Ritual violence in the ancient Andes : reconstructing sacrifice on the north coast of Peru / edited by Haagen D. Klaus and J. Marla Toyne.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Klaus, Haagen D., editor.

Toyne, J. Marla, editor.

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Series:

William & Bettye Nowlin series in art, history, and culture of the Western Hemisphere

The William & Bettye Nowlin series in art, history, and culture of the Western Hemisphere

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indians of South America--Peru--Rites and ceremonies.

Indians of South America.

Human sacrifice.

Sacrifice.

Peru.

Rites and ceremonies.

Indians of South America--Peru--Antiquities.

Antiquities.

Sacrifice--Peru.

Human sacrifice--Peru.

Peru--Antiquities.

Indians of South America--Antiquities.

Indians of South America--Rites and ceremonies.

Physical Description:

xvi, 468 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2016.

Summary:

Traditions of sacrifice exist in almost every human culture and often embody a society's most meaningful religious and symbolic acts. Ritual violence was particularly varied and enduring in the prehistoric South American Andes, where human lives, animals, and material objects were sacrificed in secular rites or as offerings to the divine. Spectacular discoveries of sacrificial sites containing the victims of violent rituals have drawn ever-increasing attention to ritual sacrifice within Andean archaeology. Responding to this interest, this volume provides the first regional overview of ritual killing on the pre-Hispanic north coast of Peru, where distinct forms and diverse trajectories of ritual violence developed during the final 1,800 years of prehistory. Presenting original research that blends empirical approaches, iconographic interpretations, and contextual analyses, the contributors address four linked themes-the historical development and regional variation of north coast sacrifice from the early first millennium AD to the European conquest; a continuum of ritual violence that spans people, animals, and objects; the broader ritual world of sacrifice, including rites both before and after violent offering; and the use of diverse scientific tools, archaeological information, and theoretical interpretations to study sacrifice. This research reveals a previously unknown diversity of ritual killing on both geographic and temporal scales. It also proposes a wide range of new questions that will shape the research agenda in the coming decades, while fostering a nuanced, scientific, and humanized approach to the archaeology of ritual violence that is applicable to archaeological contexts around the world.

Contents:

Part I. Ancient ritual variation and methodological advances in studies of sacrifice / Haagen D. Klaus and J. Marla Toyne

Part II. Ancient identities, ambiguous deaths, and complex burials / Haagen D. Klaus and J. Marla Toyne

Part III. Continuums of killing : sacrifice of animals and objects / Haagen D. Klaus and J. Marla Toyne

Part IV. Perspective from beyond the north coast of Peru/ Haagen D. Klaus and J. Marla Toyne.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 381-450) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

9781477309377

1477309373

9781477309636

1477309632

OCLC:

922911529

Publisher Number:

99972578459