Ritual Violence in the Ancient Andes

"This volume makes a significant contribution to our understanding of ritual killings and 'sacrifice.' The contributors to develop methods, ethnographic analogies, and social theory that other scholars working outside of the Andes will find of great use." -- Richard Sutter, Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology, Indiana-Perdue University Fort Wayne "This book is unique. It offers a multidisciplinary and integrated view of the very complex theme of human sacrifice and ritual killing, including data from osteology, ethnohistory, art, and archaeology." -- Maria C. Lozada, Research Associate, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago

The first comprehensive synthesis of a major topic in Andean archaeology, this volume reconstructs the complex and situational motivations underlying ritual killing and the broader range of pre- and post-killing rites that were integral to ancient liturgi

Traditions of sacrifice exist in almost every human culture and often embody a society’s most meaningful religious and symbolic acts. Ritual violence was particularly varied and enduring in the prehistoric South American Andes, where human lives, animals, and material objects were sacrificed in secular rites or as offerings to the divine. Spectacular discoveries of sacrificial sites containing the victims of violent rituals have drawn ever-increasing attention to ritual sacrifice within Andean archaeology. Responding to this interest, this volume provides the first regional overview of ritual killing on the pre-Hispanic north coast of Peru, where distinct forms and diverse trajectories of ritual violence developed during the final 1,800 years of prehistory.

Presenting original research that blends empirical approaches, iconographic interpretations, and contextual analyses, the contributors address four linked themes—the historical development and regional variation of north coast sacrifice from the early first millennium AD to the European conquest; a continuum of ritual violence that spans people, animals, and objects; the broader ritual world of sacrifice, including rites both before and after violent offering; and the use of diverse scientific tools, archaeological information, and theoretical interpretations to study sacrifice. This research proposes a wide range of new questions that will shape the research agenda in the coming decades, while fostering a nuanced, scientific, and humanized approach to the archaeology of ritual violence that is applicable to archaeological contexts around the world.