The Moche archaeological culture of the North Coast of Peru has been reified into a political system and claimed as the first state in South America. While some recent scholarship has reduced the size of the proposed state, the idea of Moche as a distinct political, social, or ethnic entity remains. In this article we demonstrate that even by the “classic” neoevolutionary theory of the 1960s—1980s the criteria for Moche statehood were not met. We suggest that neoevolutionary models for one or more Moche states are inadequate for understanding an archaeological culture that endured for more than six centuries, and we offer suggestions for directions for future research.

In this paper we test the hypothesis that an intensification of maize production preceded the development of a regional Moche political economy in the Moche Valley of north coastal Peru during the Early Intermediate period (400 B.C.—A.D. 600). To do so we analyze stable isotopic signatures of 48 bone apatite and 17 tooth enamel samples from human remains recovered from the site of Cerro Oreja, a large urban and ceremonial center in the Moche Valley. These remains date to the Guañape, Salinar, or Gallinazo phases and provide a diachronic picture of subsistence before the appearance of the Southern Moche state. The most notable patterns identified in the study include a lack of significant change in δ13 Capatite values from the Guañape to Satinar phases, followed by a significant enrichment in δ13 Capatite values from the Salinar to Gallinazo phases. Several lines of evidence, including archaeological context, dental data, and comparative carbon stable isotope data from experimental animal studies and studies of archaeological human remains support the interpretation that the observed 13C enrichment in stable isotope values in the Gallinazo phase primarily reflects maize intensification. The stable isotope data from Cerro Oreja thus suggest that a shift in subsistence toward a highly productive and storable crop may have served as an important precursor to state development during the Early Intermediate period in the Moche Valley.

Archaeological data from the Jequetepeque Valley suggest that Late Moche warfare and religious sacrifice were embedded in a particular cosmological and gendered construction of the world. As a consequence, the pragmatic motives implicated in violent conflict were mediated by structures of practice specific to the Moche. An analysis of the archaeological record points to the existence of this cultural schema, the identification of which better explains the ascendancy of the famed priestess cult based at San José de Moro and the general decentralization of power in the Jequetepeque region. The evidence indicates that political relations in the valley were informed by a religious ideology that structured feasting, warfare, and sacrifice as specifically gendered but complementary domains. The spatial delimitation and sequential unfolding of ritual events were likely deemed essential for both socio-cosmic renewal and legitimate political advancement. This gendering of political and religious practices is reflected archaeologically in the division of centered and rural space and in the differential distribution of architectural forms, parochial feasting arenas, and iconographically charged artifacts. Ultimately, the archaeological record demonstrates that the political machinations of rural communities amplified this gendered sacrificial system within the context of the environmental upheavals of the Late Moche Period.

Formative Ecuadorian coastal societies possessed the technologies and skills necessary not only for fishing, but also for deep-sea navigation. Although marine shellfish are acknowledged as significant both for dietary and religious purposes, the importance of sea-fishing is rarely highlighted or explored. In order to help evaluate more fully the significance of the sea in the Ecuadorian Formative, this paper presents recently studied evidence, excavated at the Salango site, in the Province of Manabí, for local off-shore tuna fishing during the Middle Formative Machalilla phase (ca. 1500–900 B.C.), where Scombrids constituted 80 percent of recovered fish remains. The results are then compared with those obtained from other Machalilla sites. Finally, data from the subsequent Late Formative Engoroy phase (ca. 900–100 B.C.) indicate that while Scombrid fishing continued to predominate at Salango, species capture changed through time, with a shift from yellowfin tuna in the Machalilla phase to black skipjacks in Engoroy times. It is suggested that the decline in tuna capture reflects not so much change in fishing strategy as change in the populations of fish species reaching the local marine environment.

Donut stones are a relatively common class of ground stone artifact found at archaeological sites throughout Mesoamerica and Andean South America, and a variety of functional interpretations have been proposed for these artifacts. In this article, ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological data are presented along with the results of replicative experiments in support of an argument that some donut stones from the Maya Highlands and Southern Lowlands may have functioned as whorls for a previously unrecognized type of thigh-supported spindle. Based on a functional interpretation of donut stones as thigh-supported spindle whorls, these artifacts can potentially be used to provide insight into the nature of ancient Maya household yarn and cordage production.