Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T10:50:46.092Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Architecture and Polity in the Formative Lake Titicaca Basin, Bolivia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Robin A. Beck Jr.
Robin A. Beck Jr.*
Affiliation:
Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University, 3479 Faner Hall, Carbondale, IL 62901
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A regional approach to public architecture offers a useful medium through which to study changes in the scale of integrative institutions. Changes in political structure are often associated with changes in the scale and complexity of public ritual space. In Bolivia’s Lake Titicaca Basin, Middle Formative period (800–250 B.C.) villagers along the Taraco Peninsula built earthen platforms that visually dominated their settlements. Until recently, research on the peninsula had focused almost exclusively on the site of Chiripa, with the result that little was known of the regional context in which this site and its neighbors emerged. Now, after excavations at the contemporaneous site of Alto Pukara, the sequence of public architecture at Middle Formative communities may be viewed within a regional context. This paper evaluates the trajectory of institutional complexity along the Taraco Peninsula through a formal comparison of public ritual architecture at Alto Pukara and Chiripa. Six criteria for measuring architectural variation—centrality, permanence, accessibility, visibility, scale, and ubiquity—facilitate this comparison. Only through a regional approach can we understand the integrative role of public space in these early village societies.

Un enfoque regional a la arquitectura pública ofrece un medio útil para estudiar los cambios en la escala de las instituciones integradoras. Los cambios en la estructura política se encuentran frecuentemente asociados a cambios en la escala de la complejidad de los espacios rituales públicos. En la cuenca del lago de Titicaca (Bolivia), durante el periodo Formativo Medio (800–250 a.C), los habitantes de las aldeas de la Península de Taraco construyeron plataformas de tierra que dominaban visualmente sus asentamientos. Hasta recientemente, las investigaciones en la península se concentraron casi exclusivamente en el yacimiento de Chiripa y, en consecuencia, poco se conocía del contexto regional en el que surgieron tanto éste como los yacimientos vecinos. Tras las excavaciones en el yacimiento contemporáneo de Alto Pukara, resulta viable el análisis secuencial del contexto regional en el que se desarrolla la arquitectura pública de estas comunidades del Formativo Medio. Este trabajo evalúa la trayectoria de la complejidad institucional en la Peninsula de Taraco a partir de la comparación formal de la arquitectura ritual pública en Alto Pukara y Chiripa. Se utilizan seis criterios para medir la variación arquitectónica y facilitar su comparación: centralidad, permanencia, accesibilidad, visibilidad, escala y ubicuidad.

Type
Reports
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , September 2004 , pp. 323 - 343
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by the Society for American Archaeology.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Abbott, Mark, Binford, Michael, Brenner, Mark, and Kelts, Kerry 1997 A 3500 14C yr High-Resolution Record of Water-Level Changes in Lake Titicaca, Bolivia-Peru. Quaternary Research 47:169-180.Google Scholar
Albarracin-Jordan, Juan 1992 Prehispanic and Early Settlement Patterns in the Lower Tiwanaku Valley, Bolivia. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University.Google Scholar
Albarracin-Jordan, Juan 1996 Tiwanaku: Arqueología regional y dinámica segmentaria. Editores Plural, La Paz.Google Scholar
Arnold, Jeanne E. 1993 Labor and the Rise of Complex Hunter-Gatherers. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 12:75-119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bandy, Matthew S. 1999a History of Investigations at the Site of Chiripa. In Early Settlement at Chiripa, Bolivia: Research of the Taraco Archaeological Project, edited by Christine A. Hastorf, pp. 9-16. Number 57, Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Bandy, Matthew S. 1999b The Systematic Surface Collection. In Early Settlement at Chiripa, Bolivia: Research of the Taraco Archaeological Project, edited by Christine A. Hastorf, pp. 23-28. Number 57, Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Bandy, Matthew S. 1999c The Monticulo Excavations. In Early Settlement at Chiripa, Bolivia: Research of the Taraco Archaeological Project, edited by Christine A. Hastorf, pp. 43-50. Number 57, Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Bandy, Matthew S. 2001 Population and History in the Ancient Titicaca Basin. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Bawden, Garth 1982 Community Organization Reflected by the Household: A Study of Pre-Columbian Social Dynamics. Journal of Field Archaeology 9:165-181.Google Scholar
Bennett, Wendell C. 1936 Excavations in Bolivia. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History Vol. 35. American Museum of Natural History, New York.Google Scholar
Blom, Deborah E., and Bandy, Matthew S. 1999 Human Remains and Mortuary Practices. In Early Settlement at Chiripa, Bolivia: Research of the Taraco Archaeological Project, edited by Christine A. Hastorf, pp. 117-122. Number 57, Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Bonnier, Elizabeth 1997 Preceramic Architecture in the Andes: The Mito Tradition. In Archaeologica Peruana 2: Prehispanic Architecture and Civilization in the Andes, edited by Elizabeth Bonnier and Henning Bischoff, pp. 120-144. Reiss-Museum, Mannheim.Google Scholar
Browman, David L. 1978 Toward the Development of the Tiahuanaco (Tiwanaku) State. In Advances in Andean Archaeology, edited by David L. Browman, pp. 327-349. Mouton, The Hague.Google Scholar
Burkholder, JoEllen 1997 Tiwanaku and the Anatomy of Tune: A New Ceramic Chronology from the Iwawe Site, Department of La Paz, Bolivia. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Binghamton.Google Scholar
Chávez, Karen M. 1988 The Significance of Chiripa in Lake Titicaca Basin Developments. Expedition 30(3): 17-26.Google Scholar
Conklin, William 1990 Architecture of the Chimu: Memory, Function, and Image. In The Northern Dynasties: Kingship and Statecraft in Chimor, edited by Michael Moseley and Alana Cordy-Collins, pp. 43-74. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Dean, Emily, and Kojan, David 1999 Santiago. In Early Settlement at Chiripa, Bolivia: Research of the Taraco Archaeological Project, edited by Christine A. Hastorf, pp. 37-42. Number 57, Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Berkeley.Google Scholar
DeMarrais, Elizabeth L., Castillo, Jaime L., and Earle, Timothy K. 1996 Ideology, Materialization, and Power Strategies. Current Anthropology 37:15-31.Google Scholar
Earle, Timothy K. 1997 How Chiefs Come to Power: The Political Economy in Prehistory. Stanford University Press, Stanford.Google Scholar
Hastorf, Christine A. (editor) 1999 Early Settlement at Chiripa, Bolivia: Research of the Taraco Archaeological Project. No. 57, Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Hastorf, Christine A. 1999a An Introduction to Chiripa and the Site Area. In Early Settlement at Chiripa, Bolivia: Research of the Taraco Archaeological Project, edited by Christine A. Hastorf, pp. 1-6. No. 57, Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Hastorf, Christine A. 1999b Conclusions. In Early Settlement at Chiripa, Bolivia: Research of the Taraco Archaeological Project, edited by Christine A. Hastorf, pp. 123-124. No. 57, Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Hastorf, Christine A. 2003 Community With the Ancestors: Ceremonies and Social Memory in the Middle Formative at Chiripa, Bolivia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 31:305-332.Google Scholar
Hastorf, Christine A., Bandy, Matthew S., Blom, Deborah, Dean, Emily, Goodman, Melissa, Kojan, David, Aragon, Mario Montano, Paz, José L., Steadman, David, Steadman, Lee H., and Whitehead, William 1997 Taraco Archaeological Project: 1996 Excavations at Chiripa, Bolivia, pp. 1-3. Report submitted to Instituto Nacional de Arqueología, Bolivia.Google Scholar
Isbell, William H., and Burkholder, JoEllen 2002 Iwawe and Tiwanaku. In Andean A rchaeology: Variations in Sociopolitical Organization, Vol. 1, edited by William H. Isbell and Helaine Silverman, pp. 199-241. Kluwer Academia/Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Izumi, Seiichi, and Terada, Kazuo 1972 Excavations at Kotosh, Peru. University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Kidder, Alfred II. 1956 Digging in the Titicaca Basin. University of Pennsylvania Museum Bulletin 20(3): 116-129.Google Scholar
Kolata, Alan L. 1990 The Urban Concept of Chan Chan. In The Northern Dynasties: Kingship and Statecraft in Chimor, edited by Michael Moseley and Alana Cordy-Collins, pp. 107-144. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Kolb, Michael J. 1991 Social Power, Chiefly Authority, and Ceremonial Architecture in an Island Polity, Maui, Hawaii. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Kolb, Michael J. 1994 Monumentality and the Rise of Religious Authority in Precontact Hawai’i. Current Anthropology 34:521-547.Google Scholar
Lawrence, Denise L., and Low, Setha M. 1990 The Built Environment and Spatial Form. Annual Review of Anthropology 19:453-505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mathews, James 1992 Prehispanic Settlement and Agriculture in the Middle Tiwanaku Valley, Bolivia. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Moore, Jerry D. 1996 Architecture and Power in the Ancient Andes: The Archaeology of Public Buildings. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Paz, José L. 1999 Excavations in the Llusco Area. In Early Settlement at Chiripa, Bolivia: Research of the Taraco Archaeological Project, edited by Christine A. Hastorf, pp. 31-36. Number 57, Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Peebles, Christopher S., and Kus, Susan M. 1977 Some Archaeological Correlates of Ranked Societies. American Antiquity 42:421–448.Google Scholar
Portugal Ortiz, Max 1992 Aspectos de la Cultura Chiripa. Textos Antropologicos 3: 9-26.Google Scholar
Portugal Zamora, Max 1940 Los Hallazgos de la Hacienda Chiripa. Unpublished manuscript on file at the Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Price, Barbara J. 1984 Competition, Productive Intensification, and Ranked Society: Speculations from Evolutionary Theory. In Warfare, Culture, and Environment, edited by R. Brian Ferguson, pp. 209-240. Academic Press, Orlando.Google Scholar
Renfrew, Colin 1973 Monuments, Mobilization, and Social Organization in Neolithic Wessex. In The Explanation of Culture Change, edited by Colin Renfrew, pp. 539-558. Duckworth, London.Google Scholar
Roddick, Andrew P. 2002 Archaeological Approaches to Ritual in the Andes: A Ceramic Analysis of Ceremonial Space at the Formative Period Site of Chiripa, Bolivia. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of British Columbia.Google Scholar
Stanish, Charles 1997 The Settlement History of the Southwestern Titicaca Basin. In Archaeological Survey in the Juli-Desaguadero Region of Luke Titicaca Basin, Southern Peru, pp. 113-119. Fieldiana Anthropology New Series No. 29. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.Google Scholar
Stanish, Charles 2003 Ancient Titicaca: The Evolution of Complex Society in Southern Peru and Northern Bolivia. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Steadman, Lee H. 1999 The Ceramics. In Early Settlement at Chiripa, Bolivia: Research of the Taraco Archaeological Project, edited by Christine A. Hastorf, pp. 61-72. Number 57, Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Stuiver, Minze, and Reimer, Paula J. 1993 Extended l4C Data Base and Revised CALIB 3.0 l4C age Calibration Program. Radiocarbon 35:215-230.Google Scholar
Trigger, Bruce G. 1990 Monumental Architecture: A Thermodynamic Explanation of Symbolic Behavior. World Archaeology 22(2): 119-132.Google Scholar
Whitehead, William T. 1999 Radiocarbon Dating. In Early Settlement at Chiripa: Research of the Taraco Archaeological Project, edited by Christine A. Hastorf, pp. 17-22. Number 57, Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Berkeley.Google Scholar