Llamas in the Cornfield

Prehispanic Agro-Pastoral System in the Southern Andes

Bibliographic Data

ID4675481
AuthorsM Dantas (0000-0003-2691-5033, Instituto de Antropología de Córdoba‐CONICET, Museo de Antropología, Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades Universidad Nacional de Córdoba Av. Hipólito Yrigoyen 174 CP 5000 Córdoba Argentina, corresponding author), Germán G Figueroa (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba), A Laguens (0000-0002-1367-3242, Instituto de Antropología de Córdoba‐CONICET, Museo de Antropología, Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades Universidad Nacional de Córdoba Av. Hipólito Yrigoyen 174 CP 5000 Córdoba Argentina)
Year2014
Volume24
Issue2
Pages149-165
Publication date2014-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Osteoarchaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1047-482X • E-ISSN: 1099-1212
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/oa.2351
OpenAlexW1868171042
LanguageEN
Citations received30
References cited25

We report a study of the organisation of camelid production at the Ambato Valley, northern Argentine Andes, between the 6th and 11th centuriesad. We aim to contribute to the understanding of the different modes of economic production adopted in the past within non-egalitarian social contexts.In view of this, information collected from previous studies is analysed from multiple perspectives, centering on the application of different analytical techniques to the assemblage of camelid bones (anatomical and taxonomical identification, osteometry and stable isotopes), to their diverse archaeological contexts and architectural and agricultural units, together with the implementation of frames of reference and ethnoarchaeological models. The results support the presence of an organisational mode for the production of plants and animals on the basis of a combination of different agrarian and livestock productive strategies under a unique new integrated agro-pastoral practice, differing from both previous ones. This new practice combined, in the very same land, the use of pens and agriculture terraces in an annual productive cycle adjusted to the seasonal calendar, where maize production was used as stubble for llamas during the dry season, at the same time those fertilised corn fields during fallow.Although this new practice suggests an intensification in production, the bond and synergy of animal and plant productive strategies in a single practice could be considered risky because it decreases the range of possible responses to external fluctuation, to the extent that these could have influenced simultaneously or indirectly on both resources. This might have implied an extra factor contributing to the destructuration of the Ambato societies around 1000ad. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Archaeology · Geography · Indigenous Cultures and History · Latin American history and culture · Migration, Education, Indigenous Social Dynamics