Andean Ontologies

New Archaeological Perspectives

María Cecilia Lozada, Henry Tantaleán

• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780813056371
• eBook ISBN: 9780813057149
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Andean Ontologies is a fascinating interdisciplinary investigation of how ancient Andean people understood their world and the nature of being. Exploring pre-Hispanic ideas of time, space, and the human body, these essays highlight a range of beliefs across the region's different cultures, emphasizing the relational aspects of identity in Andean worldviews. Studies included here show that Andeans physically interacted with their pasts through recurring ceremonies in their ritual calendar and that Andean bodies were believed to be changeable entities with the ability to interact with nonhuman and spiritual worlds. A survey of rock art describes Andeans' changing relationships with places and things over time. Archaeological and ethnographic evidence reveals head hair was believed to be a conduit for the flow of spiritual power, and bioarchaeological remains offer evidence of Andean perceptions of age and wellness. This volume breaks new ground by bringing together an array of renowned specialists including anthropologists, bioarchaeologists, historians, linguists, ethnohistorians, and art historians to evaluate ancient Amerindian ideologies through different interpretive lenses. Many are local researchers from South American countries such as Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina, and this volume makes their work available to North American readers for the first time. Their essays are highly contextualized according to the territories and time periods studied. Instead of taking an external, outside-in approach, they prioritize internal and localized views that incorporate insights from today's indigenous societies. This cutting-edge collection demonstrates the value of a multifaceted, holistic, inside-out approach to studying the pre-Columbian world. Contributors: Catherine J. Allen | Richard Lunniss | Matthew Sayre | Nicco La Mattina | Luis Muro | Luis Jaime Castillo | Elsa Tomasto | Giles Spence-Morrow | Edward Swenson | Mary Glowacki | Andres Laguens | Bruce Mannheim | Juan Villanueva | Andrés Troncoso

Table of contents

• Cover
• Andean Ontologies
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• 1. Andean Ontologies: An Introduction to Substance
• 2. Huaca Salango: A Sacred Center on the Coast of Ecuador
• 3. Analogism at Chavín de Huántar
• 4. Indigenous Anatomies: Ontological Dissections of the Indigenous Body
• 5. Moche Corporeal Ontologies: Transfiguration, Ancestrality, and Death; A Perspective from the Late Moche Cemetery of San José de Moro, Northern Peru
• 6. Moche Mereology: Synecdochal Ontologies at the Late Moche Site of Huaca Colorada, Peru
• 7. The Head as the Seat of the Soul: A Medium for Spiritual Reciprocity in the Early Andes
• 8. Toward a Situated Ontology of Bodies and Landscapes in the Archaeology of the Southern Andes (First Millennium AD, Northwest Argentina)
• 9. Ontological Foundations for Inka Archaeology
• 10. A Past as a Place: Examining the Archaeological Implications of the Aymara Pacha Concept in the Bolivian Altiplano
• 11. Rock Art, Historical Ontologies, and the Genealogy of Landscape: A Case Study from the Southern Andes (30° lat. S)
• 12. Final Commentaries: A Matter of Substance, and the Substance of Matter
• List of Contributors
• Index