Cultural Landscapes in the Ancient Andes: Archaeologies of Place (review)

Abstract

MOORE, IERRY D. Cultural Landscapes in the Ancient Andes: Archaeologies of Place. Gainesville: U of Florida P, 2005. 304 pages.As the subtitle indicates, Jerry Moore's book is about archaeologies of place, but the problems he deals with are not limited to the specifically identifiable places that most often concern archaeologists. As an archaeologist, Moore's primary objects of analyses are the material objects and places of ancient Andean societies, but he argues that they must be understood in the context of social space. Of course, this is not new to archaeology: the goal of all archaeological analysis ultimately is to attempt to understand other cultures. Moore argues, however, that the only way to do so is through an anthropological holism that takes into consideration the various domains implicated in the architecture and the built environment of ancient societies. Moore explains that traditional archaeological research, including his own, has not sufficiently developed this anthropological holism, and the tour central chapters of his book develop lines of analysis that have been neglected in Andean archaeology.Following the introduction, the second chapter attempts to demonstrate how the consideration of sound can be incorporated into archaeological analysis. In order to demonstrate the significance of sound, Moore argues that the relationship between proximity of sound-permeable dwellings correlates to degrees of social cohesion: communities of closely situated huts where conversations were easily overheard reflect a high degree of social cohesion, while the dispersion of huts over greater distances indicates the presence of social tension. Moore recognizes that there are other possible reasons why huts might be dispersed, but in general his data seem to support the correlation between degrees of proximity and degrees of social cohesion.The third chapter argues that types of ceremonial architecture correspond to varying social conceptions of religious (118). Moore hypothesizes that permanent, large-scale, public architecture is not consistent with religious authority based on shamanic practices but rather indicates either a religious authority based on the mastery of a canon of knowledge or some other kind of political authority. The premise of this argument is that different conceptions of power and authority employ distinct modes of practice and are therefore materially expressed in distinct (120). In support, Moore presents ethnographic evidence from a number of contemporary South American societies that corroborates his hypothesis.The fourth chapter draws on ritual theory to explore the ways in which an understanding of ritual may inform archaeological analysis and vice versa. Moore explains that the design logic of types of architecture corresponds to types of ritual practices. …