UC Santa Barbara

In this dissertation I address the active role of religion in shaping society at Cerro Tortolita, an Early Intermediate Period ceremonial and residential center located in the Upper Ica Valley of the south coast of Peru. I follow recent research in viewing religion in indigenous Andean societies as part of a relational ontology, or worldview; that is, not as a separate aspect of life, secondary to economic and environmental forces in shaping a society, but as something with the potential to permeate all aspects of life, and therefore a prime mover in the development of societies. It is inseparable from more traditionally considered factors such as politics and economics in power dynamics, but also cannot be viewed solely in terms of power, either. The relationship between religion and power is explored here in the context of a single site in a non-state society, whose residents participated in a wider religious phenomenon known as the Nasca cult.

Three main themes are explored: the relationship between religious authority and social differentiation at Cerro Tortolita; community negotiation of social structure; and connections to the wider Nasca religious network, particularly the grand ceremonial center of Cahuachi. These overlapping themes are explored through three studies. The first study tests the hypothesis of pilgrimage from Cerro Tortolita to Cahuachi through Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) of ceramic pastes. I find no evidence for movement of ceramics from the area of Cahuachi, a hypothesized ceramic distribution center, to Cerro Tortolita, and explore the implications of this finding for religion at Cerro Tortolita. Rather than relying on ties to Cahuachi, the authority of religious specialists at Cerro Tortolita was apparently locally-rooted, emphasizing the importance of centers outside of Cahuachi for shaping the regional Nasca cult. The second study compares ritual activities between the Ceremonial and Primary Residential Zones of Cerro Tortolita. There are many overarching similarities but also some critical differences. I conclude that religious specialists and commoners shared a similar general view of ideology and ritual, but that differences reflect the privileged knowledge and abilities of religious specialists, which may have caused some tension. The third study utilizes foodways to explore community participation in religion and politics, focusing particularly on special commensal events. Commensality was an additional medium through which all members of society at Cerro Tortolita participated in the negotiation and construction of power, as well as an important means of maintaining shared identities and relationships. Differences in foodways between the U-shaped platform mound of the Ceremonial Zone and the Primary Residential Zone are primarily quantitative, rather than qualitative, suggesting that religious specialists did not have a very different diet from that of commoners, though they held special commensal events more often. In each of these studies, the distinctions between religious specialists and commoners are found to be primarily based in religious authority, rather than other forms of politico-economic privilege. The exploration of religion, power, and social structure at Cerro Tortolita across these studies has relevance for broader understandings of the many ways in which religion can shape social differentiation within non-state societies.