(Ebook) The Ancient Central Andes by Jeffrey Quilter ISBN 9780367481513, 9781003038252, 0367481510, 1003038255

(Ebook) The Ancient Central Andes by Jeffrey Quilter ISBN 9780367481513, 9781003038252, 0367481510, 1003038255

The Ancient Central Andes presents a general overview of the prehistoric peoples andcultures of the Central Andes, the region now encompassing most of Peru and significantparts of Ecuador, Bolivia, northern Chile, and northwestern Argentina.The book contextualizes past and modern scholarship and provides a balanced viewof current research. Two opening chapters present the intellectual, political, and practi-cal background and history of research in the Central Andes and the spatial, temporal,and formal dimensions of the study of its past. Chapters then proceed in chronologicalorder from remote antiquity to the Spanish Conquest. A number of important themesrun through the book, including: the tension between those scholars who wish to studyPeruvian antiquity on a comparative basis and those who take historicist approaches; theconcept of “Lo Andino,” commonly used by many specialists that assumes long-term,unchanging patterns of culture some of which are claimed to persist to the present; andculture change related to severe environmental events. Consensus opinions on interpreta-tions are highlighted as are disputes among scholars regarding interpretations of the past.The Ancient Central Andes provides an up-to-date, objective survey of the archaeologyof the Central Andes that is much needed. Students and interested readers will benefitgreatly from this introduction to a key period in South America’s past.Jeffrey Quilter is an officer of the Institute of Andean Research and, formerly, the direc-tor of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University; Director of Pre-Columbian Studies atDumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC; senior lecturer in the Department of Anthropology,Harvard; and professor of Anthropology at Ripon College, Wisconsin. He has publishednumerous articles and books, most recently, Magdalena de Cao: An Early Colonial Townon the North Coast of Peru.