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Technological change has interested archaeologists since the inception of the field, but persistence – particularly in a broader context of social transformation – is also a phenomenon that demands explanation. This paper examines the persistence of Indigenous silver production in Porco, Bolivia from Inka times to the twenty-first century, arguing that rather than solely being the result of either passive traditionalism or active identity creation, it can be most fully understood in terms of the intersection of technological practice with a changing local political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Antípoda is the property of Universidad de los Andes and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Población & Sociedad is the property of Población & Sociedad and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Chilena de Antropologia is the property of Universidad de Chile and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Holocene climate in the high tropical Andes was characterized by both gradual and abrupt changes, which disrupted the hydrological cycle and impacted landscapes and societies. High-resolution paleoenvironmental records are essential to contextualize archaeological data and to evaluate the sociopolitical response of ancient societies to environmental variability. Middle-to-Late Holocene water levels in Lake Titicaca were reevaluated through a transfer function model based on measurements of organic carbon stable isotopes, combined with high-resolution profiles of other geochemical variables and paleoshoreline indicators. Our reconstruction indicates that following a prolonged low stand during the Middle Holocene (4000 to 2400 BCE), lake level rose rapidly ~15 m by 1800 BCE, and then increased another 3 to 6 m in a series of steps, attaining the highest values after ~1600 CE. The largest lake-level increases coincided with major sociopolitical changes reported by archaeologists. In particular, at the end of the Formative Period (500 CE), a major lake-level rise inundated large shoreline areas and forced populations to migrate to higher elevation, likely contributing to the emergence of the Tiwanaku culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As archaeologists we experience past time in the present, challenging linear time as we deal with the remains of different moments, events and people. This multi-scalar approach to time stimulates a flexible discussion of the past, understanding it not only in the absolute way provided by calendric dates, but also enmeshed within events and anchored by layers that were lived thousands of years ago. In this article, we will explore the notions of time of the people living in a densely populated settlement in the coastal Andes (AD 550–850), by focusing on the seasonality of quotidian practices, on cyclic constructive events and on the recurrent interment of people within residences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the previous issue of CAJ, Heggarty (2007) set out how certain key principles and methods of historical linguistics can be exploited to open up another window on the past, from a perspective quite different and complementary to that offered by the archaeological record. Following this up, we turn here to an ideal case-study for exploring how the various patterns in linguistic (pre-)histories can be matched with their most plausible correlates in the archaeological data. Beyond our initial illustration of the Incas we now look further afield, to set the sequence of major civilizations of the Andes into its linguistic context, tracing the expansion trajectories of the main Andean language families further back in time, stage by stage, ultimately to their most plausible original homelands. The linguistic story emerges starkly at odds with assumptions widely held among archaeologists of the region. Indeed we encounter a paradigm case of how only a radical rethinking can reconcile our two disciplines findings into a single, coherent, holistic prehistory for a human population — in the Andes, a prize now tantalizingly within our reach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically assesses recent interpretations of premodern defensive architecture and militaristic themes in the archaeological record, using the Andes as a case study. While archaeologists have proposed intriguing alternative hypotheses that call into question the existence of war in the past, much evidence for conflict has been incautiously dismissed. This stance has seriously skewed our understanding of the development of premodern societies. It is suggested here that because archaeologists underutilize ethnographic and historical evidence, the architecture of premodern defenses is poorly understood and many arguments used to dismiss military interpretations are incorrect. These misperceptions are addressed with empirical observations based upon known analogies from ethnography and history. The problematic dichotomy of "ritual battle" and "real war" is discussed, and the article concludes with a reassessment of the evidence for warfare in a few controversial Andean contexts in terms of more reliable material criteria for recognizing the existence of war and peace in the archaeological record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]