6

Trade and Social Power in the Southern Titicaca

Basin Formative
Matthew S. Bandy
University of Oklahoma

ABSTRACT
The long-term evolution of social power has often been linked to the development of regional exchange systems.
Most treatments emphasize monopolies of production or distribution of high-value items. In this chapter I analyze
the case of exchange in the Middle (Late Chiripa phase) and early Late Formative (Tiwanaku I phase) communities
of the southern Lake Titicaca Basin. I suggest that the evolution of social power in these villages was related to their
role as “transit communities” in a regional exchange system and that significant social and political developments
can be related to shifts in prehistoric caravan routes.
Keywords: Titicaca Basin, Formative Period, Taraco Peninsula, interregional exchange, transit communities

M any long-term social evolutionary sequences docu-

ment the development, over centuries or millennia,
of relatively stable constellations of power relations. By the
later stages of these sequences, the pattern of controls upon
which social power rests (Adams 1975; Foucault 1983) has
become so diffuse, institutionalized, and routinized that the
freedom of action of most social agents becomes severely
circumscribed. In the early stages of these sequences, how-
ever, the power process is more open to the intervention of
a wide range of social agents. Social action in these ear-
lier, more fluid contexts, at least as respects power relations,
may on the whole be more discursive and less routinized
than in later, more circumscribed contexts. The pattern of
controls on which power rests in these early societies is of-
ten of a limited and ephemeral nature. Leaders in these so-
cieties have little recourse to coercion, and the source of
their power is frequently limited to symbolic capital, which
could more prosaically be glossed as “reputation,” and var-
ious kinds of indebtedness, as Mauss (1967) argued long
ago. Theorists concerned with the very beginnings of so-
cial stratification and distinction have often been criticized
for an excessive emphasis on individual strategies and moti-
vated action (Dobres and Robb 2000), what Bourdieu calls
the error of voluntarism. However, this emphasis on the
strategic action of highly motivated individuals (cf. Clark
2000; Clark and Blake 1994; Hayden 1996, 2001; Hayden
Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, Vol. 14, pp. 91–111, ISBN 1-931303-20-7.

and Gargett 1990) is, I argue, entirely appropriate for the
analysis of the early stages of many regional sequences.
Ethnographic accounts make it clear that in comparable
societies the accumulation of symbolic capital and social
obligation is undertaken consciously and with a marked
strategic orientation (Kelly 1993; Perodie 2001; Strathern
1971).
Dietler and Herbich (2001) have recently made impor-
tant theoretical contributions to the study of social trans-
formations generally and to the problem of the emergence
of relations of social inequality in particular. Following
Barth (1967), they have suggested that social transforma-
tions in nonstate societies are often the result of what they
call “growth spirals.” Growth spirals result from the media-
tion between different spheres of value. Dietler and Herbich
(2001:249–256) provide the specific example of work feasts
among the Samia of western Kenya. These feasts were spon-
sored by wealthy individuals in order to extract iron ore. The
sponsor provided ample food and drink and work proceeded
in a festive atmosphere. Participation was in no way compul-
sory. The resulting iron ore belonged to the feast’s sponsor
and was converted into iron hoe blades. These hoe blades
were a prestige item and could be used as bridewealth or to
purchase livestock, which could also serve as bridewealth. In
this way the sponsor could acquire additional wives and their
labor, thus making possible even larger work feasts, greater
C 2005 by the American An-

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92
iron production, more wives, and so on. Marriage con-
verted prestige goods into agricultural wealth, while work
feasts performed the complementary function, converting
this agricultural wealth into prestige goods (bridewealth).
Further, the feast itself garnered prestige for the sponsor,
provided it was well executed. This process was self-
perpetuating, within limits, and produced significant wealth
differences. Those men without sufficient wealth to mount
a work feast “were effectively excluded from the cycle
and were reduced to being regular guests/workers at the
work feasts of the wealthy” (Dietler and Herbich 2001:251).
This “growth spiral” was a self-conscious strategy entered
into by persons with sufficient wealth to sponsor a work
feast.
Figure 6.1. Map of the Titicaca Basin. Archaeological sites and modern towns mentioned in the text are indicated.
Matthew S. Bandy
This example in its particulars is clearly specific to
the Samia case. However, there are many forms that such
a growth cycle could conceivably take. I concur with Dietler
and Herbich that the conversion function of work feasts,
their ability to translate between different kinds of wealth,
is a fact of fundamental importance for our understanding
of social processes in small-scale, relatively decentralized
societies. In this chapter I propose that wealth derived from
participation in regional exchange systems can be used to
fund growth spirals similar in principle to the Samia work
feast, though different in form. I employ the growth spiral
concept to interpret the prehistoric development of a group
of villages located on the southern shores of Lake Titicaca
(Figure 6.1) during the first millennium B.C.
Trade and Social Power in the Southern Titicaca Basin Formative
Figure 6.2. Map of the southern Titicaca Basin with Taraco Peninsula indicated.
The Southern Titicaca Basin Formative
Divided between the modern nations of Peru and
Bolivia and lying at an elevation of approximately 3800 me-
ters above sea level, the Titicaca Basin was first occupied in
the terminal Pleistocene. The Formative Period in the south-
ern basin (Figure 6.2)—and I will be concerned primarily
with the southern basin in this chapter—is bracketed by the
appearance of sedentary agricultural villages and ceramics
around 1500 B.C. and the emergence of the Tiwanaku state
around A.D. 500 (Figure 6.3).
The Early Formative was characterized by small, politi-
cally independent villages. Significantly, these villages were
subject to periodic fissioning and consequently never grew to
a large size (Bandy 2001, 2004). There is little evidence for
any kind of specialized serving ceramics, ritual assemblages,
or public architecture until the very end of this period.
In the Middle Formative a regional religious tradition
appeared. This tradition, dubbed the Yaya-Mama Religious
Tradition by Karen Chávez (1988), is characterized by a
relatively standardized suite of ritual-associated ceramics
(trumpets and ring-base burning bowls), decorated serv-
ing ceramics, stone sculpture, and the sunken court archi-
tectural form. Not coincidentally, village fissioning ceased
with the appearance of the Yaya-Mama Religious Tradi-
93
tion in the southern Titicaca Basin. I have argued elsewhere
(Bandy 2001, 2004) that the ceremonial activities associ-
ated with the religious traditions served to ameliorate the
effects of scalar stress in communities and allowed villages
to continuously expand to much greater sizes than they
achieved in the Early Formative. However, villages were
still autonomous and multicommunity polities had yet to
appear.
The Late Formative is characterized by the formation
of a series of multicommunity polities (Stanish [2003] es-
timates that there were scores of them). The scale of these
polities varied from very local entities to the Pukara polity
that dominated the northern part of the basin and was even
influential in some adjacent coastal and highland valleys.
This progression ultimately culminated in the formation of
the Tiwanaku state, which was to dominate the south-central
Andean region for over 500 years.
Trade and exchange was an important element in the
emergence and gradual expansion of social power in the
Titicaca Basin. I intend to argue that trade was the primary
source of social power, at least in the southern Titicaca Basin
societies, in the Middle Formative and into the Late Forma-
tive Periods. In order to make this argument, however, I must
first document the emergence of a regional exchange sphere
in the Middle Formative.
94
Figure 6.3. Southern Titicaca Basin chronology with lake level.
The Emergence of a Regional Exchange
Sphere
At the same time that the Yaya-Mama Religious Tra-
dition appeared (ca. 800 B.C.) there was a marked increase
in the intensity of trade within the Titicaca Basin and prob-
Matthew S. Bandy
ably also between the Titicaca Basin and the immediately
adjacent mid-altitude valleys. Trade in preciosities with dis-
tant regions was already taking place in the Early Formative,
but in the Middle Formative the volume and variety of trade
goods increased greatly. It will be my ultimate contention
that this trade was to serve throughout the Formative Period
Trade and Social Power in the Southern Titicaca Basin Formative
as a significant source of social power within the commu-
nities of the Titicaca Basin and that shifts in the trade and
the routes that it followed had significant effects in local
developmental trajectories. In this section, I describe the
Early Formative exchange system and the transformations
that took place at the beginning of the Middle Formative.
Early Formative Trade
Southern Titicaca Basin villages were engaged in long-
distance trade and exchange from the very beginning of
settled life; that is, from the Early Chiripa phase. The
evidence for this early trade is the occurrence of three
exotic materials in Early Formative (and Middle Formative)
contexts, as documented by excavations at Chiripa and
elsewhere.
1. Cylindrical sodalite beads are frequently encountered
as mortuary goods in both Early and Middle Formative con-
texts. This material—often identified as lapis lazuli—is oc-
casionally found at Chiripa and at other sites in the form of
unworked chunks as well as finished beads. The source of
this material remains unclear—Browman (1981:414) sug-
gests Cerro Sapo in Cochabamba—but it is certainly exotic.
In four seasons of excavations on the Taraco Archaeological
Project (TAP; from 1992 to 1999) only 108.6 grams of this
material was recovered at Chiripa, the majority of it finished
beads from Early Chiripa mortuary contexts.
2. Obsidian is also found in both Early and Middle For-
mative contexts. It is clear that obsidian was obtained in
the form of finished bifaces since very little debitage has
been recovered and virtually no cortex flakes or cores. This
confirms an observation by Seddon (1994:71) concerning
a later time period. I have yet to perform characterization
studies on the obsidian recovered from Chiripa. Browman
(1981:415), however, reports Chiripa obsidian from the
Titicaca Basin source—recently located in the Colca Val-
ley near Arequipa and renamed the Chivay source (Brooks
et al. 1997; Burger et al. 1998)—and from another source
that has yet to be located. Other recent studies (Aldenderfer
1999; Burger et al. 2000; Giesso 2003; Stanish 2003:107)
have confirmed that Titicaca Basin obsidian is in all periods
primarily from the Chivay source. The Chivay source is lo-
cated approximately 350 kilometers northwest of the south-
ern Titicaca Basin. Like sodalite, obsidian was imported
in small quantities during the Formative; we have recov-
ered no more than 87.1 grams in four excavation seasons at
Chiripa.1
3. Finally, trace amounts of seashell are also encoun-
tered, normally as tiny discoidal beads in mortuary con-
texts. These shell beads occur in both Early and Mid-
dle Formative contexts but are exceedingly rare. To date,
95
TAP has recovered only 5.3 grams of this material at
Chiripa.
4. Small fragments of silver, copper, and gold are also
found, though very infrequently. Normally these are encoun-
tered in burial contexts.
It is clear, then, that a long-distance trade in preciosities
(mortuary and prestige items) was taking place in the Early
Formative. Equally clear, however, is that this early exchange
involved very small quantities of the objects in question.
This trading would seem to have been very sporadic and
infrequent. There is no evidence in the Early Formative for
the sort of regular caravan trade postulated by Browman (his
“altiplano mode”; see Browman 1981:414–415).
Middle Formative Trade
In the Middle Formative Period this earlier far-flung
and low-intensity trading network remained active. In ad-
dition, however, there is evidence for intensification of ex-
change within the Titicaca Basin itself and probably also of
trade with immediately adjacent regions. This evidence takes
the form of large quantities of a particular kind of rock, an
olivine basalt exotic to the southern Titicaca Basin, which
was imported in the form of finished agricultural implements
(Figure 6.4).
This olivine basalt is a fine-textured, homogeneous gray
rock including frequent yellow or white olivine phenocrysts.
Overall, it presents a very distinctive appearance. It differs
from the more common andesite, which has a very simi-
lar color but contains frequent plagioclase feldspar inclu-
sions as well as biotite and is generally more porous and
coarse grained. Feldspar is not present in the olivine basalt.
Titicaca Basin archaeologists have normally grouped the
olivine basalt and andesite (as I have described them here)
under the single term “andesite.” Thus, frequent references
in the literature to “andesite hoes” (cf. Seddon 1994; Stead-
man 1995) are quite possibly references to what I am calling
olivine basalt. Other types of basalt are present at Chiripa, in-
cluding a black, vitreous variety possibly from the Qeremita
quarry near Lake Poopo (Giesso 2003), but these are infre-
quent and are not relevant to the present discussion.
Table 6.1A shows the occurrence of this rock (olivine
basalt) in unmixed proveniences of the three Chiripa phases
(counts of which are given in Table 6.1B). It is clear, despite
a suboptimal sample size, that the stone type in question oc-
curs only in the Late Chiripa phase. This corroborates my
own rather informal observation that this rock type is a Mid-
dle Formative marker throughout the southern and western
Titicaca Basin at dozens of sites in the Chucuito, Ilave, Juli,2
Yunguyu, and Desaguadero areas, as well as in the Tiwanaku
Valley, Taraco Peninsula, and Pampa Koani of Bolivia. The
96
Figure 6.4. Olivine basalt agricultural implement from Chiripa.
Table 6.1. Occurrence of exotic olivine basalt in the Chiripa
phases.
A. Count and Weight of Olivine Basalt from Unmixed
Proveniences
Phase Count Weight
Early Chiripa 0 0
Middle Chiripa 0 0
Late Chiripa 69 1301.1
B. Number of Unmixed Proveniences by Phase
Phase Number of unmixed loci
Early Chiripa 65
Middle Chiripa 45
Late Chiripa 186
Data from TAP excavations at Chiripa, 1992–1998. Unmixed prove-
niences were identified by Lee Steadman (personal communication,
2000). Note that the table only tallies artifacts from ceramically un-
mixed proveniences; the large majority of olivine basalt artifacts were
recovered from plow zone and from mixed fill.
same rock type has also been observed on Middle Formative
sites in the vicinities of Puno (Carol Schultz, personal com-
munication, 2000) and Pukara (Amanda Cohen, personal
communication, 1999) in the northern Titicaca Basin. I have
personally inspected samples of the material from these lat-
ter two localities and can confirm they are visually identical
to the material from the southern and western Titicaca Basin
and from Chiripa.
The quantity of olivine basalt agricultural implements
that was imported into the Taraco Peninsula in the Middle
Formative represents a volumetric increase of several or-
ders of magnitude over goods imported through the Early
Formative exchange system. The total weight of olivine
basalt excavated at Chiripa by TAP is 5,361.8 grams. This
compares to 87.1 grams of obsidian, 108.6 grams of so-
dalite, and 5.3 grams of shell, as detailed earlier. I have
Matthew S. Bandy
elsewhere estimated (Bandy 2001:145–146), based on the
recovery of this material in systematic surface collections
on the Taraco Peninsula, that more than 20 metric tons
of olivine basalt were imported during the Middle Forma-
tive, representing more than 200,000 complete agricultural
implements.
It is certain that the olivine basalt that appears through-
out the Titicaca Basin in the Middle Formative is exotic to
the southern basin. Although its source cannot at present
be determined with certainty, the only documented quar-
ries of this raw material type are located in the vicinity
of Chucuito, south of Puno on the western side of Lake
Titicaca. These quarries were discovered by Kirk Frye while
he was conducting his dissertation research. The nearby
sites of Incatunahuiri and Dos Suches are both covered with
literally hundreds of tons of agricultural implements, deb-
itage, and manufacturing failures of this material (Frye and
Steadman 2001). I have visited these sites and can attest that
the stone there is visually identical to the olivine basalt found
on the Taraco Peninsula and in other areas.
Further evidence is provided by Steadman. In her
excavations at Camata, located somewhat south of Chucuito
and possibly within the Middle Formative political radius of
Incatunahuiri, she finds that agricultural implements of this
material—which she terms “gray andesite”—first began
to appear in limited quantities late in the Early Formative
(Early Qaluyu 2 phase, 1050–850 B.C.) (Steadman 1995:32).
This “gray andesite” became progressively more popular
through time at Camata, finally accounting for almost 90
percent of the lithic sample by the Late Formative (Pucara
2 phase, 100 B.C.–100 A.D.). Steadman noted a dramatic
increase in the frequency of the material at the beginning of
the Middle Formative (Late Qaluyu 1 phase, 850–650 B.C.),
the same time the material appears at Chiripa. Steadman
interprets the increased production of agricultural imple-
ments of this material at Camata in the Middle Formative as
reflecting local agricultural intensification and raised field
construction (Steadman 1995:41). Given the data from the
southern Titicaca Basin, however, I believe this intensified
production reflects instead intensified production for export
to other areas of the Titicaca Basin as part of a regional
exchange system.
Frye and Steadman (2001) argue that Incatunahuiri was
the production center for these implements and an impor-
tant hub of an exchange network extending across the entire
Titicaca Basin. Geochemical characterization of olivine
basalt implements from throughout the basin will be
necessary before this hypothesis can be demonstrated con-
clusively, and I plan to undertake such a study in the near
future. For the moment, however, I will provisionally accept
Incatunahuiri as the source for the olivine basalt in the south-
ern basin sites.
Trade and Social Power in the Southern Titicaca Basin Formative
Considering that this raw material is present in archae-
ological sites throughout the entire southern, western, and
northern Titicaca Basin in the Middle Formative (and later
in some areas), this volume of trade clearly represents a dra-
matic increase in the intensity of exchange relations within
the Titicaca Basin. Probably, though, olivine basalt agricul-
tural implements were only one part of a much more elab-
orate trading system, other items of which have not been
preserved in the Titicaca Basin environment. To the east of
the Titicaca Basin, crossing the Cordillera Blanca, lie a se-
ries of warm, humid, middle-elevation valleys known as the
yungas or valles mesotermales. Beyond the yungas lies the
rain forest itself, the selva. These two areas, the yungas and
the selva, are the source of a number of items that have always
been in demand in the cold, arid, and high-altitude Titicaca
Basin (Browman 1981:414; Murra 1968, 1985). Examples
include cultivated and wild plants such as coca, cotton, ajı́
(chili peppers), tropical hardwoods, and a variety of hallu-
cinogenic drugs. I should also mention various animal prod-
ucts such as feline pelts3 and the brightly colored plumage
of tropical birds.
The geography of the Titicaca Basin dictates that all
trade (probably carried by caravans of laden llamas) between
the yungas and the western Titicaca Basin must pass around
either the northern or southern margin of the lake itself. To-
day most of this trade passes through La Paz to Tiwanaku
and across the Desaguadero River at the Peru/Bolivia bor-
der (see Figures 6.1 and 6.2). Thus, a significant portion of
the trade between the western basin and the yungas must
have passed through the southern basin, in the vicinity of
the Taraco Peninsula (Figure 6.5). The relationship between
this trade and the local communities through which it passed
will be the subject of the following section.
Wealth Creation in Decentralized Transit
Communities
Most accounts of prehistoric or ancient prestige goods
exchange are concerned with one or more of three aspects
of such systems: (1) the production and ultimate distribution
of the exchange goods themselves, (2) the uses to which ex-
otic goods are put by aspiring or established elites, and (3)
the wealth generated by taxation and/or monopoly control
of this production or consumption. Thus, the cast of familiar
characters in analyses of trade includes the merchants them-
selves; craftspersons involved in the production of valuable
items or materials; various leaders or elites; the clients of
the merchants, who are the consumers of prestige goods;
and powerful political leaders who organize roads and the
military protection of caravans and caravan routes and who
collect taxes on goods entering or leaving their domain. Of-
97
ten these roles are combined in various configurations. The
merchant-state of Palmyra, for example, organized and oper-
ated caravans and also engaged in extensive military opera-
tions designed to protect their trade routes (Young 2001:136–
186). State monopolies on the production and exchange of
wealth objects, like the Byzantine imperial silk monopoly
(Boulnois 1966), are common in history.
Broadly speaking, analyses of trade are usually con-
cerned with macropolitical and macroeconomic processes in
producing and consuming regions. Communities that occupy
territory through which trade routes and trade goods must
pass, if organized in a decentralized and stateless fashion,
are normally relegated to the margins and footnotes of treat-
ments of exchange. However, groups occupying these strate-
gic positions, which we may term “transit communities,” are
often profoundly affected by the trade passing through their
territories. The southern Titicaca Basin villages I am dis-
cussing seem to have functioned as transit communities in
the context of the Middle Formative exchange sphere. For
this reason I wish to briefly consider the opportunities for
wealth creation and mobilization within transit communities
of a decentralized political character.
The best literature on decentralized transit communities
in the context of a system of regional exchange comes from
West Africa. David Northrup has extensively studied 18th-
and 19th-century trade in southeastern Nigeria, in the region
adjacent to the Bight of Biafra. In contrast to the inhabitants
of other parts of the west African coast, such as the Benin,
Asante, and Yoruba polities, populations to the east of the
Niger were never politically organized at a level above that
of the local community. These peoples, primarily the Ibo and
Ibibio, “lacked rulers, relying instead on a variety of official
and unofficial leaders” (Northrup 1978:92).
This fragmented political landscape presented real prob-
lems for traders. Since “there simply did not exist a pub-
lic force charged with and capable of safeguarding trav-
elers” (Northrup 1978:155), traders were responsible for
providing for their own security. This they did by trav-
eling in armed groups and by attending well-regulated
markets. However, transit communities still frequently at-
tempted to levy tolls or taxes on passing traders. It was ap-
parently understood that persons making improvements to
roads and trails were entitled to collect a toll from those
who used them. For example, communities that built and
maintained bridges and fords could charge a fee for their
use. It was apparently also customary that a person who
cleared a fallen tree from a stream was entitled to financial
consideration from any canoes that passed by on that same
day (Northrup 1978:156).
For these reasons, traders found it necessary to cultivate
relationships with people living along the routes they reg-
ularly traveled. As Northrup expresses it, “the possession
98
Figure 6.5. Map of the Taraco Peninsula with sites mentioned in text.
of a network of friends, relatives, and in-laws to serve as
hosts and escorts was necessary for anyone who wished to
be a trader in the eighteenth century” (1978:100). These
friendships were established using mechanisms of fictive
and actual kinship. An institution of blood-brotherhood ex-
isted that was frequently employed to bind traders with their
hosts, and traders would not infrequently marry the daugh-
ters or other female kin of their more important partners.
Also, importantly, these friendships “were cultivated through
the custom of gift-exchange. The trader would present his
host with some item of value and would be given something
of value in return, including food, drink, and accommoda-
tion. Such bonds of hospitality could be brief or of lengthy
duration and were renewed by additional gifts on suitable
occasions” (Northrup 1978:97). Indeed, such relationships
were sometimes maintained between the descendants of the
original partners.
An Igbo informant of Northrup remembered participat-
ing in such a relationship:
The heads of the families with which the traders lodged
along the routes had to be given presents. The families
Matthew S. Bandy
would protect them and see them safely to the next resting
place along the route. For example, I am from Mboko
Ofokobe, about nine miles north of Aba; traders used to
lodge with us and we would hand them over to Ihie, some
ten miles away [1978:97].
A trading itinerary therefore assumed the aspect of an
extended series of visits to friends, relatives, and acquain-
tances along the way. In this fashion powerful individuals and
families within the transit communities were able to barter
their local influence for access to exotic trade goods. To the
traders they provided lodging and safe passage through their
area of influence, and from them they received presents. This
gift exchange was clearly an avenue of wealth accumulation
available to prominent members of transit communities.
This practice of gift exchange and safe conduct seems to
have been very widespread in African trading systems. For
example, kola caravans traveling between the Hausa lands
and the Volta Basin in the first decades of the 19th century
“insure[d] themselves by giving presents, trifling ones, to the
head of the country they arrived at, who affords them safe
conduct to the next” (Lovejoy 1980:108). Based on a few
Trade and Social Power in the Southern Titicaca Basin Formative
recorded instances, Lovejoy concludes that each such gift
accounted for something less than one percent of the total
value of the cargo. The political units involved seem to have
been somewhat larger than in the south-eastern Nigerian
case, but the principle is the same.
The use of pretexts to extract monetary compensation
also seems to have been widespread. The Cokwe of eastern
Angola, for example, had an elaborate system of fines for
supposed violations of local custom. This system seems to
have functioned solely to extort money from passing cara-
vans. We have a firsthand account of this practice.
European travelers generally resented the system.
Livingstone. . .encountered it in 1854 when a Cokwe
chief stopped his party and demanded a fine of a man,
a gun, or an ox, because one of his porters inadvertently
allowed a drop of spittle to fall on the leg of a Cokwe. Not
realizing that he was expected to negotiate the amount of
the fine and to pay it gracefully, Livingstone refused and
angered the chief so much that a battle nearly resulted.
The Imbangala [regular traders], on the other hand, ac-
cepted the milonga as taxes and paid them as an ordi-
nary hazard of doing business with the Cokwe [Miller
1970:193–194].
Pretexts for the milonga tax, as Miller notes, “were often
of the flimsiest sort” (1970:194). Another chief was known
to scatter manioc flour on a road and wait for a passing
merchant to tread upon it.
Convincing evidence exists that such transit charges
or tolls were a significant component of some very early
exchange systems. In the 19th century B.C. an important
trade existed between Assyria and Anatolia (cf. Larsen 1967;
Orlin 1970). Tin and textiles were imported on donkey cara-
vans into Anatolia, where they were exchanged for silver and
gold by merchants from Assur. The Anatolian terminus of the
trade was modern Kültepe, called karum by the Assyrians.
Here, since the late 19th century, thousands of cuneiform
texts have come to light. These probably pertained to the
archive of an Assyrian merchants’ organization resident in
Kültepe. These texts form an unparalleled source of infor-
mation on trade in this early period, a trade that extended well
beyond the effective reach of Assyrian military or political
control.
As analyzed by Veenhoff (1972), these texts indi-
cate that many of the problems encountered by merchants
in the African examples cited above were shared by the
Assyrian merchants involved in the Kültepe trade. The
cuneiform texts include many accounts of expenses on the
journey from Assur to Kültepe. One class of expense is of
particular interest. The term datum seems to refer to “a kind
of tax or toll, paid en route, and is one of the components of
the traveling-expenses” (Veenhoff 1972:255). As such, it is
99
to be distinguished from other classes of expenses such as
import taxes or losses en route.
Veenhoff concludes that “the datum si harranim was
imposed on caravans by the local, non-Assyrian, authorities
in Northern Mesopotamia and Northern Syria, and perhaps
also on a limited scale in Anatolia, in their towns or at their
tolls, which the Assyrians passed on the way to their ul-
timate destination” (1972:298). Payment of these tolls, he
suggests, afforded merchants safe passage to the borders of
local polities, and perhaps also entitled them to food and shel-
ter. Caravan leaders carried with them a cash fund termed in
the documents “loose tin” to distinguish it from the sealed
tin packets that comprised the bulk of the load. Transit tolls
of the datum category accounted for approximately 80 per-
cent of total expenditures of “loose tin,” the great major-
ity of expenses incurred on the journey between Assur and
Kültepe (Veenhoff 1972:262). Altogether, datum expenses
amounted to approximately 10 percent of the total value of
a caravan’s cargo (Veenhoff 1972:289). These tolls would
therefore seem to have been a significant source of wealth
for at least some elements of the communities straddling the
route from Assur to Anatolia.
A final example will suffice to illustrate the effects that
transit charges can have upon the social relations of commu-
nities favorably located on significant trade routes. Leach’s
(1964) study of the people occupying the Kachin Hills area
of the Golden Triangle contains many references to trade
routes and associated tolls. This area, in the 19th century,
saw significant mule caravan trade with southern China in
tea, jade, and other goods. Kachin chiefs exacted transit tolls
from passing caravans of Chinese traders. Thus, “caravans of
Chinese traders and the like passing through a chief ’s domain
were ‘protected’. . .in return for tribute” (Leach 1964:188).
The collection of this tribute, taking the form of rice, cash, or
other economically significant goods, was apparently always
the exclusive right of local chiefs, a fact consistent with lo-
cal beliefs concerning a chief ’s ownership of the territory of
the community. The manner in which this wealth was subse-
quently disposed and redistributed is not clear. What is clear,
however, is that “the chiefs through which this traffic passed
profited greatly by toll charges” (Leach 1964:224) and that
“the role of tribute holder gave the Kachin chief a position
of real economic strength” (1964:188). Leach concludes that
“income from tolls from transit caravans was in the past an
important element of the economy of the whole zone. It was
the major source of power of the leading gumsa chiefs in the
19th century” (1964:237).
Kachin chiefs occupying an advantageous position on a
significant trade route were more powerful than less well-
situated chiefs, lived in stone houses, sometimes erected
stone monuments, and generally styled themselves as local
100
Chinese (Shan) kings (Leach 1964:224). Equally as impor-
tant, communities on major trade routes were significantly
larger than were communities elsewhere in the Kachin Hills.
Thus, the high population density of a certain area is ex-
plained by Leach as reflecting “a tendency for populations
to cluster in the vicinity of trade routes. . . .The trade routes
through the mountain barrier. . .have been of importance for
centuries and the bulk of the population has long resided
on or close to these east-west tracks through the moun-
tains” (1964:237). These dense population concentrations
were generally located in areas not well suited to swidden
agriculture, and their occupation by large communities re-
quired the construction of labor-intensive hillside terrace
systems for rice cultivation. This increase in labor invest-
ment was, however, amply repaid by the tolls paid by pass-
ing caravans (Leach 1964:28). When the British conquered
the Kachin area, they forbade the collection of transit fees.
This resulted in significant loss of power on the part of the
chiefs and led to a general population dispersal from the nu-
cleated communities that had previously guarded and prof-
ited from the major trade routes (Leach 1964:224–225). It
would seem, therefore, that the control of the wealth deriving
from toll charges made it possible for well-situated Kachin
chiefs to attract large numbers of followers and to build larger
and more centralized political systems than was otherwise
possible. Thus, the wealth generated from tolls in decen-
tralized transit communities can serve as a major source of
social power and creates the possibility of significant social
transformation.
These three examples have shown that tolls extracted
from passing caravans or merchants are often a significant
source of social power in decentralized communities located
on significant exchange routes. They have further shown that
the wealth generated in this fashion can be used by local lead-
ers or elites to greatly expand the size of their communities
as well as their personal wealth and power. Growth cycles in
transit communities would be somewhat different from those
outlined by Dietler and Herbich for the Samia. In the tran-
sit community case, symbolic capital can be converted into
prestige goods through the mechanism of tolls on passing
merchants. This is so because merchants seek out the indi-
viduals and communities most capable of providing them
with protection and safe passage. There is thus no need for
ambitious individuals to produce prestige items themselves
and therefore no need for the kind of work feasts undertaken
by the Samia. Once acquired, the prestige items obtained
from tolls or the hosting of passing traders could be dis-
tributed in such a way as to further enhance the symbolic
capital of the donors, enabling them to extract higher tolls
from passing caravans, acquire more trading partners, and
so on.
Matthew S. Bandy
The key here is the mechanism by which the prestige
items are converted into symbolic capital. The sponsorship
of feasts could play a role in this process, as could simple
gifting or other varieties of exchange. Unfortunately, the cur-
rent state of our knowledge of the Titicaca Basin Formative
is not sufficient to permit us to investigate the particulars
of this growth cycle. What does seem clear, though, is that
the Formative Period villages of the southern Titicaca Basin
occupied just such a propitious location with respect to the
Yaya-Mama Religious Tradition exchange sphere and that
toll-derived prestige items entered into the practices of po-
litical negotiation in these communities from the Middle For-
mative onward. In the following section I will consider the
way in which geographical shifts in the route of this exchange
system in the southern Titicaca Basin generated shifts in the
developmental trajectories of these communities.
Shoreline Changes and Shifting Trade Routes
The southern arm of Lake Titicaca is known as Lake
Wiñaymarka. It is separated from the main body of Lake
Titicaca by the narrow straits of Tiquina. Lake Wiñaymarka
differs from the main body of the lake in that it is very
shallow, mostly being less than 20 meters deep. There are
only a few deep fossae (over 40 meters in depth) in its western
and northern portions. This means that the bottom of Lake
Wiñaymarka generally speaking has a very gradual slope.
Small changes in lake level, on the order of a meter or two,
can result in shifts of many kilometers in the location of
the shoreline. Major lake level changes could therefore have
resulted in a change in the route taken by the trade between
the western Titicaca Basin and the yungas, since this trade
was obliged to pass around the southern tip of Lake Titicaca.
Depending on the location of the Lake Wiñaymarka
shoreline, there are two main routes available (see
Figures 6.6–6.10). When the lake level is high, as it is at
present, trade must pass to the south through Desaguadero,
go up the Tiwanaku Valley, cross the Taraco Hills near the
modern town of Tambillo, and proceed to the vicinity of La
Paz. This route, illustrated in Figure 6.8, is the one taken
by the modern road connecting La Paz with the Peruvian
department of Puno. When the lake level is low, on the other
hand, a shorter route becomes possible. A drop in lake level
to approximately 15 meters below the modern level would
mean that Lake Wiñaymarka would essentially dry up. In ef-
fect, it would divide into two separate sub-basins, one in the
northwest near the modern town of Yunguyu and another in
the north near the town of Chua. The majority of what is now
Lake Wiñaymarka would in a low lake stand become a vast
grassy plain. Llama caravans would be able to cross from the
region south of Yunguyu directly to the range of low hills
Trade and Social Power in the Southern Titicaca Basin Formative 101

Figure 6.6. Reconstructed shoreline of Lake Wiñaymarka, 800–450 B.C.

Figure 6.7. Reconstructed shoreline of Lake Wiñaymarka, 450–250 B.C.

102 Matthew S. Bandy

Figure 6.8. Reconstructed shoreline of Lake Wiñaymarka, 250 B.C.–100 A.D.

Figure 6.9. Reconstructed shoreline of Lake Wiñaymarka, A.D. 100–300.

Trade and Social Power in the Southern Titicaca Basin Formative
Figure 6.10. Reconstructed shoreline of Lake Wiñaymarka, A.D. 300–1100.
that currently form the Taraco Peninsula, passing by Chiripa
and the other Taraco Peninsula villages (see Figure 6.5), and
from there continue up the Katari Valley to modern La Paz.
This route is significantly shorter and would no doubt be
preferred if available.
The recent publication of a detailed lake level recon-
struction for Lake Wiñaymarka (Abbott et al. 1997) has
shown that there were four episodes in the Formative and
post-Formative Periods in which lake levels fell sufficiently
to allow the second, shorter trade route to be used. These
are probably related to prolonged drought periods, though
factors other than reduced rainfall can produce extreme
lake level fluctuations. The low lake stands documented by
Abbott and colleagues (1997) are indicated in the right-hand
column of the chronological chart in Figure 6.3. Two of
these low stands fall outside the time periods of interest for
the present discussion. The first took place between 1000–
800 B.C., prior to the emergence of the Middle Formative
exchange system discussed previously. The last coincided
with the collapse of the Tiwanaku state, circa A.D. 1100.
Two low stands, however, fall within the Middle and Late
Formative Periods. These took place at 450–250 B.C., the
second half of the Middle Formative, and A.D. 100–300, in
the middle of the Late Formative. This history of lake level
fluctuations and attendant trade route shifts will be seen to
correlate in significant ways with political developments in
the southern Titicaca Basin.
103
Middle Formative
At the beginning of the Middle Formative (ca. 800 B.C.),
when trade within the Titicaca Basin expanded greatly, the
lake level was high. Figure 6.6 shows the shorelines that cor-
respond to the minimum and maximum levels of the lake dur-
ing this period, as reconstructed by Abbott and colleagues.
The trade route running from the western Titicaca Basin to
the yungas would at this time have passed to the south of the
Taraco Peninsula, through the Tiwanaku Valley. Neverthe-
less, it is clear that the Taraco Peninsula communities were
participating in this exchange system at least to some de-
gree, though they were not transit communities at this stage
and cannot be expected to have derived any wealth from toll
charges on passing caravans. The earliest finds of olivine
basalt at Chiripa are from a context related to the construction
of the Llusco semisubterranean enclosure and dated to circa
800 B.C. Throughout the earlier portion of the Middle Forma-
tive (termed Late Chiripa 1 in Figure 6.3) public architecture
and by extension public ceremonialism were small in scale.
A series of sunken courts and some associated surface archi-
tecture were constructed (see Bandy 2001:124–136; Hastorf
et al. 2001). No mound construction had yet taken place at
the site, and the public architectural areas were small and
required little labor for their construction.
Around 450 B.C. the level of Lake Wiñaymarka
dropped precipitously, and the alternative, shorter trade route
104
became viable (Figure 6.7). It is at this point that the Taraco
Peninsula villages became transit communities. As predicted
by the model I outlined previously, there is clear evidence of
an expansion of public ceremonialism and social distinction
beginning soon thereafter. First of all, there was a leap in
the scale of public architecture at Chiripa. Around 380 B.C.
a monumental terrace was constructed, measuring approx-
imately 50 meters square. There is some evidence that this
terrace was stone faced at least on its downslope side and that
it contained a central sunken court in its summit (Browman
1978; see also Bandy 1999a). Around this court, on top of
the monumental terrace, was constructed an enclosure of 14
fairly elaborate single-room structures (Figure 6.11). These
are the Upper House Level structures, for which Chiripa has
achieved the modest fame it currently enjoys (Bennett 1936;
Browman 1978; Kidder 1956; see also Bandy 1999a).
These structures are not residential in function and
seem to have functioned more as “temple-storage com-
plexes” (Chávez 1988). The Upper House Level structures
are double-walled, with a significant amount of their inter-
nal area being taken up with between-wall storage space.
They also incorporate unusual technical features, such as
sliding doors, as well as features later to become charac-
teristic of high-status Titicaca Basin architecture, including
double-jamb doors and molded step frets in the upper cor-
ners of doors and internal niches. Several of these structures
had numerous burials beneath the floors, some of which
were accompanied by very unusual wealth items including
precious metal ornaments. Taken together, the increased in-
vestment of labor in public architectural construction and
the appearance of relatively lavish mortuary treatment sug-
gest that some individuals had come to establish a certain
level of distinction between themselves and the bulk of the
populace.
The spatial configuration of the Upper House complex
is also of considerable interest (Figure 6.11). As I mentioned,
it is composed of an enclosure of 14 more or less identical
structures, six of which have been at least partially excavated.
The enclosure is open to the north and to the south. That is,
in the center of the north and south ends of the enclosure are
empty spaces where one might expect a structure to be. This
means that the enclosure is in fact composed of two arcs of
structures, each composed of seven structures, facing one
another across a plaza or sunken court. This arrangement,
of course, immediately suggests dual organization, such as
is common in Andean cultures (Moore 1995). In this in-
terpretation, each of the arcs would represent a moiety of
the overall Chiripa community, with each structure built and
maintained by an ayllu belonging to that moiety. At any rate,
the redundant nature of the architecture suggests that public
ceremonialism in the Middle Formative was concerned with
Matthew S. Bandy
mediating relationships between numerous social segments
and that no one individual or lineage had emerged as domi-
nant. Unfortunately no comparably preserved and excavated
example of Middle Formative architecture exists in the entire
Titicaca Basin, so this must remain conjecture.
At the same time that the Upper House complex was
constructed there is, for the first time, evidence of differen-
tial growth rates between the various villages of the Taraco
Peninsula. This differential growth rate seems to have been
importantly related to the very public architecture and cer-
emonial activity that I have just described and in fact pro-
duced a two-tiered site size hierarchy for the first time in the
Middle Formative. Table 6.2 displays the annual percent-
age growth rates in the Middle Formative of seven sites on
the Taraco Peninsula, organized by their position in the site
size hierarchy. First-tier sites are those larger than approx-
imately six hectares, while second-tier sites are larger than
three hectares but smaller than six hectares. An inspection
of Table 6.2 immediately reveals that the larger sites grew
at an average annual rate of 0.13 percent, almost 50 percent
faster than the 0.09-percent average annual growth rate of
the smaller sites.
More interesting, however, is the fact that one of the
larger sites (Janko Kala) in fact grew at a rate compara-
ble to that of the smaller sites. The single outstanding fact
about Janko Kala is that it is the only one of the four first-
tier Middle Formative sites that does not have clear evi-
dence of some kind of public architecture. The architecture
of the Chiripa mound has just been described in some detail.
Yanapata has at least one monumental terrace very similar to
that of Chiripa, though it has not been excavated. Kala Uyuni
has a small associated ceremonial precinct atop an adjacent
hill that features two stone-lined sunken courts. Janko Kala
is the single large site without such an architectural feature.
This observation suggests that the determining factor in the
differential Middle Formative growth rates of the Taraco
Peninsula sites was not in fact site size but rather the pres-
ence of a public architectural complex and an associated
suite of ritual activities. These ritual activities would have
served as a venue for competition between emerging elites
or leaders in these communities, or at least between wealthy
and influential community members. The fact that these ar-
chitectural features and ceremonial complexes underwent a
considerable amplification4 no more than 70 years after the
lake level fell and the Taraco Peninsula communities be-
came transit communities on an interregional trade route
is compelling. I contend that the observed amplification of
public ceremonialism, monument construction, and mortu-
ary wealth slightly after 400 B.C. was the result of a growth
spiral involving reciprocal transformations of toll-derived
wealth into symbolic capital and vice versa. Interestingly,
Trade and Social Power in the Southern Titicaca Basin Formative 105

Figure 6.11. Map of the Upper House Level complex at Chiripa (approximately 380–250 B.C.) with excavations
indicated.
106 Matthew S. Bandy

Table 6.2. Growth rates of site size classes on the Middle Forma- These data suggest that while the growth spiral at most
tive Taraco Peninsula by rank in the site size hierarchy. of the Taraco Peninsula villages was interrupted by the shift
Growth in the trade route, the growth spiral at Kala Uyuni actually
Site Number Site Name Rate (%) intensified. This may be explicable in terms of the locations
First-tier sites T-1 Chiripa 0.13 of Kala Uyuni and the other villages. As can be appreciated in
T-130 Yanapata 0.14 Figure 6.5, the three large Middle Formative villages apart
T-394 Janko Kala 0.09 from Kala Uyuni (Chiripa, Yanapata, Janko Kala) are all
T-232/T-225 Kala Uyuni 0.15 located in the northern slopes of the Taraco Peninsula, facing
Average 0.13 away from the Tiwanaku Valley. Kala Uyuni, by contrast,
Second-tier sites T-3 Chiaramaya 0.1
T-4 Chiripa Pata 0.08
is the only one of the old villages with a southern aspect,
T-430 Alto Pukara 0.08 facing the Tiwanaku Valley and located much closer to the
Average new trade route than any of its peers. It is possible that this
Phase average 0.13 location, with a view of the passage of trade to the south,
made it possible for Kala Uyuni to continue extracting tolls
from passing caravans, thus perpetuating its growth spiral.
this growth spiral does not seem to have taken place in one As we have seen in Leach’s example from Burma, the
of the large communities (Janko Kala) in which it might have success of leaders can be a powerful inducement to internal
been expected. This fact suggests that there was nothing in- migration. That is, very successful leaders are capable of
evitable about this process and that the various communities attracting and retaining followers to a greater degree than
participated in it with differing degrees of intensity, enthu- other leaders. Thus, over time, Kala Uyuni, still experiencing
siasm, and success. a growth spiral, would be expected to attract migrants from
surrounding villages. This in fact seems to have been what
Late Formative occurred.
An important point is that the large size of Kala Uyuni
The Middle Formative low lake stand ended around 250 was the result of its political and economic success, and not
B.C., at the beginning of the Late Formative 1 phase. At vice versa. In the Middle Formative, Kala Uyuni was the
this time the lake rose to a level approximating the mod- smallest of the four large Taraco Peninsula villages. It was
ern, and the trade route shifted again to pass to the south not in a position to exert influence by virtue of greater popu-
through the Tiwanaku Valley (Figure 6.8). If there is merit lation. It was only after its political and economic success and
to my model that the Middle Formative villages experienced consequent demographic expansion that Kala Uyuni came
a growth cycle development of social power fueled by rev- to be capable of exercising disproportionate military power.
enues collected from passing caravans, then we may expect By the end of the Late Formative 1 Period, however, Kala
this event to have interrupted the political economies of these Uyuni had achieved a demographic advantage probably suf-
villages. The Taraco Peninsula villages no longer occupied ficient to allow it to dominate its neighbors militarily. It was
an important position on the yungas trade route and would likely only after this point had been reached that the Taraco
therefore no longer have been able to extract tolls of any Peninsula became politically unified. The roots of this pro-
consequence. cess, however, seem to be located in the success of the Kala
During the Late Formative 1, beginning at the same time Uyuni elites in maintaining and expanding their commu-
as the lake level rise, all of the old villages of the Taraco nity’s growth cycle in a time when those of other commu-
Peninsula, many of which had experienced uninterrupted nities were collapsing or contracting. The origins of social
growth for over 1,000 years, actually decreased in size and power in the case of the Taraco Peninsula polity seem to
population. There was only one exception: Kala Uyuni, one have been economic and symbolic rather than military in
of the principal Middle Formative villages, more than dou- character.
bled in size, growing to over 14 hectares. The rapid growth of Another very significant Late Formative 1 event related
Kala Uyuni, coupled with decreasing populations of other to this shift in trade route was the founding of the site of
villages, suggests the formation of a political entity incorpo- Tiwanaku. In the Middle Formative a large village (Ch’ijini
rating more than a single village: a multicommunity polity Pata) was located in the flanks of the hills on the north
(Bandy 2001). The mechanism by which this extreme growth side of the Tiwanaku Valley, not far from the later site of
differential was accomplished remains somewhat obscure, Tiwanaku (Albarracı́n-Jordán and Mathews 1990; Mathews
but there can be no doubt that it involved population transfer 1992). During the period of the Middle Formative low lake
from the other villages to Kala Uyuni. stand this village did not occupy an important location
Trade and Social Power in the Southern Titicaca Basin Formative
with respect to the trade route passing through the southern
Titicaca Basin. With the lake level rise of 250 B.C., however,
the trade route came to pass through the Tiwanaku Valley,
and the lot of Ch’ijini Pata changed. The sequence of demo-
graphic events remains murky as a result of problems with
the Formative ceramic chronology employed by Mathews.
However, in the Late Formative 1 Period Ch’ijini Pata seems
to have been abandoned. At the same time, a new site was
founded in the alluvial plain of the valley, directly straddling
the trade route. This site was Tiwanaku. Throughout the
Late Formative 1 it enjoyed a success parallel to that of
Kala Uyuni. It grew to a size comparable to that of the older
Taraco Peninsula center and was probably the focus of a rival
multicommunity polity located in the Middle Tiwanaku
Valley.
The example of Late Formative 1 Tiwanaku is im-
portant for several reasons. First, it demonstrates that the
initial foundation and success of Tiwanaku was probably
related to its advantageous position with respect to the
new trade route resulting from the 250 B.C. lake level rise.
This is a very significant observation as far as local cul-
ture history is concerned. Second, and perhaps more im-
portant, it demonstrates that the processes discussed here
were in no way confined to the Taraco Peninsula village sys-
tem. On the contrary, there were probably many areas of
the Titicaca Basin in which similar processes were taking
place.
Another low lake stand began around A.D. 100
(Figure 6.9). This low stand is curious in that it is the only
major change in the level of Lake Titicaca, in 3,000 years
of prehistory, that is not associated with a currently observ-
able change in ceramic style. Therefore, it is very difficult
for archaeologists to evaluate the social, political, and eco-
nomic changes occasioned by this significant event. Follow-
ing the line of reasoning employed throughout this chapter,
the low stand would have caused the trade route again to
shift to the north, passing along the northern flanks of the
Taraco Peninsula. We would therefore expect the fortunes of
Tiwanaku to wane during this two-century period and those
of Kala Uyuni simultaneously to wax. This hypothesis is im-
possible to test on the basis of available data. However, there
are indications that the Taraco Peninsula polity responded
to this trade route shift. At present it appears that the site
of Kala Uyuni, the original center of the Taraco Peninsula
polity, was abandoned around this time and relocated to the
tip of the peninsula. The new settlement, Sonaji (Figure 6.5),
was located on previously unoccupied land near the mod-
ern town of Santa Rosa and was ideally situated to monitor
trade crossing the dry lakebed of Lake Wiñaymarka. The
timing and nature of this shift in the location of the Taraco
Peninsula polity’s capital, however, are impossible to ver-
107
ify and this reconstruction must remain highly hypothetical
pending future research in the area.
The final Formative Period lake level change occurred
around A.D. 300, at the beginning of the Late Formative 2 Pe-
riod. This lake level rise (Figure 6.10) returned the trade route
to the Tiwanaku Valley. At this time the site of Tiwanaku
began to grow extremely rapidly, and shortly thereafter the
Taraco Peninsula polity lost its autonomy and became incor-
porated into the expanding Tiwanaku polity. This expansion
continued through A.D. 500 and thereafter, resulting in the
formation of the Tiwanaku state that was to dominate the
south-central Andes politically and culturally for the follow-
ing 600 years. However, as I have argued elsewhere (Bandy
1999b, 2000, 2001), this final episode of extravagant growth
in Tiwanaku was related less to the old system of trade and
caravan tolls than it was to a new and highly successful po-
litical economy centered on raised field agriculture. Trade
and wealth derived from it probably ceased to be a cen-
tral feature of the Tiwanaku political economy. A new and
more dynamic kind of growth cycle had succeeded it, and
the ground of political competition and symbolic capital had
shifted irreversibly.
Conclusions
I have argued on cross-cultural grounds that the wealth
available to transit communities in the form of caravan tolls
could serve as the engine of a variety of political and eco-
nomic growth spirals. These cycles functioned, fundamen-
tally, by converting economic wealth and prestige goods into
symbolic capital and, in turn, using symbolic capital to gen-
erate further wealth. I have argued that growth cycles of this
sort were fundamental to the establishment and expansion
of social power in the Formative Period Titicaca Basin and
in many other historical contexts worldwide.
As with so many other aspects of Titicaca Basin prehis-
tory, this argument rests on a somewhat tenuous empirical
foundation. After all, only ten years ago we were unable to
distinguish separate phases within the 2,000-year Formative
Period of the southern Titicaca Basin. The unknown still
far outweighs the known in the prehistory of the region.
Nonetheless, I have been able to demonstrate that a substan-
tial exchange system unified at least the southern, western,
and northern regions of the Titicaca Basin by 800 B.C. I have
further argued that this trade was linked to the western mid-
altitude valleys and lowlands. The actual route followed by
that trade in the southern basin shifted numerous times in
prehistory because of recurrent and massive changes in the
shoreline of Lake Titicaca. Through a careful analysis of de-
mographic and architectural changes in the prehistory of the
108
region, best documented on the Taraco Peninsula, I am able
to argue that political and social evolution was in large part
driven by growth cycles fueled by caravan tolls. The support
for this thesis is that sequences of political change were seen
to correlate with access to trade-derived wealth. I contend
that these growth cycles were responsible for the formation
of the Taraco Peninsula polity, one of the first multicommu-
nity polities in the area, and also for the initial founding and
growth of the site of Tiwanaku.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the National Science
Foundation (BCS-9813395), the Wenner Gren Foundation
for Anthropological Research, and a Fulbright-Hays fellow-
ship from the U.S. Department of Education. I would like
to thank Christine Hastorf, Amanda Cohen, Robin Beck,
Erika Simborth, Lee Steadman, William Whitehead, Kirk
Frye, John Janusek, Carlos Lémuz, Charles Stanish, Pilar
Lima, Felipe Choque, Facundo Llusco, Eduardo Pareja, and
Andrew Roddick, all of whom assisted either in the field-
work phase of the project or in formulating the ideas pre-
sented in this chapter. I would also like to thank Jerry Moore,
Kevin Vaughn, and several anonymous reviewers for numer-
ous helpful comments. This paper is dedicated to the memory
of John H. Rowe.
Notes
1. Obsidian is, however, much more common in the
Formative of the northern Titicaca Basin. Sites of the Qaluyu
phases contain large amounts of debitage, cores, and finished
and unfinished projectile points.
2. Seddon (1994:70) reports that a “gray andesite,” prob-
ably the same material I am discussing here, makes up more
than 90 percent of the lithic sample at the Early and Late
Sillumocco and Tiwanaku site of Tumatumani, near Juli.
The mixed nature of the excavated fill deposits exca-
vated at Tumatumani, however, precludes any determina-
tion of when the material appeared and/or disappeared at the
site.
3. The skirts on the Ponce Monolith in Tiwanaku (Ponce
Sanginés 1995:figs. 146–148) and the Bennett Monolith
(Bennett 1934) almost certainly represent spotted feline
pelts. Many Pukara textiles and ceramics also depict pelage
markings using crosses, dots, or rhomboid shapes (Chávez
1992; Conklin 1983; Feldman 1989; Rowe and Brandel
1969).
4. This is true only if the timing of architectural con-
struction and use at Chiripa can be considered typical. More
Matthew S. Bandy
work is needed to evaluate the representativeness of the
Chiripa sequence.
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