UC San Diego

Archaeological research on gender in burial customs of pre-Moche societies on the north coast of Peru have been generally lacking. In an attempt to shed more light on the topic with respect to such societies, this paper utilized distributive data of ceramic assemblages from the site of Cerro Oreja on the north coast of Peru along with statistical analysis in the form of simple random sampling to determine the nature of gender dynamics within several pre-Moche burial assemblages. Cupisnique, Salinar, and Gallinazo were the main societies of focus. For each culture, the distribution of ceramics was compared according to their deposit in male, female, and subadult burials. Due to the unevenly represented population of males and females (male burials outnumbered females), simple random samples were taken from each culture to provide an even base for comparison. Ultimately, the findings determined that pre-Moche societies experienced less of a status division based on gender due to the distribution of ceramics within the burial assemblages as more pottery was deposited with females in the earlier societies. Those distributions became less evident in later periods. Furthermore, the types of vessels deposited may imply a gendered belief in the practice of ritual feasting in the afterlife, as males were buried with a wider assortment of vessel types than females.