The LIP samples from the Andahuaylas group are unique in this study in that there is not only archaeological evidence, but also ethnohistoric information available regarding these populations. During the early colonization of Peru by the Spanish many small villages and towns were consolidated into larger regional reducciones. This strategy allowed the Spanish to more easily administrate their new colonies. Andahuaylas was one of these reducciones under the charge of Sr. Diego Maldonado. In 1539 Maldonado wrote an Encomienda de Andahuaylas
(translated by Busto Duthurburu, 1962; Lockhart, 1977:221-223; Puente Brunke, 1992). The encomienda was delivered to Francisco Pizzaro and summarized the resources in the region of Andahuaylas. In addition to enumerating resources available for Spanish exploitation, Maldonado also described populations that lived in the region and their social organization. Although the encomienda written in 1539 postdates the samples in this study it is reasonable to assume that social organization had not changed significantly during the Inka imperial rule. Maldonado described a moiety system, common to many Andean societies, where the upper (hanan) moiety would have included Sonhuayo and Mina Puka Machay, and the lower (hurin) moiety would have included Ranra Cancha and eventually Pucullu.
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Though it is worth noting that before being subsumed by the Ranra Cancha group Pucullu was identified as an ethnic enclave by Maldonado. The patterns in the biological distance results for this group tend to follow the ethnohistoric evidence. When only the LIP samples from the Andahuaylas region were considered the Sonhuayo and Ranra Cancha samples separated along the second principal coordinate (Figure 6.15). Additionally, Pucullu appears as an outlier, not clustering with any other samples (Figure 6.15). These results strongly support the interpretation of Pucullu as an ethnic enclave that maintained genetic isolation from the other groups. The results are also consistent with a less dramatic genetic distinction between the Sonhuayo and Ranra Cancha groups that could be structured by cultural restrictions on mate choice expected in a moiety kinship system.
Wernke (2007) presents a detailed study of strategies employed by both the Inka and Spanish to embed their administration in existing dualistic kinship systems in the Colca Valley, Peru. The Inka may have introduced the moiety system here to foster competition thus increasing agricultural productivity in the valley. Following the Inka, the Spanish acknowledged the moiety system already functioning in the Colca Valley (Wernke, 2007). The Spanish strategy included the construction of an administrative center at the physical intersection of land used by each half of the moiety system (“right” and “left” in this case). Thus the Spanish colonizers took a different approach than the Inka, while still utilizing the dual
organizational structure to their benefit. In the case of the Andahuaylas samples in this study the Inka may have imposed the hanan/hurin distinctions on an existing dualistic kin structure to increase
agricultural production similar to the Colca Valley. The Spanish recognized the existing moieties when they colonized the region and established the Andahuaylas reducción geographically halfway between the Cachi settlements (hanan) and Ranra Cancha (hurin) (Figure 4.13). Wernke (2007) demonstrated this pattern in social organization over time through detailed archaeological survey, excavation, and spatial analysis. Given the lack of correlation between biological distances and time for the Andahuaylas samples in this study (see Figures 6.41 and 6.42), the genetic structure of these groups supports a similar interpretation of dual social organization.
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While the Sonhuayo, Ranra Cancha, and Pucullu samples behaved much as would be expected given the ethnohistorical and archaeological evidence one group did not. The Mina Puka Machay sample was expected to cluster with the Sonhuayo population based both on geographic proximity and its
inclusion in the upper moiety. However Mina Puka Machay is an outlier group (Figure 6.15). Mina Puka Machay is also located adjacent to a salt mine that is still intensively exploited. Kurin (2012) cites recent ethnographic evidence that indicates this salt mine was important in antiquity as well. People probably came from as far as 100 km away to mine salt. With the salt mine recognized as an important regional resource, the mortuary program at Mina Puka Machay may have been quite different from that practiced at other regional sites. It is possible that regional groups placed their ancestors in the machay to assert rights over the salt resources. Placement of one’s ancestors to claim rights over territory and/or resources is not an uncommon practice in the Andes, or any part of the world (see Goldstein’s (1981) revision of Saxe’s Hypothesis 8). When all samples are considered Mina Puka Machay appears to have a close biological affinity to the Wari heartland samples (Conchopata MH and Ayacucho LIP) (Figures 6.3 and 6.4). Inhabitants from the Ayacucho Basin may have placed mummy bundles in the machay to assert their rights to the salt resource. If this was the case at Mina Puka Machay then the sample used in this study is not reflective of the population that lived in the immediate vicinity. It is difficult to say exactly where the remains recovered at Mina Puka Machay were from, but the relative heterogeneity of the group is evident in the results of this analysis. Besides their position as an outlier in the biological distance analysis, the Mina Puka Machay group has a relatively low rii value when compared to all samples (Table 7.1). This is indicative of more within-group heterogeneity for the Mina Puka Machay sample than most other study samples. Elevated within-group heterogeneity would be expected if the group actually represented a multi-regional sampling rather than just the local population. Taken together, the
Andahuaylas group is an excellent example of how biological distance analyses can enrich archaeological and ethnohistoric interpretations and vice versa.
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