Williams, Patrick Ryan; PhD
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, 1997
ANTHROPOLOGY, ARCHAEOLOGY (0324); GEOGRAPHY (0366); HYDROLOGY (0388); AGRICULTURE,
AGRONOMY (0285); SOCIOLOGY, SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENT (0700)
Major changes in both social systems and agrarian technology in the Andes are
predicated on
disaster-induced restructuring events. These catastrophic events result from
the impact of natural and
cultural hazards of a significant magnitude on vulnerable populations. Such
crises force people to
re-evaluate the economic foundations of their subsistence base and to reconsider
the way in which they
interpret the world. As such, they act as catalysts of major change in the ways
societies provide for their
needs and express their interpretation of meaning in material form. The research
area for evaluating the
hypothesis of a disaster-induced evolutionary sequence is the Moquegua Valley
of Southern Peru.
Located at 17 degrees South latitude and 71 degrees West longitude, the Moquegua
drainage resides
in the arid South-Central Andean sierra. Agriculture is the source of life,
and it can only thrive through the
use of irrigation technology. Events which threaten the stability of that economic
base threaten the
survival of the populations that inhabit the Moquegua sierra. Over the past
1500 years, catastrophic
events have resulted in major transformations in cultural influence and agrarian
technology between the
several eras of Moquegua Prehistory. These eras include the Tiwanaku Omo Phase
(500-650 A. D.),
Imperial Wari (650-750 A. D.), Tiwanaku Chen Chen (750-950 A. D.), Tumilaca
(950-1100 A. D.),
Chiribaya (1100-1250 A. D.), Estuquina (1250-1450 A. D.), Inka (1450-1532 A.
D.), and Colonial
(1532-1821 A. D.). These phases are named after cultural groups within the valley,
but do not
necessarily represent the longevity of a particular culture. Rather, they represent
time periods in which a
particular cultural group exerted more profound influence on economic organization
and ideological
interpretation over a majority of the valley. Implicated in the changes which
occur between these phases
are natural hazards such as drought, El Nino coastal flooding, and tectonic
activity and social hazards
such as internal conflict and imperial conquest. Both technological and social
vulnerability to these
hazards were major contributors to the transformations in agrarian land use
and cultural influence which
constitute these different epochs. The dynamic Andean social and natural environment
has played a
pivotal role in the development of agriculture and the evolution of society.
Social
Systems Simulation Group
P.O. Box 6904 San Diego, CA 92166-0904 Roland Werner, Principal Phone/FAX (619) 660-1603 |