This book explores how individuals, social groups, and entire populations are impacted by the tumultuous collapse of ancient states and empires. Through meticulous study of the bones of the dead and the molecules embedded therein, bioarchaeologists can reconstruct how the reverberations of traumatic social disasters permanently impact human bodies over the course of generations. In this case, we focus on the enigmatic civilizations of ancient Peru. Around 1000 years ago, the Wari Empire, the first expansive, imperial state in the highland Andes, abruptly collapsed after four centures of domination. Several hundred years later, the Inca rose to power, creating a new highland empire running along the spine of South America. But what happened in between? According to Andean folklore, two important societies, known today as the Chanka and the Quichua, emerged from the ashes of the ruined Wari state, and coalesced as formidable polities despite the social, political, and economic chaos that characterized the end of imperial control. The period of the Chanka and the Quichua, however, produced no known grand capital, no large, elaborate cities, no written or commercial records, and left relatively little by way of tools, goods, and artwork. Knowledge of the Chanka and Quichua who thrived in the Andahuaylas region of south-central Peru, ca. 1000 1400 A.D., is mainly written in bonefound largely in the human remains and associated funerary objects of its population.

This book presents novel insights as to the nature of society during this important interstitial era between empireswhat specialists call the Late Intermediate Period in Andean pre-history. Additionally, it provides a detailed study of Wari state collapse, explores how imperial fragmentation impacted local people in Andahuaylas, and addresses how those people reorganized their society after this traumatic disruption. Particular attention is given to describing how Wari collapse impactedrates and types of violence, altered population demographic profiles, changed dietary habits, prompted new patterns of migration, generated novel ethnic identities, prompted innovative technological advances, and transformed beliefs and practices concerning the dead.

Provides a detailed study of how Wari state collapse impacted local people in Andahuaylas, and how those people regenerated their society after this traumatic disruption Deals with timely, cross-cultural, thematic issues such as violence, gender relationships, ethnicity, migration, technological innovation, and rituals Most comprehensive study addressing a society that served as a bridge between two of the Western Hemisphere's major ancient civilizations

Autorentext
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, UC Santa Barbara. Courses: Human Evolution, Human Osteology, Bioarchaeology and Forensic Anthropology, the Bioarchaeology of Natural and Social Disaster, Biorchaeological Method and Theory (graduate seminar); 2013-present. Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Science and Letters, Universidad Nacional Jose Maria Arguedas, Andahuaylas, Apurimac, Peru. Course: Introducción a la Sociología, Metodologia de la Investigacion; 2013-present.

Inhalt
Chapter 1. Inequality and Innovation in the Aftermath of Empire.- Chapter 2. The Life and Death of the Wari Empire in the Andean Hinterlands.- Chapter 3. Chanka Origins and Community in Andahuaylas.-Chapter 4. Social Theory and a Bioarchaeological Perspective on Collapse and Reorganization.- Chapter 5. The Reorganization of Social Groups: Cranial Modification and Ethnogenesis.- Chapter 6. Cranial Trauma and Violence: Raiding and Ethnic Warfare in the Post-Imperial Era.- Chapter 7. The Sequelae of Structural Violence: Health and Nutrition in Troubled Times.- Chapter 8. Coping with Collapse: Trepanation and Medical Innovation.- Chapter 9. Conclusions: Resilience and Reorganization in the Ancient Andes.