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Credit: PNAS
Analysis of remnants from prehistoric ritual feasts in Peru illuminates the evolution of social complexity among early, nonstate societies, according to a study. Ritual feasting promoted cohesion and cooperation among early peoples, enabling nonstate societies, which lacked institutions such as markets, policing, and codes of law, to evolve social complexity. Charles Stanish and colleagues examined the nature and scope of feasting in Paracas, a nonstate society that thrived on the southern coast of Peru between 8th and 3rd centuries BCE. Through analysis of human skeletal remains and artifacts recovered from Cerro del Gentil, a ceremonial platform mound with sunken stone-lined courts dating to around 400-200 BCE and perched atop agricultural fields at the edge of a pampa, the authors uncovered the provenance and mix of celebrants at ritual feasts now relegated to the annals of antiquity. Strontium isotope ratios in 39 objects, including bones, textiles, baskets, and wooden artifacts, helped reconstruct the mix of participants in prehistoric feasts. The authors used previous estimates of artifacts at a nearby archaeological site to define the "local" and "regional" origin of the Cerro del Gentil finds. Twelve of the objects were traced to the courts' immediate vicinity, whereas 10 objects appeared to have come from afar. Half of these outside objects likely hailed from coastal regions, and the other half, from the highlands. The remaining objects were sourced to Paracas coastal cultures. The strontium data suggests that the Paracas catchment area at Cerro del Gentil likely stretched from Cañete in the north to Nasca in the south, spanning a wide cultural swath collectively called the Paracas polity. According to the authors, social complexity at Paracas may have evolved through the initial inclusion of a diverse and widespread group of people in collective activities such as periodic ritual feasts, rather than through the gradual expansion of a strong but homogeneous coalition of local residents.
Article #18-06632: "Feasting and the evolution of cooperative social organizations circa 2300 B.P. in Paracas culture, southern Peru," by Charles Stanish, Henry Tantaleán, and Kelly Knudson
MEDIA CONTACT: Charles Stanish, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL; tel: 310-601-0310; e-mail: <stanish@usf.edu>
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