Sara L Juengst

In this chapter, we introduce our volume and focus on defining the various ways in which the term community is used by bioarchaeologists in this volume, especially with respect to the theoretical ideas within the emerging social and theoretical bioarchaeology. We also provide an initial summary concerning each of the chapters and how each author, or set of authors, focuses on community within their research. Our goals are: (1) to discuss the possibilities and limitations of identifying different types of past community or communities; (2) to expand on methods in bioarchaeology that can be used to identify community; and (3) to develop theoretically based bioarchaeological research on community in order to elucidate meaningful relationships that structured past people's lives.

Past and present Andean feasts regularly involve the consumption of chicha de maíz (corn beer). Archaeologically, the presence and distribution of brewing and drinking vessels, iconographic representations, and paleoethnobotanical remains have been used to identify the preparation and consumption of chicha at the site level. However, these data cannot tell us if everyone imbibed. Given the social and political importance of chicha, gender, age, status, ethnicity, or other social distinctions in consumption were likely important in the construction of networks and the practices of power. In this article, we theorize a model for investigating chicha consumption at the individual level using a suite of bioarchaeological methods. We suggest that data generated using this model and analyzed in conjunction with traditional archaeological data can help us better understand the social, political, and economic role of chicha. The “chicha signature” we propose includes co-patterning of oral health indicators, isotopic signatures, and the presence of diagnostic microfossils in dental calculus. The intent of this article is to call bioarchaeologists working throughout the Andes and in other regions where beer was culturally important to collect these data with the explicit goal of testing this approach.

The Central Andes of South America boasts a rich history of complex societies and sophisticated economic networks. Reconstructing patterns of diet across time is important to understanding the relationships between subsistence and food preparation and their roles in mediating consumption and hegemony through time. The region surrounding the city of Cusco in the southern Peruvian highlands is best known as the heartland of the Inca Empire (520-418 BP); however, it has a long history of social complexity and regional exchange, including colonization by the highland Wari Empire (1350-950 BP) and in situ development in earlier periods. Elucidating subsistence and mobility over time in the Cusco region is therefore essential for reconstructing the evolution of complex Andean polities and their effects on local communities. This study presents carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotopic data from human bone and tooth enamel at four Cusco-region sites: the hunter-gatherer site of Kasapata (6350-4150 BP, N = 8); the village site of Yuthu (2350-2050 BP, N = 22); the Wari colony of Hatun Cotuyoc (1350-950 BP, N = 9) and the contemporaneous village site of Ak'awillay (N = 22). Key aims are to estimate diachronic shifts in foodways and nutrition, and those related to Wari control. Results indicate nearly-identical isotope values at Kasapata and Yuthu trending toward lower-trophic level C 3 proteins and C 3 energy sources, while values indicate mixed C 3 /C 4 diets at Ak'awillay and diets dominated by terrestrial meat and C 4 foods at Hatun Cotuyoc. Interestingly, oxygen isotope values suggest water source variation consistent with minimal mobility at Kasapata and regional mobility at Yuthu, but possibly with overlapping but divergent foodways at Ak'awillay and Hatun Cotuyoc resulting in differential evaporative pressures on consumed water rather than increased mobility.

This volume of Andean Past contains the following articles, research reports, and obituaries: "Editor's Preface" by Monica Barnes; "Donald Frederick Sola" by Monica Barnes; Paulina Mercedes Ledergerber-Crespo" by A. Jorge Arellano-Lopez; "Death Notices (Robert Ascher, Bernd Lambert, Daniel W. Gade, and George Bankes) by Monica Barnes and Bill Sillar; "Obsidian Procurement and Cosmopolitanism at the Middle Horizon Settlement of Conchopata, Peru" by Richard L. Burger, Catherine M. Bencic, and Michael D. Glascock; "Characteristics and Significance of Tapia Walls and the Mochica Presence at Santa Rosa de Pucala in the Mid-Lambayeque Valley" by Edgar Bracamonte; "Health at the Edge of the Wari Empire: An Analysis of Skeletal Remains from Hatun Cotuyoc, Huaro, Peru" by Sara L. Juengst and Maeve Skidmore; "Demographic Analysis of a Looted Late Intermediate Period Tomb, Chincha Valley, Peru" by Camille Weinberg, Benjamin T. Nigra, Maria Cecilia Lozada, Charles Stanish, Henry Tantalean, Jacob Bongers, and Terrah Jones; "Macrobotanical Remains from the 2009 Season at Caylan: Preliminary Insights into Early Horizon Plant Use in the Nepena Valley, North-Central Coast of Peru" by David Chicoine, Beverly Clement, and Kyle Stich; "Obsidian Technology at the Wari Site of Conchopata in Ayacucho, Peru" by Catherine M. Bencic; "Incahuasi, Canete" by Alejandro Chu; "Luis Barreda Murillo's Excavations at Huanuco Pampa, 1965" Monica Barnes; "Early Village Formation in Desert Areas of Tarapaca, Northern Chile (Eleventh Century B.C.--Thirteenth Century A.D.)" by Simon Urbina, Leonor Adan, Constanza Pellegrino, and Estefania Vidal; and "Don Mateo-El Cerro, a Newly Rediscovered Late Period Settlement in Yocavil (Catamarca, Argentina) by Alina Alvarez Larrain.

Bone abnormalities are common in theropod dinosaur skeletons, but before now no specimen was known with more than four afflicted bones of the pectoral girdle and/or forelimb. Here we describe the pathology of a specimen of the theropod dinosaur Dilophosaurus wetherilli with eight afflicted bones of the pectoral girdle and forelimb. On its left side the animal has a fractured scapula and radius and large fibriscesses in the ulna and the proximal thumb phalanx. On its right side the animal has abnormal torsion of the humeral shaft, bony tumors on the radius, a truncated distal articular surface of metacarpal III, and angular deformities of the first phalanx of the third finger. Healing and remodeling indicates that the animal survived for months and possibly years after its ailments began, but its right third finger was permanently deformed and lacked the capability of flexion. The deformities of the humerus and the right third finger may be due to developmental osteodysplasia, a condition known in extant birds but unreported in non-avian dinosaurs before now.

Andean feasts in the past and present regularly involve the consumption of fermented maize beer, called chicha. Archaeologically, this drink is often identified through phytolith and botanical remains, ceramic styles, and iconography. However, not everyone attending festivals may have had equal access to this resource; gender, age, social status, and ritual participation may have influenced who partook in sharing this beverage. Thus, we propose to investigate chicha consumption individually, as recorded on skeletal and dental remains, in conjunction with traditional archaeological means of identifying chicha. This paper will explore a potential “chicha signature”: the paleopathological lesions and isotopic signatures that regular consumption of this drink may have left on the bones of those who consumed it. We suggest that chicha consumption (or lack thereof) may be identifiable through the presence and distribution of dental lesions such as caries and abscesses, stable isotope signatures reflecting maize consumption, oxygen and strontium signatures, and phytolith and starch remains from dental calculus. Two case studies from the Andes (from the North coast of Peru 400 BC – AD 600 and the Titicaca Basin of Bolivia 800 BC – AD 200) will be presented to illustrate how this signature may reflect underlying social and economic hierarchies present in these different settings

On October 22, IPinCH is hosting a half-day public symposium on DNA and Indigeneity: The Changing Role of Genetics in Indigenous Rights, Tribal Belonging, and Repatriation. The event will bring together an international and interdisciplinary group of archaeologists, anthropologists, bioethicists, geneticists, and representatives from Indigenous organizations to explore the promise and perils of using biological and genetic information to inform understandings of Indigenous identity. This is an important issue to consider, as scientific pronouncements about identity claims may have profound social, cultural, political, and economic implications for Indigenous peoples. The symposium will be followed by a two-day workshop (by invitation) at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue in which three key topics will be discussed: 1) DNA and the Repatriation of Human Remains; 2) Genetics and Identity Based Rights; and 3) DNA and Tribal Belonging.