Abstract
Camelid pastoralism, agriculture, sedentism, surplus production, increasing cultural complexity, and interregional interaction during northern Chile's Late Formative period (AD 100–400) are seen in the flow of goods and people over expanses of desert. Consolidating evidence of material culture from these interactions with a bioarchaeological dimension allows us to provide details about individual lives and patterns in the Late Formative more generally. Here, we integrate a variety of skeletal, chemical, and archaeological data to explore the life and death of a small child (Calate-3N.7). By taking a multiscalar approach, we present a narrative that considers not only the varied materiality that accompanies this child but also what the child's life experience was and how this reflects and shapes our understanding of the Late Formative period in northern Chile. This evidence hints at the profound mobility of their youth. The complex mortuary context reflects numerous interactions and long-distance relationships. Ultimately, the evidence speaks to deep social relations between two coastal groups, the Atacameños and Tarapaqueños. Considering this suite of data, we can see a child whose life was spent moving through desert routes and perhaps also glimpse the construction of intercultural identity in the Formative period.
Highlights
Background and ContextIn Tarapacá, the Late Formative (AD 100–900) witnessed the consolidation of sedentism, continued rise of complexity and production of resource excess, and the growth of interregional trade networks involving coastal and interior peoples (Muñoz et al 2016)
They allow for a multiscalar consideration that can give insight into individual experiences and into how they reflect social contexts and social change (e.g., Torres-Rouff and Knudson 2017). This allows us to see the ways in which these interaction networks manifest in both the body and in death, as well as how the individual experience reflects life in this time. Integrating this life-history approach into bioarchaeology directly with an embodiment perspective, we address the physical body as it engages with the social world
Throughout the Atacama, most habitable areas of the desert became occupied at this time, with different subsistence strategies, varied food resources, and technological innovations leading to the aggregation of population into larger settlements and shifts toward social integration that helped minimize risk in both the interior oases and along Chile’s coastline (Castro et al 2016:242; Gallardo 2017; Pestle et al 2015; Ugalde et al 2021)
Summary
We frame this research with a life-history perspective couched in the framework of Torres‐Rouff et al. This allows us to see the ways in which these interaction networks manifest in both the body and in death, as well as how the individual experience reflects life in this time Integrating this life-history approach into bioarchaeology directly with an embodiment perspective, we address the physical body as it engages with the social world. We use this fine-grained perspective to explore the experiences and environments of interaction that surround the life and death of a child and the social character of these movements These important relationships are reflected in mortuary spaces and the people who are buried during moments of mobility. By taking a multiscalar approach, we present a narrative that considers the varied materiality that accompanies this child and what the life experience was, and how it reflects and shapes our understanding of the Late Formative period in northern Chile
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