Abstract
The Andes are defined by human struggles to provide for, and control, water. Nowhere is this challenge more apparent than in the unglaciated western mountain range Cordillera Negra of the Andes where rain runoff provides the only natural source of water for herding and farming economies. Based on over 20 years of systematic field surveys and taking a political ecology and resilience theory focus, this article evaluates how the Prehispanic North-Central highlands Huaylas ethnic group transformed the landscape of the Andes through the largescale construction of complex hydraulic engineering works in the Cordillera Negra of the Ancash Province, North-Central Peru. It is likely that construction of these engineered landscapes commenced during the Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000), reaching their apogee under the Late Intermediate Period (Huaylas group, AD 1000–1450) and Inca (AD 1450–1532) period, before falling into disuse during the early Spanish colony (AD 1532–1615) through a combination of disease, depopulation, and disruption. Persistent water stress in the western Pacific-facing Andean cordillera was ameliorated through the construction of interlinked dams and reservoirs controlling the water, soil, and wetlands. The modern study of these systems provides useful case-studies for infrastructure rehabilitation potentially providing low-cost, though technologically complex, solutions to modern water security.
Highlights
Water is a critical human resource, and cultural transformations in the PrehispanicSouth American Andes have been defined by how they have managed and harnessed it [1,2,3]
The Cordillera Negra does not benefit from glacier runoff but is considerably drier than the other mountain ranges in the region
As one of a large number of balkanized ethnic groups following the demise of the Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) Wari in the central Andean highlands [7], the Huaylas constituted a very loosely bonded cultural unit with a common language, economy, set of beliefs, and material culture
Summary
Water is a critical human resource, and cultural transformations in the Prehispanic. South American Andes have been defined by how they have managed and harnessed it [1,2,3]. That this use of technology provided the wherewithal for large local populations is attested by the large number of Late Intermediate Period settlements in the area Perhaps surprisingly, this intricately constructed landscape was instigated and maintained by the Huaylas at a community and village level (respectively the ayllu and llacta) without obvious elite or state interference contrario sensu stricto [23], see [24]. I use this Huaylas case-study as a proxy for how technologically savvy groups can harness hydrological resources to provide resilience and water security under climate stress Taking this comparison further, we advocate that Huaylas, and late Inca, landscape transformation and integrated approach to water management during the Prehispanic Period provides a potential model towards a modern best-practice use of available water resources, especially in a time of renewed hydraulic demand and deteriorating climatic conditions
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