Mummies and mortuary monuments
Subtitle: a postprocessual prehistory of central Andean social organization
By: William H. Isbell.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Austin
Language: eng
Number of pages: 371
Subjects: Incas -- Funeral customs and rites.; Indians of South America -- Funeral customs and rites -- Andes Region.; Incas -- Antiquities.; Indians of South America -- Andes Region -- Antiquities.; Sepulchral monuments -- Andes Region -- History.; Social structure -- Andes Region -- History.; Andes Region -- Antiquities.
Description: Since prehistoric times, Andean societies have been organized around the ayllu, a grouping of real or ceremonial kinspeople who share labor, resources, and ritual obligations. Many Andean scholars believe that the ayllu is as ancient as Andean culture itself, possibly dating back as far as 6000 B.C., and that is arose to alleviate the hardships of farming in the mountainous Andean environment.

In this boldly revisionist book, however, William Isbell persuasively argues that the ayllu developed during the latter half of the Early Intermediate Period (around A.D. 200) as a means of resistance to the process of state formation.

Drawing on archaeological evidence, as well as records of Inca life taken from the chroniclers, Isbell asserts that prehistoric ayllus were organized around the veneration of deceased ancestors, whose mummified bodies were housed in open sepulchers, or chullpas, where they could be visited by descendants seeking approval and favors. By charting the temporal and spatial distribution of chullpa ruins, Isbell offers a convincing new explanation of where, when, and why the ayllu developed.

Sure to provoke lively debate in many quarters, this book will promote a serious revision of Andean prehistory. It holds broad ramifications for anthropologists, archaeologists, ethnohistorians, art and architectural historians, and geographers interested in the Andes.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [317]-357) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: On knowing the past; title: Royal mummies of Inca Cuzco; title: Ancestor mummies in Huarochirí; title: Competing theories of Ayllu origins; title: The open sepulcher; title: Distribution of open sepulcher monuments; title: The open sepulchers of Chota-Cutervo; title: Origin of the Ayllu and the Andean past.