Social Landscapes in Pre-Inca Northwestern Argentina

The people that inhabited northwestern Argentina before the arrival of the Incas shared a basic, common cultural background with other Andean societies (Figure 30.1). Nevertheless, they seem to have followed a unique developmental trajectory that differs from the socio-cultural processes that took place in the Central Andes. This chapter is a survey of these societies. Excellent syntheses are already available (e.g., González 1977; González and Pérez 1972; Ottonello and Lorandi 1987; Raffino 1988) and we refer readers to them for further information on specific archaeological materials.

We organize our discussion in terms of the existing periodification for this area: Early (ca. 500 BC-AD 650, sometimes called Formative), Middle (ca. AD 650–900) and Late (ca. AD 900–1400/1470) (González and Pérez 1972) (Figure 30.2). Instead of discussing each period as an evolutionary stage in a unified developmental sequence, we adopt a perspective that focuses on the lived experiences of the past groups. We discuss how landscapes, places, and identities were socially constructed and negotiated in each period, stressing the importance of daily life experiences and interactions as much as the central role of material culture in these socio-cultural processes.