Lukurmata – Household Archaeology in Prehispanic Bolivia (Princeton Legacy Library, 279) - Hardcover

Bermann, Marc

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691033595 ISBN 13: 9780691033594

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1994

Synopsis

Household archaeology, together with community and regional settlement information, forms the basis for a unique local perspective of Andean prehistory in this study of the evolution of the site of Lukurmata, a pre-Columbian community in highland Bolivia. First established nearly two thousand years ago, Lukurmata grew to be a major ceremonial center in the Tiwanaku state, a polity that dominated the south-central Andes from a.d. 400 to 1200. After the Tiwanaku state collapsed, Lukurmata rapidly declined, becoming once again a small village. In his analysis of a 1300-year-long sequence of house remains at Lukurmata, Marc Bermann traces patterns and changes in the organization of domestic life, household ritual, ties to other communities, and mortuary activities, as well as household adaptations to overarching political and economic trends.

Prehistorians have long studied the processes of Andean state formation, expansion, and decline at the regional level, notes Bermann. But only now are we beginning to understand how these changes affected the lives of the residents at individual settlements. Presenting a "view from below" of Andean prehistory based on a remarkably extensive data set, Lukurmata is a rare case study of how prehispanic polities can be understood in new ways if prehistorians integrate the different lines of evidence available to them.

Originally published in 1994.

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About this title

Review:

"[This book] represents a significant contribution to the archaeology of the household. Bermann's high standards of field excavation and scholarship admirably show the potential of household archaeology and for studying broad questions of sociopolitical evolution and culture change."--Journal of Anthropological Research

From the Back Cover:

"This book offers one of the finest presentations of data from a deep archaeological sounding from any site in the Titicaca Basin. The interpretative frame-work is novel and important. The data are excellent."--Charles Stanish, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0691033595
• ISBN 13: 9780691033594
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 326