Abstracts

from
Selected Conference Presentations

Charles M. Hastings

Central Michigan University

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 Archaeology and Sustainable Development in the Eastern Andes of Perú
2005.  
24th Annual Northeast Conference on Andean Archaeology and Ethnohistory, American University, Washington, DC.
       A recent archaeological project conducted in the upper montaña zone of Chanchamayo Province in central Perú is noteworthy not only for the research itself but also for the extraordinary local support it has received. The project, undertaken during 2003 and 2004, is a study of eastern outposts that were established and maintained by Andean populations in late prehistoric times in the transition between highland and lowland regions. The challenges of surveying, mapping, and excavating remote sites high in the cloud forest became manageable through a combination of financial support provided by the Heinz Foundation and unanticipated logistical support provided by local organizations, most notably the Asociación Perúana para la Promoción del Desarollo Sostenible (APRODES). The extraordinary contributions made by APRODES, a Perúvian NGO, in the field are even more impressive in the context of its efforts to foster and facilitate long-term programs of multidisciplinary, internationally based research in the area. As sustainable development programs become more widespread across the eastern Andean and upper Amazonian regions, archaeologists should pursue expanding opportunities for collaborative research in environments long overlooked by our discipline.
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East of Pumpu:  New Evidence of Inka Control of the Puna-Valley Connection
2002.  
67th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Denver, Colorado.  Symposium:  Domination and Resistance in the Inka Empire, organized by Sonia Alconini and Axel Nielsen.  
CO-AUTHORS:  
Charles M. Hastings, Central Michigan University
Carmen Arellano Hoffmann, Museum of the American Indian
Richard Chase Smith, Instituto del Bien Común
Manuel F. Perales Munguía, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos
       As the Inka conquest swept northward through the central Sierra of Peru, one of many groups absorbed into the empire became known to Inka administrators and– eventually– Inka ethnohistorians as the Chinchaycocha. Then and now, the Chinchaycocha were masters of vast herds of llamas and alpacas on high, Puna grasslands of the Junín plateau. Archaeological and ethnohistorical insights suggest that they were much more as well; their lands, communities, and resources reached far into eastern valleys below the Puna. Recent exploration suggests that the infrastructure of empire, represented by a branch of the Inka road and facilities along it, extended down these same valleys. It appears that the large Inka administrative center of Pumpu on the Junín plateau was tied directly to one or more small tambos discovered in the Huachón Valley, linking together the same puna and valley zones straddled by the conquered Chinchaycocha.
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Archaeological Investigations in the Eastern Andes: An Update on the Oxabamba Valley
2001.  
20th Annual Northeast Conference on Andean Archaeology and Ethnohistory, Brescia College and the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.
       The Oxabamba Valley is at the confluence of several valleys, ridges, and ancient trails that descend from the central Sierra of Peru. Archaeological reconnaissance was begun here during the 1980's but was disrupted by political turmoil in the region. Brief return visits in 1999 and 2001 reveal that highland-based, late prehispanic settlement may have been much more extensive than anticipated. Furthermore, this valley– neglected and little known for centuries– is now being subjected to increasing colonization, a local conservation movement, adventure tourism, and amateur archaeology. A challenge of renewed research in the area is to reconcile these diverse interests.
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Perspectives on Changing Highland-Lowland Relationships from the Ulcumayo Valley of Central Peru
2001.  
66th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana.  Symposium:  The Andean-Amazonian Connetion: Diachronic Relationships, organized by Alejandra Gudino and Cristobal Gnecco
       The study of highland-lowland relationships in central Peru raises questions about patterns of interaction between inhabitants of highly productive pastoral and agricultural lands of the Sierra and those of the heavily forested Montaña and Selva to the east. Archaeological remains and historical accounts of varying age are known for several valleys that connect the high Puna region of the Junín plateau to the more subtropical environments of the greater Chanchamayo lowlands. One valley that has received very little scholarly attention is the Ulcumayo. Even so, data from this valley afford glimpses of transitions and interactions extending from the Chinchaycocha ethnic group directly eastward to the Asháninka and/or Yanesha. Highland-lowland relationships that may have existed during Late Intermediate times are compared with those that developed during historical periods of eastern colonization and in the present.
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Puna-Valley Relationships in the Huachón Valley, Central Peru
2001.
29th Midwest Conference on Andean and Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.  
CO-AUTHORS:  Charles M. Hastings and Manuel Perales Munguía
       This presentation discusses the extent to which the Puna-based Chinchaycocha ethnic group also occupied lower zones east of the Junín plateau. The senior author has previously addressed this subject on the basis of surveys done in two eastern valleys, suggesting Chinchaycocha continuity nearly as far as the Montaña lowlands during the Late Intermediate, Late Horizon, and early Colonial periods. Recent reconnaissance in a third valley, the Huachón, reinforces this pattern with the discovery of Chinchaycocha and also Inca sites far into this valley as well. It appears that this group, known mainly to the early chroniclers as Puna herders, formerly occupied and controlled a broad range of environmental zones down the eastern flanks of the Andes.
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Changing Concepts of Fortification in the Eastern Andes of Central Peru
1999.
64th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Chicago, Illinois.  
Symposium:  Warfare and Regional Conflict in the Andes:  Archaeological and Ethnohistoric Perspectives, organized by David O. Brown and Lisa K. Valkenier
       Fortifications on the eastern flanks of the Andes have been perceived as a line of defense by Andean civilizations against hostile incursions from below. In some contexts this may be due to stereotyping and propaganda that misrepresent the nature and variability of highland-lowland interaction. In eastern Junin the most conspicuous fortifications of prehistoric, historic, and recent times were built by centralized polities to contain and control subject populations rather than defend against external attack. Conversely, among late pre-Incaic non-centralized societies, the largest fortifications may have served to mediate relations within and among highland groups independent of their lowland neighbors.
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Probing the Cochabamba Yungas:  Reconnaissance in the Eastern Andes of Bolivia
1999.
27th Annual Midwest Conference on Andean and Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.  
       This paper comments on the status of archaeological research in the yungas valleys of the Department of Cochabamba with respect to east_Andean valleys elsewhere in Bolivia and the Central Andean region. Attention is focused on the Altamachi Valley in Ayopaya Province, Cochabamba, based on a brief visit to the valley in 1998 and earlier visits to Cochabamba. The natural setting, accessibility, modern land use, modern settlement pattern, and community structure are discussed. The findings of this first trip to Altamachi suggest that the valley has significant potential for archaeological investigations. However, any future projects there will face considerable logistical challenges and will require continuing sensitivity to local community concerns and public relations.
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Anthropological Investigations in Molulo, an East-Andean Community in Northwest Argentina
1998.
26th Annual Midwest Conference on Andean and Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois. 
       A brief archaeological survey was conducted during the summer of 1996 in an east-Andean valley of Jujuy Province in NW Argentina. The archaeological objectives were to assess the feasibility of such surveys in this area and to investigate variations in settlement patterns across multiple zones in this part of the Andes. The survey yielded an impressively small number of sites, most of which are very poorly defined. Inquiries into present-day settlement patterns, land use practices, and seasonality offer some insight into why verticality models derived elsewhere in the Andes seem less applicable here. These local patterns are illustrated by contemporary settlements in the vicinity of Mululo, a remote area on the eastern shoulder of the Jujuy Cordillera.
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Population Scarcity in an East-Andean Valley of Northwest Argentina
1997.
Sixteenth Annual Northeast Conference on Andean Archaeology and Ethnohistory, University of Maine, Orono, Maine.
       During a six-week field season in 1996, a preliminary archaeological survey was conducted in the transition between highlands and lowlands of Jujuy Province. The purpose of this project was to assess the practicality and research potential of a settlement pattern study on the steep eastern flanks of the Andes behind a relatively well-known area of the Jujuy sierra. The project gathered data on present and past settlement, land use, and transportation along a 30-km transect between 4100 and 1000 m elevation. Despite evidence of substantial settlements in the adjacent sierra and in nearby eastern valleys, the survey findings indicate an extraordinarily low level of utilization of this particular area. These results are evaluated with respect to the survey methodology and likely land use priorities in the region.
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Frontier Fortress Functions in the Eastern Andes: Fact or Fiction?
1997.
49th International Congress of Americanists, Quito, Ecuador.
Symposium:  Arqueología de la Periferia del Dominio Amazónico, organized by Patricia J. Netherly and Tom D. Dillehay.
       This paper examines ethnohistoric and archaeological evidence on the role of so-called "fortresses" built on the eastern flanks of the Central Andes during late prehistoric and early historic periods, especially in the Departments of Junín, Pasco, and Huánuco in central Peru. It has long been supposed that remote outposts of this sort, be they Inka or Spanish in origin, served some sort of military containment function. Alternative explanations may provide a greater insight into the nature of traditional highland-lowland relations across this cultural frontier.
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Asháninka Settlement in the Upper Montaña of Peru
1993.
58th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, St. Louis, Missouri.
Symposium:  Andean-Amazonian Linkages in Prehistory, organized by Tamara Bray and Charles Hastings.
       Abstract will appear here.
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Small Sites in Late Intermediate Settlement Patterns of the Eastern Peruvian Andes
1991.
56th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana.
       Settlements consisting of only a few dwellings may play a significant role in larger settlement systems yet are easily overlooked in archaeological surveys.  Systematic surveys of highland, lowland, and transitional zones in Tarama and Chanchamayo provinces have retrieved a substantial number of very small sites.  Though difficult to find and date, settlements in this size range may have been more common in low, heavily forested zones.  The distribution of these sites at low elevations may be explained in part by different economic and defensive considerations than those of higher settlements sharing the same ethnic identity.
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