Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T15:40:26.992Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Bayesian Approach to Andean Faunal Assemblages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2019

Jo Osborn
Jo Osborn*
Affiliation:
Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, University of Michigan, 3010 School of Education Building, 610 E. University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
*
([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Faunal assemblages offer rich data for exploring domestication, subsistence, ritual practice, and political economy. Issues of equifinality, however, frequently complicate interpretations because different agents and processes may create similar archaeological signatures. Analysts are often forced to make interpretations based on qualitative observations, which can be difficult to justify or replicate. I present an alternative method for classifying Andean assemblages by using ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological data to construct a Bayesian network model. The model is assessed using specifically constructed test datasets and archaeological case studies. Bayesian models can lead to explicit and quantifiable probabilistic interpretations of faunal assemblages.

Los conjuntos óseos faunísticos constituyen una fuente importante de datos que permite explorar temas tan diversos como domesticación, subsistencia, prácticas rituales y economía política. Sin embargo, existen problemas de equifinalidad que pueden dificultar las interpretaciones de los conjuntos, ya que diferentes agentes y procesos pueden generar resultados arqueológicos similares. Los zooarqueólogos frecuentemente se ven obligados a hacer interpretaciones basadas en observaciones cualitativas, que pueden ser difíciles de justificar o reproducir. Este artículo presenta un método alternativo para clasificar los conjuntos faunísticos andinos mediante el uso de datos etnográficos, etnohistóricos y arqueológicos para construir un modelo bayesiano. El modelo se evalúa utilizando conjuntos de datos de prueba construidos específicamente y de estudios arqueológicos. El uso de modelos bayesianos puede llevar a interpretaciones probabilísticas explícitas y cuantificables sobre conjuntos zooarqueológicos.

Keywords

zooarchaeologyAndesBayesian modelsequifinalityAndesmodelos bayesianosequifinalidad
Type
Article
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , June 2019 , pp. 354 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by the Society for American Archaeology 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Alva, Walter 1988 Discovering the New World's Richest Unlooted Tomb. National Geographic Magazine 174:510–549.Google Scholar
Archetti, Eduardo 1997 Guinea-Pigs: Food, Symbol, and Conflict of Knowledge in Ecuador. Translated by Napolitano, Valentina and Worsley, Peter. Berg, New York.Google Scholar
Arriaga, Pablo Joseph de 1968 [1621] The Extirpation of Idolatry in Peru. Translated and edited by Keating, Louis Clark. University of Kentucky Press, Lexington.Google Scholar
Bolton, Ralph 1979 Guinea Pigs, Protein, and Ritual. Ethnology 18:229–252.Google Scholar
Bolton, Ralph, and Calvin, Linda 1981 El cuy en la cultural peruana contemporánea. In Tecnología en el mundo andino, edited by Lechtman, Heather and Soldi, Ana María, pp. 261–326. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Bonavia, Duccio 2008 The South American Camelids. Expanded and corrected edition. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Brothwell, Don, Malaga, A., and Burleigh, Richard 1979 Studies on Amerindian Dogs, 2: Variation in Early Peruvian Dogs. Journal of Archaeological Science 6:139–161.Google Scholar
Capriles, José, and Tripcevich, Nicholas 2016 The Archaeology of Andean Pastoralism. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Cobo, Bernabe 1990 Inca Religion and Customs. Translated by Hamilton, Roland. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Meza, Cossíos, Daniel, E. 2004 Relaciones entre el zorro de Sechura, Pseudalopex sechurae, y el hombre en el Perú. Ecología Aplicada 3(1–2):134–138.Google Scholar
deFrance, Susan 2006 The Sixth Toe: The Modern Culinary Role of the Guinea Pig in Southern Peru. Food and Foodways 14:3–34.Google Scholar
deFrance, Susan 2009 Zooarchaeology in Complex Societies: Political Economy, Status, and Ideology. Journal of Archaeological Research 17:105–168.Google Scholar
deFrance, Susan 2014 The Luxury of Variety: Animals and Social Distinction at the Wari Site of Cerro Baúl, Southern Peru. In Animals and Inequality in the Ancient World, edited by Arbuckle, Benjamin and McCarty, Sue Ann, pp. 63–84. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
deFrance, Susan 2016 Pastoralism through Time in Southern Peru. In The Archaeology of Andean Pastoralism, edited by Capriles, José M. and Tripcevich, Nicholas, pp. 119–138. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Dietler, Michael 2001 Theorizing the Feast. In Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics and Power, edited by Dietler, Michael and Hayden, Brian, pp. 65–114. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Donnan, Christopher 1976 Moche Art and Iconography. UCLA Latin American Center Publications, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Dransart, Penelope Z. 2002 Earth, Water, Fleece and Fabric: An Ethnography and Archaeology of Andean Camelid Herding. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Flannery, Kent V., and Glew, Christopher P. 2016 Domestic Dogs. In Coastal Ecosystems and Economic Strategies at Cerro Azul, Peru: The Study of a Late Intermediate Kingdom, edited by Marcus, Joyce, pp. 318–323. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Flannery, Kent V., Marcus, Joyce, and Reynolds, Robert 1989 The Flocks of the Wamani: A Study of Llama Herders on the Punas of Ayacucho, Peru. Academic Press, San Diego.Google Scholar
Flores Ochoa, Jorge 1974–1976 Enqa, enqaychu, illa y khuya rumi: Aspectos mágicos-religiosos entre pastores. Journal de la Société des Américanistes 83:245–262.Google Scholar
de la Vega, Garcilaso 1966[1609] Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru. Translated and edited by Livermore, Harold. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Gifford-Gonzalez, Diane 1991 Bones Are Not Enough: Analogues, Knowledge, and Interpretative Strategies in Zooarchaeology. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 10:210–254.Google Scholar
Glew, Christopher P., and Flannery, Kent V. 2016 The Raising of Guinea Pigs. In Coastal Ecosystems and Economic Strategies at Cerro Azul, Peru: The Study of a Late Intermediate Kingdom, edited by Marcus, Joyce, pp. 324–333. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Goepfert, Nicholas 2010 The Llama and the Deer: Dietary and Symbolic Dualism in the Central Andes. Anthropozoologica 45(1):25–45.Google Scholar
Goepfert, Nicholas 2012 New Zooarchaeological and Funerary Perspectives on Mochica Culture (A.D. 100–800), Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 37:104–120.Google Scholar
Guaman Poma de Ayala, Felipe 1978[1617] Letter to a King: A Peruvian Chief's Account of Life under the Incas and under Spanish Rule. Translated by Dilke, Christopher. E. P. Dutton, New York.Google Scholar
Hayden, Brian 2001 Fabulous Feasts: A Prolegomenon to the Importance of Feasting. In Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics and Power, edited by Dietler, Michael and Hayden, Brian, pp. 23–64. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Howson, Colin, and Urbach, Peter 1993 Scientific Reasoning: The Bayesian Approach. Open Court, Chicago.Google Scholar
Izumi, Seiichi, and Sono, Toshihiko 1963 Andes 2: Excavations at Kotosh, Peru, 1960. Kadokawa, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Kent, Jonathan 1982 The Domestication and Exploitation of the South American Camelids: Methods of Analysis and Their Application to Circum-Lacustrine Archaeological Sites in Bolivia and Peru. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.Google Scholar
Kent, Jonathan, Tham, Teresa Rosales, Sánchez, Víctor Vásquez, Gaither, Catherine, and Berhard, Jonathan 2016 The Camelid Sacrifices of Santa Rita B: An Agropastoral Site in the Chao Valley, North Coastal Peru. In The Archaeology of Andean Pastoralism, edited by Capriles, José M. and Tripcevich, Nicholas, pp. 183–196. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Lau, George F. 2002 Feasting and Ancestor Veneration at Chinchawas, North Highlands of Ancash, Peru. Latin American Antiquity 13:279–304.Google Scholar
Lucherini, Mauro 2016 Lycalopex culpaeus (Andean Fox, Culpeo). Electronic document, https://www.IUCNredlist.org, accessed May 2, 2017.Google Scholar
Lyman, R. Lee 1982 Archaeofaunas and Subsistence Studies. In Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, Vol. 5, edited by Michael B. Schiffer, pp. 331–393. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Lyman, R. Lee 1994 Vertebrate Taphonomy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Lyman, R. Lee 2004 The Concept of Equifinality in Taphonomy. Journal of Taphonomy 2:15–26.Google Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 2007 Rethinking Ritual. In The Archaeology of Ritual, edited by Kyriakidis, Evangelos, pp. 43–76. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Marcus, Joyce, and Flannery, Kent 1996 Zapotec Civilization: How Urban Society Evolved in Mexico's Oaxaca Valley. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Mengoni Goñalons, Guillermo Luis 2008 Camelids in Ancient Andean Societies: A Review of the Zooarchaeological Evidence. Quaternary International 185:59–68.Google Scholar
Miller, George 1979 An Introduction to the Ethnoarchaeology of the Andean Camelids. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Miller, George, and Burger, Richard 1995 Our Father the Cayman, Our Dinner the Llama: Animal Utilization at Chavin de Huantar, Peru. American Antiquity 60:421–458.Google Scholar
Molina “del Cuzco,” Cristóbal 1943[1575] Relación de las fábulas y ritos de los Incas. Los pequeños grandes libros de historia americana, serie 1(4). Lima, Peru.Google Scholar
Moore, Katherine 1989 Hunting and the Origin of Herding in Peru. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Moore, Katherine, Maria Bruno, José Capriles, and Hastorf, Christine 2007 Integrated Contextual Approaches to Understanding Past Activities Using Plant and Animal Remains from Kala Uyuni. In Kala Uyuni: An Early Political Center in the Southern Lake Titicaca Basin, edited by Bandy, Matthew and Hastorf, Christine, pp. 173–203. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility 64. Archaeological Research Facility, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Morales, Edmundo 1995 The Guinea Pig: Healing, Food and Ritual in the Andes. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Moseley, Michael, Nash, Donna, Williams, Patrick Ryan, deFrance, Susan, Miranda, Ana, and Ruales, Mario 2005 Burning Down the Brewery: Establishing and Evacuating an Imperial Colony at Cerro Baul, Peru. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 201:17264–17271.Google Scholar
Nigra, Benjamin 2017 Huaca Soto and the Evolution of Paracas Communities in the Chincha Valley, Peru. PhD dissertation, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Software, Norsys 2017 Netica 5.24. Computer Software. https://norsys.com, accessed February 5, 2017.Google Scholar
Oras, Esther 2013 Sacrifice or Offering: What Can We See in the Archaeology of Northern Europe? Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore 55:124–150. DOI:10.7592/FEJF2013.55.oras, accessed March 4, 2017.Google Scholar
Pacheco Torres, Víctor R., Altamirano Enciso, Alfredo J., and Guerra Porras, Emma S. 1986 The Osteology of South American Camelids. Translated by Sandefur, E.. Archaeological Research Tools, Vol. 3. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Prieto, Gabriel, Nicolás Goepfert, Katia Valladares, and Vilela, Juan 2014 Sacrificios de niños, adolescentes y camélidos jóvenes durante el Intermedio Tardío en la periferia de Chan Chan, Valle de Moche, Costa Norte del Perú. Arqueología y Sociedad 27:255–296.Google Scholar
Reitz, Elizabeth, and Wing, Elizabeth 2008 Zooarchaeology. 2nd ed. Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Reyna Pinedo, Víctor 2002 La soba o limpia con cuy en la medicina tradicional peruana. Editorial Hozlo, Lima.Google Scholar
Richardson, Virginia C. G. 2000 Diseases of Domestic Guinea Pigs. 2nd ed. Blackwell Science, Oxford.Google Scholar
Rodríguez Loredo, Cecilia 2001 Las ofrendas de camélidos en un cementerio del Formativo Superior, costa central, Peru. In El uso de los camélidos a través del tiempo, edited by Mengoni Goñalons, Guillermo L., Olivera, Daniel E., and Yacobaccio, Hugo D., pp. 221–240. Ediciones del Tridente, Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
Rofes, Juan, and Wheeler, Jane C. 2003 Sacrificio de cuyes en los Andes: el caso de El Yaral y una revisión biológica, arqueológica y etnográfica de la especie Cavia porcellus. Archaeofauna, International Journal of Archaeozoology 12:29–45.Google Scholar
Rogers, Alan 2000 On Equifinality in Faunal Analysis. American Antiquity 65:709–723.Google Scholar
Rosenfeld, Silvana 2008 Delicious Guinea Pigs: Seasonality Studies in the Use of Fat in the Pre-Columbian Andean Diet. Quaternary International 180:127–134.Google Scholar
Rosenfeld, Silvana 2011 Foodways and Sociopolitics in the Wari Empire of Peru, A.D. 600–900. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.Google Scholar
Rosenfeld, Silvana 2012 Animal Wealth and Local Power in the Huari Empire. Ñawpa Pacha 32(1):131–164.Google Scholar
Rowley-Conwy, Peter 2018 Zooarchaeology and the Elusive Feast: From Performance to Aftermath. World Archaeology 50:221–241.Google Scholar
Sahagún, Fray Bernadino de 1950[1576] Historia general de las cosas de Nuevo España. Translated by Anderson, Arthur and Dibble, Charles. School of American Research and the University of Utah, Santa Fe, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Sandefur, Elise 1988 Andean Zooarchaeology: Animal Use and the Inka Conquest of the Upper Mantaro Valley. PhD dissertation, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Sandweiss, Daniel, and Wing, Elizabeth 1997 Ritual Rodents: The Guinea Pigs of Chincha, Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 24:47–58.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Glenn 2012 Archaeology and Sacrifice. In Sacred Killing: The Archaeology of Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East, edited by Porter, Anne, Schwartz, Glenn, and Carter, Elizabeth, pp. 1–32. Eisenbrauns, Warsaw, Indiana.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Alan 1978 Inference and Evidence: A Discussion of the Conceptual Problems. In Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, Vol. 1, edited by Schiffer, Michael B., pp. 183–222. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Szpak, Paul, Millaire, Jean-François, White, Christine, Bourget, Steve, and Longstaffe, Fred 2016 Life Histories of Sacrificed Camelids from Huancaco (Virú Valley). In Ritual Violence in the Ancient Andes: Reconstructing Sacrifice on the North Coast of Peru, edited by Klaus, Haagen and Marla Toyne, J., pp. 320–341. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Valdez, Lidio M., and Valdez, Ernesto J. 1997 Reconsidering the Rarity of Guinea Pig Bones in the Central Andes. Current Anthropology 38:896–898.Google Scholar
Vallières, Claudine 2016 Camelid Pastoralism at Ancient Tiwanaku: Urban Provisioning in the Highlands of Bolivia. In The Archaeology of Andean Pastoralism, edited by Capriles, José M. and Tripcevich, Nicholas, pp. 67–86. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
von Bertalanffy, Ludwig 1949 Problems of Organic Growth. Nature 163:156–158.Google Scholar
Warwick, Matthew 2012 In the Shadow of the Peñon: A Zooarchaeological Study of Formative Diet, Economy, and Sociopolitics in the Río Pukara Valley, Peru. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Jane C. 1982 Aging Llamas and Alpacas by Their Teeth. Llama World 1:12–17.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Jane C. 1984 On the Origin and Early Development of Camelid Pastoralism in the Andes. In Animals and Archaeology 3: Early Herders and Their Flocks, edited by Clutton-Brock, Juliet and Grigson, Caroline, pp. 395–410. BAR International Series. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Wing, Elizabeth 1972 Utilization of Animal Resources in the Peruvian Andes. In Andes 4: Excavation at Kotosh, Perú 1963 and 1966, edited by Izumi, Seiichi and Terada, Kazuo, pp. 327–354. University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Wing, Elizabeth 1986 Domestication of Andean Mammals. In High Altitude Tropical Biogeography, edited by Vuilleneunier, François and Monasterio, Maximina, pp. 246–264. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Wing, Elizabeth 1989 Human Use of Canids in the Central Andes. In Advances in Neotropical Mammaology, edited by Redford, Kent and Eisenberg, John, pp. 256–278. Sandhill Crane, Gainesville, Florida.Google Scholar
Yuan, Jing, and Flad, Rowan 2005 New Zooarchaeological Evidence for Changes in Shang Dynasty Animal Sacrifice. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 24:252–270.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Osborn supplementary material

Table S1

Download Osborn supplementary material(File)
File 13.4 KB
Supplementary material: File

Osborn supplementary material

Table S2

Download Osborn supplementary material(File)
File 27.6 KB
Supplementary material: File

Osborn supplementary material

Table S3

Download Osborn supplementary material(File)
File 13.5 KB
Supplementary material: File

Osborn supplementary material

Osborn supplementary material 1

Download Osborn supplementary material(File)
File 16.8 KB