Abstract
Prehispanic South American pastoralism has a long and rich, though often understudied, trajectory. In this paper, we analyze the transition from a generalized to a specialized pastoralism at two geographical locations in the Andes: Antofagasta de la Sierra, Southern Argentina Puna, and the Ancash Highlands, Peruvian North-central Puna. Although at opposite ends of the Andes this herding specialization commences during the same moment in time, A.D. 600-1,000, suggesting that a similar process was at work in both areas. Moreover, this was a process that was irrevocably tied to the coeval development of specialized highland agriculture. From a perspective of political ecology and structuration theory we emphasis the time-depth and importance that Andean pastoralism had in shaping highland landscapes. Taking into consideration risk-management theory, ecology and environment as crucial factors in the development of a specialized pastoralism we nevertheless emphasis the importance of the underlying human decisions that drove this process. Based broadly within the field of political ecology we therefore emphasize how human agency and structure impacted on these landscapes, society and animal husbandry. Our article covers such aspects as the human and animal use of resource areas, settlement location, herding patterns, selective breeding, and human-induced alterations to pasturage.Keywords: Andes, pastoralism, political ecology, Southern Andes, Central Andes
Highlights
Political ecology is not a strictly delimited theoretical framework but should be viewed more as a tool for orientation in terms of research and analysis. (Rasmussen 2015: 6)The last thirty years has exposed the inaccuracy of Khazanov's cursory assessment that, "Highland or alpine pastoralism in ...the Andes... never was anything else, than a specialized branch of an agricultural economy..." (1984: xxxvii–xxxviii)
Antofagasta de la Sierra and the North-central Andes we study the interplay between people, landscape and technology assessing what these anthropogenic changes implied for land-use and the environment
We first assess political ecology and its application to archaeology in general, and to the emergence of specialized Andean pastoralism in particular. We see this specialized pastoralism as the culmination of underlying social, cultural and economic structures rooted in a deep-time development of Andean pastoralism
Summary
Political ecology is not a strictly delimited theoretical framework but should be viewed more as a tool for orientation in terms of research and analysis. (Rasmussen 2015: 6). Specialized herding commenced in both areas at roughly the same time (c.A.D. 600-1,000), forcing us to consider the underlining factors that conditioned this increased specialization We maintain that this specialized pastoralism is linked to coeval developments within highland agriculture that encouraged the growth of almost exclusive, though interdependent, herders and farmers within a broader agro-pastoralist social, cultural and economic framework. We first assess political ecology and its application to archaeology in general, and to the emergence of specialized Andean pastoralism in particular We see this specialized pastoralism as the culmination of underlying social, cultural and economic structures rooted in a deep-time development of Andean pastoralism. Based on the conclusions from our case studies we reemphasize the importance that camelid pastoralism had for Prehispanic cultural development, before – but especially for – the period after A.D. 1,000
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