Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T02:47:50.917Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Cultural Unity and Disunity in the Titicaca Basin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Wendell C. Bennett*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

Extract

In pre-Columbian Peru, conditions favorable for population concentration and cultural development were largely restricted to the coastal valleys and the high structural basins in the mountains. Most archaeologists who have dealt with comparative chronology have grouped adjacent valleys and compared their combined cultural sequences with those of a highland basin. The justification for this procedure has been the assumption that cultural uniformity would be found throughout these regional units in any given time period. For the valleys, such an assumption is based on the limited size of the area and the fact that each has only one major source of water supply to support an economy based on irrigated agriculture. The intensive archaeological work in Viru by the Institute of Andean Research verified the thesis of cultural uniformity for one valley. The situation in the highlands is, however, somewhat different since the basins are comparatively large, have many sources of water supply, and allow economies not totally dependent on irrigation. Only one highland basin, the Lake Titicaca, is sufficiently known archaeologically to allow examination of distributions at different time periods as a basis for evaluating its cultural unity or disunity. The present paper undertakes such a review.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1950

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, Richard N. n.d. “Pucaras and Chullpas in the Southeastern Titicaca Basin”. Manuscript in Peabody Museum, Yale University. New Haven.Google Scholar
Bandelier, Adolph F. 1910. The Islands of Titicaca and Koati. New York, n.d. “Bolivian Diary”. Manuscript in American Museum of Natural History. New York.Google Scholar
Bennett, W. C. 1933. “Archaeological Hikes in the Andes”. Natural History,' Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 163–174. New York.Google Scholar
Bennett, W. C. 1934. “Excavations at Tiahuanaco”. American Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers, Vol. 34, Part 3. New York.Google Scholar
Bennett, W. C. 1936. “Excavations in Bolivia”. American Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers, Vol. 35, Part 4, pp. 329–507. New York.Google Scholar
Bennett, W. C. 1948. “A Revised Sequence for the South Titicaca Basin”. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, No. 4, pp. 90–92. Menasha.Google Scholar
Bennett, W. C., and Bird, Junius 1949. Andean Culture History. American Museum of Natural History, Handbook Series No. 15. New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casanova, Eduardo 1942. “Dos yacimientos arqueológicos en la Peninsula de Copacabana”. Anales del Museo Argentine de Ciéncias Naturales, Vol. 40, pp. 333–399. Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
Jijon, Y Caamano 1949. Maranga. Contribución al conocimiento de los aborigenes del valle del Rimac, Peru. Quito.Google Scholar
Kidder, Alfred, II 1943. “Some Early Sites in the Northern Lake Titicaca Basin”. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Vol. 27, No. 1. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Kidder, Alfred, II 1948. “The Position of Pucara in Titicaca Basin Archaeology”. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, No. 4, pp. 87–89. Menasha.Google Scholar
Posnansky, Arthur 1934. “Los Urus o Uchumi”. Actas y Trabajos Científicos de XXV Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, La Plata, Tomo 1. Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
Posnansky, Arthur 1937. Antropología y sociología de las razas interandinas y de las regiones adyacentes. La Paz.Google Scholar
Posnansky, Arthur 1945. Tiahuanacu. Vols. 1-2. New York.Google Scholar
Portugal, Maks 1941. Las’ruinas de Jesús de Machaca. Revista Geogrdfica Americana, Año 9, Vol. 16, No, 98, pp. 291–300. Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
Rowe, John H. 1944. “An Introduction to the Archeology . of Cuzco”. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Vol. 27, No. 2. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Ryden, Stig 1947. Archaeological Researches in the Highlands of Bolivia. Goteborg.Google Scholar
Squier, George Ephraim 1877. Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas. New York.Google Scholar
Tschopik, Marion H. 1946. “Some Notes on the Archaeology of the Department of Puno, Peru”. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Vol. 27, No. 3. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Uhle, Max 1912. “Review: Posnansky: ‘Guia general ilustrada para la investigación de los monumentos prehistoricos de Tiahuanacu e islas del Sol y la Luna.’Revista Chilena de Historia y Geografia, Tomo 2, pp. 467–479. Santiago.Google Scholar