Formacion estatal temprana en la cuenca del lago Titicaca, Andes surcentrales

Abstract

Early State Formation in the Titicaca Basin

The Lake Titicaca Basin in highland Peru and Bolivia ranks as one of the great centers of early state development in the world. This paper outlines the complex processes of early state formation in this region during the time period from approximately 500 B.C. to A.D. 400. During this Upper Formative Period, there were dozens of complex non-state level societies throughout the Titicaca region. Over time, one of these societies known as Tiwanaku, successfully competed with other polities in the region for economic, political and ideological power. By A.D. 400, Tiwanaku had become the first fully integrated state system in the region powerful enough to expand well beyond its core territory in subsequent centuries. The key process involved in early state development in the Titicaca Basin centers on the control of domestic labor by emergent elites during the Upper Formative Period. This paper defines the nature of these elite strategies including the intensification of agricultural systems, the expansion of interregional trade, the creation of elite ideologies and successful competition with other elites.