Regional Settlement Patterns in the Tiwanaku Valley of Bolivia

Regional settlement patterns from the formative through Post-Classic Tiwanaku periods (1500 B.C.-A.C. 1100) in the Tiwanaku Valley of Bolivia arc explored. Ecological considerations, rank-size interpretations, and some aspects of central place theory are incorporated into this investigation of the e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of field archaeology Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 67 - 83
Main Authors McAndrews, Timothy L., Albarracin-Jordan, Juan, Bermann, Marc
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Boston, MA Routledge 1997
Boston University for the Association of Field Archaeology
Boston University
Subjects
America and Arctic regions
Economic systems
Field archaeology
Field Reports: Excavation and Survey
Geographic regions
Paleoanthropology
Polities
Preceramic cultures
Prehistory and protohistory
Primates
Settlement patterns
Social evolution
South America
Terraces
Valleys
Late post classical
Inca
Middle post classical
Formative
Early post classical
Bolivia
America
Regional synthesis
Settlement
Settlement strategies
Public administration
State
Political organization
Ethnology
Social organization
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Summary:Regional settlement patterns from the formative through Post-Classic Tiwanaku periods (1500 B.C.-A.C. 1100) in the Tiwanaku Valley of Bolivia arc explored. Ecological considerations, rank-size interpretations, and some aspects of central place theory are incorporated into this investigation of the evolution of regional social and political organization of the Tiwanaku polity. Taken together; the analyses point away from reconstructions of the Tiwanaku polity as a highly centralized and monolithic state organized in a "pyramidal" fashion. Settlement patterns indicate the presence of sub-system settlement enclaves with differing relationships to the capital. The identification of sub-system settlement units lends support to suggestions arising from recent study that, by the Post-Classic Period, Tiwanaku society was segmentary in nature and organized into a nested hierarchy. These findings arc consistent with ethnohistorically-derived constructs of indigenous Andean sociopolitical structure.
ISSN:0093-4690
2042-4582
DOI:10.1179/jfa.1997.24.1.67