Ancient Andean Houses: Making, Inhabiting, Studying

by Jerry D. Moore

Overview

In Ancient Andean Houses, Jerry Moore offers an extensive survey of vernacular architecture from across the entire length of the Andes, drawing on ethnographic and archaeological information from Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia to the Patagonia region of Argentina and Chile. This book explores the diverse ways ancient peoples made houses, the ways houses re-create culture, and new perspectives and methods for studying houses.

In the first part of this multidimensional approach, Moore examines the construction of houses and how they shaped different spheres of household life, considering commonalities and variations among cultural traditions. In the second part, Moore discusses how domestic architecture serves as both constructed template and lived-in environment, expressing social relationships between men and women, adults and children, household members and the community, and the living and the dead. Finally, Moore critiques archaeological approaches to the subject, arguing for a far-reaching and engaged reassessment of how we study the houses and lives of people in the past.

Moore emphasizes that the house has always been a pivotal space around which complex human meanings orbit. This book demonstrates that the material traces of dwellings offer insight into significant questions regarding the development of sedentism, the spread of cultural traditions, and the emergence of social identities and inequalities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813069104
Publisher:	University Press of Florida
Publication date:	12/14/2021
Pages:	466
Product dimensions:	6.13(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jerry D. Moore is professor of anthropology at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is the author of many books, including The Prehistory of Home, winner of the Society for American Archaeology Book Award.

Table of Contents

 Contents

List of Figures vii

List of Tables xi

Acknowledgments xiii

1. Introduction 1

Part I. Making Andean Houses 15

2. Bahareque 19

3. Earth 37

4. Pole and Thatch 68

5. Stone 99

6. Roofs 119

Part II. Inhabiting Andean Houses 137

7. Habitat and Habitus: Ethnographic and Ethnohistoric Case Studies 143

8. Houses and Identity 211

9. Experiencing Home: Access, Movement, and Chimú Domestic Spaces 233

Part III. Studying Andean Houses 263

10. Studying Ancient Dwellings in the Andes 267

11. Big Houses and Big Men: Inequality, Dwellings, and Elites 293

12. Pillars of Authority: Emergent Elites and Building Renown 336

Conclusion: Ancient Andean Houses; Putting the “House” into Household Archaeology 372

Appendix A. Additional Case Studies 379

Notes 391

Works Cited 393

Index 443

Online Component

Appendix B. Quebrada Santa Cristina Matrix

https://doi.org/10.5744/9780813069104-appendixes

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A theoretically sophisticated and data-rich discussion of households and architecture in the Andes. This is a must-have for any Andeanist library.”—Charles Stanish, author of The Evolution of Human Co-operation: Ritual and Social Complexity in Stateless Societies

“Moore shines a bright light on the essential nature of houses as physical structures and as social entities that perform symbolic work in acculturation and political engagements. The many case studies he details, ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological, are an invaluable source for approaching the study of households in the Andes and beyond.”—Donna Nash, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

“In this thoughtfully researched and richly layered study, Moore brings his decades of archaeological and ethnoarchaeological fieldwork to bear on Andean houses, their construction, the lives lived in them, and their archaeological afterlives.”—Jason Toohey, University of Wyoming

Editorial Reviews

Essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in the archaeology of ancient Andean domestic contexts. . . . [And] it should be closely read by all archaeologists whose work deals with pre-industrial houses—irrespective of their geographical specialization.”—Ethnoarchaeology

From the Publisher