Social relationships are notoriously difficult to infer in the archaeological record, and this task is made especially difficult in the Andean highlands, where relatively few sites have been excavated and clear material indicators of social dynamics are scant. The most reliable indicators of social life are very indirect measures, and include projectile point styles, lithic raw materials, and so-called “exotics,” or artifacts of non-local origin. In some cases, the scale of residential mobility can be used to infer “boundaries” that might have existed between foraging groups.
Frequencies of projectile point styles show varying patterns across the Andes. Many authors believe that point style at least in part reflects some aspect of ethnicity, identity, or more broadly, a coherent social formation. On the Junin puna, for example, Rick (1980: 312-16) argues that distinct point styles were created by different local resident groups, or bands. In the earliest occupation of Pachamachay (10,000-7000 BC), only three styles were present but in the following phase (7000-5000 BC), sixteen styles were found. This suggests to Rick that numerous and coexisting groups used the shelter at different times over a 2,000-year period. A similar pattern of style variation can be found in the Rio Ilave drainage. Here, Klink and Aldenderfer (2005) show that for the period 9000-7000 BC, only two styles can be defined for this period, suggesting relatively few social groups and low population densities. From 7000-5000 BC, six style groups are defined, suggesting a pattern of population growth and social differentiation.
Another trend in projectile point style is that through time, they tend to become more local, and have a limited spatial distribution. Early styles in both the Junin puna and the
Rio Ilave are very similar to one another, but through time, they take on locally distinct characters. Their value as chronological markers becomes far more limited in scope. This implies a significant reduction in residential mobility, or alternatively, the nature of longdistance contacts. Stylistic similarity over large spaces implies the maintenance of social ties at very low population densities, most probably for information sharing in a new environment and for the maintenance of a mate pool. As styles become more local, this implies that regional population density is increasing, and that these groups are able to find mates at a reduced regional scale.
Another form of social interaction is trade and exchange. Much has been made in the Andes about the evolution of different forms of complementarity and the kinds of social relationships implied by them. Vertical complementarity as defined by Murra (1975) and others describes varied social relationships between highlanders and lowlanders, and is seen by many as a risk buffering adaptation based on the altitudinal distribution of habitats in the Andes (Salomon 1985). In the Rio Moquegua, Aldenderfer (1998: 302-303) has argued that “Archaic Period complementarity” was primarily horizontal, and contained within high elevations. Relationships with lowlanders were marked by exchanges of utilitarian artifacts until late in prehistory, when more formal exchange relationships of subsistence items developed, residential mobility decreased, and social boundaries were defined. Lynch (1971) sees a similar pattern in the Callejon de Huaylas, but with a greater scale of residential mobility. MacNeish et al. (1980) see the exchange of subsistence resources between lowlanders and highlanders in the Ayacucho Valley during the Cachi phase (4000-2000 BC).
The exchange of non-utilitarian artifacts, especially obsidian, is of importance in many regions. These materials are likely to be indicators of social relationships, or may have been symbols of status and achievement by those who possessed them. Although obsidian from the Chivay source is found at Asana as early as the Khituna phase (8800 BC), it is present only in very small quantities, suggesting it was obtained via down-the-line trading instead of direct procurement (Aldenderfer 1999a). More significant quantities of obsidian from the Quispisisa source are found in Ayacucho in Cachi times, while in the southern Titicaca basin at Jiskairumoko, obsidian frequencies increase dramatically after 2800 BC, which marks the onset of the Terminal Archaic. Appearing at 2000 BC are cold-hammered gold beads from an as yet unidentified source found with an adult-and-child secondary burial (Aldenderfer 2004: 24; Figure 9.2). Finally, a fragment of Strombus shell appears at Uchumachay between 4800-4500 BC (Kaulicke 1999: 320-22).
World History
