UCLA

Regional centers with dense populations developed in the Titicaca Basin during the late Middle (ca. 1300-500 BC) and early Upper Formative (ca. 500 BC- AD 400) Periods. These aggregated settlements have long been considered the hallmark of intermediate societies. This dissertation focuses on the transition from small village societies to ones with pronounced social, political, and economic hierarchies. In the northern Titicaca region, only two sites--Taraco and Pukara--became powerful centers during the Upper Formative, with only the latter ascending to regional dominance in the first century AD.

Using an evolutionary approach anchored in culture transmission theory, I examine the development of one of these sites--Taraco--over the course of the Formative Period. My research at Taraco suggests that through strategic participation in long-distance trade networks, residents were able to accumulate the resources required to finance local faction-building and political expansion. Taraco likely functioned as a "transit community," with individual households hosting passing caravans in exchange for presents of exotic goods. Ultimately, wealth gained through hosting was channeled towards a burgeoning political economy, which included public ceremonial activities featuring music (trumpets and pan-pipes), the burning of incense, and community-sponsored feasts. During these events, people obtained access to exotic goods, such as obsidian, and social bonds were cemented with gifts of high-status crafted goods.

Ultimately, Taraco's success was short-lived. Excavations revealed that a high-status residential sector of the site was burned in the first century AD, after which economic and political activity in the area declined dramatically. The data strongly suggest that this site-wide burn event was an episode of deliberate destruction that represents evidence for intensive raiding. Coincident with this conflagration was the fluorescence of Pukara, which emerged as an expansive regional polity. These new data highlight the critical role of organized conflict in the formation of first-generation states and underscore the importance of both cooperative and competitive behaviors for the emergence of complex polities.