Mobile Communities and Pastoralist Landscapes During the Formative Period in the Central Altiplano of Bolivia

Abstract

The domestication of llamas and alpacas was fundamental for the cultural and economic development of Andean societies, but the origins of camelid pastoralism as a distinct mode of socioeconomic organization remain little understood. Whereas most archaeological interpretations of prehispanic highland societies emphasize the transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture as a process marked by the establishment of agricultural sedentary villages, other subsistence and mobility strategies have been for the most part overlooked. A case in point is the Wankarani cultural complex from the Central Altiplano of Bolivia, which has been interpreted as an example of an early village-based sedentary society. Here, I argue that a model of mobile pastoralism based on ethnoarchaeological research better explains the Central Altiplano's Formative period archaeological record. Recently collected data support this proposition. Settlement patterns consisted of multiple dispersed camps attached to residential bases occupied recurrently. Horizontal excavations from a residential base revealed structures and features analogous to pastoralist landscapes documented around the world. Faunal identification confirmed the preponderance of domesticated camelids. Based on this evidence, I argue that we need better explanatory frameworks for approaching the origins, organization, and variability associated with early food producing societies such as mobile camelid pastoralists.

Presencia De Un Centro Ceremonial Formativo en La Circumpuna De Atacama

“…Sin embargo, recientemente se ha propuesto en Wankarani una orientación exclusiva pastoralista temprana, constituida por comunidades móviles a base de múltiples asentamientos dispersos conectados a estructuras residenciales (Capriles 2014(Capriles , 2016Capriles et al 2011). A diferencia de los asentamientos Chiripa de más al norte, estas comunidades no se caracterizarían por grandes aldeas sedentarias asociadas a arquitectura pública monumental.…”

Archaeologies of the Past and in the Present in 2014: Materialities of Human History

“…Pastoral societies are often considered unusual because their mobility and environmental strategies resist typical social evolutionary typologies. The political dynamism of pastoralists often is overshadowed by their comparison with seemingly more complex, settled agrarian settlements or states, what José Capriles () refers to as “agrocentrism” in his study of pastoralists in Formative period Bolivia. William Honeychurch (2014) offers a review of pastoral states’ distinctive economic, political, and social flexibility.…”

Two Thousand Years of Land-Use and Vegetation Evolution in the Andean Highlands of Northern Chile Inferred from Pollen and Charcoal Analyses

“…causing their migration to protected sites and lower elevations [20][21][22][23]. Subsequently, as conditions became warmer and more humid during the glacial-interglacial transition, grasslands and woodlands expanded across the Altiplano [24,25]. During the mid-Holocene, however, aridity prevailed, producing expansion of sclerophyllous shrubs and drying of some lakes and wetlands [26][27][28].…”