Redalyc.CHACHAPOYA MORTUARY BEHAVIOR: a CONSIDERATION
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Chungara, Revista de Antropología Chilena ISSN: 0716-1182 [email protected] Universidad de Tarapacá Chile Nystrom, Kenneth C.; Buikstra, Jane E.; Muscutt, Keith CHACHAPOYA MORTUARY BEHAVIOR: A CONSIDERATION OF METHOD AND MEANING Chungara, Revista de Antropología Chilena, vol. 42, núm. 2, julio-diciembre, 2010, pp. 477-495 Universidad de Tarapacá Arica, Chile Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=32615600010 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative Volumen 42, Nº 2, 2010. Páginas 477-495 Chungara, Revista de Antropología Chilena CHACHAPOYA MORTUARY BEHAVIOR: A CONSIDERATION OF METHOD AND MEANING COMPORTAMIENTO MORTUORIO CHACHAPOYA: CONSIDERACIONES METODOLÓGICAS E INTERPRETATIVAS Kenneth C. Nystrom1, Jane E. Buikstra2, and Keith Muscutt3 The Chachapoya region of northern Perú is characterized by a remarkable range of mortuary customs whose nature is incompletely defined and interpreted. The focus of this paper is to consider a single aspect of Chachapoya mortuary behavior: the presence/ absence and method of mummification. Complex, anthropogenic mummy bundles have been recovered from the Laguna de los Cóndores while less well documented and described “cadavers” and bodies have been illustrated from pre-Inca contexts, some contained within anthropomorphic sarcophagi and others located in burial chullpas and open-air sites. In this paper, we provide a general synthesis of Chachapoya mortuary behavior and then present a case study from the mortuary site of Laguna Huayabamba, a Late Intermediate site where mummified remains have been recovered. The relationship between mummified bodies and skeletal remains at this site is viewed as stages within a more unified ritual landscape, structured by continued kin-based access to specific mortuary contexts. Key words: Chachapoya, mummification, Inca. La región de los Chachapoya ubicada en el norte del Perú se caracteriza por una gran diversidad de tradiciones y estilos mortuo- rios. El propósito de este artículo se centra en un solo aspecto del comportamiento mortuorio Chachapoya: presencia/ausencia de métodos de momificación. Complejos fardos funerarios antropogénicos han sido recuperados en la Laguna de los Cóndores, mientras que contextos preincaicos no bien documentados de cuerpos y restos esqueletales contenidos en sarcófagos, chullpas y campamentos abiertos han sido descritos. En este estudio entregamos una síntesis general del comportamiento mortuorio Chachapoya, y luego se presenta el estudio de caso del sitio funerario, Intermedio Tardío, Laguna Huayabamba, donde se han recuperado restos humanos momificados. La relación entre los cuerpos momificados y los restos esqueletales, de este sitio, se interpreta como diferentes fases de un mismo contexto ritual, estructurado por lazos de parentesco para permitir un acceso con- tinuo a contextos mortuorios específicos. Palabras claves: Chachapoya, momificación, Inca. The physical remains of the ancestors play a and indigenous Andean beliefs concerning the rela- pivotal social function in Andean communities, tionship between the body and soul: the latter not in both prehistoric (Buikstra 1995; DeLeonardis being bound by a body:soul dualism (Allen 2002). and Lau 2004; Dillehay 1995; Salomon 1995) The state of the soul reflects, and is reflected in, the and contemporary societies (Allen 2002; Bastien physical condition of the corporeal body. A sinful 1995). There is a recurring theme that emphasizes person reanimates a flesh-eating rotting corpse while dryness and hardness, both in terms of actual physi- properly attended dry bones results in khuyaqkuna, cal human remains and in reference to those items or caring protectors (Allen 2002:41). Among the that are attributed human qualities such as statues, inhabitants of Huaquirca (Antabama province, stones (Allen 2002:47), and seeds (Gose 1994). Apurímac), the dry hard seed, the ultimate source These physical characteristics reflect the journey of food and the promise of the continuation of the and fate of the soul and the perceived state of society agricultural cycle is the result of the soul being (van Gennep 1909). Modern ethnographic research reduced by the heat of the afterlife. Further, it is demonstrates the basic incompatibility of Christian the animating water of life expelled from the dead 1 Anthropology Department, Wooster Science Building 124, State University of New York at New Paltz, 1 Hawk Drive, New Paltz, NY 12561, USA. [email protected] 2 School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Anthropology Bldg. Rm 233, Tempe, AZ 85287- 2402, USA. [email protected] 3 Division of Arts, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA. [email protected] Recibido: noviembre 2008. Aceptado: junio 2010. 478 Kenneth C. Nystrom, Jane E. Buikstra, and Keith Muscutt body in the heat of the afterlife that feeds the seed behavior materialized. Therefore, our recognition (Gose 1994:131). Thus, the creation of a hard, dry and description of body processing techniques may seed reflects the balance between the world of the be unduly influencing the interpretation of behav- living and the world of the dead and ensures the ior. This paper will explore how the interpretation continuity of the regenerative agricultural cycle. The of post-mortem body processing techniques can significance attributed to dry, hard human remains, influence our understanding of mortuary behavior. be they bones or mummies, equates with the hard- Specifically, this paper deals with potential effects ness of stones and seeds and represents an altered of Inca conquest on the ancestors and mortuary be- state of animation, or as Allen (2002:47) calls it, havior in the Chachapoya1 region of northern Peru. “life crystallized”. That this theme extends back in It has been suggested that the Inca introduced an time is supported by colonial period documents, anthropogenic mummification procedure following which attest to the significance attributed to the conquest, yet this rests on several assumptions: corporeal body of the ancestor and its foundational (1) that Inca mummies are anthropogenic, (2) that role in group social organization and production mummification did not exist in Chachapoya prior (Salomon 1995). to Inca arrival, and (3) that the observed variation Social reproduction (Salomon 1995), fertility, in Chachapoya mortuary behavior between the Late including such aspects as agricultural production Intermediate Period (AD 1,000-1,470) and Late and regenerative cycles (Bloch and Parry 1982; Horizon (AD 1,470-1,532) represents distinct and Bastien 1995; DeLeonardis and Lau 2004; Gose disparate traditions. While this paper cannot answer 1994; Sillar 1996), and group identity (Chesson the first statement, it will discuss the latter points 2001; Dillehay 1995; Joyce 2001; Meskell 2000) based on the evidence from the Laguna Huayabamba, are all ultimately connected to the relationship be- a Late Intermediate Period Chachapoya mortuary tween the living and the dead. Thus, the corporeal site. We suggest that what has been interpreted remains of the ancestors and the ritual and physical as evidence the introduction of an anthropogenic landscapes that constitute mortuary behavior were mummification process is actually the result of an avenues through which group rights and responsi- extended (Brown 1981) mortuary tradition in which bilities could be established and reinforced (Bloch mummified ancestors gradually transform, through and Parry 1982:6). Within many Andean groups, continued access and interaction on the part of the access to land within the ayllu was based upon living, into skeletal remains. kinship (Bastien 1978) and lineages were traced to actual or fictive progenitors (Salomon 1995:321). Mummification in the Andes Thus, the manipulation of ancestors or the spaces they occupy were powerful means of establishing In the South American Andes, archaeologists and signaling control over resources and production have benefited from a rare mix of environmental (Buikstra 1995). conditions conducive for soft tissue preservation As archaeologists, we are limited in our ability and, as discussed above, a pervasive cultural em- to reconstruct behavior as we are confined to the phasis on dry, hard human remains. These factors physical vestiges of that behavior. This is no less have provided us evidence of a deep history of true when dealing with mortuary rituals associated mummification in the Andes, stretching from the with the post-mortem manipulation of the human beginnings of the Chinchorro tradition around 7,000 body. Given the ritual and social importance of the BC on the southern Peruvian and northern Chilean condition of physical body within Andean groups, Pacific coast (Arriaza 1995a, 1995b; Aufderheide it is not surprising that anthropogenic mummifica- 2003) to Spanish Colonial descriptions of royal Inca tion practices lend themselves to the reconstruction mummies. Scientific examinations have attempted of ritual behavior, as there is physical evidence to to reconstruct method of production (Allison et observe and record. Truly, anthropogenic mum- al. 1974; Bittmann and Munizaga 1976; Guillén mification is ritual behavior materialized. In those 1992, 2005; Rivera 1995) and as much as possible, instances