Theories of social evolution have predicted that early permanent population concentrations will frequently be unstable, with fissioning the predominant mechanism for resolving intravillage conflict. It has further been suggested that village fissioning will cease with the emergence of higher‐level integrative institutions. These processes have remained archaeologically undocumented. In this article I attempt to identify the village fissioning process in the Formative Period of Bolivia's Titicaca Basin. I conclude that village fissioning took place in the Early Formative, and that it ceased with the emergence of a regional religious tradition in the Middle Formative. These results confirm the utility and applicability of the evolutionary model.

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The long-term evolution of social power has often been linked to the development of regional exchange systems. Most treatments emphasize monopolies of production or distribution of high-value items. In this chapter I analyze the case of exchange in the Middle (Late Chiripa phase) and early Late Formative (Tiwanaku I phase) communities of the southern Lake Titicaca Basin. I suggest that the evolution of social power in these villages was related to their role as "transit communities" in a regional exchange system and that significant social and political developments can be related to shifts in prehistoric caravan routes.

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