Crafting Community Identity. The Cajamarca of Iscoconga during the Early Intermediate Period (50 BC - AD 550)

Abstract

This thesis investigates the process by which Andean social groups develop a consciousness of difference, whether based on ethnicity, socio-political structures of chiefdoms, or a diverse and open economy that promotes exposure to the "other." The valley of Cajamarca, located in Peru's northern Andes, was a fertile testing ground for these questions during the Early Intermediate Period (ca. 50 BC- AD 850), where multiple chiefdoms coexisted, periodically unifying, and marking ethnic differences through their material culture. The Cajamarca culture (cal. 50 BC– AD 1470) is characterized by the mobility and adaptability of its people in other territories as well as by their cohesion and connection to their ethnicity, which materialized in their distinctive white ceramic style. I propose that this process occurs due to the following factors: (1) an increase in the raising of camelids to be used as pack animals, allowing the transportation of a greater quantity of goods; (2) the privileged location in the Andes that allows access to different framed ecological zones; and (3) sociopolitical groups with permeable borders (open economy). I test my hypothesis through the study of multiple scales: spatial analysis (drone technology), archaeological excavation, ethnographic work, and microanalysis focused on the pottery's technological style.