Ceramic Ecology of the Ayacucho Basin, Peru: Implications for Prehistory [and Comments and Replies]

The paper examines some of the interrelationships of environment and ceramic specialization in the area around the village of Quinua, Department of Ayacucho,Peru. The study reveals that agricultural land dependent on rainfall provides a significant limiting factor in the development of full-time cer...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current anthropology 1975-06, Vol.16 (2), p.183-205
Main Authors: Arnold, Dean E., Brockington, Donald L., Chatterjee, B. K., Howry, Jeffrey C., Isbell, William H., Kresz, Mária, Myers, Thomas P., Onuki, Yoshio, Pearson, Richard, Prasad, S., Ravines, Rogger, Raymond, J. S., Sharma, J. C., Webster, Steven, Whyte, Robert Orr
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural land
Agricultural resources
Agriculture
Crops
Highlands
Population growth
Pottery
Pottery making
Rain
Sustainable agriculture
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Summary:The paper examines some of the interrelationships of environment and ceramic specialization in the area around the village of Quinua, Department of Ayacucho,Peru. The study reveals that agricultural land dependent on rainfall provides a significant limiting factor in the development of full-time ceramic specialization. Furthermore, the complex series of Quinua ceramic styles depends upon a diverse set of ceramic resources which are mined nearby in highly eroded and thus marginal agricultural land. Thus, ceramic specialization in the Quinua area constitutes an adaptation to a marginal agricultural area in which people maximize the use of nonagricultural resources like clay, paints, and tempers to compensate for the poor agricultural land upon which they live. Taking the present as a point of departure, the paper attempts to reconstruct some aspects of the ceramic ecology of the area during the Middle Horizon (A.D. 600-800) and suggest some hypotheses concerning the development of ceramic specialization in ancient Peru.
ISSN:0011-3204
1537-5382
DOI:10.1086/201538