William H. Isbell

Mummies and Mortuary Monuments

A Postprocessual Prehistory of Central Andean Social Organization

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Since prehistoric times, Andean societies have been organized around the ayllu, a grouping of real or ceremonial kinspeople who share labor, resources, and ritual obligations. Many Andean scholars believe that the ayllu is as ancient as Andean culture itself, possibly dating back as far as 6000 B.C., and that it arose to alleviate the hardships of farming in the mountainous Andean environment. In this boldly revisionist book, however, William Isbell persuasively argues that the ayllu developed during the latter half of the Early Intermediate Period (around A.D. 200) as a means of resistance to the process of state formation. Drawing on archaeological evidence, as well as records of Inca life taken from the chroniclers, Isbell asserts that prehistoric ayllus were organized around the veneration of deceased ancestors, whose mummified bodies were housed in open sepulchers, or challups, where they could be visited by descendants seeking approval and favors. By charting the temporal and spatial distribution of chullpa ruins, Isbell offers a convincing new explanation of where, when, and why the ayllu developed.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: University of Texas Press
• Seitenzahl: 392
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. Oktober 1997
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 23mm
• Gewicht: 635g
• ISBN-13: 9780292717992
• ISBN-10: 0292717997
• Artikelnr.: 29017634

Autorenporträt

By William H. Isbell

Inhaltsangabe

Acknowledgments
I. On Knowing the Past
II. Royal Mummies of Inca Cuzco
III. Ancestor Mummies in Huarochirí
IV. Competing Theories of Ayllu Origins
V. The Open Sepulcher
VI. Distribution of Open Sepulcher Monuments
VII. The Open Sepulchers of Chota-Cutervo
VIII. Origin of the Ayllu and the Andean Past
Bibliography
Indexes