Biological Distance Patterns Among the Northern Moche Lords

Dental Phenotypes and Political Organization in Ancient Peru

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7445798
AutoresHaagen D Klaus (0000-0003-0587-2628, autor de correspondencia), Walter Alva, Steve Bourget, Luis Chero
Año2018
Volumen29
Número4
Páginas696-717
Fecha de publicación2018-09-26
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaLatin American Antiquity (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1045-6635 • E-ISSN: 2325-5080
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/laq.2018.46
OpenAlexW2893727475
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas39

Between AD 100 and 800, the Moche culture emerged on the north coast of Peru. Diverse debates surround the nature of Moche territorial and political centralization, sociopolitical identities, and the internal social diversity of Moche society. Here we address some of these issues in a biodistance study based on phenotypic variation of inherited dental traits within and between 36 individuals in the royal tombs of Sipán (Lambayeque valley), Úcupe (Zaña valley), and Dos Cabezas (Jequetepeque valley). Metric and nonmetric dental trait data were analyzed using hierarchical cluster and R-matrix analyses. The results independently indicate that the highest-level Sipán and Dos Cabezas lords likely represented different endogamous kin groups, while limited gene flow occurred between groups of Moche lower nobility between the Lambayeque and Jequetepeque regions. Although biology and material cultural link the Lord of Úcupe to Dos Cabezas, many objects in his tomb demonstrate his participation the world of the Sipán elites. These Moche lords were, on some levels, bioculturally interconnected. Nonetheless, the data broadly lend support to a “many Moches” model of sociopolitical structure, further casting doubt on earlier one-dimensional visions of a centralized hegemonic Moche polity

Endogamy · Ethnology · Genealogy · Geography · Hegemony · Hierarchy · Political science · Politics · Population · Sociology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Forensic and Genetic Research · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Demography · History · Law