Trade patterns in the Central Highlands of Peru in the first millennium B.C.

Abstract

In reconstructing the development of the pristine state in Peru, a number of basic assumptions have been made. After consideration of the economic interactions of the Jauja-Huancayo polity in the Central Andes during the first millennium B.C., I would propose modifying two of these assumptions. In simple terms, the two are, first, that with the advent of a suitable number and range of domesticated plant species, the Peruvian populace inexorably adopted patterns of settled agricultural village life; and second, that the Chavin religious cult (here used synonymously with the pristine Peruvian state) extended throughout Peru, following its first major expansion of approximately 20oo00ooo B.C. (uncorrected radiocarbon years). In many areas of Peru, agriculture did begin to play an increasingly important role between 3000 and 1500 B.C., with greater quantities and varieties of domestic plants being exploited, and with a general increase in the tempo of cultural change (MacNeish and others 1970; Moseley 1972; Patterson I97ia). Since food production required inhabitants to spend more time each year in one place than they had previously, permanent settlements eventually emerged in many areas. In return for a dependable food supply, the early Peruvian agriculturalist sacrificed mobility and variety of diet; he traded his role as a generalist in the acquisition or production of food, for that of a specialist. To provide the power and the complex technology (such as elaborate irrigation works that involve skilful engineering, or agricultural terracing that requires careful construction and yearly upkeep), the agricultural society needed a much more sophisticated political structure than was previously required. It is proposed that one measure of increasing sedentism should be increasing trade. The sedentary agricultural communities would no longer have direct access to certain resources utilized under their previous more nomadic hunting and gathering regime. Trade is a major mechanism by which former ecological zones could still be exploited by increasingly sedentary agriculturalists. Economic dependence on trade and the redistribution of food would encourage a more sophisticated political system, which could provide stability for economic growth and mobilize the populace for the successful exploitation of resources within the trade complex. The location of such developing political centres and their spheres of influence should help us to understand the development of the pristine state. Twelve months of fieldwork in the Peruvian Andes by this writer provide the data against which our basic assumptions are compared. The locus of research was the Jauja