Reimagining Ancient Agricultural Strategies and Gendered Labor in the Prehispanic

Moche Valley of North Coastal Peru

This dissertation explores the dynamics of food production, migration, and sociopolitical change in relation to the consolidation of the complex, hierarchically organized Southern Moche polity of north coastal Peru during the Early Intermediate Period, or EIP (400 B.C. – A.D. 800). I incorporate archaeobotanical, environmental, and ethnohistorical evidence to address changes in food production, processing, and consumption over five cultural horizons to critically re-evaluate existing models of Moche sociopolitical development, with a bottom-up perspective of the laborers in rural households whose agricultural production supported the growth and florescence of this complex society.

A diachronic comparison of paleoethnobotanical data sampled from five EIP habitation sites in the Moche Valley reveals that dramatic increases in agricultural production by coastal and highland groups occurred prior to the expansion of the Moche state in the A.D. 300s. The plant data suggest that complex political dynamics involving tribute relationships and suprahousehold commensal events were already in place during the Gallinazo phase (A.D. 1-200). Highland and coastal peoples likely established mutually beneficial relationships that revolved around food and farming during this period, including fiestas, religious gatherings, and work parties. I argue that Moche leaders built upon existing political institutions in which rural households were already engaged in intensive agricultural production, which included maize but also other field cultigens and tree crops.

The intensification of food-processing demands over time also suggests that changes in women’s social status may have been tied to increases in processing demands, as women were subjected to new labor increases, time constraints, and scheduling conflicts. Detailed intrasite spatial analysis of a highland colony site reveals that women likely prepared food in private, behind-the-scenes contexts for supra-household events and public displays that were performed on patio terraces at high status compounds. I interpret the restriction of visibility, with women processing maize out of view within kitchen walls, as part of increased gender segregation that often accompanies processes like agricultural intensification. The micro-scale approach employed in this study departs from the current, prevailing studies of political, economic, and ideological phenomena at larger ceremonial centers, on the Peruvian north coast, in the Andes more broadly, and beyond.

Funding for this research was provided by competitive awards from the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (Dissertation Fieldwork Grant no. 8736), the Leal Anne Kerry Mertes award for fieldwork, a UCSB Humanities and Social Science Research Grant, various UCSB Anthropology Graduate Student Research Grants, and funds from MOCHE, Inc., a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to protecting archaeological sites through community heritage empowerment.

Changes in Mississippian Plant Foodways in the Late Prehistoric Central Illinois River Valley

This project assesses early Mississippian period (A.D. 1100-1150) plant foodways in the Central Illinois River Valley (CIRV). I analyzed macrobotanical samples from the Lamb site in Schuyler County, IL in order to examine the dynamics of contact with Cahokia and emulation of American Bottom Mississippian traditions, with a particular focus on foodways. Macrobotanical data from the Lamb site have been used to reconstruct local subsistence patterns in the early Mississippian CIRV, assess seasonality of the site’s occupation, and are contextualized within a broader temporal and regional framework in order to understand changes in plant food production that may have occurred in response to Mississippian interaction and influence. Comparative analyses (conducted in collaboration with Dr. Amber VanDerwarker and Dr. Gregory Wilson) indicate a dramatic increase in maize production by the early Mississippian period in comparison to the preceding Late Woodland period. In addition, the density of maize production at the Lamb site falls well within the range of variation of Stirling-phase American Bottom sites, indicating a level of production comparable to settlements within the Cahokia polity. These data shed new light on practical reorganization of local CIRV inhabitants in response to influence from Cahokia, and will be compared to future datasets from neighboring regions upon completion of analyses of other collections. 

Funding for this research was provided by the National Science Foundation (Award no. 1062290) and a UCSB Academic Senate Faculty Research Grant.