With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Steven Wernke and an interdisciplinary team will conduct two field seasons of archaeological and archival research on the transition from Inka to Spanish colonial rule and the earliest period of missionization in the Andean highlands. The project brings together U.S. and Peruvian specialists from several disciplines to examine transformation and continuity in ritual and daily practices as the indigenous communities of the Colca valley (Department of Arequipa, Peru) experienced successive waves of state-ordered colonial policies by the Inka and Spanish states.
The project objectives aim to provide a detailed view of how daily life and religious practices were negotiated in the face of these imperial occupations through excavations at the site of Malata, a well-preserved village with well-preserved domestic structures, Inka imperial architecture, and a rustic chapel established by Franciscan friars between the 1540s and 1560s. Because Malata (like other early missions in the valley) was subsequently abandoned in the 1570s, the site provides an ideal, temporally-controlled window for viewing local-scale cultural change and continuity during the tumultuous times of the first post-conquest generation in the Andes.
The archaeological component of the project consists of two seasons of excavations in each of the three main contexts of the site: 1) the chapel and associated atrium (season 1); 2) Inka and Spanish public and ceremonial spaces (season 2); and 3) domestic structures of varying size, form, and elaboration (seasons 1 and 2). Excavations in and around the chapel define the spatial organization of its interior and provide insights into post-Hispanic mortuary practices and community health status through excavation and bioarchaeological analysis of subfloor burials. Excavations in the Inka imperial structure and associated plaza assess their hypothesized function as ceremonial spaces during Inka times. Excavations of domestic structures reveal the organization of domestic space and changing patterns of consumption during epi-historical times, as new European goods and biota were introduced into local household economies. Based on formal and metric architectural attributes, differences in household status are evident, and comparison of the organization of elite and commoner households aims to elucidate class-based differences in patterns of consumption.
The archival component of the project focuses on analyzing directly relevant 16th and early 17th century documentation of the missionary presence in the Colca Valley (including ecclesiastical memorials and surveys) housed in Franciscan and diocesan archives in Peru. This documentary analysis provides a complementary view of the ideological project of missionization as conceived and enacted by the friars themselves, and seeks to recover detailed accounts of this and similar missions in the area.
The intellectual significance of this research includes the potential for new anthropological understanding of early post-conquest religious transformation and its connection to the broader Columbian exchange, a process that initiated the modern era of global-scale cultural interaction and transformation. The broader impacts of this research includes hands-on international educational opportunities for U.S. and Peruvian students. The project also integrates local community members into the actual research process and works toward a revalorization of local culture-historical patrimony.
