Investigating "Non-Complexity" As A Mechanism To Resist State Incorporation

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

Archaeologists have long sought to develop models to explain the rise of the state from contexts that had once been largely egalitarian. In contrast, the emergence of societies that are consciously opposed to centralized authority and were deliberately founded as "anti-state" communities have received relatively less attention. Dr. Darryl Wilkinson (University of Wisconsin-Madison) will lead a research team to undertake archaeological fieldwork in southeastern Peru, as part of a project intended to examine the foundation of a group of prehistoric societies that appear to have actively rejected the growing hegemony of the nascent Inca Empire. How and why did such communities seek to differentiate themselves from their more hierarchical neighbors? And given that they were eventually incorporated into the Inca State, why did their efforts ultimately fail? A desire to escape the impositions of centralized government, or to create an ideal community away from mainstream society, are phenomena encountered in the modern world no less than in prehistory. Studying the rejection of civilization (rather than just its rise and fall) will therefore contribute to a broader understanding of the diversity of political trajectories that human societies can take. Dr. Wilkinson, working with local colleagues and a group of undergraduate students from the United States, will investigate the material culture of a series of settlements dating to the Andean Late Intermediate Period (c. 1000 - 1400 CE). These communities were established in the Amaybamba cloud forests of southern Peru, a region that was eventually conquered by the Incas, but which for a time seems to have offered a refuge for those seeking to evade their growing empire. Identifying communities that have made a deliberate choice to reject mainstream political developments normally relies on evidence taken from oral or written narratives. Such sources are not available for the Late Intermediate Period however, and so the primary goal of the project will be to generate empirically-grounded models for the recognition and analysis of anti-state communities where textual sources are absent. The research team will therefore carry out excavations and archaeological survey to produce data on architectural and artifactual remains, so as to permit a reconstruction of the everyday life of the prehistoric communities in question. Of particular interest will be the presence or absence of ceramic materials that are known to have had a role in hierarchical political ceremonies among closely-related communities living in the nearby highlands. This project will thus facilitate the modeling of anti-hierarchical communities in terms of their material culture, which can then be used in the comparative study of such societies on a global basis. Also, students from the United States working on the project will have an opportunity to gain research experience in a Latin American context, while also developing collegial relationships with Peruvian archaeologists.