Dissertation Research: Political Economy and Household Organization at Jachakala Bolivia

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Under the direction of Dr. Marc Bermann, MS Christine Beaule will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will conduct excavations at the site of Jachakala as well as two nearby archaeological occurrences located in the La Joya region of the Bolivian Andean highlands. The sites extend in time from ca. 800 to 1,200 AD and thus cover a period which predates, is contemporary with and postdates the nearby Tiwanakian empire. Through a series of both test pits and more extensive lateral excavations she will recover information from a sample of domestic structures which will allow her to determine the degree of synchronous economic and status variability among households and how this changed over time. She is interested in both the degree of craft specialization which is present and the extent to which this correlates with elite status within a community. MS Beaule will also collect datable ceramics from an extensive series of irrigation canals associated with these sites to determine when they were constructed and how large scale cooperative agriculture related to social and political changes which form the core of her study. While archaeologists have focused on the development of social complexity at major Andean sites, relatively little is known about the processes that led to smaller scale social changes which took place in more rural hinterland areas. Thus extensive excavations have been conducted at Tiwanaku which served as empire capital. La Joya lies just beyond the boundary of this empire and MS Beaule wishes to understand whether the rise of a stratified culture there was essentially independent or was stimulated by Tiwanakian influence. The project has a second theoretical component. Archaeologists have come to realize that family groups play an important role in cultural change and have speculated about the relative significance of different aspects of family economic production on this process. In particular they have considered the potential relationships between craft specialization within a family context and emergence of an elite class. The data collected by MS Beaule will allow her to address this question. This research is important for several reasons. It will shed new light on the rise of social complexity. It will provide basic archaeological data for a poorly known and potentially important region and it will contribute to the professional development of a promising young scientist.