Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Social and Political Role of Domestic Architecture in Chachapoyas,Peru

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Under the supervision of Dr. Alan Kolata, Anna Guengerich will map, excavate, and analyze artifacts from the site of Monte Viudo in northern Peru in order to determine the significance of the unusual residential architecture of ancient Chachapoya societies. Monte Viudo was a mountaintop settlement that was occupied by people of the Chachapoya culture, which flourished between AD 800 and 1500 in a rugged environment located between the Andes and Amazon. Although some of the most spectacular archaeological discoveries in Peru in recent decades have come from this region, these societies remain little understood. This project will be the first to focus entirely on a single, non-monumental settlement site, and in so doing will contribute important basic data on political, social, and economic characteristics of Chachapoya societies and on the daily lives of their members. Understanding the unusual characteristics of Chachapoya homes will contribute more broadly to the study by social scientists of the relationship between households, politics, and architecture, and will help refine the archaeological principles used to identify and understand residences in the past. In particular, research will investigate how the attributes of residential architecture at Monte Viudo were related to ritual and political activities within this community: how did these behaviors shape the construction of residences, and how did these buildings in turn continue to shape the activities that took place within and beyond them? The architecture of this site, like many Chachapoya sites, consists entirely of circular stone structures that scholars have generally interpreted as houses, but no researchers have yet carried out excavations to test this inference. In fact, the artistic elaboration of these buildings, the expert techniques of their construction, and the absence of public architecture or even open spaces, suggest that circular residential structures may have played an important role in society that extended beyond the normal definition of a "house." Research will compare architectural features and the kinds of craft production, food preparation, consumption, and ritual activities that occurred in different circular structures, in contrast to other kinds of spaces at this site; this should reveal whether residential spaces were important locations for politics and ritual, as well as domestic activities. Understanding the unusual characteristics of Chachapoya homes will contribute more broadly to the study by social scientists of the relationship between households, politics, and architecture, and will help refine the archaeological principles used to identify and understand residences in the past. The broader impacts of this project are both local and international. First, it will develop infrastructure and intellectual resources for future research in Chachapoyas. By including graduate and university students from North America and Peru, the project will contribute to the formal education of future experts. Including local residents in the process of data recovery and interpretation will equip them to share this knowledge at the community level. Many of these individuals already work as local tour guides, and archaeological experience will enable them to serve as scientifically informed experts able to educate Peruvian and international visitors. Results will be disseminated in nearby towns through presentations at schools and community gatherings, and will be published in journal articles in the U.S. and Peru, in conference presentations, and as part of a public website.