Investigating economic specialization on the central Peruvian coast: A reconstruction of Late Intermediate Period Ychsma diet using stable isotopes.

OBJECTIVES: Hypothetical models of socioeconomic organization in pre-Columbian societies generated from the rich ethnohistoric record in the New World require testing against the archaeological and bioarchaeological record. Here, we test ethnohistorian Maria Rostworowski's horizontality model of socioeconomic specialization for the Central Andean coast by reconstructing dietary practices in the Late Intermediate Period (c. AD 900-1470) Ychsma polity to evaluate complexities in social behaviors prior to Inka imperial influence. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of archaeological human bone collagen and apatite (δ13 Ccol[VPDB], δ15 Ncol[AIR] , δ13 Cap[VPDB] ) and locally available foods is used to reconstruct the diets of individuals from Armatambo (n = 67), associated ethnohistorically with fishing, and Rinconada Alta (n = 46), associated ethnohistorically with agriculture. RESULTS: Overall, mean δ15 Ncol[AIR] is significantly greater at Armatambo, while mean δ13 Ccol[VPDB] and mean δ13 Cap[VPDB] are not significantly different between the two sites. Within large-scale trends, adult mean δ13 Cap[VPDB] is significantly greater at Armatambo. In addition, nearly one-third of Armatambo adults and adolescents show divergent δ15 Ncol[AIR] values. DISCUSSION: These results indicate greater reliance on marine resources at Armatambo versus Rinconada Alta, supporting the ethnohistoric model of socioeconomic specialization for the Central Andean coast. Deviations from large-scale dietary trends suggest complexities not accounted for by the ethnohistoric model, including intra-community subsistence specialization and/or variation in resource access.

Pre-Columbian Andean sickness ideology and the social experience of leishmaniasis: A contextualized analysis of bioarchaeological and paleopathological data from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

Sociocultural concepts associated with sickness can profoundly influence social processes and individual experiences of disease. Here, we consider the role of sociocultural beliefs concerning sickness in the construction of individuals' social identities in the pre-Columbian Andes. Paleopathological analyses reveal evidence of mucocutaneous leishmaniasis, a facially disfiguring infectious disease endemic to tropical lowland rainforests, in the skeletal remains of six females buried at Coyo Oriental and Tchecar Túmulo Sur, two Middle Horizon (AD 500-1000) cemeteries in the highland desert of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. We use pre-Columbian Andean sickness ideology reconstructed from ethnography and ethnohistory as an interpretative framework for data from these individuals' mortuary contexts and isotopic analyses used to infer residential mobility. Our study demonstrates that consideration of sickness ideology in conjunction with multiple lines of bioarchaeological and archaeological evidence increases understanding of the social experience of disease at San Pedro during the Middle Horizon.