Doctoral Dissertation Research: Cranial Vault Modification in the Pre-Columbian Andes

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

The ability to effectively convey information about a person's social status is fundamental to the creation of ethnic identities and social hierarchies. The custom of cranial vault modification, permanently altering the head shape of children to create social distinctions, was widespread among Native Americans during the pre-conquest period. Analysis of this practice has the potential to provide important insights into aspects of prehistoric social relations that are available from no other source. In this Ph.D. dissertation research, the health and social organizational correlates of cranial vault modification are analyzed from a broad temporal and spatial perspective in the pre-Columbian Andes. This work focuses on the social functions of cranial modification, both within and between groups, and its relationship to the rise of social complexity in the Andes. The goal of the research is to integrate physical anthropological and archaeological data into an analysis that clarifies the social factors that motivate body modification. Collections were carefully selected to encompass a broad spectrum of social systems. The research will include a large-scale survey of the cranial vault modification exhibited by more than 2,500 pre-Columbian skulls from the Andes housed in museums in the United States and Chile. The methods used in the analysis follow the recommendations in the Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains. Analysis of cranial modification in a large number of individuals from a variety of cultural contexts is a powerful tool for testing hypotheses concerning the factors responsible for the development of socially stratified societies. The bioarchaeological approach, with its emphasis on the reconstruction of human behavior patterns and health status provides a direct means through which theories of cultural complexity and the biological consequences of inequality can be explored. The issues of social differentiation and cultural complexity addressed in this research have many implications for understanding the social relations of modern ethnic groups.