While archeologists have the capacity to track changing food use in the archeological record, they have not tended to use food systems in the study of social and political change. To do so, an awareness must be gained of the meanings of foods, which then can illuminate the strategic use of a particular food in the creation of relationships of dependence and prestige. Archeological evidence from the central Andes of Peru indicates that the role of maize changed between A.D. 500 and 1500, shifting from a culinary item, simply prepared by boiling, to a more complex symbolic food, transformed through grinding and brewing into beer, with elaborated political meanings. This change in maize processing and consumption occurred at a time of heightened political and social tensions. We propose that the shift in maize use reflected and participated in new political dynamics, demonstrating how foodways can inform archeologists about past social and political systems.

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The prehistoric development and spread of domesticated maize varieties in the highlands of Peru, unlike the drier coastal deserts, is little known because ancient maize remains in this area survive mainly as fragments, kernels, and cob parts. An analysis of fragmented charred maize from prehistoric households (A.D.450 to 1500) in the Mantaro Valley reveals a developmental sequence of maize varieties for Highland Peru. The evidence indicates an adoption of large-kernelled maize varieties beginning in the Late Intermediate (A.D. 1000). This is centuries later than a similar change in maize, associated with the Wari expansion, that occurred in coastal areas, and indicates minimal Wari impact in the Mantaro Valley.