The Development of Prehistoric Complex Societies: Amazonia, A Tropical Forest

Anna C. Roosevelt University of Illinois at Chicago and Field Museum of Natural History
ABSTRACT Early research in Amazonia suggested the possibility that prehistoric complex societies had developed in several regions, despite assumptions that humid tropical conditions would prevent such developments. Under the rubric of cultural ecology, various processes have been hypothesized for the development of these societies: invasion and subsequent devolution of groups from expanding states in temperate regions outside Amazonia, social and ecological interactions among regions within Amazonia, and social adaptation to local ecological variation. The hypotheses differ, but researchers generally employed ecological determinist and functionalist assumptions of causality: from environment to subsistence and population and thence to social adaptation. Recent thinking on complex society has distilled the concept of heterarchy as an alternative to cultural materialist explanations for the processes of formation and functioning of a range of complex societies. This chapter examines the accumulated data on complex societies in two Amazonian regionsMarajo Island at the mouth of the Amazon and the Santarem-Monte Alegre region in the Lower Amazonin light of the theoretical issues about the formation and functioning of complex societies worldwide. Results of the comparison tend to accord more with heterarchical hypotheses than with the earlier cultural ecological hypotheses. In Amazonia, non-state societies appear to have organized large, dense populations, intensive subsistence adaptations, large systems of earthworks, production of elaborate artworks and architecture for considerable periods of time. The more centralized and hierarchical of these societies had developed more ritual and material culture related to conflict, and had a heavier impact on their environments. The patterns of social development in Amazonia can still be causally related to environmental patterns through cultural ecological theory, but the new data suggests the need to envision a more mutualistic, variable, and complex causal nexus.

PARADIGMS FOR PREEVDUSTRIAL SOCIAL COMPLEXITY Amazonia has relevance for theories of complex societies. Theorists have related the process of social evolution in Amazonia in different ways to factors of environment, economy, population, ritual, and social context (Carneiro 1970; Lathrap 1970, 1974; Meggers 1971, 1972, 1988; Meggers and Evans

1957; Roosevelt 1980) at a time when there were little or no relevant archaeological data. Data on the interaction of such factors in the indigenous occupation of this region, therefore, can shed light on the origins and nature of complex human communities. This chapter, therefore, outlines Amazonian cultural ecology and culture history in relation to general theory of complex societies.

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Early Explanations From Cultural Ecology Explaining the rise of complex societies in prehistory was one of the abiding interests of archaeologists and social anthropologists through the 1970s and 1980s. During those decades, a rough consensus about the problem emerged within the influential theoretical paradigm of cultural ecology (Cameiro 1970; Flannery 1972, 1976; Fried 1967; Harris 1968,1979; Price 1984; Sahlins 1972; Sanders and Price 1968; Service 1975; Willey 1971; Wright 1986; Wright and Johnson 1975). According to this approach, the rise of complex societies was a cultural adaptation by growing human populations to ecologically heterogeneous regions. Centralized, hierarchical organization, it was reasoned, was the best possible way to organize cultural systems in such situations. Centralized leadership ensured political stability by controlling succession to rule. Central planners designed and built large-scale public works that were necessary for the functioning of the system at several levels. They created urban centers, routes for transport, and irrigation systems. Centrally organized intensive agriculture produced food for the ever-larger population, and redistribution of harvests evened out supplies within the large, heterogeneous region. Armed forces under the leadership of rulers kept the peace in the densely populated realm and protected the region from hostile outsiders. Objects of fine art and monumental architecture were produced and consumed for use as prestige goods for ruling groups and their allies. Heterarchical Explanations By the 1990s, thinking about the nature and origins of complex societies has changed somewhat as ideas about modem societies and natural systems have changed. Insights into the nature of complex societies also have emerged from new empirical data during the period of rethinking. From these changes, a new general consensus has emerged in the form of heterarchical approaches, suggesting that complex, large-scale communities could be organized by various nonhierarchical, noncentralized methods implemented in local communities, rather than mainly in hierarchical forms imposed from the top

Anna C. Roosevelt
down (Arnold 1996; Earle 1987; Ehrenreich et al. 1995; Feinman and Neitzel 1984; Mclntosh, this volume; Paynter 1989; Price and Brown 1985; Robertshaw, this volume). Scholars writing about heterarchy emphasized that there were many different kinds of complex societies, and varied combinations of causes in their formation. The evolutionary stages and typologies did not fit the empirical record either, so the theoreticians began to retool the models and explanations. This theoretical shift in anthropology parallels paradigm shifts in some other research fields, such as physics, in which chaos theory allows for more accident, variation, and multiplicity of causes in large, complex systems (Gleich 1987). NEW DATA AVAILABLE FROM FIELDWORK The idea that early complex cultures developed because societies needed complex organization to ensure the welfare of the population and stability of society did not pan out in fieldwork. Scholars pointed out that regional-scale ecological and cultural complexity could be centrifugal politically and act against stable central rule, rather than encourage it (Paynter 1989). Uncentralized complex societies had earlier been assumed by functionalists to be unstable politically; they were described as "cycling" endlessly (e.g., Earle 1987; Redmond, Gasson, and Spencer this volume; Wright 1984). But because of their broader, grassroots base, heterarchical formations appear to achieve more political stability and cultural longevity than hierarchical systems imposed from above by small ruling groups (Roosevelt n.d.a). The lack of a supra-regional central administrative hierarchy did not necessarily lead to economic collapse or social disorder. Research on regional sequences also suggested that local, participatory management of resources tended to be more stable ecologically than top-down management by outsiders. Evidence of resource degradation is more common in periods when hierarchical, centralized polities held sway, even when overall population density in the polities was not much greater than in periods when uncentralized societies were in charge (Allen, this volume; Piperno and Pearsall 1998; Roosevelt n.d.a). Furthermore, prehistoric polities with less centralized and hierarchical organization appeared to last much

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longer in the archaeological record than those with such as the Inca empire (Morris and Thompson 1985), strong, superordinate control (Roosevelt 1989,1999a, centralized redistribution seems to have involved a n.d.a). Examples of long-lived, heterarchical very small subset of resources, manufactured goods, societies are Northwest coast prehistoric and historic and facilities utilized by elites and their retainers, cultures (Coupland 1996), the Calusa (Marquardt rather than systematic collection and redistribution 1987, 1988), Middle Woodland societies (Price and of large amounts of goods throughout the societies. Brown 1985) in North America, the cotton The goal and function of redistribution of goods in preceramic and initial ceramic cultures of Peru these indigenous complex societies, thus, seem to (Burger and Salazar Burger 1980; Griederetal. 1988; have differed from earlier theoretical expectations. Quilter 1985; Roosevelt 1999a), pre-Chin Chinese Rather than ensuring adequate food supplies for the societies (Chang 1980, 1986), early Vietnamese and general population, centralized redistribution seems Thai mound-dwelling societies (Higham 1989; to have been aimed mainly at underwriting the Higham and Thosarat 1998), prehistoric West African economic base and luxury consumption of the ruling societies (Mclntosh, this volume; Robertshaw, this group (Earle 1997; Helms 1979; Paynter 1989). In volume), and pre-Dynastic Egypt (Hoffman 1979). the archaeological record, regional populations rarely Top-down, supraregional, centralized rule, in improved in nutritional status and general health due contrast, was often characterized by greater to the imposition of a militaristic state administration ecological disruption and cultural instability, over indigenous, nonstate communities; rather, Examples are the North American Mississippian skeletal paleopathology shows that local populations cultures (Smith 1978; Steponaitis 1991), Middle and in nonstate complex societies had a better quality of Late horizon Peruvian cultures (Keatinge 1988), life (Cohen 1985,1989; Cohen and Armelagos 1984; dynastic Egypt (Trigger et al. 1983), China after the Cohen and Bennett 1998; Roosevelt 1984, 1999b). Chin unification (Chang 1986), and the Vietnam delta Presumably because of their reliance on public cultures after the Han Chinese conquest (Higham opinion, non-state leaders may have collected 1989). quantities of foodstuffs and goods to give away to Many researchers have concluded that many the general population, as in the "big man" model complex societies did not operate in ways expected (Sahlins 1963). Without means of coercion, by the functionalists. For example, the documentary apparently, the elite's capacity to oppress and deprive data on societies such as the Chimu (Moseley and large numbers of people was quite limited. Cordy-Collins 1990) and the Maya city states (Potter Another insight from recent research (Roosevelt and King 1995; Schele and Freidel 1990) showed 1991, 1993, 1999a, n.d.a) is the recognition of the little evidence of the regional centralized political existence of long-lived, indigenous complex societies administration, facilities, and management that states with monumental public works and elaborate fine were assumed to have. Accumulating ethnohistoric art in environments, such as tropical forests, that lack and archaeological evidence do not show that the substantial regional heterogeneity and production of everyday food and tools was circumscription that the cultural materialists necessarily centralized or that these goods were identified as the habitat of state formation (Sanders necessarily centrally collected and redistributed over and Price 1968). Examples are: the Maya (Lucero, long distances in complex societies (Earle 1997; this volume; Potter and King 1995); Khmer "cityMorris and Thompson 1985; Potter and King 1995). states" (Higham 1989); the terra firme Amazonian In addition, the making of objects of fine art and mound cultures, such as Faldas de Sangay, of the monumental art and architecture was not restricted Ecuadorian Oriente (Porras 1987); and Marajoara in to state societies with ruling elites; such objects and the deltaic floodplain at the mouth of the Brazilian structures also were produced for consumption in Amazon (Roosevelt 1991; Schaan 1997). many communities lacking a distinct, superordinate Representatives of earlier views of complex societies elite (Burger 1984; Burger and Salazar Burger 1980; had suggested that even apparently homogeneous Grieder et al. 1988; Quilter 1985; Roosevelt 1991, rainforests might be heterogeneous in distribution of 1993, 1997, 1999a; Silverman 1990). Even in the key resources such as salt and rock for grindstones more centralized and hierarchical of these societies, (e.g., Rathje 1972). This issue of the role of resource

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distribution on social organization has been debated, but recent research has not shown that such resources were under central political control, as envisioned in the theory, although the elite may have exploited people's attraction to such resources (e.g., Lucero, this volume; Potter and King 1995). Thus, Maya hieroglyphs (Schele and Freidel 1990) do not record any such systems of administration. Nor are the high offices recorded in ethnohistoric documents on coastal Peruvian societies linked to regional administration of such resources. Rather, they refer to duties in the household, ritual activities, and personal grooming of the ruler (Moseley and CordyCollins 1990). Ownership of resources in these cases appear to belong to local communities, not to the central ruler. Nevertheless, there are differences in the development and organization of social complexity in heterogeneous habitats versus more uniform habitats in that populations in circumscribed resource zones generally seem more prone to conquest and rule by paramounts than populations in resource areas lacking circumscription (Carneiro 1970; Feinman andNeitzel 1984; Roosevelt 1999a). Finally, complex society theorists also have now broadened the range of subsistence economies that could be the basis for hierarchical regional societies, Hunting and gathering as well as shifting horticulture can be seen to have supported the development of organizational complexity in several parts of the world (Coupland 1996; Marquardt 1987,1988; Price and Brown 1985; Roosevelt 1999b). Intensive agriculture, where practiced, seems to have been a political economic strategy resorted to by existing elites, rather than an adaptation to population growth and a stimulus to initial development of complexity (Earle 1997).

Anna C. Roosevelt
makes a society complex, since some earlier defining traits in functionalist cultural ecological theory are linked to debatable views of causality. Thus, assessing complexity from the magnitude of public work systems, a common functionalist methodology (e.g., Sanders and Price 1968), becomes problematic if centralized organization is only one of many ways to execute such projects. Furthermore, if socioeconomic strata can exist independently of central rule, then evidence for such strata are not sufficient evidence for central rule (Roosevelt 1991). Some independent source of data on political organization would have to be sought. Similarly, complexity had sometimes been claimed for sites merely on the presence of monumental ritual facilities, based on the assumption that such complexes would be controlled by rulers (e.g., Feldman 1985; Lathrap 1985). But nowadays, it is recognized that such ritual facilities may or may not be under central control (Creamer 1996; Quilter 1985; Roosevelt 1999a; Silverman 1990). Another criterion used as an index of political and social complexity had been the existence of fine art, especially large scale, anthropomorphic art (Meggers and Evans 1957). But here also, the empirical record of archaeology has raised questions. It has shown that people in societies without hierarchical central administrations commonly created large-scale fine art (Ehrenreich et al. 1995;Griederetal. 1988; Quilter 1985; Quilter et al. 1991; Roosevelt 1991, 1993, 1999a). The large areal extent and population density of complex communities remain noncontroversial criteria for most researchers (but see Coupland 1996 for a discussion of single-community complex societies), but size and density criteria are not always applied uniformly, since a priori theoretical

RECONCILING THE THEORY AND DATA

ON COMPLEX SOCIETIES Theoretical formulations are abstractions, and, if pursued and refined purely by logical criteria, can get quite far away from the particular human groups whose behavior is being explained. The contrasts that human societies in particular times and places present to general theories should be incentives to rethink the theories. In sorting out the data from actual archaeological and historical complex societies for theoretical insights, one task is to redefine what

expectations influence the classifications. For

example, the lowland Maya site of Tikal had been denied urban status initially because its residences w e r e n o t laid out in the strict grid pattern found at the highland center of Teotihuacan (Sanders and p r i c e 1968). Settlement survey, nevertheless, revealed the plan of a very large urban site with a specialized central precinct (summarized in Ashmore 1981), Similarly, some sources describe as small, temporary villages (Meggers 1988), prehistoric Amazonian settlements whose tens of hectares of densely occupied areas (Porras 1987; Roosevelt 1980,

Prehistoric Complex Societies in Amazonia .

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1991,1997) dwarf the approximately 10 to 20 hectare Quilter 1985) or Formative Central American areas of early "cities" of Formative Mesoamerica societies (Hoopes 1987). (Grove 1987) and Mesopotamia (Melaart 1975). In In a society that had graded ranking but lacked regard to the magnitude and design of public works, major, discrete, horizontal social strata and central potential evidence for social complexity has not been administration, there might be great differences in widely recognized (Johnson and Earle 1987; Steward wealth, status, and health between those at the top and Faron 1959). For example, there are some and bottom of the society, but most people would lowland cultures whose sites had greater volume of have access to adequate housing, ritual facilities, and purposeful earth-mound construction (Heckenberger luxury goods. In such societies, there might be war 1996; Porras 1987; Roosevelt 1991, 1997) than captives or low-ranking relations who were poor and architectural sites in central highland Mexico often ill-fed, but these would be few in number. Some considered to represent early state societies (Grove Northwest coast societies (Coupland 1996), some 1987). Complexity criteria also have run into trouble Amazonian societies (Nimuendaju 1949), and some in the assessment of settlement evidence for Classic and Pre-Classic Maya societies, such as those administrative hierarchies in different regions. For centered at Tikal, Guatemala and Copan, Honduras the mound systems at the mouth of the Amazon, for (Potter and King 1995), exhibit this pattern of example, one can impose a three-tier site size differentiation, for example, classification of single mounds, small groups of three A society with central political administration, or four mounds, and large groups of 15 to 40 mounds, in contrast, would be expected to have functionally but the mounds have similar architecture, features, specialized residential settlements with some sort of and artifacts, regardless of size. Site size hierarchies central facility serving administrative operations. Its that had been accepted as indirect evidence of central architecture and fine art would be expected to administration thus may or may not relate to the emphasize centralization, hierarchy and force, if political economic function of communities anything. If there were distinct hierarchical (Mclntosh, this volume; Paynter 1989; Robertshaw, socioeconomic groups, the archaeologist would find this volume). very different qualities of life in different segments Better criteria for assessing and classifying of the population. The osteology and burial patterns complexity are the specific patterns of differentiation of certain Classic and especially Post-Classic Maya within societies, rather than the mere existence of societies seem to show this pattern, as does Moche differentiation. Thus, among archaeological societies society of north coast Peru (Donnan 1978; Donnan one could distinguish non-ranked sociopolitical and Mackay 1978). For example, at Tikal and Altar differentiation, graded socioeconomic ranking, and de Sacrificios, individuals in the richest graves were major, discrete levels of stratification. taller or had fewer nutritional and infectious bone In an unranked society, for example, simple pathologies than the people in poorer graves interpersonal differences would not be accompanied (Haviland 1967; Saul 1972). In Moche sites, the by consistent qualitative differences in residential skeletons in graves identified as elite by cultural quality, nutritional and health status, and occupation, criteria were taller and had fewer pathologies than In a society without central rule, there might be individuals in the numerous graves classified large, community ritual or political facilities, but culturally as non-elite (Allison 1984). access to them would not be centralized under the control of a permanent hierarchy. If, in addition, the PROBLEM-ORIENTED DATA ON society lacked subordination by force under a longCOMPLEX SOCIETIES IN AMAZONIA term central leader, the art and architecture would be expected to lack images such as large, wellEvidence from Amazonia has relevance to the ornamented persons on thrones lording over groups theories of social complexity discussed in the of naked or poorly-dressed, abject, small, non-elite previous sections of this article in several specific persons. An example of such noncentralized, non- ways. It sheds light on the relationship between stratified complex societies might include Peruvian environmental patterns and the patterns of social cotton preceramic societies (Grieder et al. 1988; complexity. It also gives evidence of variation in

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the relationship between subsistence, population, and social organization. Another illuminating facet of Amazonia's culture history is the evidence it gives of the varying political relationship of fine art and monumental public works. In the early days of American archaeology, Amazonia was thought to lack complex prehistoric societies, due to isolation from Andean centers of state formation and to its rainforest environment, which was thought to prevent intensive agriculture and population aggregation. The theoretical background for this early interpretation was the cultural ecology of Julian Steward (Steward and Faron 1959), and it flourished briefly during a data vacuum when there were few generally available published sources on Amazonian archaeology and ethnohistory. The view was encouraged by the observation that modern Amazonian societies apparently lacked the traits characteristic of complexity. Following the general Radcliffe-Brown approach, it was often tacitly assumed by social anthropologists that the ethnographic societies that they studied would not be significantly different from prehistoric societies, as they were both adapted to the same environment (Maybury-Lewis 1979). At the time, the culture-busting effects of European conquest (Porro 1994; Roosevelt 1994) were unsuspected by many anthropologists. Amazonian anthropologists, educated before the extensive application of radiocarbon dating to archaeology, tended to envision short, simple prehistoric occupations (Evans and Meggers 1960; Meggers 1952). Even later evolutionary anthropologists tend to conceive of modern Amazonian societies as representing a primitive stage in human evolution (Johnson and Earle 1987), although these recent Amazonian cultures came into being after the dislocation, decimation and forced acculturation that Amazonians underwent in the European conquest period, and are very different from the late prehistoric societies that came before them (Heckenberger 1996; Roosevelt 1993, 1994). Most ethnographic accounts have depicted Amazonian Indians as living in small, independent villages lacking stratification and supra-community political integration (Hames and Vickers 1983; Meggers 1971). The accounts suggest that the tropical forest environment seems to disperse people in the food quest. Amazonian Indians usually practice

Anna C. Roosevelt
shifting root horticulture and foraging, not intensive monocrop agriculture. Most art and architecture are of perishable materials. Permanent monumental architecture and art are not in evidence, and human images are relatively rare. Most art represents geometric images or the animals of the forest and river habitat, their body parts or markings. There is no obvious political art, such as images of rulers on seats or rulers' emblems, and items such as decorated or representational stools, which are ruler's symbols in some parts of the world, are not limited to the use of headmen: elders, children and women going through certain rituals also customarily sit on the stools (Kensinger et al. 1975; Roe 1982). Prehistoric Art The first archaeological evidence available for the existence of prehistoric complex societies in Amazonia consisted of images from prehistoric art, whose subject matter differed greatly from the modern images. The prehistoric images had appeared in publications since the 19th century, but only rarely in publications in English (Howard 1947; Nordenskiold 1930). Early theorists of the evolution of complex society, such as Julian Steward (Steward and Faron 1959), did not refer extensively to Amazonian sources in foreign languages. By the 1970s, however, such images had been more widely published in English-language sources. The images included large statues of men or women seated on stools wearing emblems of rank in the Polychrome Horizon culture of the upper Amazon in Ecuador (Evans and Meggers 1968), Peru (Lathrap 1970), and the middle Amazon in Brazil (Hilbert 1968; Howard 1947) and in the Incised and Punctate Horizon cultures of the lower Amazon (Palmatary 1960). Early on, archaeological sites had furnished contextual information for the art, revealing that the Polychrome Horizon art came from large, discrete cemeteries in large artificial mounds (Derby 1879; Hartt n.d.; Netto 1885), and that the Incised and Punctate art came from features in large garbage middens and from bell-shaped pits in structures (Nimuendaju 1949, n.d.). Excavations and surface collections also show that the local units of the two supraregional pottery horizons were large, stylistic regions tens of thousands of square kilometers in size (Nimuendaju 1949; Roosevelt 1991). Within such

Prehistoric Complex Societies in Amazonia

local stylistic regions, settlements, facilities, utilitarian material culture and art objects were closely similar and comparable in age (Roosevelt 1991), fitting the criteria for true horizon styles, traditionally associated with the realms of complex societies in American archaeology (Willey 1971) and contrasting with the much more variable patterning of culture within indigenous regions of Amazonia during the 19th and 20th centuries (e.g., da la Penha 1986). Ethnohistoric Accounts Another important body of evidence for the existence of complex societies in Amazonia is the corpus of ethnohistoric accounts. Several accounts had been published before or at the time of cultural ecologists' first theoretical statements about social evolution in Amazonia (Acuna 1891; Bettendorf 1910; Medina 1934; Nimuendaju 1949; Porro 1994; Roosevelt 1991:403-431), but the information was for the most part not integrated into their explanations (Steward and Faron 1959). What was interpretively significant in the accounts were descriptions of paramount chiefs claiming descent from deities, large sedentary populations, capital towns, artificial roads and causeways, intensive agriculture, large-scale organized warfare, tribute, endogamous elites, distinct occupational groups, and elaborate rituals of rank and stratification. The accounts are considered reliable, since the interpretively significant details are found in a wide range of independent accounts, including the observations made during the initial explorations by Europeans (Medina 1934), as well as slightly later accounts by seasoned secular (de Heriarte 1964) and religious administrators (Bettendorf 1910). REVISED EXPLANATIONS FOR AMAZONIAN SOCIAL COMPLEXITY When such archaeological and ethnohistoric evidence for complexity was later recognized, cultural ecologists working in Amazonia expanded their explanations in several directions. One research group, although recognizing that complex societies had existed in the lower Amazon and on Marajo, suggested that they were the short-lived result of an invasion from Andean centers of civilization

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(Meggers 1952, 1971, 1988; Meggers and Evans 1957). These researchers felt that there had never been dense populations or urban centers in Amazonia, and that the intrusive complex societies, poorly adapted for the tropical rainforest environment, quickly decayed into independent villages, Another cultural ecologist developed for Amazonia a corollary of the theory of environmental circumscription that he had developed for explaining the rise of civilization in arid uplands regions (Carneiro 1970). Originally, the circumscription theory had specified that states would only develop in rich river floodplains tightly circumscribed by deserts, the pattern found in the Andes and Nile regions. The development of irrigation agriculture j n m e arid, but nutrient-rich, habitats was considered Supposedlya k e v element in state formation. uniform habitats with abundant rain and poor soil, like tropical rainforests, were not expected to have indigenous state development, even if the human populations grew and pressed on the available resources. Carneiro suggested, instead, that in Amazonia the difference in faunal resources between the rich-soil river floodplain and the poor upland forest w o u i d have resulted in a process of "social circumscription," leading to the rise of complex chiefdoms without the development of intensive agriculture. Alternatively, I suggested that the existence of poorer terra firme rainforests around the floodplains might retard the development of political centralization and hierarchical social stratification by serving as a refuge for homesteaders reluctant to submit to strong, top down political authority (Roosevelt 1980, 1991). RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD RESEARCH Recent archaeological research in the Amazon has supplied more data about prehistoric Amazonian societies for some regions. Geophysical and topographic survey and stratigraphic excavation on Marajo and at Santarem/Monte Alegre (Figure 2.1) (Bevan 1989; Roosevelt 1991, 1993, 1994 nd.b n d c ) md s u r v e y ^ d excavations in the Upper Xingu (Heckenberger 1996) and in the Oriente of Ecuador ( P o rras 1987; Salazar 1998) have uncovered abundant features and structures within mapped sites,

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Anna C. Roosevelt

Figure 2.1 Map of eastern Amazon showing location of Santarem and Monte Alegre and Teso dos Bichos, Guajara, and Os Camutins on Marajo Island, Brazil.

allowing interpretations of the composition and organization of communities. Radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dating and analysis of stratigraphy at sites on Marajo and at Santarem/ Monte Alegre have produced data on the developmental sequence (Quinn et al. n.d; Roosevelt 1991:100-114, 313-314; Roosevelt et al. 1991; Roosevelt et al. 1996). Archaeobotany and isotopic chemistry have provided evidence about the history of the habitat and subsistence, and bioarchaeology has yielded data on human genetics and health status during prehistoric times in these regions (Roosevelt 1989,1991:384-384,1998a, b; Roosevelt etal. 1991; Roosevelt et al. 1996). All these findings shed light on earlier interpretations of the evolution of complex societies in Amazonia. The Polychrome Horizon of Marajo Island One region that has recently furnished some new data is Marajo Island at the mouth of the Amazon.

Overall Settlement Patterns The field studies of the Polychrome horizon communities in eastern Marajo suggest that they were very long lived settlements populated by people of Amazonian genetic affiliation, rather than ephemeral colonies of foreigners invading from the Andes (Roosevelt 1991:384-395). The layouts uncovered by total geophysical surveys and intensive testexcavation at mound sites such as Teso dos Bichos and Guajara are those of villages or towns of numerous large domestic structures, cemeteries, and middens, not just ceremonial centers empty of population (Figure 2.2) (Roosevelt 1991:155-384). Marajoara mounds typically range from one to five hectares and from three to ten meters high, but rare mounds are much larger, such as the one-kilometerlong mound in Os Camutins mound group (Roosevelt 1991:30-40, 156-160). The mounds are composed of successive earth platforms containing deep stacks of superimposed domestic house floors; large, multiunit baked clay hearth facilities; and cemetery urn

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Figure 2.2 Marajoara mound group reconstruction, Os Camutins, Anajas River, Marajo Island (after Roosevelt 1991: Fig. 5.25).

fields that are maintained, repaired, added to and regularly replaced (Roosevelt 1991:155-384). Such within-site patterns are those expected for sizable, long-term occupations, not for small, shifting villages and temporary camps. Polychrome regional cultural spheres covered considerable areas, between approximately 20,000 to 40,000 square kilometers. Radiocarbon dates show that the cultures had considerable longevity, many sites were continuously occupied from shortly after the time of Christ to about A.D.1100. In contrast to earlier functionalist interpretations, the archaeological record provides no evidence that the large, complex Polychrome horizon communities represented by these sites were administered by centralized, hierarchical political groups. Several hundred major mounds have been identified, of which about 20 have been surfacecollected or test excavated (Meggers and Evans 1957; Palmatary 1950, de la Penha 1986; Roosevelt 1991). Research procedures involved examination of all major mounds in several Marajo subregions, such as the Anajas and Lake Arari areas. Statistically, this number of mounds is an adequate sample for judging

the range of variability among the about 200 mound sites known. Mound sites of the same subperiod differ greatly from each other in size, but do not differ dramatically in the kinds of objects or architecture, Mounds occur either singly, in small groups or in very large groups (see Figure 2.2), but so far it has not been possible to demonstrate the existence of qualitatively distinct sites that might have functioned as administrative centers. Within-site Patterns of Residences and Cemeteries The residences and cemeteries are the only structures yet uncovered within mounds, and those mapped or excavated at particular mounds do not differ one from another in ways that could be interpreted as evidence of social stratification. This pattern contrasts with the evidence for special residences in Formative Mesoamerican settlements of similar scale (Flannery 1976). Although there may have been gradations of rank within regional populations, so far it is difficult to make a case for distinct, discrete strata. Our 42 stratified random sample test excavations at the sites of Teso dos Bichos (Roosevelt 1991) and Guajara (Roosevelt n.d.b) show

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Anna C. Roosevelt

Figure 2.3 Marajoara urn from Guajara, Anajas River. Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belem (after Roosevelt 1991:Fig.l.l7F).

that houses, which have mud floors and adobe hearths, contain mainly domestic ceramic wares. Occasionally a decorated funerary urn will be buried under the floor of a house, but the great majority are buried closely together in the cemeteries. The cemeteries are located near houses toward the edges of the mounds. More than 40 separate cemeteries have been surface collected or test excavated, and several that have been geophysically mapped and test excavated are slated for broad-area excavation in the near future (Meggers and Evans 1957; Palmatary 1950; de la Penha 1986; Roosevelt 1991). All cemeteries reported include the elaborately decorated pottery as well as plain vessels, but there is no clear segregation of plain and fancy pottery. In fact, decorated burial urns with their accompaniments are sometimes placed within large, plain urns. There is variation in the number and kind of artifacts buried with funerary urns, but no uniquely rich burials. Highly decorated pottery is also found in unroofed areas of sites. Since this pottery includes very large, decorated, use-worn cooking and serving dishes and the remains of special food, such as very large fish and turtles, it is considered the remains of feasting. The modeled and painted human images in the

funerary and feasting art (Figure 2.3) do not seem overtly political. They may bear potent shamanic symbols, such as rattles and snakes, and there are objects such as ceramic stools, but there are no known images of individuals seated on stools holding what might be emblems of rank or office (numerous illustrations of Marajoara art are published in Nordenskiold 1930; Palmatary 1950; de la Penha 1986:190-191; Roosevelt 1991).
Subsistence, Environment, and Population

Subsistence, environment, and population characteristics in Marajoara sites also differ from what cultural ecologists expected. Contrary to the theoreticians' expectations that complex societies are characterized by intensive agriculture, Polychrome horizon subsistence is not a system of intensive, monocrop cultivation but rather is a mixed system of cultivation and foraging (Roosevelt 1991:373-395). A wide range of plants were cultivated. Maize is present, but is very rare, and the stable carbon isotopes of a sample of skeletons (N=23) have a wide range of variability, rarely showing the positive values associated with staple maize cultivation (17 assays reported in

Prehistoric Complex Societies in Amazonia

Roosevelt 1991:384-388 and six unpublished assays). Among the plant foods, native herb seeds and tree fruits have been identified (Roosevelt 1991:375379), and root crops, which are difficult to recover from archaeological deposits, also may have been cultivated. Certain water-loving palms with nutritious fruits were widely cultivated. The fauna in domestic refuse (Roosevelt 1991:379-384) are mainly the bones of small fish and small turtles, which are the most abundant creatures in the faunal biomass. Large, rare faunal species occur in openair parts of sites, accompanied by pieces of large, decorated serving dishes that are ceremonially disposed of by "killing." These species and the dishes are interpreted as feasting refuse, since they are not in secluded, exclusive contexts that elites might control but are out in the open in the midst of houses. The biological remains and stable isotope analyses show a seasonally flooding tropical biome that was more densely wooded and less seasonal than today (Roosevelt n.d.a). The tropical forest and floodplain environment appears to have supplied plentiful food for communities, for there is little skeletal evidence for chronic nutritional stress or severe disease. Most people have gum infections, and a few have cribra orbitalia, an anemic pathology associated with intestinal parasites, but no skeletons have pathologies associated with severe anemia, and infectious lesions are very rare (Roosevelt 1991:388395). These patterns in the osteology are consistent with the lifestyle of a large, relatively sedentary population that does not have discrete socioeconomic strata. The number of mound sites, of houses per mound platform level (reduced to account for noncontemporary houses) and of hearths per house in excavated sites suggest a regional population of more than 100,000 and a density of about seven persons per square kilometer, comparable to mainstream Amazonian ethnohistoric accounts of population densities (Roosevelt 1991:38-39,341-342,404-405). Such a population would be expected to have required the sort of investment in long-term garden plantings and intensive fishing that the archaeological subsistence remains indicate. Summary The general picture from the Marajoara cultural remains, then, is of populous, wealthy, but apparently uncentralized, societies. Their populations lived in

23 sometimes sizable, long-term communities atop large-scale earth constructions, taking sustenance from fish, horticultural crops, and orchards. They created highly elaborate and often monumental art, and craft objects that were available to all residential groups, although in somewhat different quality and quantity. Such differences are more consonant with graded ranking than with socioeconomic stratification. The Santarem Culture The only other area in the mainstream of the Lower Amazon that has a range of data with which to evaluate the nature of indigenous complex societies is Santarem/Monte Alegre at the mouth of the Tapajos river in Brazil (see Figure 2.1). The late prehistoric culture here is known for its elaborate modeledincised and painted pottery, which belongs to the socalled Incised and Punctate horizon (Palmatary 1960; de la Penha 1986). Closely related to the Santarem culture is the poorly known Konduri culture, whose sphere of influence adjoins that of the Santarem culture to the north and west (Palmatary 1960). We know about the Santarem culture from a variety of sources: the material culture, the archaeological sites, and the contact period records of the area. About 25 radiocarbon dates from Santarem and a few other sites indicate a beginning for the culture soon after A.D. 500, a florescence in the 14th and early 15th centuries, and a demise during European conquest and missionization between the mid-15th and early 16th centuries. The stratigraphy, pottery and dates from test excavations at Santarem indicate that the best known, so-called classic ceramic phase of the culture is pre-, not post-contact, between A.D. 1300 and 1440 (Quinn et al. n.d). (Age estimates for the relevant radiocarbon dates, WK-6832 to WK-6846, are essentially the same whether calibrated or not.) Our picture of the society, therefore, may inadvertently combine details that were accurate only for certain periods, not the whole time span of the culture. Settlement Patterns The settlement pattern of the Santarem culture differs somewhat from the Marajoara culture at the mouth of the Amazon. The Santarem regional cultural sphere is about the same size as the local

24 Polychrome regions, but most occupations are shallower (ca. 50 cm to 1 m) and much larger in area. Very large areas of dense, black garbage and structural remains occur in settlements, some of which measure several square kilometers in area. The late prehistoric archaeological site at the present city of Santarem, for example, had an occupied area of about four square kilometers (Figure 2.4). The black soil garbage deposits of the culture are very numerous and extensive. They are ubiquitous along the banks of the Lower Amazon and often extend continuously for many miles (Nimuendaju n.d.; Smith 1980). My colleagues and I conducted geophysical and topographic surveys over almost one square kilometer of the archaeological site at Santarem city (Bevan 1989) and excavated in ten areas to test the results of the surveys (Roosevelt n.d.c). Together the surveys and excavations suggest that people lived in large, oblong structures equipped with bell-shaped storage pits (Roosevelt n.d.c). Informal surface survey data acquired earlier record other facilities in

Anna C. Roosevelt
the vicinity, such as round wells at sites and elevated roads and causeways running between sites (Nimuendaju 1949, n.d.). Art, Material Culture, and Social Organization Material culture was rich, and objects were often elaborately decorated. Many of the elaborately decorated dishes are food-service pieces for display (Figure 2.5) and appear to have been widely available in the community. Sherds of such pieces are found in large numbers of small and large sites. There are also musical instruments, such as bird ocarinas and female figurine rattles, and other ingenious, finely maderitualobjects, such as snuffing implements. The carving and grinding of stone tools was greatly elaborated. Many ground stone objects appear to be wood-carving tools of varied sizes and types, such as axes, adzes, chisels and awls. Other stone objects are semi-precious stone ornaments, such as jade frog pendants and head-band ornaments apparently depicting humans (de la Penha 1986:168-169).

i i
Jy\
.

: ^
J

ttrti
' ' '

'

:6jS
|

lax

ZONA URBANA
CIDADE DE SANiaREMF

Figure 2.4 Map of modern Santarem city. The prehistoric occupation lies mainly in the Aldeia and Port sections.

Prehistoric Complex Societies in Amazonia

25

Figure 2.5 Decorated display vessel from Santarem city, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi (de la Penha 1986:150).

According to the conquest records, these carvings were considered objects of value and were traded widely and worn especially by women. There were also large stone carvings in the shape of "alter-ego figures," which have one figure, usually an animal, crouched on the shoulders of another (Palmatary 1960). These carvings have standardized double perforations at the base, presumably to attach them to a support. They could be interpreted as emblems or scepters. Of particular interest are the archaeological lunate-blade "axes" from the cultural sphere of Santarem and of closely related cultures (Figure 2.6). Similar implements are identified in early ethnographic collections from the area as war clubs (de la Penha 1986). Pierced projectile points have also been found in some Santarem sites (Hartt n.d.). During the European conquest of the Santarem area at the close of the reign of this culture, large war parties of as many as 60 warriors per canoe were described as attacking the invaders with lethal poisoned arrows (Medina 1934; Nimuendaju 1949). Contact period records also suggest that each residential community was obliged to provide able bodied persons for war efforts (Nimuendaju 1949). Though rare, poorly treated captive slaves were

observed by some chroniclers (Palmatary 1960). In the art corpus from the site of Santarem are very large ceramic figures of men and women depicted with personal details said to indicate high rank, according to conquest records (Nimuendaju 1949) (Figure 2.7). The figures have elongated, slit earlobes and elaborate painted body decoration. The women wear headbands with carved ornaments and hold up bowls. The men wear radial headdresses and shoulder bags and hold rattles. Such figures are rare compared to other types of representational ceramic objects. At Santarem city they were found broken but complete in bell-shaped pits during excavations for construction (Palmatary 1960). So far, such figures are not known from other, smaller settlements. On the basis of their iconography and distribution, the figures might be interpreted as evidence of political or ritual centralization and hierarchy. Subsistence and Environment Only a few sites of the classic Santarem culture have been excavated with archaeobotanical recovery techniques, so we do not have comprehensive knowledge of subsistence. The plant remains and

26

Anna C. Roosevelt
stable carbon isotope ratios of wood and tree fruits of the time show a strong dominance of canopied tropical forest vegetation but also the possibility that increasing human population density in the area resulted in some thinning and opening of the forest (Roosevelt n.d.a). A large late prehistoric pole and thatch house preserved in a cave site near Monte Alegre measured more than three by eight meters. In the foundations were desiccated corncobs as well as a wide range of tree fruits, cultivated gourds, and varied faunal remains. The foundations of longhouses geophysically mapped in the archaeological site at Santarem city measured about eight meters long and three meters wide in the radar profiles. The house floors and associated garbage contain rare carbonized maize kernels and numerous tree fruits. There were also numerous small sharp flint chips that could have been used in manioc graters. The conquerors' records mention both manioc and maize as important food crops, but state that some communities in the area emphasized maize as a staple food (de Heriarte 1964). Maize had a ritual role; it was mainly consumed as beer served in lommunity ceremonies (Nimuendaju 1949). Each family owed a "tithe" of their maize crop to the community for making the beer (Nimuendaju 1949). Faunal food was valued, and there was large-scale,

Figure 2.6 Santarem style clubs, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi (de la Penha 1986:182).

Figure 2.7 Large, hollow human image from Santarem city, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi (de la Penha 1986:155).

Prehistoric Complex Societies in Amazonia

intensive fishing and extensive corralling of water turtles near settlements (Acuna 1891). As on Marajo, however, tiny fishes were the daily faunal fare, according to the bioarchaeological finds in garbage. Turtle remains occur mostly in the ceremonial features, not in the everyday garbage (Roosevelt n.d.c). Only in the remains of small, hinterland Santarem-culture settlements, such as Caverna da Pedra Pintada, is a broad spectrum of fauna encountered. Possibly around large settlements, such as that at Santarem city, larger fauna other than river turtles had become scarce. With only one large site mapped and only two houses test excavated, it is not possible to estimate population density or distribution, but this is the area that conquest records suggest had a density of just under ten persons per square kilometer (see references above in section on Marajo subsistence, environment, and population). In the Santarem area, funerary disposal was even more highly ritualized than in the Polychrome culture on Marajo. Most bodies were highly processed and disposed of by cremation or secondary burial in bowls. Body processing steps described in the accounts include smoking, burial, exhumation, washing, and burning. The aim of these manipulations, according to the men who missionized the communities in this area in the 17th century (Bettendorf 1910), was to create ancestor relics to worship. They also stated that mummies of important ancestors were kept in special houses and brought out, refurbished, and displayed in periodic ceremonies each year; the mummified individuals were referred to as the "first mother" and "first father" (Nimuendaju 1949).
Ethnohistoric Accounts of Social Organization

27
by women is also recorded in the "myths of the Amazons," which describe communities led by warlike women shamans (Shoumatoff 1986:101108). According to the sources, the "nobles" were a separate group from those who worked in subsistence, suggesting that there may have been distinct occupational groups.
Summary

The general picture of the Santarem society accords better with the idea of a warlike complex chiefdom than does that of the Marajoara society. Ethnohistoric accounts, iconography, and settlement patterns all give evidence of a moderately centralized political hierarchy that claimed some tribute. Populations expanded rapidly during the existence of the society. Concurrently, food production intensified, maize may have become more important than before, and domestic storage facilities were developed. Despite the rarity of sites with the large human figures and semiprecious gems, however, all known occupation sites have abundant sherds of the highly decorated feasting-ceremonial pottery. In terms of stratification, then, there may have been a political elite over a population that worked for its subsistence and supplied tribute but that also seems to have enjoyed access to the fine pottery art and community ceremonies. Complex Societies Elsewhere in Amazonia Scattered data from other parts of the Amazon show that the complex societies of the Tapajos and Amazon mouths were not unique. In the Upper Xingu, researchers have mapped large settlements with multiple concentric rows of large houses with defensive precincts (Heckenberger 1996). In the Bolivian Amazon, extensive mound systems and field earthworks have been mapped and excavated (Deneven 1966; Dougherty and Calandra 1981-1982; Erickson 1980). The Bolivian mounds, some over ten meters high, are composed of building stages for villages or towns. Some were occupied for very long periods of time, beginning in the Formative period, about 1000 years ago. Some have continuous construction and occupation for more than two thousand years before the European conquest. In the volcanic Ecuadorian Amazon uplands, also, large mound systems were built and maintained between

The early European accounts of the vicinity of Santarem city mention warlike paramount rulers who claimed to be descended from gods. They also mention a paramount female religious figure who may have been a deified ancestor, since no one ever met her. Each sizable community in the area had a head person who was elevated above a group of lesser leaders, who were themselves elevated over residential leaders. The community leader recorded for the community at Santarem city was a highranking woman. According to the recorded anecdotes about her, the noble group she belonged to was endogamous (Bettendorf 1910). Mythic leadership

28

Anna C. Roosevelt

lOOB.C.and A.D. 1000(Athens 1989;Ponas 1987, in upland forest areas. We do not know much about Salazar 1998). The mounds cluster in a center, Faldas their history, but what is known suggests that such de Sangay, where there is a central ceremonial societies have existed in several areas of the Amazon precinct with anthropomorphic and zoomorphic since at least 1000 B.C. Contrary to expectations mound constructions (Figure 2.8). The mounds that their subsistence would be intensive agriculture, contain a wide range of finely decorated ceramics some groups relied on mixed foraging and and carved stone objects. The presence of hundreds horticulture, and others were intensive maize-staple of closely spaced, apparently residential mounds over farmers. The material achievements of the societies, an area of 12 square kilometers indicates a relatively whether in fine art or monumental construction, were large population for the society. The occupation is substantial, in no way less than those of complex associated with the deposition of abundant maize and societies in drier or higher-elevation areas, such as weed pollen in nearby lakes (Piperno 1995), and the Central Andes. However, the presence of the great human skeletons in sites of contemporary Peruvian expanse of forest may have retarded or prevented the cultures have stable isotopic patterns bone collagen development of coercive types of complex society patterns heavily dominated by C-4 plants, such as by functioning as a refuge for escapees and a strategic base for opponents of the rulers of societies. Until maize (Roosevelt 1989). late prehistoric times, Amazonian complex societies that produced massive earthworks and large-scale and CONCLUSION elaborate fine artworks apparently maintained From the Amazonian data, incomplete though noncentralized and nonstratified organization, they are, one can make several conclusions. contrary to functionalist expectations. Probable Indigenous complex societies with large, densely evidence for central rule and the existence of a settled populations arose there in prehistoric times, discrete noble group is confined to the period just contrary to environmental limitation theory. They before the European conquest, a time when there is developed in circumscribed riverine land as well as evidence for increased aggregation of human

Figure 2.8 Faldas de Sangay site map (after Porras 1987).

Prehistoric Complex Societies in Amazonia

population, intensified agriculture, increased group warfare, and increased human impact on the forest. The archaeological record of Amazonia, as known at present, tends to document a diverse group of complex societies. Complex societies seem to have developed in a wider range of environments and with more kinds of subsistence systems than we once thought. They also seem to have organized themselves in a variety of ways, including primarily heterarchical modes of operation in some times and places, and distinctly hierarchical and centralized modes in other times and places. In sum, the evidence from Amazonia suggests that early cultural ecological theories were too narrow and monocausal to account for the surprising variability manifested by the archaeological societies. Environmental variation indeed seems to have been a part of the causal process, but did not limit and determine subsistence adaptation and social development as strictly as had been assumed. In terms of organization, some societies managed to organize large, sedentary groups of people, carry out large scale public works, and create abundant fine art and crafts without resorting to highly centralized and hierarchical administration. A direction for future research, therefore, would be to investigate in detail the evidence for specific heterarchical forms of community organization in these societies.

29
Bettendorf, J. 1910 Chronica da Missao dos padres da Companhia de Jesus no estado do Maranhao. Revista do Instituto Geografico e Historico (Rio de Janeiro) 72(1). Bevan, B. W. 1989 Geophysical Surveys at Three Sites Along the Lower Amazon River. Pitman, NJ: Geosight. Burger, R. L. 1984 The Prehistoric Occupation of Chavin de Huantar. University of California Publications in Anthropology, Volume 14. Berkeley: University of California Press. Burger, R. L., and L. Salazar Burger 1980 Ritual and religion at Huarikoto. Archaeology 33(6):26-32. Carneiro, R. 1970 A theory of the origin of the state. Science 169:733-738. Chang, K. C. 1986 The Archaeology of Ancient China. New Haven: Yale University Press. Chang, K. C , ed. 1980 Shang Civilization. New Haven: Yale University Press. Cohen, M. N. 1985 Prehistoric hunter-gatherers: the meaning of social complexity. In Prehistoric HunterGatherers. T. D. Price and J. A. Brown, eds. Pp. 99-119. Orlando: Academic Press. 1989 Health and the Rise of Civilization. New Haven: Yale University Press. Cohen, M. N., and G. A. Armelagos, eds. 1984 Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture. New York: Academic Press. Cohen, M. N., and S. Bennett 1998 Skeletal evidence for sex roles and gender hierarchies in prehistory. In Reader in Gender Archaeology. K. Hays-Gilpin and D. S. Whitley, eds. Pp. 297-319. London: Routledge. Coupland, G. 1996 This old house: cultural complexity and household stability on the northern northwest coast of North America. In Emergent Complexity: The Evolution of Intermediate Societies. J. E. Arnold, ed. Pp. 74-90. Archaeological Series, No. 9. Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory. Creamer, W. 1996 Developing complexity in the American Southwest: constructing a model for the Rio Grande Valley. In Emergent Complexity: The Evolution of Intermediate Societies. J. E. Arnold, ed. Pp. 91-106. Archaeological Series, No. 9. Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory, de Heriarte, M. 1964 Descripcam do Estado do Maranham, Para, Corupa e rios das Amazonas, feito por Mauricio de Heriarte, Ouvidor-geral Provedormor e Auditor, que foi pelo Gobernador D. Pedro deMello, no anno 1662. FaksimileAusgabe aus den MSS 5880 und

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Meggers, B. J., and C. Evans 1957 Archaeological Investigations at the Mouth of the Amazon. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 167. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. Melaart, J. 1975 The Neolithic of the Near East. London: Thames and Hudson. Morris, C, and D. Thompson 1985 Huanuco Pampa: An Inca City and its Hinterland. London: Thames and Hudson. Moseley, M. E., and A. Cordy-Collins, eds. 1990 The Northern Dynasties: Kingship and Statecraft in Chimor. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks. Netto, V. 1885 Investigacoes sobre a archaeologia Brazileira. Archivos do Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro 6:257-554. Nimuendaju, C.U. 1949 Os Tapajo. Boletim do Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi 10:93-108. n.d. A survey of Amazon archaeology. Manuscript translated by Stig Ryden. Goteborg Ethnographic Museum. Nordenskiold, E. 1930 L'Archeologie du Bassin de L'Amazone. Ars Americana 1. Paris: Les Editions G. van Oest. Palmatary, H. 1950 The Pottery of Marajo Island. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society [N.S.] 39(3). 1960 The Archaeology of the Lower Tapajos Valley. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society [N.S.] 50(3). Paynter, R. 1989 The archaeology of equality and inequality. Annual Review of Anthropology 18:369-399. Pipemo, D. R. 1995 Plant microfossils and their application in the New World tropics. In Archaeology in the Lowland American Tropics: Current Analytical Methods and Recent Applications. P. Stahl, ed. Pp. 130-153. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pipemo, D. R., and D. M. Pearsall 1998 The Origins of Agriculture in the Lowland Tropics. San Diego: Academic Press. Potter, D., and E. King 1995 A heterarchical approach to lowland Maya socioeconomies. In Heterarchy and the Analysis of Complex Societies. R. Ehrenreich, C. Crumley, and J. Levy, eds. Pp. 17-32. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, No. 6. Arlington, VA: American Anthropological Association. Porras, P, A. 1987 Investigaciones Archaeologicas a Las Faldas de Sangay, Provincia Moroma Santiago. Quito: Artes Graficas Senal.

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