Two domesticated camelid species are recognized, the llama (Lama glama) and alpaca (Vicugna pacos). Together, they comprise one-half of the extant New World camelids (order: Artiodactyla, family Camelidae), a mammalian family whose lineage can be traced to the Eocene of North America. In addition to llama and alpaca, two wild camelids, the guanaco (Lama guanicoe) and vicuna (Vicugna vicugna), currently inhabit portions of South America. A comprehensive description may be found in Franklin (1982), with useful accounts in Wheeler (1995), archaeological summary in Wing (1986), and osteological descriptions in Pacheco, Altamirano, and Guerra (1986).
The ancestor of the llama and alpaca was a llama-like form, Hemiauchenia, which entered the South American continent over a Panamanian land bridge toward the end of the Pliocene. The subsequent Pleistocene evolution of three new genera (Paleolama, Lama, Vicugna) in the Andes was followed by radiations of Lama into southern South America, and Paleolama into northern areas as far as Central America and the southern United States. Only Lama and Vicugna survived into the Holocene.
Confusion surrounding camelid taxonomy exists and involves some uncertainty about the ancestries of each domesticate. The successful crossing of all four New World camelids and subsequent generation of reproductively viable offspring, has led to the suggestion that each is a subspecific form of one species (L. glama). Others believe it best to consider each as separate species of one genus. Early on, it was suggested that the vicuna should be placed in its own genus (Vicugna) as it possesses open-rooted ever-growing incisors, unlike the closed-rooted incisors of guanacos and llamas. Recent genetic data tend to support this claim. Speculation surrounding the ancestry of domesticated camelids has therefore centered on four possibilities: llamas and alpacas are both derived from guana-cos; llamas are derived from guanacos, and alpacas from vicunas; llamas are derived from guanacos, and alpacas are domestic hybrids derived from crossing guanaco with an early domesticated llama; or, alpacas originated as hybrids produced through crossing guanaco and vicuna. Genetic study suggests that vicunas may be ancestral to alpacas, with guanacos as the probable direct ancestors of llamas. Recent renaming of alpaca (V. pacos) has been fixed to accord with the molecular studies. Despite a persisting confusion amongst scientists of how to classify camelids zoologically, indigenous herders recognize a complex taxonomy for llama (Quechua) or qawra (Aymara), alpaca or paqocha (Quechua), and wari (a llama/ alpaca hybrid also referred to as llamawari or paqowari depending upon which domesticated parent it most resembles). It involves potentially thousands of descriptive references
Based upon gender, age, reproductive status, fleece quality, base color and assorted tones, and their distribution over the animal’s body.
South American camelids are ruminants with three-chambered stomachs, and are characterized by a specialized cropping mechanism in which the lower incisors bite against an upper pad that is surrounded by a split lip. Vestigial incisors and canines are retained in Lama, with males possessing much longer canines. The camelids have long slender necks, lack tensor skin between thigh and body, and unlike most ungulates possess digitigrade feet with callous pads and divergent toes that bear nails rather than hooves. Camelids are pacers that swing lateral limbs in unison and place both hind and forefeet simultaneously on the ground in each step. South American camelids breed seasonally, with females generally beginning to reproduce as two-year olds. After roughly a year of gestation, single offspring are delivered in standing position.
The llama is the largest of the extant camelids, weighing 130 to 155 kg, and standing 109 to 119 cm at the shoulder. It is characterized by relatively coarse 20 to 80 pm diameter wool. Llamas are generalized browsers and grazers like the guanaco, and can readily adapt to a wide range of culturally imposed conditions. They are currently tended at mid to high elevations between 2,300 and 4,000 masl from the central highlands of Ecuador south to northwestern Argentina. Llamas and alpacas are physiologically adapted to efficient oxygen intake and utilization at higher elevations. The llama prefers pasturing on dry tablelands, and feeds in tall Ichu bunch grass vegetation along slopes.
The alpaca is slightly larger than the vicuna, weighing between 55 and 65 kg, and standing from 94 to 104 cm at the shoulder. The alpaca is characterized by longer and finer wool. Alpacas are grazers like the vicuna, and appear to have the greatest dietary need for succulents, preferring bottomland bofedale vegetation. In South America, alpacas are mainly restricted to the high 4,400 and 4,800 masl Andes of Peru and Bolivia, with small populations in northern Chile and northwestern Argentina.
The guanaco is the largest of the wild South American camelids, weighing 100 to 130 kg and standing 100 to 120 cm at the shoulder. As generalized browsers and grazers, guanacos can be either sedentary or migratory depending upon local conditions and the seasonal need to relocate for forage. Although capable of inhabiting deserts, guanacos need to drink periodically, and are able to dissipate excess heat via bare skin on their flanks. Highly territorial guanaco populations vary demographically depending upon seasonal conditions, and tend to aggregate during winter months in the south. Otherwise, summer family groups consist of a territorial male, females, and juveniles younger than 15 months of age.
The vicuna is the smallest of the extant camelids, weighing 45 to 55 kg, and standing only 86 to 96 cm at the shoulder. Unlike guanacos, vicunas are specialized grazers of low growing forbs and perennial grass on the high puna, where their very fine wool (finer than alpaca and coveted and obtained by Inca royalty) insulates against severe cold. Obligate drinkers, they must consume water at least once or twice during dry seasons. Vicunas defend year-round territories in polygynous family groups composed of a male, females and juveniles under 11 months, or in groups of non-territorial males. Family groups feed, reproduce, and raise young in a feeding territory, and retire at day’s end to a nearby sleeping territory.
Any understanding of early camelid domestication in South America is fraught with difficulty because of the ambiguity of osteological criteria used for differentiating between the different taxa. Limited dental criteria have been suggested. Archaeologically recovered permanent incisors with roots, parallel sides, and enameled upper labial surfaces match those of many extant alpaca. This has lead to the tentative identification of prehistoric domesticates
And speculation about alpaca ancestry; otherwise, there is no similar evidence for post-cranial elements. Zooarchaeologists have proposed osteometric procedures that discriminate relative size within a continuum from small to large. Maximum dimensions, often from weightbearing bones, are used in conjunction with univariate and multivariate methods for identifying small (vicuna/alpaca) and large (guanaco/llama) specimens. Unfortunately, it is difficult to sort wild from domestic individuals within each group because of high overlap.
As a result of these persistent difficulties, identification of domesticated taxa in the archaeological record is generally based on less direct evidence. This can include recovery and identification of camelid specimens in contexts outside of their natural wild range. Changes in population structure are also heavily relied upon for inferring the timing and location of early domestication. Taming or breeding is sometimes inferred from high proportions of juvenile and neonatal camelid specimens in and around human settlements. Evidence for increased reliance on domesticates is frequently based on a proportionate increase of camelid to deer specimens in different archaeological contexts. However, the reliability of these criteria is always open to question. The kind of specimen and its relative frequency in any archaeological context is probably more related to specifics of deposition rather than to relative dietary importance. Differences between ratio statistics are also usually correlated with sample sizes and not with ancient behavior. Often, the number of identified specimens in any archaeological context is directly associated with differential fragmentation, preservation, or identifiability, which may have little to do with prehistoric human behavior. These problems, along with methodological difficulties associated with accurately aging or sexing bone specimens, warrant the use of caution when evaluating zooarchaeological interpretations.
As with cuy, early contexts for camelid bones are found in the Ayacucho area. Specimens were deposited along with sloth, deer, and carnivore, at about 12,690 BC in Ayacucho phase context at Pikimachay, and limited numbers of camelid bone specimens were recovered at Jaywamachay in Puente phase occupations, possibly as early as 8600 BC. Camelid appears along with cuy in Puente phase context at Ayamachay around 7250 BC and in Jaywa phase context at the Puente site as early as 6900 BC.
Early camelid domestication may be documented in the high elevation puna sites between 4,000 and 4,900 masl. The predictable territorial social organization of wild camelids is suggested to have played a major role in early sedentism among prehistoric Andean populations. Before 5500 BC, camelid/deer ratios are interpreted as equal; however, about 6000 years ago in the Junin puna near 4,420 masl, it is believed that control of llamas and alpacas was apparent at Telarmachay rockshelter, followed by the establishment of a predominately herding economy some 500 years later. This interpretation is based on the gradual increase of camelid specimens and the corresponding decrease of deer specimens, along with dental evidence, and a marked augmentation of fetal and neonatal camelids at the site. These young animals are believed to have died from disease while penned, perhaps in unsanitary corrals, after which they were brought to the site and consumed. Roughly contemporaneous changes in the camelid/deer proportions are documented in the large faunal sample from the nearby site of Panaulauca at 4,100 masl. Based on similar evidence from other puna sites, these interpretations align with Elizabeth Wing’s (1986) earlier claims that intensive use and initial control began in the puna from 5500 to 2500 BC with subsequent domestication from 2500 to 1750 BC.
Domesticated camelids are believed to have been dispersed outward from the Junin puna during the ensuing millennia, although some have claimed that a later center of camelid domestication had also developed 5000 years ago in the high puna of Argentina. In the Ayacucho area, the semi-nomadic herding of camelids between high and low elevations
Appears no later than 1750 BC. Pastoralism had also been adopted in arid northern Chile by 1700 BC. Camelids are identified from roughly contemporaneous Initial period contexts in the northern Peruvian highlands and coast; however, their relative rarity and recovery in ritual contexts might suggest an early exotic status or their occasional use as pack animals. Evidence from the coast does suggest the maintenance of live animals. The relative abundance of camelids in late Initial period contexts at Chavin de Huantar may suggest that camelids assumed dietary importance at this time, becoming widespread throughout the northern highlands after 900 BC. The status of camelids north of Peru coincides with that of cuy, as it tends to be recovered in small quantities from specific contexts at sites involved in Spondylus exchange.
Camelids are identified in late context from extreme southern Colombia, their northernmost prehispanic dispersion. When the Spanish arrived, they appear to have been distributed from here southward through the Andean world as far as northern Chile and Argentina. The uses and roles of camelids in the precolumbian Andes are well documented. As beasts of burden, llamas were important for the terrestrial movement of trade goods and provisions necessary for military expansion. Meat was consumed as food, wool provided fiber, dung was used for fuel, and bones were made into tools. Alpacas were used in the production of fine wool. Both animals served as multipurpose sacrificial offerings; their viscera were extremely important for prognostication, and meat was used in curing. As foremost symbols of wealth and status, camelids were used in noble display and for tribute; they persist today as quintessential features of the Andean world. The vast herds of domesticated camelids that greeted the Spanish on their arrival were rapidly reduced within one century, mainly through the introduction of foreign livestock and disease.
World History
