Urban political ecology in late prehistory: New evidence from El Purgatorio, Peru

Abstract

One of archaeology's greatest strengths is its reliance on interdisciplinary collaboration and the utilization of multiple lines of evidence to inform archaeological interpretation. For example, through an examination of faunal and floral remains, production and storage facilities, and the isotopic analysis of human skeletal remains one can develop a model for urban political ecology in ancient cultures. In this case study, the political ecology of the Casma capital city, El Purgatorio, Peru, is investigated in order to inform our interpretations and conclusions regarding Casma political, economic and social organization. The results indicate that Casma political ecology was firmly based in coastal resources and oriented towards supporting state-sponsored feasting and ritual activities, suggestive of a largely elite-controlled redistributive economy. In contrast to previous models characterizing this time period as one of factionalism and environmental stress, the data suggest that coastal cultural adaptations produced an era of widespread political and economic stability.

Keywords:

• political ecology
• urbanism
• subsistence
• Andes
• Peru

Acknowledgments

Funding for Project El Purgatorio was provided by the Brennan Foundation, the National Science Foundation (grants #BCS-0814338 and #1049318), Fulbright-Hays, Clemson University and the University of Chicago. We wish to thank the anonymous reviewers as well as Robyn Cutright for their invaluable suggestions for revision of this article. Many thanks to Erin Black and Daniel Good for their assistance with the GIS maps, and to Jeremy Fowler for his tireless reworking of the data tables.

Supplemental Data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at doi:10.1080/00934690.2016.1195231.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Melissa Vogel

Melissa Vogel (Ph.D. 2003, University of Pennsylvania) is an Associate Professor at Clemson University. From 2004–2012 she directed Project El Purgatorio on the north coast of Peru, at the capital city of the Casma state. This project focused on the development of Andean cities and their populations during a time of presumed political instability in the Andes. Taking a public interest approach to archaeology is an essential aspect of her projects, which work closely with local Peruvian communities. Her principal research interests include the archaeology of Latin America, urbanism, the development of complex societies, sex and gender, space and place, and warfare.

Angela Garren

Angela Garren (B.A. 2016, Clemson University) is a senior majoring in anthropology and psychology. Her research interests include archaeology of gender, infancy and childhood, and psychological anthropology.

David Pacifico

David Pacifico (Ph.D. 2014, University of Chicago) is an anthropological archaeologist and ethnographer. His research examines social diversity, communities, and neighborhoods in the precolonial New World. His ethnographic research examines the relationships between archaeological science, archaeological remains, and the public.

Bethany L. Turner

Bethany L. Turner (Ph.D. 2008, Emory University) is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. She has extensive experience in multi-isotope analysis from archaeological contexts in Sudan, Mongolia, the southeastern United States, and Andean South America. Her primary research centers on the effects of ancient Andean states on the diet, mobility, nutritional status, and disease ecology of subject populations across different time periods and geographic contexts; her principal research sites are along the north coast of Peru and in the Cusco region of the southern Peruvian highlands. Her research interests also include sex and gender, foodways, identity, and paleopathology.