Ancient Alterity in the Andes

Ancient Alterity in the Andes introduces a groundbreaking framework for understanding how past societies perceived and interacted with others, addressing a significant gap in archaeological theory. The study focuses on the Recuay culture (AD 1-700) to explore alterity—how individuals or groups visualized others, such as kinsfolk, animals, predators, enemies, or ancestral dead—and its implications for cultural relationships, social systems, and cosmologies. By analyzing visual representations and material evidence from the Nasca and Palpa geoglyphs, the research reveals previously unknown patterns in Andean prehistory, offering insights into interactions with neighboring civilizations like the Moche, Nasca, Chavín cult, and the Wari Empire. This holistic approach combines multiple lines of evidence to demonstrate how alterity can be examined through archaeological records, providing a novel method for studying past societies.

Lau, G. F. (2012). Ancient Alterity in the Andes (, Ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203084731