Potting practices and social integration in the southern Andes during the late intermediate period: The case of Yavi-Chicha pottery

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101244Get rights and content

Highlights

  • The case study of Chipihuayco demonstrates consistent and repeated tempering choices.

  • Shared potting practices led to the formation of technical identities.

  • Engagement in ceramic production and consumption had a role in community integration.

Abstract

In this article, we examine the role of pottery production in social and community integration processes during the Late Intermediate period (ca. CE 1000–1450). We explore this relationship through a case study of Yavi-Chicha ceramics from the aggregated community of Chipihuayco, Bolivia, in the Chicha region. Through a combined approach based on macroscopic and petrographic analyses, we reconstruct the chaînes opératoires and determine technological styles in the production of both smoothed and polished/decorated vessels. The results are discussed in relation to different approaches to the idea of community and group identity within the context of corporate political strategies and decentralized institutions during the Late Intermediate period. This community-level analysis demonstrates that potters or groups of potters who aggregated at Chipihuayco shared substantial technological choices and at the same time followed their own ways of producing ceramics—expressed in fundamental technological variability. We conclude that potters and the people who participated in the chaînes opératoires were involved in a broader dynamic process of interaction and continuous negotiation through their engagement in production practices, leading to community and social integration. Further, group and community affiliation was also continually redefined through consumption practices in the context of political commensalism.

Introduction

The aggregation or coalescence of populations into larger towns in times of conflict required profound social changes (Arkush, 2017, Birch, 2012, Fowles et al., 2007, Kowalewski, 2006). Coalescent communities share strategies to ameliorate tensions that might arise within these new locations. These strategies emphasize the integration of domestic groups, promote community affiliation, and include the appearance of corporate political structures, increasing the concern for collective defense; new rituals and architectural designs, including enclosed plazas; and changes in the means of production. Many of these phenomena have been discussed by archaeologists working on the Late Intermediate period south Andes (LIP, CE 1000–1450 [e.g., Acuto, 2007, Nielsen, 2006, Nielsen, 2014]), a period during which processes of residential aggregation took place throughout the southern Andes (Albeck, 2007, Castro et al., 2016, Nielsen, 1996, Schiappacasse et al., 1989, Tarragó, 2000).

In this article we tackle the role of craft production in community integration during the LIP, focusing on the organization of pottery production in the Río Grande de San Juan Basin (RGSJB) or Chicha region, an area spanning the frontier of Bolivia and Argentina (Fig. 1). This region is particularly suited for an exploration of this subject because during the LIP it produced a distinctive ceramic repertoire—known as Yavi-Chicha—characterized by elaborate painted decoration and a paste of excellent quality in terms of hardness and density. Yavi-Chicha ceramics circulated widely, suggesting that it was highly valued not only in the RGSJB—where it was produced—but throughout the Circumpuna Andes (southwestern Bolivia, northwestern Argentina, and northern Chile). The general interest in this pottery not only reflects its high quality—compared to contemporary ceramics produced in other regions—but also the social influence of the RGSJB during the LIP, when the region was home to the largest aggregated communities of the Circumpuna. Indeed, the Chichas—as those who lived in this region were known at the time of the Spanish conquest—acted as intermediaries between the Inkas and other social groups of the Circumpuna during the Inka period (ca. CE 1450–1550), a role that persisted during the early colonial period (Martínez, 1992, Palomeque, 2010, Raffino et al., 1986, Zanolli, 1999).

The archaeological site of Chipihuayco, located in the Talina Valley (Bolivia), is the largest residential conglomerate known in the RGSJB (Fig. 1). Recent research conducted at the site provides a timely opportunity to explore the role that potting practices played in processes of community integration in the context of population aggregation. Chipihuayco is particularly interesting in this regard because it probably developed from the coalescence of groups who were significantly engaged in the production of Yavi-Chicha pottery, a material that certainly played a key role in the creation of a shared identity in these communities. To address the role of ceramic production in social integration, we use the framework of “communities of practice.” Through the lens of communities of practice, networks of people and objects articulated around a shared domain of interest, certain technologies and related materials, practical knowledge, and concerns (Lave and Wenger, 1991:98), we aim to explore local potting practices to shed light on how members of coalescent communities managed the challenges, conflicts, and negotiations raised by living in new social and physical circumstances.

In this article, we report on macroscopic and archaeometric research conducted on Yavi-Chicha ceramics from the site of Chipihuayco, aimed at reconstructing their chaînes opératoires and technological styles. On the basis of these analyses, we assess whether potters adopted one or more technological styles as a way of approaching how these specific potting practices articulated the process of community formation. This research represents the first systematic contribution to the study of domestic pottery production at the core of the Chicha region based on a detailed study of ceramic pastes. Therefore, it may also provide an important reference for future research on Yavi-Chicha pottery, considering that previous technological characterizations of these ceramics have been conducted mostly on samples recovered outside the RGSJB.

In the first section of this article, we introduce some general characteristics of Circumpuna society during the LIP. In the second section, we focus on the key concepts and theoretical frameworks guiding this research. Then, we describe the main characteristics of Yavi-Chicha pottery, followed by background information on the site of Chipihuayco and its geological setting. This is followed by a description of the methods used in this study and a review of the results. Finally, in the last sections we discuss the role of potting practices and their role in the processes of social integration. Ultimately, we argue that both consistent choices and technological variability reflect a dynamic process of negotiation, interaction, and engagement in production practices, which led to group affiliation and community integration.

Section snippets

The Circumpuna during a period of change

During the Late Intermediate period (CE 1000–1450), the societies of the Circumpuna experienced profound changes, probably fueled by a state of interregional conflict triggered by severe droughts (Arkush, 2008, Morales et al., 2012, Nielsen, 2002). These transformations are particularly visible beginning in the 13th century, with the massive relocation of people into densely packed and fortified or naturally defensive settlements, some of which maintained well-defined public spaces. Other

Social integration, communities of practice, and technological styles

To better understand the dynamics of social integration, we must discuss them alongside the idea of community. We start from the basis that a community is a dynamic socially constituted institution that is contingent upon human agency for its creation and continued existence. From this perspective, a community generates and is produced by supra-household interactions that are structured and synchronized by a set of locations within a particular span of time (Yaeger and Canuto, 2000:5). This

The site of Chipihuayco

The first references to Chipihuayco (S 21°48′07″ W 65°49′20″ at 3.200 m) were published by Raffino et al. (1986), who followed the Inka road from Suipacha to Calahoyo as described by Matienzo (1965[1566]) in the 16th century. They interpreted the site as a LIP settlement that was later conquered by the Inkas, who left signs of their presence on the local ceramic assemblages, a notion that was based on a very limited surface collection. According to the authors, the Tawantinsuyu established a

Yavi-Chicha pottery in the Río Grande de San Juan Basin

Although specific technological studies of LIP Yavi-Chicha ceramics in the Chicha region have not been conducted, previous stylistic approaches provide the background fundamental to this work. Krapovickas, 1965, Krapovickas, 1973 characterized Yavi-Chicha pottery as the archaeological expression of a single cultural entity in the 1960s and 1970s. He based his analysis on materials from archaeological excavations undertaken at the northern puna of Jujuy, from which he developed a typology based

The geological setting

The headwaters of the RGSJ originate in the volcanic summits of the Cordillera Occidental and the Lípez Cordillera, in the department of Rinconada of the province of Jujuy, Argentina. The river, called Río Grande de San Juan (Argentina) or Río San Juan del Oro (Bolivia), is 300 km long and runs from the confluence of the Granadas and Orosmayo Rivers, near the village of Paicone, Argentina, at 3,600 m, to Villa Abecia, on the border of the departments of Tarija and Chuquisaca, Bolivia, at

Combining macroscopic analyses with mineralogical analyses

Characterization of technological styles is operationalized through the reconstruction of chaînes opératoires, defined as a series of operations (gestes) that transform raw material from a natural state to a manufactured state by human beings (Cresswell, 1976, Lemonnier, 1992). Roux (2016:3) defines two levels of descriptions of chaînes opératoires: (a) the main actions which organize the successive transformations of the raw material, including fashioning, finishing, surface treatment,

Results

Chaînes opératoires are defined by technological choices of resource selection, processing, forming, finishing, and firing. We studied each stage of the manufacturing sequence from a combined visual and analytical approach. However, it is essential to acknowledge that it is not always possible to provide a complete view of each technological choice of the chaînes opératoires based on archaeological evidence (Druc, 2015). The first stage of the chaîne opératoire, resource selection, is generally

Discussion

The above analysis leads us to identify repeated and shared choices related to technological homogeneity and variability. This identification gives us the baseline to discuss the articulation of potting practices with processes of community formation, and the embedding of decision making in processes of social integration. Technological variability occurs consistently within the ceramic assemblage (Table 3). Only two chaînes opératoires correspond to polished pottery, while the other six are

Conclusions

The different strategies of ceramic production developed in Chipihuayco were strongly embedded in broader processes of social integration in the context of aggregation. The case study of Chipihuayco demonstrates consistent and repeated tempering choices articulated with the technological variability observed in the chaînes opératoires of ceramic production. While technological variability could reflect different social groups who aggregated at Chipihuayco and continued to produce pottery at the

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Ester Echenique: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing-original draft, Writing review & editing. Florencia Avila: Conceptualization, Investigation, Validation, Visualization, Writing-original draft, Writing review & editing. Axel E. Nielsen: Conceptualization, Investigation, Validation, Visualization, Writing review & editing.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Frances Hayashida, David Killick, Daniela Triadan, and Suzanne Eckert who provided great insights to improve this manuscript. We also want to thank the reviewers for their valuable comments. We are particularly grateful to the Instituto Interdisciplinario Tilcara that hosted the first author for long periods of time to conduct the ceramic analyses. This work was supported by the Dissertation Fieldwork Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation and multiple scholarships of the

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