Customer Reviews

Gallinazo: An Early Cultural Tradition on the Peruvian North Coast (Cotsen Monograph)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book succinctly and clearly tackles the complex subject of the Gallinazo tradition. It is easy to read if you have general knowledge of the Moche-Gallinazo relationship.

This book is for and by specialists in the archeology of early first millennium settlements in the river valleys of the North Coast of Peru. As such, it needs a glossary to explicate the many specialized terms. The book is a collection of papers given at a conference held in 2005 by more than a dozen working archaeologists from several nations. The articles revolve around the idea that the Gallinazo Culture, recognized by certain rough types and styles of ceramics, housing, and funerary practices was part of the culture of Moche society instead of preceding it or opposing it. Thus, Gallinazo Culture represents a Moche domestic or popular culture in contradistinction to a Moche elite, or official, culture. Not all the participants fully agree with the new paradigm for all areas. Partial knowledge of undisturbed administrative, ceremonial, and even less of domestic contexts, interacts with slippery concepts such as normative style, ethnicity, political structure, and culture of societies that developed over centuries without written records. Regardless how complete, the archaeological findings alone cannot solve these problematics. It is clear that the ancient societies of the Peruvian coast were larger, more extensive, and more complicated than envisioned even a few decades ago.