Yutopian : : Archaeology, Ambiguity, and the Production of Knowledge in Northwest Argentina / / Joan M. Gero.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press Complete eBook-Package 2014-2015
• VerfasserIn: Gero, Joan M.,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: The William and Bettye Nowlin Series in Art, History, and Culture of the Western Hemisphere
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (396 p.)

Around 400 BCE, inhabitants of the Southern Andes took up a sedentary lifestyle that included the practice of agriculture. Settlements were generally solitary or clustered structures with walled agricultural fields and animal corrals, and the first small villages appeared in some regions. Surprisingly, people were also producing and circulating exotic goods: polychrome ceramics, copper and gold ornaments, bronze bracelets and bells. To investigate the apparent contradiction between a lack of social complexity and the broad circulation of elaborated goods, archaeologist Joan Gero co-directed a binational project to excavate the site of Yutopian, an unusually well-preserved Early Formative village in the mountains of Northwest Argentina. In Yutopian, Gero describes how archaeologists from the United States and Argentina worked with local residents to uncover the lifeways of the earliest sedentary people of the region. Gero foregounds many experiential aspects of archaeological fieldwork that are usually omitted in the archaeological literature: the tedious labor and constraints of time and personnel, the emotional landscape, the intimate ethnographic settings and Andean people, the socio-politics, the difficult decisions and, especially, the role that ambiguity plays in determining archaeological meanings. Gero’s unique approach offers a new model for the site report as she masterfully demonstrates how the decisions made in conducting any scientific undertaking play a fundamental role in shaping the knowledge produced in that project.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Figures -- Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Frameworks -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Framework: Knowledge production at Yutopian -- 3. Framework: Ambiguity and the lust for certitude -- Project Context -- 4. Narrative: Project origins in a British steak dinner -- 5. Socio-politics: Finding Northwest Argentina -- 6. Narrative: Archaeologists and lugareños meet at Yutopian -- 7. Backstory: Chronology in Northwest Argentina -- 8. Argument: Ceramic sequences and social processes -- 9. Narrative: Why excavate at Yutopian? -- 10. Socio-politics: Should North American archaeologists dig in Argentina? -- Starting to Dig -- 11. Argument: The positionality of practice -- 12. Episode: Digging test pits -- 13. Raw data: What the test pits told us -- 14. Narrative: The incredible Pozo de Prueba 18 -- 15. Episode: Extending test pit excavations -- 16. Andean ways: Inadvertent human remains -- 17. Episode: Opening Estructura Uno -- 18. Raw data: Inventory of artifact counts and special finds from Units 300, 301 and 302 -- 19. Narrative: Emotional moments -- 20. Andean ways: The rodeo -- 21. Argument: Excavation forms -- Estructura Dos -- 22. Narrative: Coming and going -- 23. Episode: Expectations and excavations in Estructura Dos -- 24. Los hermanos -- 25. Raw data: Inventory of special finds from Estructura Dos -- 26. Narrative: Why was Estructura Dos disappointing? -- 27. Backstory: Why live in a semi-subterranean house? -- Estructura Uno -- 28. Episode: Excavating Estructura Uno -- 29. Descriptive data: A tour of the occupation floor of Estructura Uno -- 30. Raw data: Inventory of special and general finds from Estructura Uno, Units 303–306 -- 31. Major ambiguity: Metallurgy in the house? -- 32. Argument: How the gendered household works -- 33. Andean ways: Buy the cage and get the chicken -- 34. Episode: Analysis in the field -- Estructura Tres -- 35. Narrative: Arrivals, decisions, decisions! -- 36. Backstory: Andean ethnobotany and flotation at Yutopian -- 37. Episode: Excavating Estructura Tres -- 38. Raw data: Inventory of special finds from Estructura Tres -- 39. Narrative: The peculiar pits of Estructura Tres -- 40. Andean ways: Honoring Pachamama -- Interpreting Núcleo Uno -- 41. Episode: Exploring Núcleo Uno’s shared patio -- 42. The square feature in the round patio -- 43. Descriptive data: The entranceways of Núcleo Uno -- 44. Narrative: The life history of Núcleo Uno -- 45. Cooking the data: Changing patterns of lithic consumption in Núcleo Uno—Chalcedony and obsidian -- 46. Narrative: How unique is Núcleo Uno at Yutopian? -- 47. Backstory: How unique is Núcleo Uno in the world? -- Estructura Once and the Issue of Remodeling Houses -- 48. Episode: The call of Estructura Once -- 49. Andean ways: Eating quirquincho (armadillo) -- 50. Raw data: Diagnostic ceramics by level from Estructura Once -- 51. Descriptive data: Remodeling and repositioning the doorways -- 52. Narrative: What did we learn from Estructura Once? -- 53. Puzzle: What about the saucer-shaped house floors? -- 54. Episode: Pozos de Prueba 12 and 12a -- Estructura Cuatro -- 55. Episode: Opening up Estructura Cuatro (1996) -- 56. Narrative in two modalities: The tri-lobate hearth -- 57. Descriptive data: The hearth occupation level in Estructura Cuatro -- 58. Narrative: Last-day fervor in Estructura Cuatro -- 59. Socio-politics: Good-byes -- 60. Episode: Estructura Cuatro excavations in 1998— The lower occupation -- 61. Raw data: Inventory of special finds from Estructura Cuatro -- 62. Descriptive data: The cache pit -- 63. Andean ways: Chañar drinks -- Looking for Núcleo Dos -- 64. Narrative: Where was Estructura Cuatro’s entranceway? -- 65. Episode: Searching for Cinco and Núcleo Dos -- 66. Raw data: Inventory of special finds from Estructura Cinco -- 67. Narrative: Radical remodeling in Núcleo Dos -- 68. Argument: Estructura Cuatro—Ritual and quotidian -- 69. Narrative: A lab for all reasons -- 70. Socio-politics: Yutopian in the community -- Understanding Yutopian as an Early Formative Settlement -- 71. Raw data: Comparative characteristics of Yutopian structures -- 72. Raw data: Radiocarbon chronology -- 73. Narrative: The Formative settlement at Yutopian -- 74. Backstory: Plazas and a “public” -- 75. Argument: Yutopian’s boundaries and the site map -- 76. Socio-politics: Why Yutopian has so little Formative context -- 77. Entranceway ideologies -- 78. Andean ways: Water management at Yutopian -- Data from the Experts -- 79. Data from the experts: Agricultural practices at Yutopian (with Jack Rossen) -- 80. Data from the experts: Plants and diet, now and then (with Jack Rossen) -- 81. Data from the experts: Phytolith facts -- 82. Data from the experts: Faunal remains (with Andrés Izeta) -- 83. Data from the experts: Ceramic forms and designs (with M. Fabiana Bugliani) -- 84. Cooking the data: Chalcedony and obsidian, part 2 -- 85. Data: Stone tools from other angles -- 86. Data: Cross-mends and what they tell us -- 87. Data: Beads and spindle whorls -- Cardonal by Comparison -- 88. Narrative: The “other” Early Formative site—Cardonal -- 89. Argument: Testing archaeology and its methods -- 90. Socio-politics: Traveling to Cardonal -- 91. Episode: A short field season testing Cardonal house structures -- 92. Raw data: Special finds from the 2004 Cardonal field season -- 93. Socio-politics: North-South collaborations in archaeology -- 94. Backstory: Grinding stones (conanas, cutanas, morteros) and the holes in them -- 95. Episode: Later work at Cardonal -- 96. Andean ways: Llama caravans and long-distance exchange -- 97. Narrative: Cardonal and Yutopian -- Wrap-Up and Postscript -- 98. Wrap-up: Putting the project to bed -- 99. Postscript: Early Formative society— Where’s the monumental? -- 100. Follow-through: References cited -- Index