Doctoral Dissertation Research: Pre-Columbian Societies of Southern Manabi (Ecuador) and the Role of Shell Export

University Of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

Under the supervision of Dr. Robert D. Drennan, Alexander Martin will carry out an archaeological settlement study in southern Manabi, Ecuador, to reconstruct the broad outlines of social change in the region through the several millennia of sedentary human occupation prior to the Spanish Conquest in the sixteenth century. Archaeologists have long been interested in the causes that contribute to the formation of complex societies that integrate large populations, encompass several local communities, and that frequently involve substantial social hierarchy. These types of societies have developed in many parts of the world and many factors have been suggested as responsible for these transformations. One often cited factor is that production of luxury items for export was the key variable that made it possible for some societies to grow in complexity. For example, some models of social development propose that the manufacture of these kinds of items promoted the rise in complexity by offering an avenue of surplus accumulation which supported the rise in inequality. Likewise, it has also been argued that the trade of luxury goods allowed elites to gain monopoly over esoteric items that validated their status as special individuals and helped maintain social inequality. While models such as these are common, the view that export sectors were an important factor in social development is not universally held and many models of social development also argue that production of luxury items for export was largely inconsequential to the rise of inequality. Coastal southern Manabi offers an ideal opportunity to investigate complex society development, and especially the role of exported luxury goods in this process, because the populations of that area are well known in the archaeological literature for the manufacture and trade of Spondylus shell items, which Peruvian states consumed in large quantities beginning at around A.D. 600-800. This traffic is considered to be an especially intense and large-scale expression of prehistoric trade and many scholars have seen it as pivotal in social change in the region. If these scholars are correct, then southern Manabi is an ideal place to investigate how it worked. If, on the other hand, the evidence suggests that the substantial export trade known to exist had little impact on social change, one of the most promising cases used to support such models will have been undermined. The key to this evaluation will be reconstructing the broad course of social development of southern Manabi through a systematic archaeological settlement study. By mapping the locations of prehistoric occupations and determining how these settlements changed at different periods it will be possible to see whether or not major social change corresponds to periods of substantially increased external demand for Spondylus items (as with the consolidation of the Chimu state after A.D. 800). The broader impacts of the proposed research include the training of the doctoral candidate. It will also provide field experience to other archaeology students who will assist during the collection of data in the field. Research will be carried out in collaboration with local comunas, which are traditional peasant cooperatives formed in order to redistribute locally produced resources equitably. The comunas are also actively engaged in fomenting local pride in the cultural heritage of the region. Their members will participate in the project and its results will be disseminated locally through the comunas by talks that will be coordinated with local authorities and local schoolteachers. The research will also help to inform the displays of the local museum run by the comuna.