster Susceptibility 14 The Importance of Emergent Groups - 15 Centralization and Bureaucracy 17 Communication Networks 19 Effects of Interdependence Outside the Local Area 20 Disaster and Social Change 21 Disaster and the Process of Cultural Evolution 23 Archaeological Correlates of a Disaster Induced Evolutionary Sequence 25 2 HYDRAULIC ARCHAEOLOGY: A METHODOLOGY FOR UNDERSTANDING CULTURE CHANGE WITHIN ENVIRONMENTAL PARAMETERS 29 Survey Methods 29 Canal Excavation Methods 35 Assigning Agricultural Land Use to Time Periods 38 Hydraulic Analysis Methods 39 * 3 THE STUDY REGION OF MOQUEGUA, PERU 45 Precipitation and Agricultural Productivity 47 Soils, Microclimate, and Agricultural Technology 48 Natural Hazards Impacting the Study Area 52 A Brief History of Moquegua 55 4 CRISIS AND CHANGE IN THE MIDDLE HORIZON 51 The First Tiwanaku Influence in Moquegua 61 The Agrarian Infrastructure of Moquegua during the Omo Phase 66 The Rise of the Wari Colony 71 v Modeling Omo Collapse -- Drought and Inter-Polity Conflict 78 Incorporation of Moquegua as a Tiwanaku Imperial Province 81 The Demise of Tiwanaku State Control 86 5 DISASTER IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONAL AUTONOMY 96 Tumilaca Social Organization: Examining Societal Vulnerability 96 Agriculture in the Tumilaca Phase 100 The Emergence of Coastal Control 104 The Fluorescence of Coastal and Lower Valley Agriculture * 108 Convergent Disaster in the Destruction of Chiribaya Culture 114 Community Political Organization Among the Estuquina 117 Intensification of Terrace Agriculture in the High Sierra 120 6 THE RETURN TO EMPIRE 125 Imperial Inka Nucleation of High Sierra Agriculture 126 Factors in the Decline of Inka Agriculture in Moquegua 137 The New Imperial Order and Agricultural Production 139 7 UNDERSTANDING THE EVOLUTION OF COMPLEXITY IN RELATION TO THE PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIUM MODEL 142 APPENDICES * A ARCVIEW PROJECT ALGORITHMS FOR RECONSTRUCTING CANAL COURSES FROM ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA 153 Digital Elevation Model Creation 154 Interpolate Canal Course Point to Point (PTP) 155 Extrapolate Canal Course River to Point (RTP) 157 Source Code 157 Avenue Scripts 157 Arc Macro Language Source Codes 160 VI B EXCAVATION DATA FROM CANAL TRENCHES 163 Pampa Chen Chen Low Canal 163 Pampa Chen Chen Middle Canal 165 Pampa Chen Chen High Canal 168 Pampa Huaracane High Canal 170 Pampa Huaracane Low Canal 172 Cerro Huayco Canal 173 Camata Canal 175 llubaya Vieja Canal 177 El Paso Canal 179 Villa Cuajone Canal 181 C MAPS OF AGRICULTURAL FIELDS AND SETTLEMENTS OF THE MOQUEGUA VALLEY 184 D DISCHARGE MEASUREMENTS AND EVAPORATION AND SEEPAGE RATES 193 Methodology for Collecting Discharge Measurements 194 Hydrological System Data 198 REFERENCES 201 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 214 vii Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy THE ROLE OF DISASTER IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL COMPLEXITY IN THE SOUTH-CENTRAL ANDES By PATRICK RYAN WILLIAMS December, 1997 Chair: Professor Michael Moseley Major Department: Anthropology Major changes in both social systems and agrarian technology in the Andes are predicated on disaster-induced restructuring events. These catastrophic events result from the impact of natural and cultural hazards of a significant magnitude on vulnerable populations. Such crises force people to re- evaluate the economic foundations of their subsistence base and to reconsider the way in which they interpret the world. As such, they act as catalysts of major change in the ways societies provide for their needs and express their interpretation of meaning in material form. The research area for evaluating the hypothesis of a disaster-induced evolutionary sequence is the Moquegua Valley of Southern Peru. Located at 17 degrees South latitude and 71 degrees West longitude, the Moquegua drainage resides in the arid South-Central Andean sierra. Agriculture is the source of life, Events which and it can only thrive through the use of irrigation technology. viii threaten the stability of that economic base threaten the survival of the populations that inhabit the Moquegua sierra. Over the past 1500 years, catastrophic events have resulted in major transformations in cultural influence and agrarian technology between the several eras of Moquegua Prehistory. These eras include the Tiwanaku Omo Phase (500 - 650 A. D.), Imperial Wari (650 - 750 A. D.), Tiwanaku Chen Chen (750 - 950 A. D.), Tumilaca (950 - 1100 A. D.), Chiribaya (1100-1250 A. D.), Estuquina (1250-1450 A. D.), Inka (1450- 1532 A. D.), and Colonial (1532-1821 A. D.). These phases are named after cultural groups within the valley, but do not necessarily represent the longevity of a particular culture. Rather, they represent time periods in which a particular cultural group exerted more profound influence on economic organization and ideological interpretation over a majority of the valley. Implicated in the changes which occur between these phases are natural hazards such as drought, El Nino coastal flooding, and tectonic activity and social hazards such as internal conflict and imperial conquest. Both technological and social vulnerability to these hazards were major contributors to the transformations in agrarian land use and cultural influence which constitute these different epochs. The dynamic Andean social and natural environment has played a pivotal role in the development of agriculture and the evolution of society. IX CHAPTER 1 DISASTER THEORY AND CULTURAL EVOLUTION IN THE ANDES In recent years, the theory of neo-catastrophism has experienced a structures revival among scientists. Neo-catastrophism contends that geological and the earth landscapes which they form are primarily products of periods of by rapid and revolutionary change. Earth’s geological history is built primarily major events which precipitate rapid changes in environmental conditions rather than by slow, gradual changes which accumulate over time (Huggett, 1990). This version of earth’s geological history demands that life forms develop new to perish. adaptations in a relatively short period of time or they are doomed Traditional, Darwinian