Social Inequality and Polity Organization in Prehispanic Southern Andean Populations (Argentina and Bolivia, 500 BCE–1500 CE)

CRUZ, PABLO; FRANCO SALVI, VALERIA L.; LÓPEZ LILLO, JORDI A.; DIEGO SALAZAR

Portland

Congreso; 88th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology; 2023

Society for American Archaeology

In this communication we will focus on inequality and the forms of social organization in those Andean societies that developed in northwestern Argentina and southern Bolivia during the Formative (500 BCE–600 CE), Regional Development (1200–1450 CE) and Late (1450–1550 CE) periods. Our analysis starts with the use of Gini coefficients obtained from the calculation of surfaces areas of residential units assigned to three prehispanic sociocultural configurations: North Tafí–La Ciénaga in Tucumán (500 BCE–600 CE, 285 households), Tastil and Morohuasi in Salta (1300–1450 CE, 211 households), and the Intersalar Region in the Bolivian altiplano (1200–1550 CE, 549 households). In each case study, the Gini analyses were put in perspective with other material records (granaries, open spaces, crop plots, corrals, burials, etc.), allowing for a better definition of the type of society and its levels of inequality. The results indicate that the social processes that took place in this southern part of the Andes led, unlike those in the central Andes, to the formation of agropastoral societies with low levels of centralization and wealth inequality.