Ancient Alterity in the Andes is the first major treatment on
ancient alterity: how people in the past regarded others. At least
since the 1970s, alterity has been an influential concept in
different fields, from art history, psychology and philosophy, to
linguistics and ethnography. Having gained steam in concert with
postmodernism's emphasis on self-reflection and discourse, it is
especially significant now as a framework to understand the process
of 'writing' and understanding the Other: groups, cultures and
cosmologies. This book showcases this concept by illustrating how
people visualised others in the past, and how it coloured their
engagements with them, both physically and cognitively. Alterity
has yet to see sustained treatment in archaeology due in great part
to the fact that the archaeological record is not always equipped
to inform on the subject. Like its kindred concepts, such as
identity and ethnicity, alterity is difficult to observe also
because it can be expressed at different times and scales, from the
individual, family and village settings, to contexts such as
nations and empires. It can also be said to 'reside' just as well
in objects and individuals, as it may in a technique, action or
performance. One requires a relevant, holistic data set and
multiple lines of evidence. Ancient Alterity in the Andes provides
just that by focusing on the great achievements of the ancient
Andes during the first millennium AD, centred on a Precolumbian
culture, known as Recuay (AD 1-700). Using a new framework of
alterity, one based on social others (e.g., kinsfolk, animals,
predators, enemies, ancestral dead), the book rethinks cultural
relationships with other groups, including the Moche and Nasca
civilisations of Peru's coast, the Chavin cult, and the later Wari,
the first Andean empire. In revealing little known patterns in
Andean prehistory the book illuminates the ways that
archaeologists, in general, can examine alterity through the
existing record. Ancient Alterity in the Andes is a substantial
boon to the analysis and writing of past cultures, social systems
and cosmologies and an important book for those wishing to
understand this developing concept in archaeological theory.
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