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This paper proposes some ideas regarding the history of the Quyllurit'i pilgrimage by paying close attention to the particularities of the wayri ch'unchu ritual dance. After reviewing the available historic evidence about it, the text proposes that the location of the shrine at the bottom of the Qulqipunku glacier (Ocongate, Cusco) is explained by its liminal position between the Andean highlands and the Amazon. The location of the Qulqipunku, and its difference with the Ausangate, is very evident for the communities living in the surroundings of Qulqipunku. The text proposes that these communities were the main protagonists of the pilgrimage at least until the end of the 19th century. The paper explains why the wayri ch'unchu dancers of these communities -highlanders who represent indigenous peoples of the Amazon- were so important and numerous in the past. Finally, the text shows how the continuous grow of the pilgrimage along the 20th century has meant a progressive marginalization of these communities within the pilgrimage as well as a clear decrease in the preponderance of wayri ch'unchu dancers. The decrease is directly related to attempts to subvert ideologies of social differentiation present in the region that are framed in a broader and ongoing process of de-indianization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the principal purposes of Q'eros music is to actively regenerate and re-create good relationships with the cosmos and the spirit world they believe in. In this paper, I explore how both the Q'eros' indigenous songs as well as their newly-adopted music and dance for Peru's largest pilgrimage, Qoyllurit'i, achieve efficacy of purpose through similar techniques of sound production and aesthetics. Even though the specific musical traits (structure, scale, and instrumentation) of both musical styles are significantly different, I address how Q'eros' musical production of both types share the same focus and serve the same end-goals, whether the ritual is an intimate one within the community or shared with thousands of other people from the greater region. In addition, the performance of both styles of music serve as specific identity markers for the Q'eros depending on their contextual use and the identity desired at the time. In other words, the Q'eros' musical choices allow them to shift identities between traditional Q'eros in their home community and misti (mestizo) in Qoyllurit'i. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper an attempt will be made to offer a partial history of the three major languages of ancient Perú: Puquina, Aimara and Quechua, postulating their initial settlement from which they started spreading, until their encounter in the Central-Southern Andes during the Late Intermediate Period. It is proposed that the Incas passed through two stages of language substitution: the first from Puquina to Aimara and then from Aimara to Quechua. Linguistic, historical and archaeological evidence will be advanced to support the hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A small lexicon of traditional weaving (telar de cintura), collected in Agallpampa (Otuzco, La Libertad) offers evidence against the idea of any linguistic identity being shared between the area of the now extinct Culle language, and the Cajamarca Valley. Yet, such a link is supported by the isolation of a grammatical element, traced to the Culle language in both areas: diminutive suix --ash--, as in cholasho 'young little man' and chinasha 'young little woman'. These contrasting data shed new light on a discussion begun by Torero (1989) about the existence of particular languages in the central Cajamarca area (languages Den and Cat); and continued by Adelaar with Muysken (2004), who suggest that cases of lexical community between the Culle geographical nucleus and indigenous words of Cajamarca Quechua, which cannot be traced back to Quechua idiomatic sources, suggest that a Culle substratum holds for the Cajamarca Valley. his paper argues that, in order to solve this apparent paradox, it is necessary to focus on this issue in terms of linguistic strata: i.e., different stages of idiomatic hegemony before Quechua and Spanish were established in the region. he oldest stratum would be associated with Den, and the more recent, albeit still prior to the Quechua and Spanish periods, would be Culle. Based upon archaeological research in the area and on the recent association of Cajamarca Quechua with the Huari expansion (Adelaar 2012), I suggest that the chronological distance between both strata must be deep, since Culle would have been established in the region long before the Northern Huari expansion took place. Nonetheless, the existence of Quechua-Den mixed toponyms precludes this hypothesis being applied to the whole Cajamarca territory, especially its southwest area (Contumazá). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This book emerges from the conference Lenguas y sociedades en el antiguo Perú: hacia un enfoque interdisciplinario, a gathering of linguists, archaeologists and anthropologists at the Pontiicia Universidad Católica del Perú in August 2009. his chapter sets out irst the raison d'être of our enterprise: why it seemed so important to foster a meeting of minds between these disciplines, to converge their disparate but complementary perspectives into a more coherent Andean prehistory. Next, it is asked how linguistics can inform us about prehistory at all, exploring some general methodological principles and how they might be applied speciically in the case of the Andes. The 'traditional model' for associating the linguistic and archaeological records in the Andes is then reviewed -- but pointing also to various inherent infelicities, which duly call for a far-reaching, interdisciplinary reconsideration of the Andean past. herefore we attempt to sum up the new state of the cross-disciplinary art in Andean prehistory, as collectively represented by the papers that emerged both from the Lima conference and from the symposium that preceded it, held at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge in September 2008. Progress and new perspectives are explored irst on key individual questions. Who, for instance, were the Incas, and whence and when did they come to Cuzco? How and when did Quechua, too, reach Cuzco, as well as its furthest-lung outposts in north-west Argentina, Ecuador and northern Peru? Finally, the scope is broadened to overall scenarios for how the main Andean language families might correlate in time and space with the archaeological horizons that in principle might best account for their dispersals. Four basic hypotheses have emerged, whose respective strengths and weaknesses are assessed in turn: a traditional 'Wari as Aymara' model, revised and defended; alternative proposals of 'Wari as both Aymara and Quechua', a suggestion of 'both Chavín and Wari as Quechua'; and the most radical new departure, 'Wari as Quechua, Chavín as Aymara'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I discuss early complexity in the southern Lake Titicaca Basin of the Bolivian Andes. I examine a regional landscape of multi-community formations that emerged during the Late Formative Period (100 BC-AD 500). I suggest that during the Late Formative in the southern Lake Titicaca basin, the establishment of Khonkho Wankane and other disembedded centers, played an important role in the social transformations that ultimately gave rise to centralized political systems. Political activity was undoubtedly an important element of social interaction, but it was enmeshed with ritual and other activities, such as mound construction, and formed an embedded part of more encompassing, large-scale ceremonial encounters. More than they were aggrandizers, those who resided at Khonkho were social and ideological mediators. This case suggests that non-state complexity may be far more variable than most current archaeological models propose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]