Ritual practices and wrapped objects

Unpacking prehispanic Andean sacred bundles

Bibliographic Data

ID2391073
AuthorsMargaret Brown Vega (Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne, IN, USA, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume21
Issue2
Pages223-251
Publication date2016-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1359183515610135
OpenAlexW2344015479
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited94

Collections of objects wrapped in containers, called bundles, are known throughout the Americas. Drawing upon ethnographic literature, especially descriptions of bundle use in the Andes, this article unravels the social context and practices involved in the creation and deposition of an archaeological bundle. The author presents an analysis of a bundle offering excavated from within the prehispanic fortification of Acaray, located on the Central Coast of Perú in the Huaura Valley. Careful attention to the configuration of the bundle offering, the contents, and their qualities permits a sophisticated interpretation of the offering's broader meaning. The assemblage and deposition of the bundles solidified social bonds among people and powerful spirits. Through the bundling of people and place (Acaray), the building of physical defenses, and the calling of animated selves for spiritual defense through bundle ceremonies, new identities were made, and the dangers of war could be unmade, in the Huaura Valley

Aesthetics · Affordance · Archaeology · Art · Assemblage (archaeology · Bundle · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Ethnography · Interpretation (philosophy · Linguistics · Meaning (existential · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Computer Science · History · Latin American history and culture