Pre-Inka elites and the social life of fragments
October 31, 2017
Objects unearthed in the Andes tell new stories of societies lacking hierarchical leadership in the time before the Inka Empire.
The town of Borgatta was built in the Argentinean Andes sometime in the tenth century. It grew to a community of several hundred residential compounds before being abandoned around 1450 when the Inka Empire claimed the region. In the ruins, archaeologist Dr Elizabeth DeMarrais has been hunting for signs of pre-Inka elites.
Her interests lie in the dynamics of social groups in the past – how did society work? Were there 'pecking orders' or hierarchies? When did the 'politics' of daily existence begin to characterise human societies, from the ancient to our own? The excavation of Borgatta, which she led, was to yield some surprising results.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2017-10-pre-inka-elites-social-life-fragments.html#jCp
