Diversity Specialists: Coastal Resource Management and Historical Contingency in the Osmore Desert of Southern Peru

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Reconnecting with the past and anticipating the future: A review of fisheries‐derived cultural ecosystem services in pre‐Hispanic Peru

“…The quasi‐permanent (i.e. seasonal patterns) coastal occupation by early Peruvians is due to their capacity to supply their needs by using resources from multiple coastal ecosystems, complementing those provided by marine environments when ocean conditions were unfavourable (Jessup, 1990; Llagostera, 1992; Sandweiss & Reid, 2016; Yesner, 1980; Zaro, 2007).…”

“…It is worth noting that coastal and highland ecosystems were not isolated. Trade fuelled the process of cultural evolution that took place along the Peruvian coastline by connecting marine, coastal and more elevated terrestrial ecosystems (DeFrance, 2016; Zaro, 2007).…”

“…More recent examples of seafood processing have been found in Cerro Azul (1,100–1,470 CE), where evidence of fish drying in sand‐filled storage rooms (mainly anchoveta and sardine) has been extensively documented (Marcus, 1987; Marcus et al., 1999). Also, in San Gerónimo, where the Chiribaya people once lived (700–1,476 CE), there is evidence that they would dry and smoke fish in circular sand‐filled rock enclosures (Reitz et al., 2016; Zaro, 2007).…”

“…The development of cotton nets—and the food surpluses they enabled—led to labour specialization (Prieto, 2014; Shady, 2002). Fishers invested most of their time fishing, increasing their dependence on inland farmers for cotton and gourds—the raw materials for elaborating their fishing gear (Rostworowski, 1970, 2005).…”

Investigating economic specialization on the central Peruvian coast: A reconstruction of Late Intermediate Period Ychsma diet using stable isotopes

“…In addition, although records of the early Spanish colonies offer important insight into pre‐Columbian ways of life, such information may have misconstrued indigenous behaviors intentionally to justify ulterior motives, such as land appropriation, forced labor programs, and campaigns of extirpation of idolatry. An increasing number of archaeological and bioarchaeological studies reveal that ethnohistoric models conceal many nuances of the diverse polities occupying the Central Andean coast and highlands during the Late Intermediate Period (e.g., Lozada & Buikstra, ; Parsons, Hastings, & Matos, ; Sandweiss, ; Stanish, ; Zaro, ), highlighting the need for empirical tests of these models in pre‐Inka periods.…”