Re-becoming Nasca: A household-based analysis of the transformation of community and tradition at a late Nasca Village, Peru

Verity H Whalen, Purdue University

Abstract

By employing a household-based perspective, this dissertation investigates how communities and traditions are created and reimagined through periods of sociopolitical reformation. Drawing from archaeological and bioarchaeological data, I examine the end of the Early Intermediate Period, a transitional phase in Andean prehistory. Following the collapse of a regional ceremonial cult, Late Nasca society on the south coast of Peru underwent a period of sociopolitical balkanization and reformation. I situate my research at Cocahuischo, a large Late Nasca settlement in the Tierras Blancas Valley. I utilize mapping, excavation, and artifact analysis to examine the internal politics of community and tradition at Cocahuischo and whether residents formed relationships with other Late Nasca and Andean communities during a time of change. Patterns in spatial organization, household structure, artifact assemblages, and mortuary practices were used to investigate the level of social cohesion within the local community. Diachronic changes in tradition were evaluated by comparing fineware pottery and domestic architecture to earlier Nasca sites. Pottery, lithics, and intra-site spatial organization were then examined to better understand inter-regional interaction and extra-local community affiliations. I draw from theoretical perspectives of practice, community, tradition, and cultural reformation to illustrate how these processes are embodied through daily life. Broad similarities were found throughout Cocahuischo in the form of domestic space, style of pottery, mortuary practices, and form of tools and objects used in daily subsistence and production activities. These data suggest the presence of a local Late Nasca community constituted through daily life and activities of production and consumption. The differences between these data and the architecture and pottery of earlier Nasca settlements indicate changes in where ceremonial feasting occurred, how religious ideology was mediated through pottery, and the size of corporate social entities over time. The diversity of pottery styles and domestic architecture at Cocahuischo also illustrates the presence of sub-local communities that crosscut the settlement. Stylistic similarities in pottery suggest that these sub-local communities were linked to other highland, Estrella, and Late Nasca groups. The data from Cocahuischo thus illustrate a series of nested communities at sub-local, local, and supra-local levels.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Vaughn, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Archaeology

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