Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Yanacona of Machu Picchu: Life Histories and Population Dynamics in Late Horizon Peru

Emory University, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

Under the joint supervision of Dr. George J. Armelagos and Dr. John D. Kingston, Bethany Turner will reconstruct life histories of subsistence and migration related to social class at Machu Picchu, Peru, through multi-tissue stable isotopic and osteological analyses. Machu Picchu was an Inca royal estate built and used between AD 1450 and AD 1570 in central Peru, containing impressive feats of architecture, hydraulic engineering and agricultural terracing as well as three cemeteries. The Machu Picchu skeletal population consists of a large number of well-preserved individuals of both sexes and spanning a wide range of ages. Judging by the utilitarian nature of associated artifacts, the individuals at Machu Picchu were likely permanent retainers, although their backgrounds and exact social class remains unknown. Ms. Turner will synthesize isotopic and skeletal pathology data from tissues that formed during different periods of physiological development, creating individually-based data that elucidates aspects of diet, region of residence and health at different stages in life. From these data, social class, regions in which individuals may have been born and raised and variation in subsistence among the Machu Picchu population will be examined. Research focusing on individual isotopic life histories is critical in Andean research because Andean South America is characterized by a wide range of ecological and climatic diversity encompassed in a relatively small geographic area. The different regions in which Precolumbian groups lived likely resulted in differential availability of resources, environmental stressors and modes of subsistence. However, skeletal pathology, cranial modification types and associated artifacts cannot directly trace individuals to their regions of origin or characterize their diets at different points during life, and population-based skeletal studies may miss hidden variation between the individuals in a given group. Moreover, the Inca state forcibly relocated subjects as individuals or as groups throughout the empire, depending on their assigned social class. By synthesizing isotopic and skeletal data and using individuals as the unit of analysis, Ms. Turner will create a sophisticated analytical framework from which to assess whether the Machu Picchu population was a group of relocated colonists or an amalgamation of relocated individuals. Further, these data will uncover hidden variation in the Machu Picchu population that may shed light on factors that led to the uneven distribution of cranial and dental pathologies at the site. More broadly, this project will shed new light on an Inca-period population that holds substantial symbolic resonance in modern-day Peru. Using these analytical techniques of this study, Turner will add a new chapter to a population that garners international interest while receiving graduate training towards a PhD. Ms. Turner's research will also help create newer, richer understanding of not only Machu Picchu and its residents, but also the way that Inca state imperatives played out in the lives of its subjects.