In this book, Kenneth Hirth provides a comparative view of the organization of ancient and
premodern society and economy. Hirth establishes that humans adapted to their …

The concept of civilization has long been the basis for theories about how socities evolve.
This provocative book challenges that concept. The author argues that a" civilization bias" …

The importance of interregional trade for prehispanic people in the southern Andes was
recognized since the beginning of archaeological research (Boman, 1991 [1908]; Latcham …

The Inca road has been the iconic example of imperial infrastructure in the prehispanic
Andes. However, scholarly attention to its role in expanding and consolidating the Inca …

This article contributes to the debate on the habitat of “New World” camelids in pre-Colonial
South America and provides new insights into the breeding and herding strategies …

We present obsidian compositional data obtained by X-ray fluorescence analysis in the
Andean highlands (25-27° S/68-69° W) of northern Chile. Seventy-six samples (n= 76) from …

The circulation and exchange of goods and resources at various scales have long been
considered central to the understanding of complex societies, and the Andes have provided …

Discussions of Andean economy have traditionally emphasized the role of redistribution and
other noncommercial forms of interaction in Inka society. The discussion presented here …

Economic directness is a new model of socioeconomic organization for the Paracas culture
(800–200 BC) in southern Peru, with wider implications for economic theory of the …

Throughout much of the pre-Hispanic Andes, bioarchaeological and iconographic evidence
shows that the decapitation, dismemberment, and display of human heads were important …