Open sepulchers and closed boundaries? Biodistance analysis of cemetery structure and postmarital residence in the late prehispanic Andes

Abstract

Greater than expected biological distances suggest that above-ground mortuary practices reinforced biosocial boundaries between corporate household groups. Intracemetery heterogeneity persisted even as cranial vault modification, a correlate of social identity, became more homogenous, revealing how corporate group organization was negotiated at multiple scales. Sex-specific variation does not conform to traditional migration models. If migration occurred, it did not have a homogenizing effect on phenotypic variation. These results should be viewed with caution in light of the smaller sample sizes of sex-specific groupings.

Late Intermediate Period Funerary Traditions, Population Aggregation, and the Ayllu in the Sihuas Valley, Peru

“…Most of the people in these polities were being buried in a wide variety of chullpas (Duchesne 2005; Jennings and Yépez Álvarez 2009; Sobczyk 2000; Velasco 2014; Wernke 2013), and the little that we know about the archaeology of the Lluta, Huanca, and Huambo Valleys suggests that chullpas were also important in the possible homelands of some of Quilcapampa's residents (Linares Delgado 1988). Yet to better understand the relationships between the living and the dead in highland Arequipa, we need to turn to the Colca Valley just to the north of Huambo and its wealth of colonial documents and archaeological research (e.g., Brooks 1998; Cook 2007; de la Vera Cruz Chávez 1996; Doutriaux 2004; Malpass and de la Vera Cruz Chávez 1990; Pease 1977; Velasco 2014, 2018a, 2018b; Wernke 2006a, 2006b, 2007, 2013). Although the particular relationships between chullpas and ayllus undoubtedly varied across highland Arequipa, the data from the Colca Valley contrast sharply with Quilcapampa's funerary practices.…”

“…Each was organized into a nested political structure that determined, among other matters, access to resource zones and arable land (Wernke 2007, 2013). Matthew Velasco (2014, 2018a, 2018b), Steven Wernke (2003, 2006a, 2007, 2013), and their colleagues provide a particularly nuanced understanding of mortuary practices among the Collaguas. Chullpas began proliferating by the end of the Middle Horizon and had become a highly visible part of the landscape by the beginning of the Late Intermediate period.…”

“…Yet not everyone in the Colca Valley was buried in chullpas. Children, for example, were significantly underrepresented in the chullpas of Yuraq Qaqa near modern-day Coporaque (comprising only 24% of the sample), and a few cist tombs can be found in and around settlements (Velasco 2014:456, 2018b:909; Wernke 2003).…”

“…Velasco's bioarchaeological research demonstrate that those buried in two Collaguas heartland cemeteries were closely related, suggesting that corporate identity was based at least in part on common descent (2018b). This pattern occurs throughout the Late Intermediate period, but as time wore on there was increasing homogenization in cranial modification styles.…”

Cranial modification and the shapes of heads across the Andes

“…In this vein, the recent work of Velasco (2016Velasco ( , 2018aVelasco ( , 2018b and Kurin (2014Kurin ( , 2016Kurin et al, 2016) in Peru succeeds in presenting a complex and intersectional consideration of the practice. Velasco incorporates some of these more established approaches regarding biological heterogeneity in the Colca Valley (2018a), but also successfully explores the role of head shaping in ethnogenesis and social differentiation.…”