UCLA

Archaeologists have extensively surveyed the Lake Titicaca region of Peru and Bolivia over the past three decades. These surveys have provided large, rich datasets on the nature, date, and distribution of prehistoric and early Colonial settlements. These data allow us to conduct broad synthetic and comparative analyses to test social, political, economic, and ideological factors in the development of complex societies in the region. The present study reworks nine survey datasets from different projects into a uniform analytic framework that focuses on political and demographic variables. The distribution of standardized site population estimates through time and space provides the foundation for a model of Titicaca political history from 2000 B.C. to A.D. 1600. I conclude that Titicaca societies' politics and geography centered on agricultural production and its demographic consequences. From the beginning of the Formative period (2000 B.C.--A.D. 600), people strongly oriented their settlement to agricultural productivity. By the Middle Formative (1300--200 B.C.), larger population sizes created incentives for integrative political and religious institutions, but the relationship between population nucleation and population growth varied considerably between regions. During the Late Formative (200 B.C.--A.D. 600) and Tiwanaku (A.D. 600--1000) periods, agricultural intensification supported unprecedented scales of political integration and demographic growth. Tiwanaku's political economy therefore elaborated on Late Formative political economies. However, whereas shifting political affiliations created dynamic Formative demographic landscapes, Tiwanaku period political integration created landscapes with extensive demographic growth. Altiplano period (A.D. 1000--1450) peoples rejected the Late Formative/Tiwanaku organizational form, and Altiplano period political economies supported smaller, more diffuse populations. The Inca state reversed this population trend via immigration from outside the Titicaca region, and reorganized settlement towards higher agricultural productivity. However, the nature of Inca period (A.D. 1450--1540) political integration fundamentally contrasted with Tiwanaku political integration. Whereas Tiwanaku profoundly centralized the political economy and demography of the Titicaca region, Inca period societies created highly integrated political economies at the local scale, even as the Inca state incorporated them into a far larger political organization. A diverse Early Colonial (A.D. 1540--1600) political geography created incentives for major migrations in some regions, whereas some others inherited Inca period structure.