Foodways and sociopolitics in the Wari Empire of Peru, A.D. 600 - 900
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Food is at the intersection of nature and culture, being a requirement of human life but always being socially transformed and loaded with cultural meaning. This dissertation shows that it is possible to study ancient sociopolitical roles of animal food through the analysis of meal refuse in the archaeological record. Specifically, the project expands beyond the traditional focus in zooarchaeology on human subsistence by seeing food as a critical element in the creation, negotiation, and manipulation of human relationships. In particular, it shows how during the ancient Wari Empire of Peru (A.D. 600 -- 900) meat feasts and animal offerings played different roles in consolidating the empire both in the province and in the heartland. This study compares faunal remains from the Middle Horizon sites of Conchopata (Ayacucho), Cotocotuyoc (Cuzco), and Chokepukio (Cuzco). Expectations are developed to evaluate, analyze, and contrast quotidian trash, feasting remains, and animal offerings deposits. Feasts and offerings can be instruments of political action to pursue economic and political goals. They served a variety of roles in articulating the politics of the Wari Empire. During the early times of the Wari influence in provincial Cotocotuyoc, offerings of camelids served to acquire and maintain symbolic capital by the local leaders. At Conchopata, a site in the Wari heartland, feasts in public open patios served to legitimize institutionalized relations of power, while feasts related to mortuary activity in private rooms functioned to naturalize status differences across this socially stratified town. Although certainly not the only practice used to retain power differences, offerings and feasts involving camelid meat, chicha beverages, and special Wari ceramics were key to build and maintain a vast and complex polity such as the Wari Empire.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2011 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Rosenfeld, Silvana Amanda |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Anthropology. |
| Primary advisor | Rick, John W |
| Thesis advisor | Rick, John W |
| Thesis advisor | Gifford-Gonzalez, Diane (Diane Patrice) |
| Thesis advisor | McEwan, Gordon Francis |
| Thesis advisor | Robertson, Ian |
| Advisor | Gifford-Gonzalez, Diane (Diane Patrice) |
| Advisor | McEwan, Gordon Francis |
| Advisor | Robertson, Ian |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Silvana Amanda Rosenfeld. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Anthropology. |
| Thesis | Ph.D. Stanford University 2011 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2011 by Silvana Amanda Rosenfeld
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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