UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Life Across the River: Agricultural, Ritual, and Production Practices at Chavin de Huantar, Peru. Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/80m3183v Author Sayre, Matthew Paul Publication Date 2010 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Life Across the River: Agricultural, Ritual, and Production Practices at Chavín de Huántar, Perú. by Matthew Paul Sayre A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology in the GRADUATE DIVISION of the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY Committee in charge: Professor Christine A. Hastorf, Chair Professor Patrick Kirch Professor Miguel Altieri Curator Dolores Piperno Spring 2010 Abstract Life Across the River: Agricultural, Ritual, and Production Practices at Chavín de Huántar, Perú. by Matthew Paul Sayre Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology University of California, Berkeley Professor Christine A. Hastorf, Chair In this dissertation I examine domestic life in an early Andean highland community. While these peoples’ homes and material remains may evoke images of tranquil peasants living in quiet harmony with nature, I will challenge the assumptions inherent in that image. The community of La Banda was located directly across the river from a major ritual center. New data obtained by me and presented here reveal a community engaged in complex relationships with the temple of Chavín, the surrounding fields and communities, and the broader Andean world through the practices of trade, production, pilgrimage, and ceremony. There are four major themes presented in this dissertation: ritual, domestic life, trade and importation, and production and exchange practices. These themes are discussed in relation to activities that occurred in the monumental center, in the domestic La Banda sector, and when assessing the relations that the community of La Banda had with communities and peoples from outside the Central Andean region. Finally, the nature of local Chavín domestic life has been a long-standing concern of Andean archaeology. This question frames my research project conducted in La Banda, across the river from the temple of Chavín de Huántar. This project is the first to document significant horizontal excavations of domestic space. Previous work that analyzed daily life did not have access to contiguous domestic structures and was unable to compare domestic structures to others that bordered it. My La Banda project contributes to debates about ritual life and daily practice in early farming communities, the nature of plant and animal food production, and the place of exchange and production in a ceremonial center. ___________________________________________ Christine A. Hastorf (Chair) 1 Life Across the River: Agricultural, Ritual, and Production Practices at Chavín de Huántar, Perú. Table of Contents Table of Contents ..................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ..........................................................................................................viii List of Tables ...........................................................................................................xiii Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................xv Chapter 1: Life across the river: Conceptual Framework and Research Problems 1.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………….1 1.2 Overview…………………………………………………………………….....2 Chapter Two: Ecologies and Andean Place and Space…………………………5 2.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………...5 2.1.1 Agroecology…………………………………………………………………..6 2.1.2 Historical Ecology……………………………………………………………9 2.1.3 The “New Ecology”…………………………………………………………13 2.1.4 Concluding Thoughts on Ecological Theory…………………………………16 2.1.5 Ecologies: A Discussion.................................................................................17 2.2 Introduction to households……………………………………………………..18 2.2.1 Emergence of the household concept…………………………………………20 2.2.2 Processual approaches to the household unit…………………………………21 2.2.3 Feminist archaeologists and the lived life…………………………………….23 2.2.4 Household defined……………………………………………………………24 2.3 Concluding Thoughts…………………………………………………………..25 Chapter 3: CHAVÍN IN CONTEXT……………………………………………26 3.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………….26 3.2 Geology………………………………………………………………………...28 3.3 Ecology and Paleoethnobotany of South America…………………………….30 3.3.1 The Environment and Andean Regions………………………………………30 3.3.2 Native Crops……………….…………………………………………………35 3.3.3 Human and Plant Interactions: Land Use……………………………………38 3.4 Land Movement and movement through the Landscape……………………...40 3.5 Climate…………………………………………………………………………40 3.6 Contemporary Agriculture…….……………………………………………….41 3.6.1 The politics of agriculture……………………………………………………42 3.6.2 Work Geography…………………………………………………………….43 3.6.3 Demography…………………………………………………………..……...44 3.6.4 Models for past farming…………………………………………………..…45 3.7 Concluding thoughts on Andean Place and Space…………………………….45 Chapter 4: CHAVÍN IN CONTEXT……………………………………...……46 4.1 Culture History and Time………………………………………………………46 i 4.1.1 Timeframes of Andean Archaeology: or the tyranny of pottery……………..47 4.1.2 The Early Horizon also known as the Chavín Horizon……………………..48 4.1.4 Chavín’s sui generis ………………………………………………………..48 4.1.5 Janabarriu Phase……………………………………………………………..49 4.1.6 Black and White Phase ………………………………………………………49 4.2 Andean Paleoethnobotany across time…………………………………………50 4.2.1 Western Coast………………………………………………………………..51 4.2.2 Highland Paleoethnobotany in the Andes……………………………………55 4.3 Concluding thoughts on Andean Paleoethnobotany…………………………...57 Chapter 5: Ritual at Chavín………………………………………………………58 5.1 Ritual……………………………………………………………………………58 5.1.1 Durkheim, Marx, an the impact of theory…………………………………....59 5.1.2 Tello and Initial Work………………………………………………………...59 5.1.3 Rowe on Ritual………………………………………………………………..60 5.1.4 Lumbreras on Ritual…………………………………………………………..61 5.1.5 Burger on Ritual………………………………………………………………61 5.1.6 Rick on Ritual…………………………………………………………………62 5.1.7 Moore on Ritual………………………………………………………………63 5.1.8 Liturgies and my conception of ritual practice………………………………..66 5.2 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………67 Chapter 6: La Banda Excavations………………………………………………69 6.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………….69 6.1.1 Field Methodology…………………………………………………………..76 6.2 The Excavations…………………………………………………………….…77 6.2.1 Architectural Division A……………………………………………………81 6.2.2 Architectural Division B……………………………………………….……84 6.2.3 Architectural Division C……………………………………………………94 6.2.4 Architectural Division D……………………………………………………96 6.3 Radiocarbon Dates……………………………………………………………97 6.4 Artifacts Recovered………………………………………………………….98 6.4.1 Undecorated body ceramics ………………………………………………..98 6.4.2 Decorated and non-decorated diagnostic ceramics…………………….…99 6.4.3 Lithics…………………………………………………………………….104 6.5 Conclusions………………………………………………………………….105 Chapter 7: Archaeobiological Analysis…………………………………………107 7.1 Past Plant Use………………………………………………………………….107 7.1.1 Plant Collections……………………………………………………………108 7.1.2 Poaceae Collections…………………………………………………………109 7.1.3 Macrobotanical………………………………………………………………109 7.1.4 Sediment collection strategy for flotation samples………………………….109 7.1.5 Flotation Procedure………………………………………………………….110 7.1.6 Testing the Efficiency of the Flotation Machine…………………………….113 ii 7.1.7 Exportation…………………………………………………………………113 7.1.8 Light Fraction………………………………………………………………113 7.2 Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis…………………………………………115 7.2.1 Area Sur…………………………………………………………………….117 7.2.2 Wacheqsa……………………………………………………………………118 7.2.3 Plaza Mayor…………………………………………………………………120 7.2.4 Atrium East…………………………………………………………………121 7.2.5 Rocas………………………………………………………………………..122 7.2.6 West Field…………………………………………………………………..122 7.2.7 La Banda……………………………………………………………………123 7.2.8 Findings across Chavín de Huántar Site Sectors……………………………125 7.3 Wood and Macrobotanical Remains from La Banda…………………………128 7.3.1 Analysis of La Banda macrobotanical remains……………………………..137 7.4 Phytoliths……………………………………………………………………...138 7.4.1 Microwave Digestion technique for the comparative collection……………139 7.4.2 Analysis:…………………………………………………………………….140 7.4.3 Data………………………………………………………………………….140 7.5 Faunal Analysis………………………………………………………………..145 7.6 Food Production and ecology in La Banda……………………………………145 7.6.1 Food use in La Banda………………………………………………………146 Chapter 8: Value, Crafts and Production……………………………………....148 8.1 Anthropological Theories of Value, Crafts, and Production…………………148 8.2 The Production Process……..…………………………………………………149 8.3 Objects Produced in La Banda from Local Materials….…………………..…150 8.3.1 Bone Beads………..………………………………………………………...150 8.3.2 Lithic Eye Piece…………...…………………………………………………150 8.3.3 Polished Stone Lithic………..………………………………………………152 8.3.4 Large Polished Stones……………………………………………………....152 8.3.5 Cupisnique Style Ceramics...……………………………………………….153 8.3.6 Carved Animal Bones………………………………………...….................154 8.4 Objects Produced in La Banda from Outside Materials………………………155 8.4.1 Choromytilus chorus and other Shells…………………………...…………155 8.4.2 Carved Bone………………………………………………………...……...157 8.4.3 Painted Shells………………………………………………………………158 8.4.4 Fern Fossil………….………………………………………………………159 8.4.5 Coral………………………………………………………………………..160 8.4.5 Obsidian…..………………………………………………………………..161 8.5 What