Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T17:24:06.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pattern and Meaning in Prehistoric Peruvian Architecture: The Architecture of Social Control in the Chimu State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jerry D. Moore
Jerry D. Moore*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, California State University-Dominguez Hills, 1000 East Victoria St., Carson, CA 90747
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Archaeologists have studied buildings for decades, but a very narrow range of analytical approaches has been applied to prehistoric architecture. This paper presents a basic theory of architectural meaning, which has as its principal focus the role of access patterns within buildings as a medium of social control. On the north coast of Peru, Andeanists have held an implicit notion about the relation between access patterns and social control, but have lacked the analytical tools to explore this question further. A set of basic tools borrowed from graph theory and locational geography is presented, and discussed, and then applied to a specific set of Prehispanic constructions—the monumental compounds of Chan Chan, the capital of the Chimu state (A. D. 900-1470). The methods illuminate differences and similarities in the organization of access within the compounds, and they are used to test a hypothesis about the role of a specific architectural element—the U-shaped room—in controlling access within royal compounds at Chan Chan. The results have implications for understanding the nature of social control in the Chimu state and suggest the potential that new analytical methods may have for the study of prehistoric constructions.

Aunque hace años los arqueólogos han estudiado la arquitectura prehistórica, sin embargo hay escasez de métodos de análisis de patrones arquitectónicos. Usualmente los arqueólogos piensan en los edificios prehispánicos en una de tres maneras: como artefactos complicados que representan tradiciones culturales; como los escenarios pasivos de actividades prehistóricas, actividades identificadas con otros restos culturales; o como proyectos públicos que representan una inversión laboral y que implican una escala sociopolítica. Esas tácticas analíticas son útiles y han resultado en perspectivas profundas sobre la arquitectura prehistórica. Pero la arquitectura también refleja significado y una dimensión básica es el acceso: ¿Quién puede entrar y a dónde puede pasar? Los arqueólogos reconocen que el acceso es una dimensión importante, especialmente los que trabajan en el Perú.

Los arqueólogos están de acuerdo que el acceso espacial es una forma de control social y que los patrones de acceso pueden indicar la existencia de grupos distintos en las sociedades prehispánicas: los de adentro y los de afuera. Este tema es muy importante en el estudio del desarollo prehispánico en la costa del Perú, especialmente en el análisis de edificios públicos. Pero, por la falta de métodos analíticos, los arqueólogos solamente pueden distinguir entre dos extremos de acceso, “abierto” y “cerrado,” aunque están considerando edificios de varios tamaños y patrones arquitectónicos.

Sin embargo, existen métodos para analizar patrones de acceso, métodos utilizados para el análisis de los sistemas de redes. El estudio que se presenta a continuación aplica esos métodos al sitio de Chan Chan, sede del estado Chimú (900-1470 D. C.), ubicado en el valle Moche. En Chan Chan, los muros grandes de las ciudadelas reales, sus corredores tortuosos y sus entradas indirectas nos sugieren una preoccupación por el acceso espacial en la construcción de ciudadelas. Por eso, el tema del acceso ha sido muy importante en los estudios arqueológicos de la capital de Chimor. Una clase de arquitectura—la audiencia—ha sido interpretada como un nodo de control en el acceso a los depósitos en las ciudadelas de Chan Chan. Pero el análisis indica que las audiencias no están ubicadas en puntos claves en los patrones arquitectónicos y en realidad no controlan el acceso al almacenamiento. Los resultados indican que se necesita formular otras hipótesis sobre las audiencias y su papel político en el estado Chimú, y también demuestran el valor de métodos alternativos para el estudio de la arquitectura prehispánica.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , June 1992 , pp. 95 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1992

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

Abrams, E. 1989 Architecture and Energy: An Evolutionary Perspective. In Archaeological Method and Theory, vol. 1, edited by M. B. Schiffer, pp. 47–87. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Aldenderfer, M. 1990 Late Preceramic Ceremonial Architecture at Asana, Southern Peru. Antiquity 64:479–493.Google Scholar
Anders, M. 1981 Investigation of State Storage Facilities at Pampa Grande, Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 8:391–404.Google Scholar
Andrews, A. 1974 The U-Shaped Structures at Chan Chan, Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 1:241–264.Google Scholar
Arnold, J., and Ford, A. 1980 A Statistical Examination of Settlement Patterns at Tikal, Guatemala. American Antiquity 45:713–726.Google Scholar
Bawden, G. 1982 Community Organization Reflected by the Household: A Study of Pre-Columbian Social Dynamics. Journal of Field Archaeology 9:165–181.Google Scholar
Blanton, R. 1989 Continuity and Change in Public Architecture: Periods I through V of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. In Monte Alban’s Hinterland Part II: Settlement Patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocatlan, Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, vol. 1, edited by S. Kowalewski, G. M. Feinman, R. E. Blanton, L. Finsten, and L. Nicholas, pp. 409–447. Memoirs No. 23. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Brewster-Wray, C. 1983 Spatial Patterning and the Function of a Huari Architectural Compound. In Investigations of the Andean Past: Papers from the First Annual Northeast Conference on Andean Archaeology and Ethnohistory, edited by D. Sandweiss, pp. 122–135. Cornell University Press, Ithaca.Google Scholar
Chiswell, C. 1988 An Analysis of Architctural Function at Pacatnamu, Peru. Paper presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Phoenix.Google Scholar
Chiswell, C. 1989 Studying “Invisible” Spatial Relations: An Analysis of Prehistoric on Peru’s North Coast. Paper presented at the 60th Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Anthropological Association, Riverside, California.Google Scholar
Conrad, G. 1974 Burial Platforms and Related Structures on the North Coast of Peru: Some Social and Political Implications. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Conrad, G. 1981 Cultural Materialism, Split Inheritance, and the Expansion of Ancient Peruvian Empires. American Antiquity 46:3–26.Google Scholar
Conrad, G. 1982 The Burial Platforms of Chan Chan: Some Social and Political Implications. In Chan Chan: Andean Desert City, edited by M. Moseley and K. Day, pp. 87–117. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Czwarno, R. 1988 Spatial Logic and the Investigation of Control in Middle Horizon Peru. In Recent Studies in Pre-Columbian Archaeology, edited by N. Saunders and O. de Montmollin, pp. 415–456. BAR International Series 421. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Czwarno, R. 1989 Spatial Patterning and the Investigation of Political Control: The Case from the Moche/Chimu Area. In The Nature of Wari: A Reappraisal of the Middle Horizon Period in Peru, edited by R. Czwarno, F. Meddens, and A. Morgan, pp. 115–145. BAR International Series 525. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Day, K. 1973 The Architecture ofCiudadela Rivero, Chan Chan, Peru. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Day, K. 1982 Ciudadelas: Their Form and Function. In Chan Chan: Andean Desert City, edited by M. Moseley and K. Day, pp. 55–66. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Donnan, C. 1976 MocheArt and Iconography. Latin American Center Publications, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Donnan, C. (editor) 1985 Early Ceremonial Centers in the Andes. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Eco, U. 1980 Function and Sign: The Semiotics of Architecture. In Signs, Symbols, and Architecture, edited by G. Broadbent, R. Bent, and C. Jenks, pp. 11–69. Wiley and Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Feldman, R. 1985 Preceramic Corporate Architecture: Evidence for the Development of Non-Egalitarian Social Systems. In Early Ceremonial Architecture in the Andes, edited by C. Donnan, pp. 71–92. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Feldman, R. 1987 Architectural Evidence for the Development of Nonegalitarian Social Systems in Coastal Peru. In The Origins and Development of the Andean State, edited by J. Haas, S. Pozorski, and T. Pozorski, pp. 9–14. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Folan, W., Kintz, E., Fletcher, L., and Hyde, B. 1982 An Examination of Settlement Patterns at Coba, Quintana Roo, Mexico and Tikal, Guatemala: A Reply to Arnold and Ford. American Antiquity 47:430–436.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. 1977 Discipline and Punishment, The Birth of the Prison. Translated by A. Sheridan. Pantheon Books, New York.Google Scholar
Fraser, D. 1968 Village Planning in the Primitive World. George Braziller, New York.Google Scholar
Fritz, J. 1978 Paleopsychology Today: Ideational Systems and Human Adaptations in Prehistory. In Social Archaeology: Beyond Subsistence and Dating, edited by C. Redman, M. Berman, E. Curtin, W. Langhorne, Jr., N. Versaggi, and J. Wasner, pp. 37–60. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Fung, R. 1988 The Late Preceramic and Initial Period. In Peruvian Prehistory, edited by R. Keatinge, pp. 67–96. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Gilman, P. 1987 Architecture as Artifact: Pit Structures and Pueblos in the American Southwest. American Antiquity 52:538–564.Google Scholar
Haas, J. 1985 Excavations on Huaca Grande: An Initial View of the Elite of Pampa Grande, Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 12:391–409.Google Scholar
Haggett, P., Cliff, A., and Frey, A. 1977 Locational Analysis in Human Geography. Wiley and Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Haviland, W. 1982 Where the Rich Folks Lived: Deranging Factors in the Statistical Analysis of Tikal Settlement. American Antiquity 47:427–429.Google Scholar
Hillier, B., and Hanson, J. 1984 The Social Logic of Space. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Isbell, W., and Schreiber, K. 1978 Was Huari a State? American Antiquity 42:372–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, N. 1973 The Human Cage: A Brief History of Prison Architecture. Walker and Company, New York.Google Scholar
Keatinge, R. 1977 Religious Forms and Secular Functions: The Expansion of State Bureaucracies as Reflected in Prehistoric Architecture on the Peruvian North Coast. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 293:229–245.Google Scholar
Keatinge, R., and Conrad, G. 1983 Imperial Expansion of Peruvian Prehistory: Chimu Administration of a Conquered Territory. Journal of Field Archaeology 10:255–283.Google Scholar
Kent, S. 1990 Domestic Architecture and the Use of Space: An Interdisciplinary Cross-Cultural Study. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Klymyshyn, U. 1982 The Elite Compounds in Chan Chan. In Chan Chan: Andean Desert City, edited by M. Moseley and K. Day, pp. 119–143. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Klymyshyn, U. 1987 The Development of Chimu Administration in Chan Chan. In The Origins and Development of the Andean State, edited by J. Haas, S. Pozorski, and T. Pozorski, pp. 97–110. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Kolata, A. 1982 Chronology and Settlement Growth at Chan Chan. In Chan Chan: Andean Desert City, edited by M. Moseley and K. Day, pp. 67–85. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Larco Hoyle, R. 1939 Los Mochicas, tomo II. Editorial Rimac, Lima.Google Scholar
McEwan, G. 1990 Some Formal Correspondences Between the Imperial Architecture of the Wari and Chimu Cultures of Ancient Peru. Latin American Antiquity 1:97–116.Google Scholar
Mackey, C. 1987 Chimu Administration in the Provinces. In The Origins and Development of the Andean State, edited by J. Haas, S. Pozorski, and T. Pozorski, pp. 121–129. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Moore, J. 1985 Household Economics and Political Integration: The Lower Class of the Chimu Empire. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Moore, J. 1988 Prehispanic Raised Field Agriculture in the Casma Valley: Recent Data, New Hypotheses. Journal of Field Archaeology 15:265–276.Google Scholar
Moore, J. 1991 Cultural Responses to Environmental Catastrophes: Post-El Niño Subsistence on the Prehistoric North Coast of Peru. Latin American Antiquity 2:27–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moseley, M. 1975 Chan Chan: Andean Alternative of the Preindustrial City? Science 187:219–225.Google Scholar
Moseley, M., and Day, K. (editors) 1982 Chan Chan: Andean Desert City. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Moseley, M., and Mackey, C. 1974 Twenty-Four Architectural Plans of Chan Chan, Peru. Peabody Museum Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Netherly, P. 1977 Local Level Lords on the North Coast of Peru. Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Parsons, J., and Hastings, C. 1988 The Late Intermediate Period. In Peruvian Prehistory, edited by R. Keatinge, pp. 190–229. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Paulsen, A. 1981 The Archaeology of the Absurd: Comments on “Cultural Materialism, Split Inheritance, and the Expansion of Ancient Peruvian Empires.” American Antiquity 46:31–37.Google Scholar
Pozorski, S., and Pozorski, T. 1986 Recent Excavations at Pampa de las Llamas-Moxeke, a Complex Initial Period Site in Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 13:381–401.Google Scholar
Pozorski, T. 1980 The Early Horizon Site of Huaca de los Reyes: Societal Implications. American Antiquity 45:100–110.Google Scholar
Pozorski, T., and Pozorski, S. 1988 An Early Stone Carving from Pampa de las Llamas-Moxeke, Casma Valley, Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 15:114–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowe, J. 1948 The Kingdom of Chimor. Acta Americana 6:26–59.Google Scholar
Rybczynski, W. 1989 The Most Beautiful House in the World. Viking, New York.Google Scholar
Shennan, S. 1988 Quantifying Archaeology. Academic Press, San Diego.Google Scholar
Shimada, I. 1978 Economy of a Prehistoric Urban Context: Commodity and Labor Flow at Moche V, Pampa Grande. American Antiquity 43:569–592.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shimada, I. 1981 The Batan Grande-La Leche Archaeological Project: The First Two Seasons. Journal of Field Archaeology 8:405–446.Google Scholar
Smith, D. 1975 Patterns in Human Geography: An Introduction to Numerical Methods. Crane, Russak, New York.Google Scholar
Steadman, J. 1983 Architectural Morphology: An Introduction to the Geometry of Building Plans. Pion, London.Google Scholar
Topic, J., and Moseley, M. 1983 Chan Chan: A Case Study of Urban Change in Peru. Ñawpa Pacha 21:153–182.Google Scholar
West, M. 1970 Community Settlement Patterns at Chan Chan. American Antiquity 35:74–86.Google Scholar