Caravans in Socio-Cultural Perspective

Past and Present

Persis B. Clarkson, Calogero M. Santoro, Persis B. Clarkson, Calogero M. Santoro

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781032016030
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000504187
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cultural & Social Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Ranging across space and time, this book brings together up-to-date research on the socio-cultural phenomenon of caravans. It shows that caravans for long-distance trade in arid lands are present in both the Old and New Worlds. Alongside historical and archival records, ethnographic analyses of modern caravans provide theoretical frameworks for reconstructing aspects of ancient caravans such as behaviour, ritual and material culture. The volume reflects on the changing foci of caravan research and the future of caravans, when memories of living caravaners are fading, and the fragile and remote nature of caravan-related sites means that they are at risk. It will be relevant to scholars from anthropology, archaeology and history and others with an interest in trade, travel and nomadism.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Map
• List of contributors
• Introduction
• Prologue
• 1 ¡Cabros Viene Barco! (Holy smokes, guys, there’s a boat!)
• 2 Times of change: Young people and the future of llama caravans in Santa Catalina, Jujuy, Argentina
• 3 Rest areas and long-distance caravans: Ethnoarchaeological notes from the southern Andes
• 4 Salt routes and barter caravans in the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet from an ethnographical perspective
• 5 Crisscrossing the Peruvian central highlands and beyond
• 6 Reflection on the history of the study of transhumance, culture change, trails, and roads in the south-central Andes
• 7 Caravan roads in the Upper Egyptian deserts
• 8 Llama caravans in late prehispanic Nasca
• 9 Camelid caravans and Middle Horizon exchange networks: Insights from the Late Moche Jequetepeque Valley of Northern Peru
• 10 Donkeys, camels, and the logistics of ancient caravan transport: Animal performance and archaeological evidence from the Egyptian Sahara
• 11 Camelids as cargo animals by the Paracas culture (800–200 BC) in the Palpa valleys of southern Peru
• 12 The politics of connection: Caravans and political development in the southern Lake Titicaca Basin, Bolivia
• 13 Intersite locations of precontact caravan traffic in the core of the Atacama Desert, northern Chile
• 14 Caravan trails in the highlands of northwestern Argentina
• Index