Interregional interactions across the Southern Andes: Yavi-Chicha ceramic circulation in northern Chile during the Late pre-Hispanic periods

Abstract

This article examines the social implications of pottery circulation in the southern Andes during the Late pre-Hispanic periods (ca. A.D. 1000–1550). In particular, its goal is to understand the role of Yavi-Chicha pottery in the dynamics of interaction between two regions: the Chicha valleys in the border of Bolivia and Argentina and the Atacama in Chile. We do so through exploring the life history of Yavi-Chicha pottery: where and how it was manufactured, how it circulated, and the possible consumers, building on new ceramic analysis combined with previous results and discussed in relation to available research. Based on mineralogical and chemical data, we argue that Yavi-Chicha vessels that circulated in Chile, mostly polished jars, were manufactured somewhere in the Talina Valley, in Bolivia, ruling out the possibility that this pottery was produced in the Atacama. This indicates social interaction between the Chicha Region and the Atacama. In the context of a consistent relationship between the two regions, the circulation of Yavi-Chicha vessels could have involved a variety of practices, agents and motivations as two main types of traffic (embedded and specialized) seemed to have coexisted in the routes that connect both regions. This leads us to consider different possible scenarios of Yavi-Chicha ceramic consumption, implying different processes of negotiation and interaction between both regions. These vessels would have circulated as inalienable possessions (or identity markers), as trade items or as politically charged gifts under Inca State auspices (as gifts and political marker). Overall, we suggest that the presence of Yavi-Chicha ceramics in the Atacama would have been the result of an effort to maintain and consolidate preexisting interregional social relations between the Chicha Region and the Atacama.