Specialization as Survival: Navigating Economic and Environmental Risk on the Prehispanic Andean Coast by Jo Osborn, PhD, Texas A&M University
An aerial view of Jahuay (Chincha, Peru) seen from the south.
In Peru’s coastal desert, climatic variability caused by the El Niño Southern Oscillation cycle disrupts both agricultural and marine-based economies. ENSO effects can range from minor to catastrophic and are often experienced unevenly across regional landscapes. How do communities confront such challenging circumstances? This talk explores the development of community economic specialization at Jahuay (200 BC–AD 150), a fishing village on the Peruvian south coast where full-time maritime specialists made a living through fishing, shellfish collection, and hunting marine birds and mammals. These products were consumed locally and exchanged within a regional economic system that provided access to agricultural and craft products. I propose that complementarity between independent specialized communities exploiting distinct resources was a regional strategy that buffered against periodic scarcity and made communities more resilient to El Niño cycles.
Jo Osborn is an anthropological archaeologist and zooarchaeologist focused on South American archaeology. Her research investigates how human societies adapt to environmental change and disruption across diverse landscapes, from the Colombian Amazon to the Peruvian coast. She integrates faunal remains, ethnohistory, and archaeometry to understand how these challenges are reflected in past subsistence and economic systems. Jo holds a BA in Anthropology from Harvard University (2012), and an MA (2015) and PhD (2022) in Anthropology from the University of Michigan. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Zooarchaeology Lab at Texas A&M University.
This lecture will be presented virtually on the Society’s Zoom platform. You must be preregistered to attend. The registration link will be found here later in April. Now that you are here, why not visit other parts of our website and consider buying a t-shirt or joining the Society.
JUNE VIRTUAL MONTHLY MEMBERSHIP MEETING
New Research on the Chaco South Road by Robert S. Weiner, PhD, Dartmouth College
The Great House of Kin Ya’a located along the South Road.
The monumental avenues associated with Chaco Canyon in northwest New Mexico are among the most enigmatic archaeological features of the precolonial Indigenous Americas. In this talk, our speaker will present recent fieldwork on the Chaco South Road, one of the longest avenues in the Chaco World, and discuss newly found architectural sites along the road and the road's relationship with sacred geography. Numerous aspects of the South Road's archaeology suggest it may predate the 11th century height of monumentality at Chaco Canyon, raising questions about the connections between roads and the rise of Chaco as a religiopolitical center. Our speaker will also compare the archaeology of the South Road with that of the better-known North Road, discussing how these two regional-scale corridors functioned within the Chaco World.
Robert Weiner, PhD is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows at Dartmouth College, where he is affiliated with the Department of Religion. His research focuses on Chaco Canyon and its world, with particular attention to Chacoan religion, monumental roads, and Diné oral histories. Weiner earned concurrent BA-MA degrees from Brown University and a PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder. He has published nineteen peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and he has won grants and fellowships from the National Science Foundation, American Philosophical Society, and School for Advanced Research among other funders. Weiner conducts archaeological fieldwork on the Navajo Nation and elsewhere throughout the Four Corner s.
This lecture will be presented virtually on the Society’s Zoom platform. A registration link will be available here in the second half of May.