Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:28:37.100Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Marine Shell Bead Production and the Role of Domestic Craft Activities in the Economy of the Guangala Phase, Southwest Ecuador

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Maria A. Masucci
Maria A. Masucci*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey 07940
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Spondylus and Strombus shells are believed to have been sacred items in Latin American societies, often traded over long distances. Studies of the manufacturing sites of these and other prized marine shells have been mainly undertaken to investigate the long distance trade networks and symbol systems of the ancient societies. In contrast, this report examines evidence from small, inland sites of the Regional Developmental Period-Guangala Phase in southwest Ecuador to understand the role of shell working as a craft activity within the local socioeconomic system. It is shown that this activity, which involves interaction between littoral and inland dwellers, played an important role in subsistence adaptations to the semi-arid southwest coast of Ecuador. These findings will also be of interest to scholars of the subsequent period seeking to understand the organization of the late prehistoric Ecuadorian trading chiefdoms.

Se cree que las conchas Spondylus y Strombus eran artículos sagrados para las sociedades antiguas de America Latina y que fueron intercambiado a lo largo de una amplia area geográfica. Los arqueólogos han estudiado los talleres de conchas preciosas principalmente para investigar los intercambios entre asentamientos distantes y para conocer los sistemas simbólicos de las sociedades antiguas. Este informe presenta una investigación de los datos de los asentimientos pequeños del Período de Desarrollo Regional - Fase Guangala - ubicados 25 km de la costa en el suroeste de Ecuador con el fin de entender el papel del trabajo de la concha como un actividad artesanal y su rol dentro del sistema socioeconómico de estas sociedades. Esta discusión muestra que esta actividad puede ser puesta dentro del contexto del intercambio entre la gente de la costa y la gente tierra adentro y que fue importante en las adaptaciones en la zona árida del sur de Ecuador. Estos descubrimientos son importantes también para los que investigan el período de Integración y la organización de los mercaderes marítimos.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 1995 , pp. 70 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1995

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

Adams, R. E. W. 1970 Suggested Classic Period Occupational Specialization in the Southern Maya Lowlands. In Monographs and Papers in Maya Archaeology, edited by W. R. Bullard, Jr., pp. 487–502. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 61. Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Addison, F. 1949 The Welcome Expeditions in the Sudan. Jebel Moya. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Arkell, A. J. 1953 Shaheinab. Oxford University Press, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bushnell, G. H. S. 1951 The Archaeology of the Santa Elena Peninsula in Southwest Ecuador. Occasional Papers of the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology No. 1. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Byrd, K. M. 1976 Changing Animal Utilization Patterns and Their Implications: Southwest Ecuador (6500 BC-AD 1400). Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Cane, M. A. 1983 Oceanographic Events During El Ñino. Science 222(4629):1189–1195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carey, M. 1986 Beads and Beadwork of East and South Africa. Shire Publications, Bucks, United Kingdom.Google Scholar
Damp, J. E. 1979 Better Homes and Gardens: The Life and Death of the Early Valdivia Community. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, Alberta.Google Scholar
Doyon, L. G. 1988 Tumbas de la Nobleza en la Florida. In Quito Antes de Banalcazar, edited by I. Cruz Cevallos, pp. 51–109. Serie Monográfica No. 1. Centro Cultural Artes, Quito.Google Scholar
Evans, R. K. 1978 Early Craft Specialization: An Example from the Balkan Chalcolithic. In Social Archaeology: Beyond Subsistence and Dating, edited by C. L. Redman, M. J. Berman, E. V. Curtin, W. T. Langhorne, Jr., N. M. Versaggi, and J. C. Wanser, pp. 113–129. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Ferdon, E. N. Jr. 1950 Studies in Ecuadorian Geography. Monographs of the School of American Research No. 15. Santa Fe, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Ferdon, E. N. Jr. 1981 Holocene Mangrove Formations on the Santa Elena Peninsula, Ecuador: Pluvial Indicators of Ecological Response to Physiographic Changes. American Antiquity 46:619–626.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flannery, K. V. 1976 The Early Mesoamerican Village. Academic Press, Orlando, Florida.Google Scholar
Hammond, N., and Bruhns, K. O. 1987 The Paute Valley Project in Ecuador, 1984. Antiquity 61:50–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holm, O. 1953 El Tatuaje entre Los Aborigenes Prepizarrianos de la Costa Ecuatoriana. Cuadernos de Historia y Arqueología, Año III No. 7–8. Guayaquil, Ecuador.Google Scholar
Horna Z., R. 1980 Primer inventario de la flora y fauna de Valdivia y areas adjacentes. Museo de Arqueología e Historia Natural. Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, Guayaquil, Ecuador.Google Scholar
Jijón, y Caamaño, J. 1930 Una Gran Marea Cultural en el Noroeste de Sud América. Journal de la Société des Americanistes de Paris 22:107–197.Google Scholar
Jijón, y Caamaño, J. 1941–1946 El Ecuador Interandinoy Occidental Antes de La Conquista Castellana. 4 vols. Editorial Ecuatoriana, Quito.Google Scholar
Keen, A. M. 1958 Sea Shells of Tropical West America. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.Google Scholar
Lanning, E. P. 1967 Archaeological Investigations on the Santa Elena Peninsula, Ecuador. Report to the National Science Foundation on Research carried out under Grant GS-2-402, 1964–65. Manuscript on file, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York.Google Scholar
Lippi, R. D. 1983 La Ponga and the Machalilla Phase of Coastal Ecuador. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison.Google Scholar
Marcos, J. 1977–1978 Cruising to Acapulco and Back with the Thorny Oyster Set: A Model for a Lineal Exchange System. Journal of the Steward Anthropological Society 9(1–2):99–132.Google Scholar
Marcos, J. 1982 Arqueología de la Península de Santa Elena (1). Espejo Año IV, No. 5:94–99.Google Scholar
Marcos, J. 1986 Breve Prehistoria del Ecuador. In Arqueología de la Costa Ecuatoriana: Nuevos Enfoques, edited by J. Marcos, pp. 25–50. Corporatión Editora National, Quito.Google Scholar
Marcos, J., and Norton, P. 1979 From the Yungas of Chinchay Suyo to Cuzco: The Role of La Plata Island in Spondylus Trade. Paper presented at the 63rd International Congress of Americanists, Vancouver, Canada.Google Scholar
Marcos, J., and Norton, P. 1981 Interpretatión sobre la Arqueología de la Isla de la Plata. Miscelánea Antropológica Ecuatoriana 1:136–154. Boletín de los Museos del Banco Central del Ecuador, Quito.Google Scholar
Marcos, J., Lathrap, D. W., and Zeidler, J. A. 1976 Ancient Ecuador Revisited. Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin 47(6):3–8. Chicago.Google Scholar
Mason, R. J., and Perino, G. 1961 Microblades at Cahokia, Illinois. American Antiquity 26:553–557.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masucci, M. 1992 Ceramic Change in the Guangala Phase, Southwest Ecuador: A Typology and Chronology. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Meggers, B. J. 1966 Ecuador: Ancient Peoples and Places. Praeger, New York.Google Scholar
Mester, A. 1985 Un Taller Manteño de Concha Madre Perla del Sitio los Frailes, Manabí. Miscelánea Antropológica Ecuatoriana 5:101–111. Boletín de los Museos del Banco Central del Ecuador, Quito.Google Scholar
Mester, A. 1986 The Pearl Oyster in Andean Culture. Paper presented at the 14th Annual Midwest Andean and Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory Conference, Columbia, Missouri.Google Scholar
Mester, A. 1990 The Pearl Divers of Los Frailes: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Explorations of Sumptuary Good Trade and Cosmology in the North and Central Andes. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Momsen, R. P. Jr. 1968 Precipitation Patterns of West-Central Ecuador. Revista Geográfica 69:91–105.Google Scholar
Morris, P. A. 1966 A Field Guide to Pacific Coast Shells. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.Google Scholar
Muller, J. 1984 Mississippian Specialization and Salt. American Antiquity 49:489–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murra, J. V. 1982 El Trafico del Mullu en la Costa del Pacífico. In Primer Simposio de Correlaciones Antropológicas Andino-Mesoamericano, 25–31 julio, 1971, Salinas, Ecuador, edited by J. G. Marcos and P. Norton, pp. 265–273. Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral, Guayaquil, Ecuador.Google Scholar
Norton, P. 1982 The Chiefdom of Calangome and the League of Merchants: The Spondylus—Balsa Wood Cartel. Paper presented at the 47th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Norton, P. 1983 Excavaciones en Salango, Provincia de Manabi, Ecuador. Miscelánea Antropológica Ecuatoriana 3, Boletín de los Museos del Banco Central del Ecuador, Quito.Google Scholar
O’Shea, J. 1981 Coping with Scarcity: Exchange and Social Storage. In Economic Archaeology, edited by A. Sheridan and G. Bailey, pp. 167–183. BAR International Series No. 96. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Paulsen, A. C. 1970 A Chronology of Guangala and Libertad Ceramics of the Santa Elena Peninsula in South Coastal Ecuador. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Paulsen, A. C. 1974 The Thorny Oyster and the Voice of God: Spondylus and Strombus in Andean Prehistory. American Antiquity 39:597–607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paulsen, A. C. 1976 Environment and Empire: Climatic Factors in Prehistoric Andean Cultural Change. World Archaeology 8(2):121–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paulsen, A. C. 1989 The Archaeological Record of the Santa Elena Peninsula as a Master Sequence of Reference for Ecuador. Paper presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Atlanta.Google Scholar
Pearsall, D. 1979 The Application of Ethnobotanical Techniques to the Problem of Subsistence in the Ecuadorian Formative. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana.Google Scholar
Pearsall, D. 1990 Preliminary Identifications of Macrobotanical Remains from El Azúcar Site 47. Manuscript on file, University of Missouri, Columbia.Google Scholar
Pires-Ferreira, J. W. 1975 Exchange Networks in Formative Mesoamerica, With Special Reference to the Valley of Oaxaca. Museum of Anthropology Memoirs No. 7. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pires-Ferreira, J. W. 1976 Shell and Iron-Ore Mirror Exchange in Formative Mesoamerica, with Comments on Other Commodities. In The Early Mesoamerican Village, edited by K. V. Flannery, pp. 311–328. Academic Press, Orlando, Florida.Google Scholar
Reitz, E. J. 1986 El Azúcar, Ecuador, Faunal Identification. Manuscript on file, Museum of Natural History, University of Georgia, Athens.Google Scholar
Reitz, E. J. 1990a Vertebrate Fauna from El Azúcar, Ecuador. Manuscript on file, Museum of Natural History, University of Georgia, Athens.Google Scholar
Reitz, E. J. 1990b Vertebrate Fauna from El Azúcar 30, Ecuador. Paper presented at the Sixth Conference of the International Council for Archaeozoology, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Reitz, E. J., and Masucci, M. 1995 Marine Resource Use in Southwestern Ecuador during the Guangala Phase. Latin American Antiquity, in press.Google Scholar
Rice, P. M. 1984 The Archaeological Study of Specialized Pottery Production: Some Aspects of Method and Theory. In Pots and Potters: Current Approaches in Ceramic Archaeology, edited by P. M. Rice, pp. 45–54. Institute of Archaeology Monograph XXIV. University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, M. 1970 Mercaderes del Valle de Chincha en la Epoca Prehispánico: Un Documento y Unos Comentarios. Revista Española de Antropología Americana 5:135–177.Google Scholar
Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, M. 1975 Coastal Fishermen, Merchants, and Artisans in Prehispanic Peru. In The Sea in the Pre-Columbian World, edited by E. P. Benson, pp. 167–188. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Samano-Xerez, J. 1967 [1527–1528] Relation. In Las Relaciones Primitivas de la Conquista del Perú, edited by R. P. Barrenechea, pp. 63–68. Cuadernos de Historía del Perú No. 2, editión notada.Google Scholar
Schaedel, R. P. 1966 The Huaca El Dragón. Journal de la Société des Americanistes, t. LV-2:383–496. Paris.Google Scholar
Sheppard, G. 1930 Notes on the Climate and Physiography of Southwestern Ecuador. Geographical Review 20:445–453.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sheppard, G. 1933 The Rainy Season of 1932 in Southwest Ecuador. Geographical Review 23:210–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Small, J., and Witherick, M. 1986 A Dictionary of Modern Geography. Edward Arnold, London.Google Scholar
Stahl, P. W. 1991 Arid Landscapes and Environmental Transformations in Ancient Southwestern Ecuador. World Archaeology 22(3):346–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stemper, D. M. 1989 The Persistence of Prehispanic Chiefdom Formations, Río Daule, Coastal Ecuador. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Stothert, K. E. 1984 A New Look at Guangala Society and Economy: A Discussion of the Origin and Development of Chiefdoms on the Santa Elena Peninsula, Ecuador. Paper presented at the 49th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Portland, Oregon.Google Scholar
Stothert, K. E. 1988 Traditional Catchment Structures and Early Water Management in Southwest Ecuador. Manuscript in possession of the author, San Antonio, Texas.Google Scholar
Stothert, K. E. 1992 La Fase Guangala Temprano en Valdivia. Miscelánea Antropológica Ecuatoriana. Boletín de los Museos del Banco Central del Ecuador, in press.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., and Reimer, P. J. 1986 A Computer Program for Radiocarbon Determination. Radiocarbon 28:1022–1030.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Svenson, H. K. 1946 Vegetation of the Coast of Ecuador and Peru and its Relation to the Galapagos Islands. II. Catalogue of Plants. American Journal of Botany 33(6):427–498.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trewartha, G. T. 1962 The Earth’s Problem Climates. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.Google Scholar
Troll, C. (editor) 1968 Geo-Ecology of the Mountainous Regions of the Tropical Americas. Proceedings of the UNESCO Mexico Symposium August 1–3, 1966. Ferd. Dumnlers Verlag, Bonn.Google Scholar
Trubitt, M. B. D. 1993 Production and Distribution of Shell Beads in Mississippian Communities. Poster paper presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, St. Louis, Missouri.Google Scholar
Webb, M. C. 1974 Exchange Networks: Prehistory. Annual Review of Anthropology 3:357–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yerkes, R. W. 1983 Microwear, Microdrills, and Mississippian Craft Specialization. American Antiquity 48:499–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yerkes, R. W. 1987 Prehistoric Life on the Mississippi Floodplain. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar