Jeffrey R. Parsons Lecture - War and Politics before the Incas: An Archaeology of Andean Community and Conflict

For Andean South Americans, violent conflict did not just destroy; it structured politics and communities in ways that ranged from leadership roles and gender ideologies to understandings of group identity, territory, land, and ancestors. This talk draws on two decades of investigation of hillfort settlements (pukaras) in the Peruvian Titicaca Basin as an entry point to explore the varied forms of Andean community that crystallized around conflict, defense, and aggression. I consider pukaras, and the societies they sheltered, within a broader panorama of war-related political dynamics over Andean time and space.