Thinking Beyond Borders: New Insights on Past Social Dynamics from Latin America

Session Hosting Format: 
pre-recorded session
Date/Time: 
Thursday, April 28, 2022 - 1:00pm to 3:00pm
(CST)
Room: 
Online
Organizer(s): 
  • Aleksa Alaica, University of Alberta, CLAAS (alaica@ualberta.ca)
  • Diana Moreiras, University of British Columbia, CLAAS (dianakarina.moreiras@ubc.ca)
  • Alec McLellan, Trent University, CLAAS (alec.mclellan@utoronto.ca)
Contact Email: 
alaica@ualberta.ca
Session Description (300 word max): 

This session invites participants to present their emerging research on the archaeology of Latin America. We welcome researchers from all levels of experience and encourage collaborative papers to discuss social dynamics throughout the region. This online session provides an alternative venue for Latin American researchers to engage with their colleagues in which the ongoing global pandemic prevents many members of the Latin American community from traveling. By bringing together researchers from across the Americas, we hope that this session will serve to democratize the way that research is disseminated, but more importantly it provides an inclusive event permitting the participation of researchers regardless of funding, nation of residence, and citizenship.

In this session, participants will mobilize datasets that include regional and site-based analyses. We encourage the application of innovative theoretical frameworks that consider social interactions based on familial affiliation, political alliance, and economic networks. Furthermore, we welcome papers that examine how social interactions were influenced by economic and political circumstances, but also ceremonial and ritual practices. The breadth and diversity of past cultural horizons in Latin American will facilitate a fruitful discussion following the talks.

The Canadian Latin American Archaeology Society is committed to breaking down borders that separate researchers working across the region. Researchers that contribute to this session are encouraged to write their papers in mind of publishing their research in a special issue in a peer-reviewed journal. We anticipate that both Canadian-based and non-Canadian-based researchers will promote the importance of Latin American archaeology to the curricula of postsecondary institutions in Canada and abroad.

Presentations
01:00 PM: Tenam Puente and its Highland Neighbours in the Early Postclassic Period
Presentation format: Online - pre-recorded
Author(s):
  • Elizabeth Paris - University of Calgary
  • Roberto Lopez Bravo - Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas
  • Gabriel Lalo Jacinto - INAH-Chiapas

This paper examines the reorganization of social, economic, and political networks in the Chiapas highlands during the Early Postclassic period, In the ninth century, many Maya polities in the Southern Lowlands experienced the collapse of their systems of dynastic rulership, resulting in few carved monuments with Long Count dates and the abandonment of many political centers. Notably, many sites in the Chiapas highlands avoided these negative outcomes, including the larger highland cities of Tenam Puente, Toniná, Lagartero and Chinkultic, as well as smaller centers in the western highlands such as Moxviquil. We examine archaeological evidence for the strategies by which these kingdoms embarked on new political and economic strategies during the Early Postclassic period, including the economic reorganization of long-distance exchange connections, engagement with long-distance professional merchants, and the promotion of new types of luxury goods. These innovations provide insight into the sources of political and economic resiliency utilized by these polities to pivot to new opportunities during a time of widespread political restructuring.

01:20 PM: Uncovering the Lives of Mexica (Aztec) Human Sacrifices using Multiple Stable Isotopes
Presentation format: Online - pre-recorded
Author(s):
  • Diana Moreiras Reynaga - The University of British Columbia

Human remains are commonly found in archaeological contexts and they are embedded with rich information about the archaeological past. In this paper, I discuss the biogeochemical methods of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen stable isotope analyses used to analyze human remains to find about what people ate and where they lived throughout their life in the ancient past. I will then present two case-studies from my own research where the lives of a group of individuals chosen as sacrifices by the Mexica (Aztec) were reconstructed. These skeletal collections were recovered from two Mexica ritual temples at Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco dating to the Late Postclassic period.
01:40 PM: Spanish Identity through the material remains of Iglesia Mayor
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Lorena Medina Martinez - University of Alaska Anchorage - INAH

The Spanish arrived in Mexico Tenochtitlan in 1519 and started to change the political, cultural and religious aspects of the area by reconfiguring the spatial sphere which would then be known as the capital of New Spain. In this presentation I will be talking about “Iglesia Mayor”, also known as The First Cathedral, one of the first churches built in Central Mexico using the parameters of Spanish architectural tradition. This investigation is the basis of my Master’s thesis at the University of Alaska Anchorage, in which I concluded that “Iglesia Mayor” was built to serve, unlike most of the churches in New Spain by the sixteenth century, the Spanish population, as evidenced in its architecture, decoration, and iconography.
02:00 PM: A Zooarchaeological Perspective on Maya Socio-political Status and Occupation at Contact-period Lamanai, Belize
Presentation format: Online - pre-recorded
Author(s):
  • Arianne Boileau - Simon Fraser University

The ancient Maya were a complex society formed of different hierarchical tiers based on social, political, and occupational positioning. Given the difficulty of identifying these tiers in the archaeological record, many studies have been limited to comparisons between elite and non-elite groups. At Lamanai, Belize, I use zooarchaeology to parse out hierarchical tiers and occupations within the community. I examine differences in animal taxa, skeletal elements, artifacts, and non-local fauna in elite and non-elite households. These methods allow me to assess whether different households had access to or controlled different sets of animal resources and engaged in different practices involving animal resources. The faunal data indicate that the community was possibly composed of five hierarchical tiers. Two elite groups enjoyed access to a more diverse group of taxa and animal parts and possibly controlled marine shell crafting. The three non-elite groups likely acted as butchers, fishmongers, and craft specialists, provisioning the elite with the products they acquired and produced. Overall, this study suggests that a careful examination of differences in the quantity and distribution of “valued” resources across a site, combined with other archaeological correlates, can provide insight into a community’s social and political composition.

02:20 PM: Non-Human and Human Encounters: Insights on Social Dynamics from North Coast Peru
Presentation format: Online - pre-recorded
Author(s):
  • Aleksa Alaica - University of Alberta

The arid North Coast of Peru was an important meeting place for coastal and highland communities. Human and non-human animal lives were inextricably intertwined through interregional exchange, migration, and pilgrimages.  During the Late Moche period (600-900 CE), humans, llamas, dogs, and guinea pig lives were braided together through networks of everyday activities and seasonal practices. By employing zooarchaeological and isotopic analyses, this paper explores the social dynamics of human societies through the life histories of their livestock, companion animals, and commensal species. The dietary and mobility diversity of llamas and alpacas attest to long-distance origin for many visiting communities to the North Coast. Human and dog remains have overlapping dietary and mobility patterns, which situates their live histories in coastal environments. While guinea pig remains reveals agricultural intensification during the Late Moche and into the Transitional period (900-1050 CE). The extensive incorporation of camelid meat into daily meals and large-scale feasts highlights the importance of camelid husbandry for the political economy of the Middle Horizon (600-1000 CE), a phase where both Moche and Wari interaction spheres reached their pinnacle. I argue that offering camelids to important seasonal events fostered social consolidation between distant communities transforming coastal and highland societies.

02:40 PM: Analyzing social changes throughout the agrarian landscape. Terraces excavation and multiple analysis of microfossils from soils in the Valley of Sondondo, Peru
Presentation format: Online - pre-recorded
Author(s):
  • Patricia Aparicio Martínez - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Peru). Universidad de Oviedo (Spain)
  • Alejandra Korstanje - Instituto de Arqueología y Museo. Laboratorio de Arqueobotánica. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto Superior de Estudios Sociales - CONICET/UNT (Argentine)

In Peru, studies of pre-Hispanic terraces have adopted a number of different approaches. In almost all cases, typological and structural views have prevailed to conclusions strongly based on relative chronologies and broad generalizations, especially for the more complex stages of social development, mainly the horizons of the Wari and Inca Empires. Otherwise, some projects have focused on botanical aspects, others on agrarian technologies, while others have concentrated on social and economic relationships.

Our team focuses on the study of the agrarian landscapes from archeological excavations in terraces. The data obtained from them have identified some periods of creation and changes in the agrarian landscape from Early Intermediate Period until Inca times in the valley of Sondondo (Peru). Moreover, we have begun to conduct phytolith analysis in relation to soil and land use to more fully interpret terrace construction, use, and their social implications.

In this contribution, we will present the results of these excavations and the first multiple microfossil analysis from soils of agricultural terraces analyzed in the central Andes. Our innovative methods not only shed light on the types of crops cultivated, but also demonstrate how agrarian changes can serve as measures of sociopolitical transformations usually analyzed from settlements.