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New Approaches to Ceramic Use and Discard: Cooking Pottery from the Peruvian Andes in Ethnoarchaeological Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

John A. Hildebrand  and
Melissa B. Hagstrum
John A. Hildebrand
Affiliation:
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0205
Melissa B. Hagstrum
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Box 353100, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-3100
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Abstract

Ethnoarchaeological data from contemporary Wanka villages in the Mantaro Valley of the Peruvian Andes provide new perspectives on the use and discard of ceramic cooking vessels. We present a regional survey of ceramic vessel use and discard with household consumption as the focus of study. A mathematical model determines vessel uselife from the age distribution of in-use vessels. We examine the number of vessels per household, their volume, their uselife, and their reported discard. A typical Wanka household cooking vessel assemblage consists of four or five ollas, two large ollas, one chata, and one tostadera. As family members are added to a household, the number of household ollas slightly increases, as does olla volume and the overall rate of olla discard. Large families have fewer chatas, and the rate of chata discard is uncorrelated with household size. Large and small families alike have only one tostadera, but in large families, a shortened tostadera uselife increases their discard rate. Distributing the same population into small or large households will result in significantly different rates of total sherd accumulation. Bulk sherd accumulation is a better indicator of the number of households rather than of the total number of persons. Household size can be estimated from the relative proportions of discarded ollas, chatas, and tostaderas.

Resumen

Resumen

Datos etnoarqueológicos provenientes de los pueblos contemporáneos Wanka del Valle Mantaro de los Andes peruanos proporcionan nuevas perspectivas sobre el uso y desecho de la cerámica doméstica. En este artículo, presentamos un estudio regional de los patrones de uso y descarte de esta cerámica en términos de uso familiar. Un modelo matemático determina el promedio de vida de las vasijas de cocina con base en la distribución de las edades de las vasijas actualmente en uso. Examinamos el número de vasijas de cocina, su volumen, promedio de vida y sus patrones de desecho. La cerámica típica de cocina de una familia Wanka se compone de cuatro o cinco ollas, dos ollas grandes, una chata y una tostadera. Los promedios de vida estimados para estas vasijas son: para las ollas 2.4 años, para las ollas grandes 14 años, para las chatas 2.2 años y para las tostaderas 1.3 años. Cuando se aumenta el tamaño de la familia, la cantidad de vasijas de cocina aumenta ligeramente, aumentando también el volumen promedio de las ollas y la proporción en que éstas se desechan. En términos proporcionales las familias grandes tienen menos chatas que las pequeñas, y la proporción de chatas que se desecha no guarda relación con el tamaño de la familia. Tanto las familias grandes como las pequeñas tienen sólo una tostadera, pero en las familias grandes las tostaderas tienen un promedio de vida más corto, aumentando su tasa de desecho. Si la población se divide en familias pequeñas o grandes, esto afectará de manera significativa la tasa de acumulación de fragmentos de cerámica. Por esta razón, la acumulación total de fragmentos cerámicos es un indicador útil para estimar el número de familias pero no la cantidad de individuos total. Se necesitan datos adicionales para estimar el tamaño de la familia. El tamaño de la familia se puede estimar en términos de la relación entre el desecho de ollas, chatas y tostaderas.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , March 1999 , pp. 25 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1999

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