Southern Peruvian Highlands Research Articles

Semantic Segmentation and Classification of Active and Abandoned Agricultural Fields through Deep Learning in the Southern Peruvian Andes

The monumental scale agricultural infrastructure systems built by Andean peoples during pre-Hispanic times have enabled intensive agriculture in the high-relief, arid/semi-arid landscape of the Southern Peruvian Andes. Large tracts of these labor-intensive systems have been abandoned, however, owing in large measure to a range of demographic, economic, and political crises precipitated by the Spanish invasion of the 16th century CE. This research seeks to better understand the dynamics of agricultural intensification and deintensification in the Andes by inventorying through the semantic segmentation of active and abandoned agricultural fields in satellite imagery across approximately 77,000 km2 of the Southern Peruvian Highlands. While manual digitization of agricultural fields in satellite imagery is time-consuming and labor-intensive, deep learning-based semantic segmentation makes it possible to map and classify en masse Andean agricultural infrastructure. Using high resolution satellite imagery, training and validation data were manually produced in distributed sample areas and were used to transfer-train a convolutional neural network for semantic segmentation. The resulting dataset was compared to manual surveys of the region and results suggest that deep learning can generate larger and more accurate datasets than those generated by hand.

Thinking through the tool: collaborative archaeological bodywork in immersive virtual reality

Thanks to currently available very high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) models via photogrammetric techniques as a primary method of archaeological documentation, constructing immersive, high-fidelity simulacra is imminently possible. This paper considers how the scale at which the human body interacts with immersive digital models is especially important for understanding the affordances and ergonomics of past things and places. The implications of this isometry between archaeological objects of analysis and emerging capabilities to interact with them through digital surrogates in the present are manifold. By enabling interaction with objects and contexts in immersive virtual space, such observational experiences create in silico engagements that are repeatable, distributable, and collaborative. In particular, it is the collaborative capacity of this technology that this paper explores using online immersive virtual reality (iVR). Collaborative online iVR is used in this research as a key instrument for enhancing understanding and reinterpreting the digital records of two archaeological sites under excavation in Peru. The case studies analyzed show a variety of cultural, geographic, and temporal contexts in the Andean region, which illustrates the broad potential of iVR for archaeological hermeneutics. Through iVR frameworks, the authors engage with embodied reconsiderations of Catholic ritual spaces within a planned colonial town in the southern Peruvian highlands and the pre-Columbian site of Huaca Colorada on the north coast. Synchronous scalar experiences that privilege the affordances of architectural space within digital models create opportunities for embodied experience and collaborative dialogue. A fundamental argument is the capacity to digitally inhabit these places and manipulate materials holds subtle as well as profound epistemological and hermeneutic implications for archaeological knowledge construction.

Residential moblity in the Inka sacred valley: Oxygen, strontium, and lead isotopic analysis at Patallaqta, Peru

The Inka Empire (1400–1532 CE) made common practice of relocating individuals, households and entire communities throughout their expansive realm for different reasons depending on subjects’ assigned social status. Reconstructing patterns of residential mobility and both intra- and extra-regional mobility at Inka sites, particularly in the imperial heartland, could therefore permit some estimation of the social status(es) of their constituents, and thereby provide bottom-up insights into Inka statecraft and political economy. However, this is a difficult endeavor using only archaeological lines of evidence. This study presents oxygen, strontium and lead isotopic results from archaeological human remains (N = 81) from the site of Patallaqta, near Machu Picchu in the Sacred Valley of the southern Peruvian highlands. Isotopic data are used to reconstruct patterns of immigration at the site, which are in turn used to estimate the social status of the population. The resulting 87Sr/86Sr show moderate variation, with most individuals clustering within a range higher than the estimated values for the locale, while 206,7,8Pb/204Pb results show greater variation spanning multiple Pb isotope provinces, and δ18O results cluster broadly around estimated local water values. Taken together, these results are consistent with the expected distribution of groups drawn from communities within the vicinity of the Sacred Valley and possibly the Peruvian or Bolivian altiplano. These results are in notable contrast to published isotopic results from the nearby site of Machu Picchu, and suggest distinct compositions among the resident populations of each site. This study provides further insights into the intersection of residential movement and status dynamics in the Inka Empire.

North and South in the ancient Central Andes: Contextualizing the archaeological record with evidence from linguistics and molecular anthropology

The Central Andes are characterized by the early emergence of complex societies and a chequered yet continuous cultural tradition. However, at least for certain points of time in the cultural development, the overall cohesiveness of this ‘culture area’ has been called into question, favoring an alternative perspective that emphasizes the existence of several relatively independent nuclei of development on the North Coast, the southern Peruvian Highlands and the Titicaca basin, with distinct cultural expressions and political organization. Here, we engage archaeological evidence and its interpretation with newly emerging perspectives from linguistics and genetics (modern and ancient DNA), including new targeted genetic analysis, to add fresh evidence to the question of the internal structure and cohesiveness of the ancient Central Andes as a culture area. The double cultural/biological approach points at a North vs. South structure bisecting the Central Andes that becomes appreciable ~2,000 years ago; however, as the evidence from all three disciplines indicates, too, the spheres have remained connected and hence maintained an overall cohesiveness. Our analysis suggests that demographic population structure precedes the constitution of distinct cultural domains, a pattern which is to be verified in other chronological transects in South America and at a global scale.

Summertime precipitation deficits in the southern Peruvian highlands since 1964

AbstractPrecipitation deficits remain a concern to the rural population in the southern Peruvian highlands and knowledge about their occurrence is lacking because of scarce data availability. For mountainous regions with sparse station networks, reanalyses can provide valuable information; however, known limitations in reproducing precipitation are aggravated due to unresolved topographical effects. In this study, we assess in a first step the representation of precipitation during the rainy season (January–February–March) in seven reanalysis data sets in comparison to a newly generated gridded precipitation data set for Peru. In a second step, we assess summer precipitation deficits in Peru during the second half of the 20th century.In the reanalyses data sets, we find biases strongly influenced by the topography of the models and low correlations for the rainy season. Thus, reanalyses do not solve the problem of data scarcity for this region either. Furthermore, we confirm that El Niño is not a sufficient stratification criterion for precipitation deficits during the rainy season (JFM) in the southern Peruvian highlands. Based on observational records and reanalyses, a considerable fraction of inter‐annual variability of precipitation can be explained through upper‐tropospheric zonal wind anomalies. Westerly wind anomalies, often related to the warming of the troposphere during an El Niño event, lead to dry conditions, but not all El Niño events produce these westerly wind anomalies. Atmospheric simulations indicate differences between precipitation deficits in central Pacific and eastern Pacific El Niño flavours, which cannot be addressed in observations due to reduced record length: Droughts in the southern Peruvian Andes during eastern Pacific El Niño events seem to be related to a stronger warming in the troposphere above the central Pacific ocean, whereas this is not the case for droughts during central Pacific El Niño events. These results, however, need to be further corroborated by model studies and palaeoclimatological research.

Diet and foodways across five millennia in the Cusco region of Peru

The Central Andes of South America boasts a rich history of complex societies and sophisticated economic networks. Reconstructing patterns of diet across time is important to understanding the relationships between subsistence and food preparation and their roles in mediating consumption and hegemony through time. The region surrounding the city of Cusco in the southern Peruvian highlands is best known as the heartland of the Inca Empire (520-418 BP); however, it has a long history of social complexity and regional exchange, including colonization by the highland Wari Empire (1350-950 BP) and in situ development in earlier periods. Elucidating subsistence and mobility over time in the Cusco region is therefore essential for reconstructing the evolution of complex Andean polities and their effects on local communities.This study presents carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotopic data from human bone and tooth enamel at four Cusco-region sites: the hunter-gatherer site of Kasapata (6350- 4150 BP, N = 8); the village site of Yuthu (2350-2050 BP, N = 22); the Wari colony of Hatun Cotuyoc (1350-950 BP, N = 9) and the contemporaneous village site of Ak'awillay (N = 22). Key aims are to estimate diachronic shifts in foodways and nutrition, and those related to Wari control. Results indicate nearly-identical isotope values at Kasapata and Yuthu trending toward lower-trophic level C3 proteins and C3 energy sources, while values indicate mixed C3/C4 diets at Ak'awillay and diets dominated by terrestrial meat and C4 foods at Hatun Cotuyoc. Interestingly, oxygen isotope values suggest water source variation consistent with minimal mobility at Kasapata and regional mobility at Yuthu, but possibly with overlapping but divergent foodways at Ak'awillay and Hatun Cotuyoc resulting in differential evaporative pressures on consumed water rather than increased mobility.

A multidirectional model for studying mobility affordance of past landscapes

This paper presents an approach to modeling human mobility across regional landscapes that considers all possible directions of travel in order to generate a continuous surface of movement probability. The approach improves upon models of human movement that rely on calculating travel costs between discrete points on the landscape by providing a way to examine how landscape features shape the potential for movement. I show how this method can be used to examine questions of mobility affordance, and the consequences for understanding how humans experienced past landscapes. To demonstrate the usefulness of this approach, I apply the methodology to examine the use of hilltop fortifications for controlling mobility during the Late Intermediate Period (1000–1450 CE) in the Colca Valley of the southern Peruvian highlands.

Molecular characterization of ABO blood group frequencies in pre‐Columbian Peruvian highlanders

The majority of Native Americans nearly exclusively belong to group O of the ABO blood group system. Several hypotheses have been formulated to explain this observation, primarily differing by the presumption that the observed patterns of ABO diversity are due to the processes of the initial peopling of the Americas or due to subsequent events, especially the demographic consequences in the wake of European contact. A promising strategy to reveal possible diachronic ABO frequency changes is the molecular genetic analysis of relevant genetic markers in precontact populations. A previous study by Halverson and Bolnick [Am J Phys Anthropol 137 (2008) 342-347] already accomplished this for indigenous North American populations. Here we present the first study to analyze ABO blood types from pre-Columbian individuals from South America using molecular genetic methods and comparing them to several extant South American, North American, and Siberian populations. We tried to determine ABO blood types for 59 individuals from the southern Peruvian highlands dating to ~650 to 1250 AD using a newly developed multiplex PCR/SBE assay coamplifying the fragments relevant for blood type determination and three highly discriminating autosomal STRs. Analysis was successful for 31 individuals and revealed that all are exclusively in the O group, predominantly carrying the O02 (01v) allele. No significant difference could be observed between the ancient and modern Native American populations, while all significantly differed from the extant Siberian populations, supporting the suggestion that low ABO diversity results from founder effects during the initial peopling of the Americas.

Traditional use of the Andean flicker (Colaptes rupicola) as a galactagogue in the Peruvian Andes.

This paper explores the use of the dried meat and feathers of the Andean Flicker (Colaptes rupicola) to increase the milk supply of nursing women and domestic animals in the Andes. The treatment is of preColumbian origin, but continues to be used in some areas, including the village in the southern Peruvian highlands where I do ethnographic research. I explore the factors giving rise to and sustaining the practice, relate it to other galactagogues used in the Andes and to the use of birds in ethnomedical and ethnoveterinary treatments in general, and situate it within the general tendency in the Andes and elsewhere to replicate human relations in the treatment of valuable livestock. The bird's use as a galactagogue appears to be motivated by both metaphorical associations and its perceived efficacy, and conceptually blends human and animal healthcare domains.

Body proportions in ancient Andeans from high and low altitudes

Living human populations from high altitudes in the Andes exhibit relatively short limbs compared with neighboring groups from lower elevations as adaptations to cold climates characteristic of high-altitude environments. This study compares relative limb lengths and proportions in pre-Contact human skeletons from different altitudes to test whether ecogeographic variation also existed in Andean prehistory. Maximum lengths of the humerus, radius, femur, and tibia, and femoral head breadth are measured in sex-specific groups of adult human skeletons (N = 346) from the central (n = 80) and the south-central (n = 123) Andean coasts, the Atacama Desert at 2,500 m (n = 102), and the southern Peruvian highlands at 2,000-3,800 m (n = 41). To test whether limb lengths vary with altitude, comparisons are made of intralimb proportions, limb lengths against body mass estimates derived from published equations, limb lengths against the geometric mean of all measurements, and principal component analysis. Intralimb proportions do not statistically differ between coastal groups and those from the Atacama Desert, whereas intralimb proportions are significantly shorter in the Peruvian highland sample. Overall body size and limb lengths relative to body size vary along an altitudinal gradient, with larger individuals from coastal environments and smaller individuals with relatively longer limbs for their size from higher elevations. Ecogeographic variation in relation to climate explains the variation in intralimb proportions, and dietary variation may explain the altitudinal cline in body size and limb lengths relative to body size. The potential effects of gene flow on variation in body proportions in Andean prehistory are also explored.

Adaptation of the Weighed Food Record Method to Households in the Peruvian Andes and Ethnographic Insights on Hunger

This article is a methodological analysis of anthropological research on child nutrition carried out during fifteen months in a small farming community in the southern Peruvian highlands. Based on the measurement of food intake of seventy-five people during three seasons for a total of more than six hundred meals, the author explains the various ways in which she adapted the weighed food record technique for measuring dietary intake to make it acceptable in this cultural context. She also shows how this method yielded ethnographic data on nonbiological dimensions of hunger in rural households that are concealed from sight of other community members. This analysis shows that the process of collecting quantitative data is itself a sociocultural process that illuminates the realities of people's lives. This article is intended to be useful for researchers, both seasoned and neophytes, who seek a detailed discussion of doing dietary assessment in the field.

Environment, vulnerability, and gender in Andean ethnomedicine

In Cuyo Cuyo, in the southern Peruvian highlands, ethnomedicine is rife with images of human vulnerability to a hostile and unpredictable environment. This is represented in the ethnomedical system by a focus on wayras, air- or wind-borne illnesses that enter through vulnerable body openings such as the head, orifices, lower back, and feet. Women are viewed to be more vulnerable, or débil, than men to illness because they have an extra orifice, the vagina, they lose copious amounts of blood, which is thought to be irreplaceable, during childbirth, and because they suffer more negative emotions, which are thought to attract wayras and other illnesses to the body. The relationship of ethnomedical beliefs to the Andean physical and political economic environment is explored within the context of social and economic change. Negative beliefs about women's bodies have negative effects on women's roles and position vis-à-vis men in present day Cuyo Cuyo. Ethnomedical beliefs reflect and reinforce gender inequalities in present day Peru and are part of a cultural ideology that in general devalues women. This case study demonstrates that power is a key dimension in the cultural construction of medical knowledge, whether in non-Western or Western societies.

Linking separate worlds: urban migrants and rural lives in Peru

Karsten Paerregaard, Oxford: Berg, 1997.Reviewer: Susan VincentMount Allison UniversityPaerregaard begins his book by invoking the long-standing image of Peru as two separate worlds, one modern, official, urban, Spanish-speaking and capitalist, while the other is traditional, informal, rural, Quechua-speaking and peasant. While early treatments largely left the connections between the two worlds unanalyzed, over the past two decades these connections have been made the subject of anthropological research. Paerregaard contributes to this focus on connections by writing about migrants as the manifestation of the links between the worlds.This is a wide-ranging book, replete with fascinating detail about the lives of the villagers of Tapay in the southern Peruvian highlands and of Tapeno migrants to Arequipa and Lima. The strength of the book lies in the way disparate aspects from sports to religion are shown to be linked together. Paerregaard refuses to portray an easy homogeneous picture of Tapeno society and culture. Instead he weaves polyvalent themes of history, ethnicity and folklore, religion, kinship, livelihood and politics around the movements of migrants to present the complexity of Tapeno identity. This is an ethnographic rather than a theoretical book: Paerregaard's framework is to present a multitude of perspectives on Tapeno identity, rejecting the functionalist representation of homogeneity of much past anthropological writing.The major focus of the book relates to ethnicity and identity which Paerregaard demonstrates to be complex and dynamic. For example, a discussion of the impact of the immigration of a family of Spanish-speaking mestizos in the 19th century, a priest and his brother and sister-in-law, reflects a combination of history, migration, kinship, politics and economics. While the priest's children (!) were identified as local poeple (runa) since he could not acknowledge paternity, his brother's children continued to be considered mestizo and formed the local elite. This domination ended when return runa migrants, with a command of Spanish as well as of political and economic process, were able to displace the mestizo family. Paerregaard then goes on to demonstrate that the current state of ethnic identity is differently formulated from the inherited class/cultural/linguistic division of the past. Thus, in Chapter 8, Paerregaard presents a discussion of ritual in both rural and urban spheres, demonstrating the dynamic and contextual hybrid that comprises folk identity.Paerregaard's focus on migration allows for a rich analysis of the interplay between ideas deriving from rural and urban worlds. For example, in Chapter 7, a discussion of Catholicism and of conversion and reconversion to different Protestant sects in Tapay is set against a background of politics and migration. The necessary abstinence from drinking, music and dancing that Protestantism entails in Tapay leads to social isolation for converts, making it difficult to participate in rural social life. Thus, Paerregaard argues that Protestantism is linked to migrants, whose image of being Tapeno is less invested in close reciprocal social ties than non-migrants. Still, many lapse back into Catholicism as they attempt to adjust to a workable identity in the context of peasant life.Much of the literature on rural-urban migration in Peru takes the economy as a central focus. While Paerregaard's concentration on identity overshadows economic processes, livelihood activities are a part of identity. …

Food allocation in rural Peruvian households: Concepts and behavior regarding children

Intrahousehold food allocation is an important determinant of child health and survival. In this paper I explore the ways in which food is distributed to young children in Ura Ayllu, a farming community located in the southern Peruvian highlands (Province of Sandia, Department of Puno, Peru). Quantitative data on energy intake and growth status are analyzed for two groups of children: toddlers (one through three years) and preschoolers (four through six years). The analyses indicate no gender differences in energy intake or growth among toddlers (one through three years) and preschoolers (four through six years) and that young children do not appear to be deprived of food relative to older household members, especially adults. Relative to standards specific to Andean populations, the mean caloric content of the toddler diet falls slightly below the estimated requirement for that age group while the preschooler diet is found to be calorically adequate. This paper also examines the ideological bases that shape food allocation within households. Regarding the local concepts and cultural rules that guide food allocation to children, Ura Ayllinos view young children as developmentally immature and believe their dietary and health needs are different from those of older children and adults. Infants and young children are considered weak ( debil) and vulnerable to illness. Parents state that young children should not feel hunger which is thought to weakne a person and make him more susceptible to the natural and supernatural agents that cause illness. Certain dietary practices, such as on-demand breastfeeding and snacking between meals, suggest that parents try to avoid the experience of hunger and the potential for illness by making food available to their children. This study suggests that young Ura Ayllu children are viewed as having a right to food based on local concepts of child development, personhood, and general health maintenance.

Illness and Household Reproduction in a Highly Monetized Rural Economy: A Case from the Southern Peruvian Highlands

This article examines the relationship between the socioeconomic reproduction of households and illness in a small town on the Peruvian altiplano with serious limitations on production levels and access to agropastoral inputs. Significant social differentiation characterizes this semirural population, with some living comfortably off of cash incomes from formal sector jobs, commodity production, and/or commerce, while others survive on meager resources earned through a combination of subsistence production and low-paying informal employment. A quarter of the population is excluded from agropastoral activities, relying completely on poorly paid, insecure jobs. Illness not only reflects such differentiation but is a major causal factor conditioning people's socioeconomic circumstances. The low-income, landless households are the most at risk to socioeconomic and health-related crisis.

Village Settlement and the Colonial Legacy in Southern Peru

THE current rural settlement in the highlands of Peru and Boliva reflects an administrative fiat imposed on the Andean landscape by an alien culture four centuries ago. The dwellings of the indigenes were dispersed, but between 1570 and 1575 the Spanish viceroy, Francisco de Toledo, ordered their concentration in more than a thousand compact villages known as reducciones. A million or more Indians were torn from their homes and resettled in tight clusters so that it would be easier for the Spanish authorities to control and acculturate them.2 Subsequent rural settlements in the central Andes developed mainly as offshoots of the original reducciones; most post-Toledan villages resembled the ones built in the early 1570s. The reducci6n system is one example of landscape design imposed by bureaucratic decree. Three prime geographical components can be identified in this type of landscape design: the characteristics of the physical environment, the cultural configuration of the habitants, and the goals of the imposing authority or group. The native peoples of the Andes had adapted to the mountainous terrain, the highly compressed climatic zones, and the availability of local resources. That finely tuned man-land adjustment culminated in the Incan empire which ended when the Spaniards conquered Peru between 1532 and 1533. The Spaniards were self-consciously the bearers of the Mediterranean variety of Western civilization. One aspect of Andean society and culture that they altered was the settlement system. Mindful of the role of the past in molding the present, we examine the results of the implementation of that Spanish edict on a portion of the high Andes. To examine the fate of the European-imposed nuclei, we focus on the southwestern portion of the department of Cuzco. This rugged, remote zone of the southern Peruvian highlands encompasses nearly 14,000 square kilometers. A plateau between 3,500 and 4,200 meters above sea level dominates the area; in some places mountains rise as high as 5,271 meters (Fig. 1). The

The Evolution of Migration Patterns during Urbanization in Peru

In this paper I will suggest the core of Zelinskys hypothesis that there are definite patterned regularities in the growth of personal mobility through space-time during recent history is relevant to the analysis of population at regional and local levels. The objective of my study was to examine a relatively small area in the southern Peruvian highlands to see whether a definite spatial and temporal structure of could be identified. I relied principally on histories so I was dealing with movements within the memories of the oldest living inhabitants. My analysis is therefore restricted in both time and space compared with Zelinskys model but it deals with specific local and regional time-space patterns to put flesh on the bones of his abstract global hypothesis. What I will call the migration transition encompasses the change from Zelinskys Phase I or premodern traditional society to Phase II early transitional society. (excerpt)