For Collier (1955), the cultural development of the Peruvian coast followed the evolutionary line that Adams and Wittfogel (in Steward et al. 1955) had identified in other pristine centers of civilization. Between the end of the Formative Epoch and the Regional Developmental (Florescence) Epoch irrigation systems were introduced in the lower part of the coastal valleys and the development of other technologies (animal husbandry, metallurgy) enabled a marked increase in population. This gave rise to armed conflict as well as the emergence of a warrior elite that was soon involved in a latent conflict with the old priestly elite. The conditions that enabled the theocratic chiefdoms of the Formative Epoch to turn into secular, militaristic and expansionist secular states—e. g., Wari—thus appeared. This hypothetical sequence of stages was supported by the development of settlements with monumental public architecture, as follows: 1) Formative ceremonial centers; 2) capitals of regional states: large agglutinated towns around enormous pyramid-temples (Regional Developments); 3) planned urban settlements, whose rise was related to the militaristic stage (Wari).
Collier’s position was assumed by Schaedel (1966, 1978, 1980), who was the first to attempt a systematic comparison using the criteria developed by Adams (1966) when
He compared the results of surveys undertaken in the areas of Uruk (Mesopotamia) and Teotihuacan (Mexico). The influential studies by Adams (1966, 1988) and Schaedel (op cit) convinced generations of scholars that the process of social and political evolution related to the rise of the city and the state in the Uruk area was repeated in other cultural areas, without any significant variation (D’Altroy 2001).
In the Andes, the comparative approach was later adopted by, among others, Shimada (1994: Moche urbanism) and Isbell (1988; Isbell and McEwan 1991 inter alia: Huari/Wari urbanism [Note 2]). Isbell and his team specifically applied the methodology developed by Adams, Wright, and Johnson in their surveys in Mesopotamia (e. g., Wright 1969; Johnson 1973; Wright and Johnson 1975). Assuming that the urban phenomenon was conditioned by the consolidation of the state’s administrative structures, its presence or absence could be inferred from the hierarchical and spatial relations between settlements (see, e. g., Isbell and Schreiber 1978). According to the guidelines laid down by this model, size and the formal differentiation of architectural groups, when compared with the spatial distribution of sites, enabled one to distinguish capitals, regional and provincial centers, districts, and so on. For the Andeanist scholars who follow the comparative approach, the urban phenomenon was a late development that arose between the seventh and ninth centuries AD, and was directly related to the transformation of chiefdoms into expansive states.
Pragmatic Definitions
In his definition of Andean urbanism Rowe (1963), unlike Schaedel, did not pay much attention to formal or demographic criteria or to spatial organization (e. g., monumentality, layout). For Rowe, nuclear distribution by itself is not diagnostic of urban systems because achoritic (large settlements distant from one another) and synchoritic (nuclear) organization types are known in Classical Antiquity in mostly rural areas. His definition of a city is pragmatic and functional in nature: a city is a permanent dwelling site of managers, merchants, craftsmen, and the military. The presence of a large permanent population enables a distinction between city and ceremonial center to be drawn, whereas what distinguishes a city from a town is the type of occupation and not its size. In this position, which may be called pragmatic, settlements lacking a formally differentiated public core and that extend over an area of less than 4 ha are of a village type. The evidence proposed to establish whether a settlement was a city, a ceremonial center or an administrative center—i. e., the occupations of the resident population—cannot, of course, be obtained without systematic, long-term area excavations.
The followers of the pragmatic approach therefore often use the three above-mentioned terms as synonyms or composite terms, e. g., sacred city, ceremonial-administrative center. Following Rowe’s position and his chronological proposals, Burger (1992: 162181) interpreted the growth of the area around the temple of Chavin de Huantar (see Figures 35.1, 35.3, 35.4 in this volume) in the fourth-third centuries BC as a manifestation of an incipient urbanism (Figure 32.2; see Chapter 35 in this volume).
Axiomatic Definitions
Some scholars have tried to push back the date that marks the beginning of Andean urbanism even more—to the second or even the third millennium BC (Pozorski and Pozorski 1987; Shady 2003; Haas et al. 2004). Their proposals are based on the relative frequency with which traits considered diagnostic of administrative and/or urban centers appear on
Figure 32.2. Chavin de Huantar. a. Elevated view of the temple (photo: Krzysztof Makowski; compare to plan of site published in Burger 1992: fig. 120); b. Dramatic urban growth at Chavin de Huantar. (Redrawn by Steven J. Holland from Burger 1992: figs. 156, 167)
The coast of Peru since the Late Pre-ceramic Period and throughout the Initial Period. These traits are: 1) an ordered or planned spatial design; 2) the formal complexity and functional differentiation of monumental architecture; 3) the presence of dwelling areas and areas where food was prepared in the vicinity of the monumental architecture; and 4) a total area that often exceeds 10 ha, and which may even reach up to 220 ha (for example, Pampa de las Llamas-Moxeke [Pozorski and Pozorski 1991: 342]; Figure 31.7 in this volume).
The proponents of the axiomatic definition assume that the presence of large complexes of formally diversified monumental architecture, surrounded by dwelling, storage and manufacturing areas, necessarily entails an advanced level of socio-economic complexity known as the urban level (Southall 1998; Manzanilla 1997). For them, the despotic state (along with a developed coercive apparatus) and urbanism are phenomena that are both universal as well as inseparable from the origins of civilization. This position was introduced into Andean archaeology with the interpretation of Collier’s (1955) model made by Lumbreras (1974, 1986) and his associate Canziani (1987), following the guidelines laid down by Childe. Lumbreras (1975) initially related the rise of the urban phenomenon in the Central Andes with the causes that gave rise to the expansive Wari state in the Ayacucho region, between the fifth and the sixth centuries AD. That date would now be pushed back because of the new data generated since he wrote. The ideas of Lumbreras and Canziani have exerted a strong influence on the perception Peruvian archaeologists have of the urban phenomenon, much like the impact the ideas of Collier and Schaedel had on
U. S. scholars.
According to Lumbreras’ historical materialism, the neolithic revolution inevitably lays the bases for the urban revolution, so long as a generalized sedentary mode of life is supported by efficient systems of agriculture and animal husbandry that are capable of yielding a surplus that can be stored. According to this proposal, the increase in the size of the surplus provides the required maintenance for an ever-larger number of specialized manufacturers and leaders. Under these conditions, the rise of social classes with rival interests is imminent, and with them comes the state and its coercive apparatus. The dominant class lives in the city, which also becomes the locus of all the powers of the state. In this perspective, urban development is a material reflection of the development of social classes.
Unlike other scholars of a Marxist bent (e. g., Southall 1998), Lumbreras and his followers have not engaged in critical discussion of the nature of the relations between town and country, nor of any other aspect of Andean economic organization, implicitly assuming that these are all comparable with the relations that characterize the capitalist mode of production [Note 3].
Functional Definitions
Unlike the three previous approaches, the functional perspective is not inspired by the results of surveys and surface explorations. On the contrary, its proposals are based on systematic excavations undertaken in presumably urban groups, and are often supported by post-proc-essual archaeological theory, particularly by the symbolic-structural approach. Discussions regarding the unique characteristics of urbanism in the Far East and in the New World (Geertz 1980; Wheatley 1971) have likewise exerted a strong influence. The functional perspective entails a challenge: the indigenous cultural context has to be reconstructed from the data recovered through systematic excavations, and through a critical reading of the historical sources from the early Colonial Period. Rowe (1967) outlined this difficult route in his pioneering article on the specific characteristics of Cuzco as the capital of Tahuantinsuyo.
World History
