Title
Biological distance patterns among the northern moche lords: Dental phenotypes and political organization in ancient Peru
Date Issued
01 December 2018
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipán
Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipán
Publisher(s)
Cambridge University Press
Abstract
Between AD 100 and 800, the Moche culture emerged on the north coast of Peru. Diverse debates surround the nature of Moche territorial and political centralization, sociopolitical identities, and the internal social diversity of Moche society. Here we address some of these issues in a biodistance study based on phenotypic variation of inherited dental traits within and between 36 individuals in the royal tombs of Sipán (Lambayeque valley), Úcupe (Zanã valley), and Dos Cabezas (Jequetepeque valley). Metric and nonmetric dental trait data were analyzed using hierarchical cluster and R-matrix analyses. The results independently indicate that the highest-level Sipán and Dos Cabezas lords likely represented different endogamous kin groups, while limited gene flow occurred between groups of Moche lower nobility between the Lambayeque and Jequetepeque regions. Although biology and material cultural link the Lord of Úcupe to Dos Cabezas, many objects in his tomb demonstrate his participation the world of the Sipán elites. These Moche lords were, on some levels, bioculturally interconnected. Nonetheless, the data broadly lend support to a many Moches model of sociopolitical structure, further casting doubt on earlier one-dimensional visions of a centralized hegemonic Moche polity.
Start page
696
End page
717
Volume
29
Issue
4
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Arqueología Odontología, Cirugía oral, Medicina oral Antropología
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85056630185
Source
Latin American Antiquity
ISSN of the container
10456635
DOI of the container
10.1017/laq.2018.46
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus