Abstract book ISBN:
978-80-907270-3-8 (EuropeanAssociation of Archaeologists); 978-84-9168-140-3 (Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona, vol. 1); 978-84-9168-143-4 (Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona, vol. 2)
Content:
This paper brings together archaeological data relevant to the material culture of state and community drinking rituals from several Andean Prehispanic cultures (Tiwanaku, Wari, Inka) and colonial contexts, in order to better understand changes in community rituals and indigenous identity during the colonial period. The comparative perspectives offered through this broad approach draw on critical theories of colonialism, political economy, identity formation processes, and material culture. This theoretical background is used to contextualize the performance of private and public indigenous drinking rituals before and after the conquest, and to link those rituals to changing notions of indigeneity before and during the colonial period. The specific classes of material culture I use in this project include qeros (ceremonial drinking vessels made of ceramic or wood), public drinking spaces and chicha production features, that have been recovered from a variety of sites, including rural households and villages, public taverns in urban areas, and indigenous ceremonial spaces. I argue for a conceptual link between inclusive and exclusive notions of belonging in highland Andean indigenous cultures, and patterns in the production and distribution of chicha and qeros at various highland Andean sites. The roles that chicha shared in paired qeros played in each sociopolitical and cultural context I include reveal much about efforts to create, solidify, reorder or preserve indigenous identities by households within communities or by the state actors seeking to fold groups into larger polities.